Eat Arkansas

That looks absolutely divine, Joel. What a creative menu.

Curious: what greens did you use in the pasta? And, what was the red component? What kind of pasta did you use?

Love me some anchovy paste with cooking. Delicious!

Honestly, I have forgotten which greens I used. They looked the best at the store when shopping when I examined the tips. Quite possible collard greens.

The pasta was the tricolor creste di gallo. It uses some spinach and tomato paste to make the colors of the Italian flag.

Joel, do you make your own beef stock? I have really always wanted to try it.

Kitchen Basics now makes completely unsalted varieties of their chicken and beef broth, and although it can be difficult to find, I'm finding it hard to justify spending the time to make my own.

Mordy, I am not much of making stock at home. Why not? The time and and effort required is more than I am willing to devote. I don't spend enough time at home to make a lot of things from scratch. I use the big name brand with the blue label, Swanson. I get the reduced fat and low sodium version as well.

I have to disagree about stock. Time, yes, but it's very low effort. We make our own stock regularly at my place, both vegetable and meat. For vegetable stock, we save scraps in a ziplock in the freezer, then throw it all into a big pot of water with some herbs and salt and let it simmer down for a few hours. When it tastes right, strain out the chunky parts in a colander. The process with meat is pretty much the same (save the bones and scraps), but requires less salt.

It makes the house smell fantastic, and it's great for those Saturday afternoons where you spend a few hours on the couch with a bottle of wine, catching up on the last season of The L Word. Or, you know, whatever.

Oh, you know me; I know HOW to make stock I just don't. There is a lot of effort and assumptions in the making of stock! 1) I don't tend to have much in the way of bones & scraps to save. 2) My freezer's space is better served holding 3 of my 4 gins and my homemade fragollocellos, arangocellos, and limoncellos. 3) I rarely get to spend a few hours on the couch much less to keep running back to skim off the scum.

BUT I hope somebody else is inspired and sends a report.

I know, Joel, you're far too busy and important. (This is where I'd insert an emoticon, were I one to use such things, to indicate that I mean that with love.)

And of course I'd assume you know how to make stock, but I elaborated for the benefit of others who might be reading.

Oh, I don't know if it me being terribly important, but certainly a busybody. Lack of emoticons or chuckles does make it harder to convey the playfulness of both of our comments, I think.