Stormy Weather

It’s Saturday afternoon, and there are some bad storms moving across the Southeast headed our way. To me, the sensible thing to do is to spend the afternoon in the kitchen.

One of my projects for the weekend was to make stock. Ever since I started making my own chicken stock, I just can’t go back to the canned. I also appreciate any cooking task that mainly involves watching a pot simmer and drinking wine.

Years ago I got hooked on cooking bone-in chicken breasts. The meat has so much more flavor and moisture compared to boneless breasts. I’ll cook off several at a time, pull the meat and freeze it for later. I toss the bones in a bag and freeze them too.

So when I need some stock, I throw the bones in a big pot of water with some chopped vegetables – a carrot, a couple stalks of celery, half a red onion – along with two or three bay leaves and a dozen or so peppercorns. Bring it all to a boil, skim off the foam and simmer for an hour or two. Drink wine as needed.

This afternoon I’m sipping on one of our finds from this morning’s wine shopping trip – Mas Carlot Rosé Costières de Nimês 2008.


Green’s is clearing out last year’s rosés, so it was only $6.99. It’s not as fresh as it was a year ago, but it’s still very tasty. The flavors of strawberry and cinnamon are nicely balanced with refreshing acidity and bit of tannin.

Here's the stock in progress.


Later, some of this will go into tonight's dinner – goat stew. More on that later.

Happy Saturday, y'all.