Thursday Afternoon - Misc

Besides the recent posts pertaining to what I've been making for dinner, I've also been busy doing a bunch of miscellaneous chores involved with my love of cooking.

I had more left-over ciabatta bread and made more bread crumbs and froze them.

I browned the chicken carcass and simmered it for stock. Cooled it, skimmed it, reduced it, skimmed and strained again and finally poured it into a couple of muffin tins and froze it. Next I'll take the 'stock muffins' and empty the tins and put the (still frozen) 'muffins' into a plastic bag in the freezer for use in soups, gravies etc.

Later this afternoon I'm going to cut up the leftover steak from last night and add it to a vegetable soup (canned - it was on a big sale)..... I'll have to taste a bit because I may replace some of the vegetable broth of the soup with some beef stock (bought).... we'll see.

I've been investigation the replacement of my double oven - it's an O L D model (electric) with no self-cleaning feature. It's also only 24" wide....... a couple of the comments by people who have viewed the house mentioned it. I've been selling some stuff on ebay so I MIGHT invest in a new double oven. I also should replace the cooktop. It's one of those glass-topped electric models but the glass has a new crack and the whole thing should be replaced. I wish I could buy a GAS model, but then I'd have to have a gas line run and, as much as I hate electric burners, I might just do an electric model. I think the combination of the cooktop and new ovens might add to the value of the house (for sale).

I'm getting the 'itch' to replace some of my pots/pans...... most of mine are inherited pots from my family (the older Revere-ware) but they no longer sit flush on my cooktop. Plus, newer pots are triple-layered (stainless steel outside/inside with a layer of aluminum between for conductivity)....... I have an 'All-Clad' pot that I'm fond of but I don't see a huge advantage for the BIG cost differential. I may have to investigate this - not that I NEED a lot of pots, but I just want a couple that don't wander around the stove when I try to boil some water!

That's it for now.