Vegging Out

The boy is sick today, so I stayed home with him. (If we can't get a snow day from school, we'll just make our own.) Neither of us has missed a day of school this year (until today), and it seems strange to be home in the middle of the week, knowing that our schedules and routines go on without us. He keeps saying things like, "It's 11:30. I'd be at recess right now."

Being home gives me time to do some chores that I didn't finish over the weekend. It's over 40 degrees today, so I'm hanging laundry out. I'll make bread this afternoon. I started the dishwasher already, and I'll probably vacuum. Maybe. 

I also plan to make vegetable stock today. Many of the recipes we use require vegetable stock, and for a long time I just bought the kind sold in cans next to the chicken broth. When I became especially thrifty a few years ago, I decided I could make my own. Saves a few pennies--actually a lot of pennies since even the cheap veg broth is 50 cents a can--and sodium, too. Making your own is easy, but you have to have some time at home. No stirring is required, but it takes about three hours to simmer and it needs some time to cool, too.

You can make vegetable stock with halved onions, celery stalks, carrots, and whatever else you like, but I make it even cheaper by using vegetable "scraps" that I store in the freezer. Every time I chop an onion, I put the ends in a container in the freezer. If I have some mushrooms that look a little squishy, I put those in the container, too. Carrot ends, celery and parsley leaves, green onion tops, tomato trimmings--all tossed in the freezer together. They're clean because I washed everything before I chopped or sliced them. (I don't use peppers, cilantro, cucumbers or anything that would cause a distinct or unpleasant taste. Those go in the compost bin.) 

Once I've saved about a gallon and a half of vegetable scraps--frozen, of course--I dump them all into a big soup pot, fill the pot with water, toss in a small handful of peppercorns, some dried or fresh thyme if I have it, and bring the pot to a boil. Then I turn it down to simmer and let it go for about three hours. If it starts to cook down too much, I put the lid on.

After it cools, I strain it into freezer containers. Many of the recipes I use call for one or two cups of veg broth or stock, so I measure it out, label the containers, and put them in the deep freeze after they cool to room temperature. When I need some, I just put the frozen block of stock into the pot or let it thaw in the fridge all day (if I know in advance what I'll be cooking for dinner, that is).

I'm not sure how much this costs. I guess that depends on how much it costs to have the stove on for a few hours. It can't be more expensive than buying gallons of vegetable broth by the can, though. It definitely tastes better. And it uses up food scraps that would otherwise be thrown away.