Evolution of Stock . . . . Part II

I am lying in bed with all the windows open enjoying the amazing spring-like weather here in Arlington.  The sounds around me are quite interesting as well.  To my left window I can hear, for the first time ever, my neighbor playing some light jazz on his/her sax (Over the Rainbow and somewhat appropriate for the coming weekend festivities)- very pleasant. To my front window, in the next room, are children yelling and, well, being children on the school playground across the street. I just have to say I love Halloween, tomorrow there is a Zombie walk of 50 middle-schoolers, and I think I will have to stop by the Arlington Center and watch, maybe bring some candy with me.  It is truly one of my favorite holidays, the other being Christmas because I am a visual person and I love lights on everything and sparkling things dangling of trees.  The cats, Madden and Parker, are also chilling with me on the bed, completely ignoring each other. 

Yesterday I went to the store and bought some essentials for the weekend.  A pack of pork chops (bone in), two for tonight and two in the freezer for another night.  I am starting to build up a stash of meat bones, so far I have two huge veal bones from a special dinner I cooked for Eric a few weeks ago.  Next I will add the pork bones from my recent buy.  Not sure if I will be satisfied with just that thou, so I will probably wait on making meat based broth until I get more bones to contribute.

While at the Stop and Shop, I perused the racks of soon-to-be tossed produced.  Stop and Shop wraps up bulk veggies and fruits that are close to being expired and sells them for $1.09, no matter what it is: strawberries, peppers of all kinds, apples, squash, green beans . . . .  etc. Yesterday I got a nice batch of organic mini-zucchini.  I brought it home and washed them, cut them up, put the scrap ends to the side to freeze for broth, and finally divided the pieces into two batches, one to freeze the other for tonight's dinner. The zucchini is in mostly perfect condition, but needed to be tended to immediately.  I only buy off the rack when I know I have enough time to cut, sort and freeze the produce or cook with it that very night.  This practice that I picked up on is a great way to save money, but even more important the food is not going to the dumpster in back of the Stop and Shop at the end of the night.  I often will grab veggies off this rack for making soup stocks, they may be a bit bruised but the flavor is ripe - usually at its best - and looks don't matter in stock, only the flavor and nutrients being extracted from the vegetable.

That's it for today.  Tomorrow I am roasting a chicken for a dinner with friends, simple, thrifty and very tasty.  I will post the recipe in my upcoming blog.  I leave you with Parker and Madden goofing around in the kitchen while I am trying to cook.

My mother pointed out a few things about this photo so I will clarify 1) the stove is not on and 2) the cats are not generally allowed to use the counters and cabinets as a playground . . . however, when I saw what they were doing I had to take the picture