Crock Pot Beef Stock

While making room in the freezer for our beef that will be ready in a couple of weeks I stumbled on several packs of beef bones. It was an exciting find since I have long been out of beef stock. I knew I wouldn't have time to cook them stove top so I decided to use my large crock pot and it worked even better than I hoped. Doing it this way allowed me the freedom to work outside while cooking the broth.

After thawing the bones I sprinkled them with a bit of salt and pepper and slow roasted them in the oven for a couple of hours. When they were browned and fragrant I transferred them to a large crock pot in which I put celery, carrots, onions and dehydrated mushrooms from the pantry. I poured the pan dripping over the bones and covered with water. I also added more salt and pepper along with some fresh thyme sprigs and turned it to low. They cooked for about 15 hours and the resulting stock was deep brown and rich. I strained the stock and the bits of meat that had fallen from the bones were separated and put in a container. I will freeze the stock for later use. (The meat bits will be mixed with some homemade bar-b-que sauce for lunch this week.)

Crustless Spinach Quiche

A lovely large harvest of spinach today and an over abundance of eggs lead to this meal.

1 lb. fresh spinach, torn
1/2 c. onion
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. butter
5 eggs
3 c. swiss cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion in butter. Slowly add spinach and allow to wilt. Add garlic and saute a couple of minutes. In a large bowl beat 5 eggs and add cheese. Add slightly cooled spinach mixture and salt and pepper. Stir together and pour into greased pie plate.
Bake @ 350* about 35 minutes or until set.