Hello!
Thank you for visiting my blog! My name is Keri. I am an avid home cook who has some pretty cool equipment and about 30 years of experience cooking for everything from Thanksgiving dinners for 25, parties for 50 and simple meals on a daily basis. I live in a pretty small house in the Northern California that has a pretty big kitchen. I love to cook and I’m kinda fearless in the kitchen.
So why am I “The Stone Soup Cook?” First off, I just love that story–the one about the strangers who come into town with only a pot and a stone. With donations of various bits of food from the townspeople, the strangers create the most delicious soup anyone has ever tasted, with only a pot and a stone. I love this story because it is a story about a community coming together and breaking bread. It is about creating something delicious with bits and bobs they found in their pantries that were probably destined to be discarded if not for the strangers; and ultimately of a community finding an abundance of companionship and good food when they least expected it.
I try to approach life with a sense of abundance, rather than scarcity. In life, that means that I try to look around me and appreciate what I have, instead of bemoaning what I don’t have. In cooking, it means that I look for what’s available at the market in abundance and cook with that, rather than things that are out of season or hard to find. In the spring and early summer, when asparagus is in abundance, I cook as much asparagus as I can. And in the winter, when citrus fruits are glorious, I cook with a lot of citrus, and so on.
However, at its core, for me, cooking from a vantage point of abundance means finding ways to use up the abundant bits and bobs we all have at the end of a week of cooking–just like those strangers in the story found a way to make a delicious soup out of the leftovers the townspeople donated. From time to time, we are all guilty of having to toss out some food at the end of the week, but finding ways to minimize waste is better for our environment and certainly better for our wallets, especially right now, when food prices are soaring!
I have designed this blog to be a tool for you to use on a weekly basis to create delicious, varied and mostly healthy meals that will creatively use up leftovers through the week.
In some cases, a daily menu will incorporate leftovers from food you made a day or two ago. In other cases, I will suggest a stand-alone meal. By doing this, you will have the flexibility to choose to have a meal out by simply not purchasing the items needed for a stand-alone meal.
I will publish detailed weekly menus and recipes on Fridays. This will provide a tool for your planning for the next week. On weekends, I’ll include breakfast or brunch items.
I have also created some basic “pantries”: A frozen pantry, a dry pantry and a cold pantry. These pantries include basic items such as flour, rice, milk, eggs and the like, that one should always have on hand. As you glance through the week’s recipes, check for these items in the ingredient list so you can include them in your weekly shopping trip if necessary.
Each week, I will be presenting some old and at least a couple of new recipes. In the future, I will also provide tried and true alternatives, just in case you’re not up to trying a new recipe out on a weeknight after a long day at work.
I religiously shop my local farmer’s market and I do try to cook seasonally. However, because some meats, such as chicken, pork and beef are readily available year round, you will see me use them all year long. But, for some fish and shellfish, and especially produce, I do try to stick to what’s available seasonally.
I love to tuck myself in with a good cookbook and I like trying out new cooking gear. So from time-to-time, I will provide a cookbook or new gadget review.
I also love wine! I live in Northern California, in the backyard of some of the best wines in the world. So, as I sample my way through my wine cellar and try new wines, I will also provide suggestions for some of the menu items.
As a rule, I do try to provide good, healthy recipes, but sometimes you just gotta have biscuits and gravy, so…you get it. I’ll try to remember to give alternatives for those days when a good cheat just seems to be in order!
In the meantime–peace, love and good food,
Keri