A Day in my Kitchen...

I've had a lot on my mind lately, and sometimes the best thing I can do to get grounded is to spend a whole day in the kitchen.  Fortunately, today, I was able to.  When I went in the kitchen early this morning, I saw this... if you look closely, you can see two quart jars of sprouting wheat over there.  On the counter is a little paper napkin with 4 persimmon seeds drying. (That is from my first EVER persimmon off of our young persimmon trees.)  On the stove is a bowl with a batch of the crock pot sourdough rye bread that has been fermenting since yesterday.  Sitting on top of the toaster is an African violet pot.  I want to get one to plant in it, so I set it there to help me remember.  In the foreground is my little sourdough crock.

 

 I decided to make some Vegetable-Beef soup. Here are some of the ingredients gathered together... frozen tomatoes, green peppers, onions, frozen cooked lentils, a couple of large garlic cloves, 2 carrots, 2 pints of frozen stock, some frozen corn, a cabbage and some frozen shank bone sections.

 The crockpot bread is done!

 The Essene bread is baking:

 Here are the shank beef bone slices in my stainless steel pressure saucepan.  Can you believe it?  I bought that at a thrift store for $10 !!!  I was thrilled.  I've wished for one for a long time.  Cooking the beef in here with a quart of water not only makes very tender beef, but also some more broth for the soup.

 Here it is, on the flame:

 And here is the soup pot with most of the ingredients in it.  I think that is a beautiful sight!

 The beef shanks are cooked nicely.  See the yummy and healthy bone marrow there?  I cut up the meat and set it aside to put in the soup at the end, so it wouldn't just fall apart.  The broth went into the soup pot and the bones and fat went into a jar in the freezer where I collect things to make stock.

 8, 1/2-gallon jars that I just emptied of fresh goat milk... We save it up until there are 4 gallons and then I make a batch of my cheddar cheese.

 Here's all that milk in my huge pot I use for making cheese:

 Now the jars are clean!

 Stirring the curd as the pan sits in a sink of warm water before draining:

 Here is the lovely curd from all of that milk!

 Now the cheese is in the press.  It will stay there until tomorrow morning.

 And here is the Essene bread and the crock pot rye cooling:

Today was a soup/bread/cheese day.  I feel like I accomplished a lot, and it was very therapeutic. What do you do to take your mind off of your worries?