Stock Up!

It's raining buckets right now, and I feel oddly at home. The rainy weather is comfortably familiar...even though I had to walk home with a heavy bag of groceries and no umbrella in it. (Who knew there were so many puddles down memory lane?)

The weather here generally tends to be more drastic than I'm used to. We've had a few wind storms that nearly blew the house down. 

 Exibit A: a garbage bin in the metro station on a windy day. Perfectly coiffed hairstyles beware.

So far I'm a fan of the drastic weather situation, though I do feel badly for the squirrels. They sit shivering on branches outside my kitchen window, imploring me with their beady little eyes to leave large bowls of pumpkin seeds out on the deck. I feel my resolve weakening every day.

The squirrel population around here has reached epic proportions. I generally pass about fifteen squirrels on my way to the bus stop. I once saw a squirrel fall out of a tree and land on top of a truck driving down the road.

It's a hard life for a squirrel these days.

It's things like this that make me glad to have a cozy yellow kitchen to sit in and a nice cup of tea in hand. It's also things like this that remind me of the importance of stocking up on provisions for the winter. Naturally, that means making stock!!

Most recipes for vegetable stock will tell you to add a bunch of lovely, healthy, in the prime of their lives vegetables to water, boil the heck out of them, and then strain the stock and chuck the veg. I've always felt this is a terrible shame and a waste of perfectly good veggies. Here's what you can do instead:

 Save all your vegetable peelings (making sure to wash everything well before peeling). Carrot shavings, tops and bottoms of celery, onion and garlic skins, potato peels, leek tops, and the like. You can also use bits of tomato and peppers, but those tend to have a strong flavour and can overwhelm the stock.

Stuff them all in a ziploc bag and stick it in the freezer. Keep adding scraps throughout the week.

 
At the end of the week (or whenever your bag is full), take it out of the freezer, plop it in a pot, cover with water, and add a bay leaf or two and a handful of peppercorns. Boil it up, then let it simmer for a couple of hours. There's no strict time line here. It's a pretty forgiving recipe. Add salt until it tastes good, then strain it, store it in containers and refrigerate or freeze.

At the end of it all, you'll have a colourful, flavourful, delicious vegetable stock that makes a tasty addition to a world of lovely meals without having to sacrifice your innocent produce.*

*No vegetables were harmed in the making of this stock.