I quit driving the farm truck and became a mediation coordinator. I got kicked out of my Coastal dreamscape (thtoopid "I can't afford to rent when I own a place" landlord) and moved to an apartment on the cliffs of another Coastal dreamscape. Blah blah, my life is unpredictable/charmed, whatever, I don't have time for these catch-up details! It is soup season, dammit! And at a good friend's request, I am posting the cooking details of the season.

Already I have cooked a chicken down for stock, saved back the shmaltz for parsnip fries and matzoh ball soup, shredded much of the chicken for mole verde or amarillo of the future, cracked the bones and cooked the stock down further for velvety texture, made chicken soup from that, then fed the cooked bones to the pet rats Pickle and Caper (for their teeth) (now there are pet rats, rest in peace my Bobba cat).

I have pulled the veggie scrap bag out of the freezer and dumped it in the pasta pot colander to make more stock, soaked the barley overnight, boiled the mild chicken Italian sausage in the veggie stock, then made mushroom-barley-beet green-sausage soup.

I cut some sort of green (collards? It was in the CSA share I got for being Free Wheelin' Farm's Raffle Grrl) off the spine, tossed them in olive oil salt & pepper, laid them out on cookie sheets, and baked them at 350 for a few minutes until they were feather-light crispy green chips. That was a tip from Redman House farm stand's guy Mike.

That's all in the past three days. I am Li'l Miss Kitchen Mania over here. And I still have to get to the leeks & potatoes waiting their turn to become Vichissoise, and what about the winter squash? There Will Be Pie. And there will be more details about all these things later. I am assuming those dishes will get done later, too. Pickle and Caper better get on it. There are a lot of dishes. Lazy rats!