Feeling Domestic

Yesterday I was feeling pretty domestic.

I made my own vegetable stock and pesto.  

Here they are, frozen.  Don't they look like jars of honey.

I use the fresh basil right outside our door.  This plant started as a seed.  I had originally planted it in the garden on the backyard.  It wasn't doing good, so I moved to it to the front and went wild.

The basil totally over shadows the lemon thyme.

Here's the Vegetable Stock Recipe:

(from fresh and fast vegan cook book)

2 Tbl olive oil

3 medium onions, roughly chopped

4 carrots,  roughly chopped

2 leeks,  roughly chopped

1 celery stick,  roughly chopped

1 small green lettuce

1/2 head of broccoli, cut into florets

1 bay leaf

4 black peppercorns

pinch of sea salt

handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

12 cups (6 pints) water

*Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add the onions, carrots, leeks, celery, lettuce, and broccoli, and sweat the vegies over low heat for 20 min.  Add the bay leaf, peppercorns, salt, parsley and water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 1 1/4 hours over a very low heat-it is important that the liquid only just bubbles.  Every now and then you will need to skim the form from the top of the liquid with a large spoon.

*Strain the stock, making sure you don't push any of the vegies through the sieve.

*Let it cool, and refrigerate (or freeze) until needed.

Makes approx. 2 qts

prep time: 20 min.

cooking time: 1 1/4 hours