Vegetable Bouillon

Mar 042011
 

So it’s been my plan for the last few months to make roasted vegetable stock this spring to fill up our pantries for Lent and meatless Friday meals. One of my favorite books for simple, Lenten meals, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, uses vegetable stock often for added flavor and now that I know how to can stock, I thought, why not?

Until I opened my pantry and saw row after row and jar after jar of turkey and poultry stock, produced over the last few months, just looking at me. Pregnancy fatigue was getting me down and it just seemed like too much to have to consider making and storing more stock, sanitizing jars, buying another box of lids, and hauling out the canner from the basement. Don’t get me wrong, for meat-based stocks, the canning process is fantastic, my new favorite thing, and I use it all the time. But for vegetables? Sigh, I was getting tired just thinking about it.

And then I remembered those lovely little jars of bouillon I used to buy and keep stocked in my fridge before I realized they were all full of MSG. It was so simple to just heat up some water in our electric kettle, add a spoonful or two of bouillon and voila! Instant soup, or flavor to any dish, from jambalaya to minestrone to risotto.

So I decided to make some. Bouillon that is. One extra ingredient on the list, five minutes of chopping and two minutes of processing and I was done. With a full quart of bouillon in my fridge, just waiting for our next meatless meal. . .

Canning Stock for the Pantry

Dec 082010
 

Ahhh . . . stock. Watch any cooking show on TV, read any mainstream cookbook or food blog and you will come across that beloved ingredient . . . stock. Chicken stock. Beef stock. Veal stock. Vegetable stock.

Stock is nourishing. Stock is flavorful. Stock is frugal.

It’s the best of all worlds.

And, if you make it at home, it’s even better. A simmering pot of chicken stock is pretty much de rigeur around here the day after I roast a chicken, and T. knows better than to disrupt my bags of frozen chicken parts, awaiting their turn in the stockpot.

But then, once you’ve made it, how does one store stock? Sure, at the store, it comes in nice, cute, little, shelf-stable boxes, but at home it’s a bit more difficult of a storage problem. I’ve frozen it, with great success, in both freezer bags and glass jars, but I didn’t find it as useful for me. I’d forget to defrost it in time, or it ended up taking too much space in my small apartment freezers. When we moved to our new home, my freezer got smaller still, but in the interim, I inherited a pressure canner from my grandma, and oh, the places I can go with it!

My favorite (and what I use it the most for) pressure canning recipe? Stock.

It’s changed my life.

Two Thai Soups

Feb 162010
 

Lent starts this week and we are on the lookout for great vegetarian meals to round out our Friday meals.  I’ve been on a bit of a Thai kick lately and recently made this pumpkin and coconut soup (pictured to the left – picture is from the cookbook as it is much prettier than my picture was!) to GREAT reviews and I look forward to making the omelette soup, below, from the same cookbook in the weeks to come.  Thai is such a nice, refreshing way to eat meat-less that you don’t feel like you’re missing out too much, plus both soups are quick and easy to make with little preparation (other than shopping for the ingredients!)  Enjoy! Pumpkin and Coconut Soup from Thai: The Essence of Asian Cooking serves [... To read more, click here ...]

Three Cheese Fondue with Caramelized Onions

Jan 142010
 

Imagine that there is this amazing picture over there to the left.  Creamy, smoky cheese fondue.  A perfect meal for a wintry night, lightly melty over a forkful of sourdough french bread.  Got that image?  Good, because we ate it too fast to take one! This is not your typical, “traditional” fondue.  First, I add the smokiness of my caramelized onion marmalade which I make in a big batch in advance in the crockpot and store in the fridge.  Second, it includes cream cheese, which isn’t in a standard traditional fondue, but is a fixture in my fridge, plus I often use cheddar if I don’t have gruyere.  And you know what?  This cheese fondue is amazing.  Creamy, smoky, delicious.  I’m thinking I’m going to start using it in place [... To read more, click here ...]

Boeuf Bourguignon – For the Love of the Slow Cooker Week

Nov 112009
 

I have been eating this dish since I was a little girl. This recipe has been adapted by my dad from the original cookbook that came with their first Crock Pot, which they received as a wedding gift, 35 years ago. Dad remembers that crock pots were quite expensive at that time, compared to average wages, and three families went together to buy them one. What a gift. And for me, growing up, a gift that kept on giving. I was the happy recipient of hundreds (thousands?) of meals from that crock pot, and it’s even the happily featured dial that is pictured on the “For the Love of the Slow Cooker” button. See that burnt orange looker? Fantastic! There’s really not much difference between this recipe and Julia Child’s [... To read more, click here ...]

Caldo Verde

Oct 072009
 

Lately, I’ve become infatuated with Spanish cooking. And my new favorite cooking icon? Joyce Goldstein. She’s written several cookbooks that I’ve been reading voraciously recently (including Mediterranean Fresh) and I found this gem in an older cookbook of hers, Savoring Spain and Portugal from the Williams Sonoma line (by the way, hint, hint, a great Christmas idea for those interested.) She’s my Spanish/lower Mediterranean Julia Child. Her recipes are succinct, and memorable (rarely do I follow a recipe for something like soup to the letter, but after reading her work, I was compelled to do so. And loved it.) and I love the amount of information and detail she shares. I’ve been trying to incorporate more dark, leafy greens in our diet, eating lots of salads and green smoothies and [... To read more, click here ...]

Three Sisters Chili

Sep 152009
 

I was inspired recently when reading this article on Companion Planning your Garden on Lylah’s blog. As a novice gardener, I’ve learned a lot this season and am already planning ahead for next and love Lylah’s blog and this particular article for information and inspiration! In the article, the authors discuss plants that benefit each other when planted near or in companion to each other, and also discuss the trinity of squash, corn and beans that the native Americans called the “Three Sisters.” Not only are they companion plants, but together create a perfect protein and were major sources of Native American menus, in all parts of the country. As one of three girls (the original Three Sisters, above – I’m in the middle), I loved the name in and [... To read more, click here ...]

Cajun Chicken and Sausage Casserole with Dirty Brown Rice

Apr 042009
 

Remember what I said about Mexican food yesterday? Ditto that for Cajun/Creole food. Big YUM. This casserole is super easy and combines the flavors that I love about my long-cooking jambalaya in a fraction of the time. I made this for my freezer (during my nesting stage) but it is great eaten day of as well (and even better the next day!) Enjoy! Dirty Brown Rice 1 large onion, chopped (about 1-1/2 cups) 1 bell pepper, chopped 3 stalks celery, chopped 3 cloves garlic, diced 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil (I used coconut oil, olive oil would also be great) One 14oz. can diced tomatoes 2 cups cooked black beans 1 cup tomato juice 3 cups cooked brown rice 1 teaspoon chili powder 1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder 1/4 teaspoon paprika In [... To read more, click here ...]

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