Can't Believe MONTHS have passed!

It's not that there has been nothing food-wise to blog about, it's just that we've been so darned busy.
Thankfully my husband has also picked up some of the bigger cooking duties and has made several roasts etc.

One thing that hasn't changed is our weekly pots of soup.
I've been doing more with bean soups this year - cooking up a pound of dry beans at a time and then splitting the batch - freezing half and using half immediately.
We had a smokey ham stock/white bean w/greens soup a couple weeks ago that my oldest son LOVED.
The week after that I cooked up a Yule present from a friend who always gives us a soup mix from The Women's Bean Project which my younger son LOVED.
There have also been the usual turkey&rice, chicken&veggetable etc. Because we still belong to our CSG and have our root veggies to use; and because I routinely make meat stock whenever we have a poultry dinner!

One thing that HAS changed is that I've also been making veggie stock this winter too!
It all started because we're working with a musician who is a vegetarian. We've been working on learning songs she has written to be able to perform with her and we will be recording her songs come spring. Our habit is to be able to share a meal with the musicians we work with; to add time where we can get to know each other and to discuss the business aspects of the relationship.
Although I like vegetarian foods and have certainly made no-meat meals, I was facing the prospect of feeding someone who is especially experienced at this!
I have been making my stock by using the trimmings from veggies I put into my other soups and stews. I put all of the "scraps" into a small sauce pot with just enough water to come to the top of the veggie material. After it has boiled for a while, I let it cool and then strain it through a coffee filter.
It is delicious, fragrant and beautiful! I can't believe I have never done this before and that I 've let all of those nutrient rich veggie scraps go directly to the compost without stealing back some of the flavors and vitimins first!

My arguments about not adding veggies to my meat stocks have always been that I don't approve of the waste of putting whole veggies in and then throwing them away with the bones.
Now I'm upset with myself for the waste of the veggie scraps LOL!