Vegetable Stock

Though I haven't been posting, I do feel like I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen. And, apparently, I'm not the only one to think so. Josh had a couple of friends over on Saturday to do some print screening and I took advantage of the time to tinker around in the kitchen. Nothing big, mind you, just cleaning, cold-brewing some coffee, making iced green tea, grinding cumin and coriander, refilling spice jars, making some egg salad and tuna salad, throwing together some veggie stock, and then finally putting together an easy stir fry for dinner. All in all, I probably spent 4-5 hours in there just getting little things done that I'd been putting off. It was nice, actually. However, my time in the kitchen didn't go unnoticed.

Dan: "You know, for a liberal, you sure have your girlfriend in the kitchen a lot."
Josh: "I let her out when you guys leave."

At least I wasn't barefoot too. The kitchen floor is STILL too dirty for that.
Crockpot Veggie Stock
(This is all approximate since I throw veggie trimmings and whatnot in a freezer bag to use later, so whatever I have goes in: asparagus, kale stems, etc. These are the basics that I add to.)
1 potato, quartered (or peels if you saved them)
1 small parsnip (mine is in the form of peels and trimmed off ends)
1 onion, quartered
1-2 carrots
1 small stalk celery
1 stalk of broccoli
5-6 sprigs of parsley
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 bay leaf
a couple tbsp. tamari
some peppercorns
salt
enough water to fill the crockpot

Put all the ingredients in the crockpot (6 quart works best), then fill the rest of the way with water. Turn crockpot on low and leave overnight/24 hours. If the broth is strong I sometimes spoon some out, add some more water, and cook a while longer--stretch it out, if you will. Fill cream cheese containers (which hold exactly one cup) and freeze. To get the stock out, let it sit on the counter for 5 minutes, then simply pop out the frozen cup of stock.

Here, in the only organized corner of my freezer, you can see the 1 cup servings of stock and the freezer bag full of trimmings (on the left).