Making Vegetable Stock

Do you throw away the tops of celery, potato peelings, carrot tops and peelings and other scraps from cutting vegtables? Well STOP! I used to do the same thing until I read about saving these scraps for stock making! I read how people keep their scraps in the fridge until they make stock. I had a problem with this. I do not like the idea of the scraps decaying in the fridge until I have enough to make stock. So I have a container in the freezer for stock scraps. It is full so today I am making my first batch of stock using frozen vegetable scraps. You can use pretty much any vegetable but I have heard that broccoli overpowers the stock. I always throw away the big woody stalk from my broccoli so if anyone has any suggestions on what to do with it I am all ears! I love the idea of this stock making because it will never taste exactly the same twice! I used all frozen scraps except for two red potatoes that I cut up fresh.

My Vegetable stock: Bottoms and some green parts of green onions 2 red potatoes, quartered Celery tops with leaves Carrot peelings Green beans Basil Parsley Black peppercorns Enough water to cover. Note: The more water you add the weaker your stock. I put about an inch more in mine and I think it is a bit on the weak side so next time I will only do enough to cover the vegetables. Bring all ing. to a boil then simmer for at least an hour. Let cool. Strain through a mesh strainer. Store in the fridge or do like I did and freeze in ice cube trays then put in freezer bag or container to use as needed without worrying about spoilage.

You can use other herbs like bay leaves, thyme, etc. It is all to your taste. Some other vegetables to use are Garlic, bell peppers (any color), corn, peas, mushrooms, etc. I have even heard some fruits are good for stock making like apples. This is something I am going to love experimenting with to get the taste just the way my family likes it.

I am sure the scraps that are left would be great for the compost pile....if I had one. That will be a blog for another day.....

Take the Locavore Restaurant Challenge

For the month of November 2012, my Husband and I made a pact that we would eat only locally owned restaurants in our town of Murfreesboro, TN. There really wasn't alot of places in our town to choose from but almost all the ones we tried we love more than their chain counterparts. The only rules for this is when you want to eat out, only eat out at locally owned restaurant. No fast food, no franchised or nonfranchised chain restaurants. Our town is chock full of places to eat with new ones being built all the time only they are fast food and chains like O'Charley's and McDonalds. It was actually really fun driving around trying to find a local place to eat. We typically eat out once a week for dinner as a family. My husband eats out once a week for lunch. He brown bags the rest of the week. Our hands down favorite place we found was Oscar's Taco shop. I love their Carne Asada burrito, ground beef soft tacos and their rice is off the chain.

Our second Favorite was Cool Beans Italian Bistro. Everything was fresh and yummy.

Our third favorite was Kirkenburt's Smokehouse Grill. I love their brisket but their Redneck Nachos have become something I crave.

We also tried Your Burger which was good. I had the turkey burger which was the best I have ever eaten. We already love Demos' restaurant so we didn't have to go there. A good thing about eating local is most Mexican, Thai and Chinese restaurants are local businesses and we have plenty of those in our town. So get out there and support your local economy and comment with your stories! I would LOVE to hear them! If you do decide to eat chain remember your waiter or waitress is a local commodity and be sure to tip them 15% at least. If you can't or won't do that then eat at home scrooge!

Getting Started

I decided to create this blog to A. Have a dedicated place to put my thoughts together and B. To maybe, hopefully give someone else an idea of how they may save a little money and be a little healthier to boot. Growing up my Mother worked two jobs (sometimes three) to provide for my sister and I. We usually ate whatever could be heated up in the microwave or popped into the toaster. Being an adult now with two kids of my own I cook alot more but still rely on boxed macaroni and cheese and microwave conveniences. This blog is my sounding board for new ideas and the baby steps we are taking to not only eat fresh, less processed food but to also make it affordable. I can not go out and buy everything organic or the latest and greatest health craze (yet) so my focus is to make the foods from scratch or close to scratch that I already buy. My two main areas that I am working on right now is what can I do with my abundance of waste and taking a hard look at my freezer. The freezer is a wonderful tool but mine is usually filled with processed frozen waffles, burritos, pizzas, etc. So I will be posting my trials and errors and the recipes that won! Another area that I want to pursue is our tastebuds. I know alot of it is mental just ask my 12 year old when I put a new food on the table. Her suspicion of the food can modify what signals her tastebuds send to her brain. In America today and in my very own house we have started to mistrust the farmer. We think if it comes from the supermarket it is fresh and safe to eat. My 12 year old does not like to eat anything, especially meat, from the farmers market because all the vegetables do not look perfectly unblemished and uniform like they are at Publix. The meat does not look bright pink with chemical-laden additives and gases like at the supermarket. Even my husband distrusts a farm fresh egg. I would not dream of drinking raw milk or giving it to my children. It is a sad thing when our minds are conditioned to trust people in lab coats that mix chemicals together to see what tastes more like a pear than actually putting pear in their products. I will be exploring this topic more. Though I can't say I will ever add raw milk to my shopping list I do think there is alot of room for improvement in my household. I hope you learn something from this journey and God Bless you!