stock

I am pretty much a super klutz in the kitchen.

Food spontaneously jumps out of my hands onto the floor, leaving me shrieking loudly in surprise. Just ask John.

And to make things worse, I just don't have a natural love for cooking like some of you do. I have a few dishes that come out fine, but I am not very adventurous.

So when my sister encouraged me to get the following book last year, it kind of sat and collected dust.

I really wanted to learn how to cook more healthy recipes from scratch, but I just WAS NOT READY. With a new baby, I just did not have the energy.

A little while ago, I decided I was finally ready. I was ready to make some changes.

My assignment for this week was to learn how to make some meat stock( that can later be used to make soup, sauces and other dishes).

Simple enough, right?

Um. Wrong. I did not even own a stock pot. I had to go buy a 12 qt stock pot on saturday.

And I had no idea where to buy soup bones. All of my normal stores just did not have what I needed.

I made some phone calls and was told to try the Farmer's Market. I was very excited and made a special trip out there saturday. I met a real live Cattle Rancher named Jared and he sold me some awesome beef shank bones.

After I got home, I realized I needed more variety of beef bones to make my stock more tasty and gelatinous.

I was not going to let this stop me though. No, wild horses could not stop me. I knew my stock would not come out great, but I was just dying to try my hand at this cooking stuff. I began puttering around the kitchen making preparations.

And I think I may have called my sister a million bajillion times, asking lame questions.

Chopping up all the vegetables and removing the scum part of the stock was very therapuetic. Who knew? I just felt very happy and domestic cooking my stock.

And the meat part was very yummy.

My stock finished simmering around midnight. I went to bed with a smile on my face.

The next morning, I ran to the fridge, to see how my stock was doing.

My stock came out...how shall we say...bland? Yucky? And it did not gel properly because I did not use enough variety of bones. At least the meat part was yummy!

Well, I am still very, very proud of my first attempt, even though it failed.

Next time I shall try to make chicken stock instead, because I think it will be MUCH tastier. I ordered a whole chicken through AH and it's coming this saturday! Eeek! Such excitement over a bird, I don't even know who I am anymore!