something from nothing

Apropos of nothing, Jackie over at The Daily Bread was saying that though the idea of creating something yummy from a picked-over chicken carcass is appealing, one of the reasons she finds actual stock-making irksome is because she spends too much money on ingredients for something she can buy quickly and easily for much less. I have the same problem, so what I do is use the peelings from my onion & carrot, stems of my parsley, and trimmings from my celery, in the broth and then use the “good” parts of the veg later in the soup, or in something else. That way the entire broth is made from what would otherwise be garbage. You cook it to death and strain it all out anyway, so why not? I freaked the tallasiandude out the first time I did this, but since he is Soup Man in a major way, he’s gotten totally on board. And honestly, Jackie’s right that canned broth is perfectly fine; I only do the broth making when I have the carcass around and intend to make a broth-based soup, where the broth is the star.