Thursday, May 15, 2008

Independence Challenge - Week 2

Hard to feel like I am making progress on this. Loads of family stress right now, and even sleep is hard to come by. But I guess each little thing moves us along.

Planted: zucchini, sweet potato slips, eggplant, yellow pepper
Harvested: leaf lettuce and lemon thyme (again)
Preserved: nothing - need to refine herb drying methods
Prepped: picked up a bag of adult t-shirts from FreeCycle
Cooked: new pork recipes for less-meat meals
Managed: extra bag of pinto beans
Systems: networked with gardening neighbor; looked up pick-your-own dates
Reduced Waste: trash-picked a plant stand for new fish box
Learned: all about pill bugs (ugh!)
Library: 50 Chowders

DD15 was the hero this week. I made a big batch of roasted pork stock, with about 5 pounds of neck bones. When it was time to strain, she fished out all the bones and picked the *tiny* little pieces of meat out of them, gleaning enough for a good-sized bowl of meat that I would have thrown away. Then she made an Asian-flavored dinner with fresh ginger and broccoli over rice, using some of the new stock in the sauce. Served three, where I would have missed a whole meal. The next day I made the broccoli-cheddar soup that they fight over, using the pork stock. Froze the remaining 6 quarts in bags.

I also salvaged a cup of very flavorful chicken pan drippings that I would normally throw away. Emptied a baking pan into a glass measuring cup and put it in the fridge. There were almost 2 inches of fat on top, but the rest was pure poultry goodness. I will do that whenever we roast or braise now.

4 comments:

Gail said...

Thank you for stopping by my place in Tennessee!

So, are you going to post the pork recipe? It sound delicious! BTW, Your 2007 border looks awesome!

Gail

Matriarchy said...

Celeste is a seat-of-the-pants cook that makes it up as she goes along. And she's only 15 - I can't wait to see what she can cook when she has her own kitchen! But that means there is no recipe. If there was, it would start with "Simmer 5 lbs of pork neck bones with some aromatics for 3 hours, then pick out the tiny shreds of meat." LOL! I am sure it had garlic, ginger, broccoli, soy sauce, hoisin, and it was served over jasmine rice cooked in the pork stock.

Lisa Zahn said...

I love your blog. Your garden photos are beautiful, and the ideas are great for me.

Thanks for giving us the link at the Food Storage group.

Lisa in MN

jayedee said...

sounds like you had a productive week! good for celeste! we should all be so fortunate!