Soup, Bread, and a Cake! (how to make stock)

A good friend has come down with pneumonia, so I babysat her daughter today, and whipped up some homemade chicken soup and some sourdough baguettes. Fortunately I had plenty of homemade stock and some leftover cooked chicken in the freezer, so the soup was a cinch. A large stockpot was definitely one of the best investments in my kitchen. Homemade stock makes a world of difference with good soup, so here's a quick primer:

1. Save all of your chicken bones - just toss them in a bag in the freezer. When you have enough to fill your biggest pot, you can make some stock.
2. In the afternoon or evening, put your bones in your pot, along with a couple of onions (cut off the root and quarter), several trimmed carrots, and a bunch of trimmed celery (including leaves).
3. Fill with cold water.
4. I also like to add some black peppercorns (about 1 tablespoon), and some dried thyme and sage (about 1 teaspoon each).
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Immediately turn down to the lowest simmer possible. If you boil it too much, your stock will be cloudy.
7. Let it simmer all night. Check the water level before you go to bed - if it is getting low, just top it off with BOILING water. You don't want to wake up to a burned mess in the morning - I've done that!
8. Strain it and enjoy! Note that it doesn't have any salt yet, I like to keep it salt-free until I use it.




My baguettes turned out a little flat, I think I let them rise too long. But they still tasted great!




I made a "s'mores" cake for my husband's birthday. Graham cracker cake, marshmallow filling, and chocolate icing.