RecipeMuncher

Well, this may not be funny to everyone, but it cracks me up every time I watch it. 

Or even when I don't, because I've got it memorized, nearly. 

And because I live with one of them. 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I laugh so hard i cry. 

Saw this recently ondooce and I just had to link to it as well.

I had a wonderful time visiting home ~ but it is great to be back. I’ll share more about that later.I think one of the best things about arriving home was finding a package I had ordered from my friend Ann .Those of you who know me know that I’m a huge "Ann-Fan" ~ she is the person who inspired and encouraged me to begin playing with food photography a couple of years ago. Her food, recipes,

No, it's not jewelry or coins or highlights in my hair.

No, it's not the sun, which is finally out after days and days of "should we be building an ark?" weather.

It's stock.

The other day we caught fish and among other things, made fish stock out of the heads and bones.  I have more of a story about all that, which hopefully I'll post today, but you know how that goes with me lately.  But for THIS post - the point of that fishing trip is - there are 17 cups of lovely fish stock in my freezer.

Seventeen cups.

And ALSO, at the moment, I have…let's see, 18 plus 34 plus 6…that would be 58 cups of chicken stock in the freezer also.

FIFTY EIGHT CUPS.

Plus about another twelve or so in the fridge, but I ran out of ziploc bags. 

24 of the cups are kind of a plain stock, and the 34 cups are a blend of MOSTLY a dark chicken stock and a bit of plain stock.

I made the dark by browning onions and carrots in a pan, and then browning all the wing tips and trimmed meatless bones and necks and bits and pieces of chicken we've been bagging up and tossing in the freezer for who knows how long, and finally putting it all in a big pot and topping it off with water, almost to the top of the pot, and then simmering it for hours and hours and hours.

My house smelled like a thousand roasting chickens.  It was wonderful.

Anyway, I bagged up some of the plain chicken and all the fish on Wednesday, and then the rest of it today (I made these stocks over the course of the past few days), and we'll use a little of it in the paella Bill's planning to make tonight.

Fifty eight cups of chicken stock.  Seventeen cups of fish stock. 

We've also got probably…10 or so cups of beef stock, and maybe a few cups of clam stock…in the freezer downstairs.

It may not be the color of it, but all that stock? 

That's GOLD.

Bill and the kids worked in the gardens outside while I worked in the kitchen inside.

I made:

A couple pounds (or so) of ricotta.

6 8-oz jars of more of that rhubarb ginger jam plus some extra that went into the fridge and will be gone by the end of the week.

6 loaves of bread (using, among other things, 4 cups of the whey from when I made the ricotta) - four loaves are straight-up bread, and the other two are experimental loaves.  I'll let you know how that went once I sample one of them.  I expect success.

You know, it seems like I did a lot more than that.  But no, that's what I did.  It took time.  But it was good, productive, awesome-smelling time, and therefore no hardship.

We saw some baby bluejays in the trees this morning, too.  They have such raspy, demanding little voices.

My sister and brother-in-law stopped by - Meredith trimmed my bangs, Julia's bangs, and gave Alex his summer buzz cut.  When she was done with the clippers, there was more hair on the floor than there was left on Alex's head.

Oh, yeah, when I was making the jam - I burnt the bottom of the pan.  Isn't that nice?

I learned somewhere (I think I read it, but I can't think of the source - online or not.  Hmmm) to mix a little cream (or half-n-half, in my case) with the homemade ricotta.  OH MY.  So lush and creamy and addictive.  I may just eat this whole batch with a big spoon.  Tonight, after everyone else is asleep.

Tomorrow will be the final day of polyurethane application, and boy are we all glad.  I think we need these bedrooms, just so we can all get away from each other.

Before Bill and I move back into our (new) room, we're going to patch a crack in the ceiling (more joint compound - UGH) and then paint the walls something other than the current blue and white.  I'm thinking sage green.  I love that color.  And then, once THAT is done, we'll move our furniture in.  The kids' rooms also need doorframes and baseboards, so hopefully we can get that done mid-week as well. 

So close to the finish line.  So close!