Since moving here I have become a collector of bones. Inside the cold heart of the deep freezer I keep a large zip lock bag containing the remnants of numerous Sunday roast dinners and summer steak barbeques. Yesterday with the help of some onions, celery, a carrot, and some herbs I made homemade beef stock. There is some serious magic that happens to homemade soup when you can forgo the dry little bullion cube for a aromatic and substantial homemade version. I feel like making stock is the responsible thing to do, you not only get so much for so little, but it is glamorous in ways that little dry cubes of mystery flavor just can never be. For Christmas I received a gorgeous shiny, large, and heavy French stockpot and this is where the magic happens.

Here is what I did.... Fill that bad boy half full with water Add your bag of beef bones, I had about 8 good sized bones I also added 1 meaty soup bone (we buy our beef from the farmer down the road and it is wonderful) Then I quartered an onion, leave the skin on and throw it in, ditto for a couple carrots, I give them a couple chops but I don't think you really need to. Next 3 stalks of celery I gave these guys a couple chops too then I roughly chopped the celery heart because the lovage has disappeared for the winter. Add some freshly ground pepper, be generous pepper is like love, sea salt a small handful, a healthy big pinch of herb de provence, and 5 or 6 bay leaves. Now just let that simmer away on the stove I left mine for about 4 hours. The result was a kitchen that smelled wonderful, after skimming off the fat and straining , I will have a bunch of frozen jars of delicious homemade soup possibilities.