2025 Life Logs, Day 06: Magic Mineral Broth Day
Date: Monday, January 6, 2025
Weather: Overcast; Temp 27, Low 17 degrees F (feels 10 degrees colder)
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
On the twelfth day of Christmas, I made some magic in my kitchen. The recipe I use for making bone broth is called Magic Mineral Broth, thus the magic. You start with a 16-quart pot and the bones of a roasted organic chicken. You add to that a bunch of celery, 6 carrots, 2 onions, 4 red potatoes, 2 sweet potatoes, 1 garnet sweet potato, 1 leek, kombu seaweed, a bunch of parsley, juniper seeds, peppercorns, vinegar, 5 garlic cloves, and 8 quarts of water. The pot is brimming to the top, so you carefully bring it to a boil and then turn down the heat and let it burble for 8-10 hours. The only work time involved on this first day is getting the veggies washed and in the pot. That takes about 30 minutes. Then just before bedtime, you spend another 20 minutes or so, getting the broth separated from everything else. The problem with this is that the pot is incredibly heavy, so I have to use a colander to get one batch at a time separated and then divide the broth into two pots so I can carry them outside to sit overnight. Tonight I was curious as to how much the bones and veggies weigh, so I put the compost bag they were in on the scale. Just the waste weighs over 6 pounds! In warmer weather I have to fit the pots in the refrigerator which is a real pain. So, I prefer making the broth in the wintertime when I can use the outdoor freezer. Tomorrow I will skim off the fat and can the broth.
I want to thank Heather and Jed for the time they took on Sunday night to put some new lighting in my kitchen. Tonight, when I was straining the broth, I could not believe how much easier everything was with the new lighting. When I moved into this house, lighting was needed everywhere, but the kitchen was particularly dim. But months went by without me doing anything about it. Just before Christmas I saw a light strip in Heather and Jed’s basement that they were taking to the Swap Shop. I grabbed it and that is what they installed for me tonight. It is fabulous. Thank, thank you, H and J.
The only other thing I did today was spend the evening with the Goldpebbles while Heather attended her bi-monthly Select Board meeting and Jed attended his bi-monthly Health Board meeting. On those Monday nights, I consider it my “civic duty” to fix dinner for the boys. I love doing it as it gives me a chance to catch up on what is happening in Jonah and Sam’s lives. I see Ollie almost every day, but now that Sam and Jonah are in high school I see less and less of them. So I cherish my Monday nights with them. Tonight, we had veggie curry, butter chicken and rice, and chicken pakoras. It was the first time I had ever made the pakoras and all three boys loved them.
