“Garbage Stock”, round 2

Last week I posted the first iteration of this and all week long I thought about the metaphors I connected to in my own life.  It occured to me that “Safe at Home” affords me an incredibly rare opportunity to wander into some deep reflection, analyzation, contemplation and rebooting.  It has become a time where I’m unpacking everything about me…my behaviors, my habits, my beliefs, my convictions, my commitments, my desires and my dreams.  And frankly, I’m thoroughly enjoying the process.

This “Garbage Stock” has become a great metaphor for the evolved me.  I’ll own what I had chosen to become – overworked, stressed out, overcommitted, unconnected to those I care most about, unconnected to the things I care most about, short on time, shorter on patience, this list goes on, and I’ll bet you get the picture.  I used to throw out almost 100% of everything that went into this fabulous rich broth.  Here was my chatter… “Making stock is messy.”, “I don’t have the time.”, “I don’t want to go through the process of straining it.” and on and on.  Here’s the reality.  Instead of throwing out the carrot peels and ends, the celery leaves and ends, the onion peel and ends, the mushroom stems, and the kale ribs – I now grab a repurposed plastic produce bag and all week long add this “garbage” to the bag.   We had slow roasted chicken for dinner on Saturday night.  I save the bones that I would have thrown out and all of the pan juices.  Sunday morning around 7:30ish, we put the stock on.  We filled the pot with the veggies scraps, the chicken bones and pan juices, that pot simmered on low all day long, filling the house with the most pleasing aroma.  We turned it off around 5:30pm, allowed it to cool for an hour and then strained it.  It yeilded 4 quarts of stock.   I’m guessing prices range from between $2’ish up to over $6 for an equivalent.  So from “garbage”…my house smelled amazing, I saved – let’s call it about $16 AND it was incredibly rewarding, fulfilling and satisfying.  Best part – it’s going to make a KILLER SOUP!

Ingredients:

All of your saved (and refrigerated) veggie scrapes from the whole week.

Chicken bones

Water

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in a large pot.  Add enough water to cover all of the ingredients and simmer for at least 2 hours, up to 10’ish.  Remove from heat, allow to cool for an hour.  Strain into storage containers and refrigerate.  It will last for 5 days in your refrigerator.  You can also freeze the stock, just make sure that you allow for the liquid to expand as it freezes, so don’t overfill your container.