back to basics

Recent studies have shown that plug-in type air fresheners can cause cancer in pets. Like many pet owners, I consider my cat to be family, and the thought that the air freshener I purchased could be harmful to her health is not easy to swallow. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that a plug-in air freshener doesn’t go along with how I’m trying to live, anyway.

Since it’s holiday season now, I brought out my favorite natural air freshener/humidifier. It’s simply an old saucepan that I fill with water and heat over a low flame. To the pot, I add a cinnamon stick or two, a couple of cloves, and orange peel. The simmering water adds steam to the dry air in my home, and the orange spice perfumes the air with a scent that is associated with the holiday season.

What’s more homey than a pot of soup cooking on the stove? Making soup used to intimidate me, and the thought of making soup stock made me want to run away from my kitchen. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that both are quite easy.

If you’ve ever roasted a chicken, you may as well make your own chicken stock, as the process is incredibly simple. Roast a chicken for a midday meal, and your home will smell wonderful for hours. Other than the remaining chicken carcass (and neck, if it came with the chicken), here’s all you need to make your own stock:

2-3 carrots

1-2 stalks celery

1 parsnip

1 onion

1 bulb garlic

a few sprigs of thyme

few sprigs of dill

bunch of parsley

peppercorns

salt

1 stock pot or Dutch oven

If you do any cooking at all (or any dieting…ahem, celery), you likely have many of those ingredients in your fridge already.

To make your soup stock, simply take the leftover chicken carcass and the neck and throw them into your pot. For the veggies, don’t bother with peeling them. Cut the carrots, celery, and parsnip in half or thirds, and throw them in the pot. Cut your bulb of garlic in half, crosswise, and toss it in the pot. Cut the onion into quarters, and toss it right in. Add the herbs, a teaspoon of whole peppercorns, and about a teaspoon or two of salt. Cover all ingredients with water and simmer away on the stove for about four or five hours.

Remove the carcass and veggies, and strain the stock into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, skim the fat off the top of the stock.

Either use the stock within three days or put into containers and freeze for up to six months.

And by the way, if your stock seems gelatinous after you remove it from the refrigerator, this is a good thing; it’s simply the result of cooking the soup stock ingredients along with the chicken bones. With homemade stock, you’re getting superior quality soup stock with no preservatives.

When I was a little girl, my dad offered to make me some hot cocoa after I came in from playing in the snow. Never one to turn down hot cocoa, I of course said yes. I mean, I loved Swiss Miss with the little marshmallows; the more marshmallows, the better. Little did I know there was any other way of making hot cocoa.

Imagine my surprise when I saw my dad get out the milk, cocoa powder, sugar, and vanilla. As he started heating the milk on the stove, I looked on in both awe and confusion. When he poured me a mug of the cocoa, there was a skin on top of the milk that unnerved me a little. The taste was different, and I immediately asked if he could make me cocoa the way Mom did.

Of course, now I am quite ashamed, and a bit embarrassed, to admit that as a kid I preferred the heavily processed cocoa to the real deal. These days, I either make cocoa the way my dad taught me, or I’ll make hot chocolate by chopping up some bittersweet and a little milk chocolate, and whisking it in to my steamed milk. The taste is phenomenal, and every time I make it, it reminds me of the fun I had with my dad when I was a little kid, especially in the winter.

My dad was the best. He would get out the snowblower in the winter and built a sledding ramp in the backyard. Our house was the hotspot in the neighborhood, thanks to that ramp. And, though it took years before I would realize, my dad instilled in me an appreciation for homemade hot cocoa, rather than the powdered mix I usually had as a kid.

It’s so funny to look back on my time as a child and see how it’s influenced who I am now. With the hot cocoa, it certainly took a long time before I realized how much of a treat it was to have the real deal. I think perhaps in college is when I made it for myself the first time. Sorry Swiss Miss, but you can’t hold a candle to that steaming cup of creamy chocolate.

Last night I made the real thing. I was exhausted, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, but it took no time at all to chop up a little chocolate and whisk it into milk I’d heated on the stove. I enjoyed my hot chocolate, and more importantly, that one mug of chocolate brought back childhood memories that will always lift my spirits.