Waste not Want not......

I was brought up on those four words.  My dad came from a family of fourteen and my mum from seven.  Both families lived frugally.  My grandparents, on my mum's side, lived on a dairy farm near Pittsworth.  As a child growing up I would be in awe of Nanna when she was in the kitchen preserving all the fruit that she had picked off the numerous trees surrounding the house.  She worked so methodically from years of practice.  Tea that night (why did we start calling it dinner?) would always end with a bowl of those beautiful stewed fruits.  I will never forget it.
From years of living in the outback I became very good at using up leftovers.  It was a daily occurrence for me to go through the fridge and the coldroom and check on what was leftover.  Sometimes it was just a matter of decanting small amounts of food in large containers into smaller containers that would take up less room.  Leftover meat would be made into fritters (a favourite), meat pies, or a hash where leftover veges would be combined with the meat and the whole lot would be fried (using lots of butter) until it was nice and crispy on the bottom.  Leftover mashed potato would be made into a shepherds pie or tuna rissoles and leftover mashed pumpkin would be pumpkin scones for smoko.  There were endless possibilities for using leftovers.
There was always a few vegetables that were past there crisp stage and they were made into a vegetable stock.  There is nothing more delicious than a good homemade stock that tastes "hands down better" than anything you buy in a packet, plus the added advantage of no preservatives!  Chicken carcases are always made into chicken stock and beef bones make a fantastic beef stock.  My freezer is full of containers of stock.
Today I made vegetable stock.  I simply took any leftover vegetables, fried them a little bit in some olive oil, threw in some thyme, rosemary, peppercorns and pink salt, covered with water and cooked in the pressure cooker for 40 minutes.  This stock will be used to make the risotto tomorrow night (here is the recipe)
So…..waste not want not, is how I live my life.  Thanks mum for teaching me not to be wasteful.

Frying the vegetables

Adding the other ingredients to the pressure cooker.