A little aside from heavier topics-

I love stock day.

It makes your house smells like housewarmer candles on super crack, and instead of burning money you end up with something tasty and usable.

I realize homemade stock is something most will shy away from, and that’s fine- as long as you’re reading the ingredients on the stock being purchased I’m not going to poo poo that route at all.

In fact if you’re using stock, regardless of its origins, it means you’re cooking and not just pulling something out of a box, so thank you. Really, thank you.

Making stock, like many other from-scratch things in the kitchen, sounds scary because of the unknown time factor. This is something that will soon be addressed on here, because it’s a large thing that stops us from cooking.

Maybe after that post you’ll come back to this and give it a new once over, who knows?  A girl can dream.

Things like stock and other pantry staples (like the granola my husband is addicted to, I’ll add the link at the bottom if you’re interested) are what I like to call backgrounders.

They are things that take minimal time to prep, which in my mind is 20 minutes or less, and occur in the background theme music of your day while you do other things.

A bonus is these backgrounders are usually very helper-friendly, read: perfect for children stuck inside on cold days, and the measurements don’t have to be precise.*   Why not have craft day in the kitchen?

Have to leave the house for the day? No problem. My Mum makes stock in the crock pot all the time. Insert ingredients, set, and leave. House still smells amazing when you return. It’s magical, it’s her own way, and that’s what cooking is all about- finding what works for you.

Sometimes I think all these cooking shows and publicity for Chefs are almost like airbrushing models; we find ourselves simultaneously inspired and destined for overwhelming inadequacy, especially when our result doesn’t look like the picture (even though it tastes amazing, but why focus on the important part?).  Now this publicity can be good as well, because it’s raising a lot of awareness about what we eat.  However ignoring the double-edge sword effect would, I believe, be a mistake.

But back to the more-fun stock, THIS is the part I really love: getting familiar with making stocks allows you to use everything you paid for.

You buy any meat with the bone and boom, you have the base for a quick stock. Bones + veggies + water = tasty flavored stock that’s perfect for whatever you’re making.

I throw my leftover shellfish shells in a bag in the freezer, and when I have enough it’s shells + veggies + water. I’m already paying for them anyway, why not use them?

I love rabbit because it’s tasty and cheap, and they usually come whole which is fun excuse to carve something up.  I cut the shoulders and legs off, and then crack up what’s left into a pot with you guessed it, veggies and water for a quick stock I later thicken (with flour and butter, called a roux, and/or cream) into a sauce for the meat.

Apply this to whatever you’re comfortable with cooking, be it chicken or anything, with the same results.

(FYI the “cream of -insert food here-” in the can is just a thickened stock.  You can thicken a stock at home, store-bought or not it makes no difference, in less time it would take you to get to the end of the block on your way to the store.  And who doesn’t love saving time?)

If you can only take one thing from this, please let it be the opening to the idea of backgrounders. Our current relationship with food is one filled with barriers, and a lot of those are time barriers- if it can’t be done in 30 minutes or less we don’t do it, however time is always there running in the background of our day, why not use it?? Things like making stock are the ultimate exercise in multitasking.

Not everything has to be done at once, or started and finished by the same person, or prepped solely by you. Heck I’ll wash and chop veggies one day and make stock the next day… or the day after if I’m doing other things. I LOVE that because then it literally is throwing a bunch of stuff in a pot, add water, and walk away.

Just do what you have time to do, when you have time to do it- no pressure, no stress. We get so stressed and amped up in the kitchen these days, when it should be a Zen place.

If you can take one more thing away, let it be starting to look at using everything you purchase. Shells from shellfish, bones (these should be raw) from meat, leftover raw veggies scraps. Put them all in your freezer instead of the trash, and compared to throwing those things away and purchasing stock, you now have essentially free stock.

Not to mention bone broths are phenomenal for you and will basically turn you into Superman, but that’s just a delightful side effect. **

I know this post doesn’t include recipes or step-by-step directions, rather it covers the why we were talking about.  If you are interested in recipes and directions, let me know!

For tasty granola: http://cookieandkate.com/2013/honey-almond-granola/

I don’t know her, but her granola is bomb and is one of the only recipes I’ve found that doesn’t use veggie oil or other stuff I really don’t think needs to be in granola. I do half/half local honey and maple syrup, that seems to be the best route.

* With stocks there are optimal ingredients and sizes for different ones- it’s a matrix that’s much easier to learn than times tables, and if you’re interested shoot me a note and I’ll fill you in. Will you mess it up if you don’t follow these guidelines? Not at all. It’s just about using the ingredients that you paid for to their maximum potential.

If you’re interested in making large batches of stock, let me know and I will also give you some food safety pointers. Please ask on this one, there are a few things you need to know.

**No it won’t actually turn you into Superman, however bone broth is extremely restorative and great for after long days of physical exertion. It’s sad I have to even include this note, but have you noticed Red Bull dropped their “Red Bull gives you wings” campaign? Guess why.