Stock Again

This week there were a lot of left-over tomatoes and of course an over abundance of basil from the garden.  We've got tons of it and one of the high priority items for me is to cut it all and preserve it for the winter.

One discussion list I was on many years ago had a message board for cooking.  I mentioned how most of my would-be food waste either went into stock or to the dog.  I got a lot of negative feedback on that.  Food purists have a very specif method of making stock/broth.  I was told that I was making garbage.  My dog was also going to die from eating people food!

Obviously, I paid no heed to the criticism.  Being a non-traditional cook, I just like to get things done.  There are too many people who can't or are afraid to cook and I think part of it is because they have this idea that you have to do it according to a recipe and do it right -- or not do it at all.  It's also appalling to me that so much food in America ends up in the garbage dump.  That's why I'm not at all ashamed to admit I made soup with the carcass of a rotisserie chicken, tomatoes, carrots, basil, water and seasoning.  No mire-poix.  Sorry, I had no celery.  I did  not bother with a bouquet-garni.  I just dumped it all in a stove-top pressure cooker and let it go. 


Along with three sauce jars full of stock, there was a nice sized bowl of tomatoes and carrots that I strained out.  The pup sure will enjoy this stuff.  She'll get a little each day for the next three or four days. 

If anyone out there wants away to add a little real food to their dog's diet, take something like this and put it over their dry food.  We don't feed dry food, but if we did, that's what I would do.

It would seem that someone like me watches a lot of cooking shows.  Not really.  I take my lead from the food I can get my hands on, what's in the house, and how I can mix it together.  Real foodies probably think I'm a hack... and I'll own up to that!