Lazy girl’s “stock”

I have struggled with the concept of stock for cooking. Bouillon, while convenient and cheap, gives me headaches (I suspect due to the high salt content and the MSG… even without the headaches I’m sketchy on the salt). I’ve used Better Than Bouillon and have really liked it. It’s not that much more expensive, really, and it lasts a while. However, corn syrup solids are high on the ingredient list so I’m not thrilled with that, either. If I were really good I’d make my own stock, but I’m not. I make a lot of things. I just haven’t gotten to stock, though I want to. I keep carrot bits and peelings and the ends of onions and the stems of parsley in the freezer in a bag for the day that I’ll suddenly make stock. Last week I needed to boil the chicken to shred it, and the sauce for the same dish needed some chicken stock. So I put some of the frozen veggies and a cube of salt free veggie bouillon (not bad, but not much flavor either) in while the chicken cooked and then used the leftover “stock” for the sauce. Excellent. It worked.

Cooking, for me, is a creative endeavor. It’s a way I can plan and experiment and create something out of little parts. I’ve been focusing a lot lately on what we’re eating and trying out different grains and such. It’s been good, though we have encountered a few misses. That’s the nature of it, I suppose. Anyway, the bummer with cooking is that you eat it and your creation is gone. Which is why I sometimes take pictures, and sometimes share it. For something that is such a huge part of our lives, it’s nice to document it. I remember lots of places and days by things we ate and tried, so why not?

Moving on.

I think I wrote, what, four blog posts in August? Oh well. It was a busy month and we spent a good chunk of it sick. Nothing makes me sadder than a sick baby, let me tell you. Especially when I didn’t feel top notch either. She just wasn’t herself (not very “Morgan-y” as Adrian says). The day she finally laughed again–at Toby, what else?–was a huge relief. Also she went back to sleeping better, which made all of us a little happier. So the story is that maybe I’ll blog more, maybe I won’t. I just haven’t been feeling it. I haven’t even pulled out my camera much at all. Sadness. I should be doing more, I just totally haven’t felt like it.

Speaking of how I feel, I feel like I’m so behind sometimes. I guess that’s just normal. I always felt that way in college, like I was so busy, and now I am kicking myself for not doing more and enjoying it more. Same with pre-baby married life. And I imagine in ten years when I have 15 kids (it’s gonna be a busy ten years, let me tell you) I’ll be laughing at my current self thinking how naive I am. Hehehe! I feel like I’m getting done what needs to, but I don’t think I’m getting ahead and that bugs me. Also, I’m not enjoying it enough, and that’s sad and silly. I’ve tried to just stop and chill and roll around with  Morgan a little more. The laundry (which is my word that means everything from dirty clothes to dirty dishes and dirty floors) really doesn’t actually matter that much. Except that I won’t often put Morgan down on said dirty floors and she is so ready to crawl and even stand that I probably should do something about that.

But of course my head is filled with so many things that sometimes I think I’m going to burst. Right now it’s graphic design. I feel like I’ve always been fairly decent at design, so I’d like to try it digitally. Because that’s what I need: another thing to do and work on. Sometimes I feel like I’m this crazy amorphous sponge, soaking up whatever I can and expanding in every possible direction. Like one of those sponges in a capsule that emerge when you put them in warm water. Yeah, like that.

And if that’s not a fantastic self image, I can’t imagine what would be. Who needs a manicure when you can be a dinosaur shaped sponge?