Making and Taking Stock

Courtesy of Keeping Chickens

Sonoma CA musician Nick Rupiper

shows locals how to raise their own chickens

Simple Stock Recipe


appliances

1 large pot
1 large spoon
1 large collander
1 large bowl (or another large pot)

any number of storage containers such as recycled tomato sauce jars or tupperware, either with well sealing lids.


ingredients

1 fowl carcass, such as chicken or turkey, left over from Thanksgiving or any other time you have roasted a bird.

water

optional - any number of flavorful vegetable additions such as leftover celery, carrots, onions, potatoes, and seasonings such as rosemary, thyme, basil, and garlic.

procedure

1.  Put the bird carcass into a large pot, fill with water, cover and bring to a boil on a high heat.

2.  Lower heat and allow the bird to simmer for 3-4 hours, or until the meat has fallen off all the bone and the water has become a nice, rich broth.

3.  Keep covered, and allow it to cool at room temperature.

4.  Drain broth through a collander into a large bowl (or another large pot).  Separate meat from bones, storing meat in a sealed container in the refrigerator. You can also separate and store any added vegetables at this point.

5.  Pour your stock into your other containers, seal well, and store in refrigerator.

6.  In another day or two, open each container and skim off the fat that has settled on the top surface.  Discard in the garbage (not down your pipes - unless you know how to make a nice hand cream for dry skin).

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Photographer: Blue Lotus

Simple stock recipe simmering on stove

Well sealed, you can use this stock over the next week or so to make easy soups, stews, sauces, and rice or grain dishes.  Or enjoy a fast, simple hot cup of broth on a cold, wintry night.  Serve up rapidly any added vegetables, as these spoil more quickly, creating simple soup or grain dishes.  Add the meat to any of those dishes, or in traditional after-Thanksgiving sandwiches, an imaginative burrito, or even cabbage wraps. 

Courtesy of Wikipedia

American long grain rice plant

Rice is tasty and even more nutricious cooked in stock,

often a key ingredient to burrito and wrap preparation.  Brown rice has higher nutritional content than white rice.

additional thoughts

Post Thanksgiving stock is a good time to "take stock" of how much food we throw away in America while people go hungry unnecessarily, not having easy, affordable access to needed nutrition and sustenance, and free of human degradation.

Consider that, during a holiday that honors our nation's survival due to Native Americans teaching settlers skills needed to survive their first cold winters, we now waste animals and crops indigenous peoples honored, by throwing away so much, rather than using what we have and sharing equally with our neighbors.

Courtesy of Huffington Post

United States - loads of perfectly good food

in the garbage.

Huffpost reports that, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization,  

nearly one third of food produced for human consumption globally is lost or wasted every year. That translates to 1.3 billion tons of food – the weight of 3,400 Golden Gate Bridges – going to waste each year. And with that comes all the wasted energy, water, chemicals, and labor that go into producing, transporting, and storing the ill-fated food.

[...]

In North America and Europe, we annually waste 209-253 pounds of food (95-115 kg) per capita.

And while in developing countries, a large portion of this waste happens in the early and middle stages of the food supply chain – due to things like limited harvesting technologies, storage capacity, and cooling infrastructure – the story takes a turn here at home.

In wealthy countries, this food waste is much more likely to be due to us, the consumers. While loss takes place along the entire food supply chain, the FAO explains that consumers contribute to waste “due to quality standards, which reject food items not in perfect shape or appearance… Insufficient purchase planning and expiring ‘best-before-dates’ also cause large amounts of waste, in combination with the careless attitude of those consumers who can afford to waste food.”

These statistics seem all the more disturbing when we consider how many Americans are currently making unavoidable choices between food and rent, gasoline, or health insurance payments.  In other words, they can't get to this food. 

Or when we consider a recent court case, whereby a Mississippi judge savagely sentenced the mother of 2 teenagers to 3 years in prison because she lied on a Food Program application - and not about her finances - she needed the food - but by hiding a "criminal record" as a drug user.  In other words, if you are hungry but use drugs illegally (vs through your chain store pharmacy), you and your children are not allowed to get food.  Which is extremely irrational and cruel, and a very serious human rights abuse by our government upon three of its citizens. 

This also means her teenagers (if they are in school or stay in school) are no longer on the School Lunch Program, at a time in life, developmentally, children eat more than ever.  The "burdened" taxpayer will now provide *instead* over $100,000 per year housing a non-violent drug user in the prison system, while sending her children off to live in foster care, unless other family members step in, or the youths simply go off to live on their own.  There are also the future costs to the taxpayer considering the psychological impact on youths when the government takes away your mom, and the statistically higher likelihood that the children will impact the social service system as adults with more bills, as a result of that happening.

By the way, how much did the mother and her 2 teenagers receive while the taxpayer is about to kick in so much to violate the human rights of their fellow Americans?  According to Think Progress, $4,367.00, all of which she already paid "back" (not that she should have owed this money, to begin with).  And, while the CEOs who devastated this economy are running off with more money than ever, without going to jail.

This kind of disturbing tale is supported by an oft bogusly quipped, self-righteous statement that, "There is no free lunch." 

Courtesy of Think Progress

Clearly, the ones who need to truly take stock of that tired phrase are the ones who like to say it the most, while they are not sitting in jail as they should, or paying their fair share of taxes, and while this mom should be immediately released, all of her money returned, with the 1% government - clearly not representing the People - held accountable for the grave injustice inflicted upon this family, and through reparations to the mom and children, and changes in illegal and unconstitutional application rules (not to mention unjust drug laws and lack of guaranteed access to quality medical care).

Otherwise, across the nation, Occupy Wall Street celebrated the real meaning of Thanksgiving by freely sharing food as neighbors should throughout the year, and protesting a system of mindless consumption at the growing expense, poverty, and violation of Americans' basic human and economic rights.

Courtesy of Daily Advance

Occupy Wall Street protesters share Thanksgiving

In personally taking stock, at this Thanksgiving time of year, I am glad Americans have some hope through the Occupy Wall Street movement standing up for what is right and just in this nation, and decrying what is unjust and wrong.

More here on roasting birds.  More here on the false notion of "luxury food."  More here on Winter in America.


- o.s.r.