Weekend of transformations
December 17th, 2006 by 
cowgirljules
Not of myself, no. It’s not an introspective weekend, but a productive one.
First, I took this:
And made stock, soon to become Four-Mushroom soup for lunch:
Then I took this:
Through its steps:
To make this (two batches so far):
And, saving the best for last, I moved the woodpile out front where Marv kindly split it like butter with his hydraulic splitter and I moved it back and stacked it nicely. Isn’t it beautiful?
That’s a lot of hard work right there, but every piece of it was free, either given to me by the County guys who were going to chip it or cut with my own two hands from downed trees on my sites. And now I don’t have to be stingy on fires for the rest of the winter; I’d make one today in celebration, but it’s got to be 70 degrees out!
December 17th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
This is definitely a first for me. I have never before in my life seen soup baked in a pan. Very pretty though. How does it taste? You are a good little wood stacker. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Nanamama
December 17th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
What do you mean, nanamama? I just made stock in my big stockpot on the stove like always. All of that in the pictures got the goodness wrung out of it and thrown away. Now I have a nice, deep golden pot of essence of chicken, and I put the reserved meat and four kinds of mushrooms in it. Mmm!
December 17th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Jules is that Almond Rocha you made? If so, I sure would like your recipe.
December 17th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
Oh yes and can I borrow Marv?
December 18th, 2006 at 8:10 am
Alice, I wrote it out long-hand here last year when I made it (or the year before? Whatever.) But it’s very simple.
1 pound butter
2 cups whole almonds
2 cups sugar
blort of vanilla or other extract (I use orange with dark chocolate)
1/2 cup chopped almonds
12 ounces GOOD chocolate
Melt the butter and add the sugar over medium-low heat. Blort in the extract (you know how much a blort is? Neither do I–eyeball it.)
Stir constantly until it’s about 250 degrees by the candy thermometer, then start adding the whole almonds a little at a time so you don’t lower the heat too much. Continue stirring until it’s at 300 degrees, then yank it off. I find that it takes for-freakin-ever to get to 275, and then all of a sudden, it’s right at 300 and threatening to go over. You don’t want it to go over.
Dump it out onto a jelly roll pan and spread it a quarter-inch or so thin before it hardens. Let it cool just enough to harden a bit, and then sprinkle on the chocolate chips. Let them soak up the heat to melt, and then spread them out. Sprinkle on the chopped almonds and cool. Break it into pieces and try not to eat it all in one place!
December 19th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Oh yum! Oddly the soup sounds far more appealing than the sweets. Not enough ‘real’ food in my diet these days, I think. Hardly any food at all now that I think about it. When I started on my meds I laid off the junk food and I guess I forgot to put real food back in. So, thanks! I am inspired now to make something slow cooked and yummy for dinner tomorrow. ~LA
December 19th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Feel free to mail that cookie sheet to PA! Preferably NOT empty. Ha!