But the truth is, i’m a little stumped for relevant material. So this is a call to action. I am looking for some questions, direct or indirect, regarding topics that you think need covering in this column. I can of course go back and hit issues previously addressed and i suppose that’s exactly what i will do…

It’s summer, and it’s been a glorious summer here in Southern Vermont, but let’s not forget about lightning. Sure, it’s been a sunny summer and the gardens are lush and fruitful, but lightning storms crush computers and electronics in an instant. Uninterruptable power supplies are essential if your data is essential, and a quality surge protector will suffice for the rest of us. Let’s be smart and not just plug our expensive things directly in to the wall okay? Good.

Definitions. A while back I went about writing a couple of articles regarding the terminology of a handful of useful tech items so that perhaps we could all easily converse in a language that was mutually defined. No sense regurgitating that drudgery here, but rest assured there i an archive online. it’s at: http://www.vermontgeeks.com/blog

Shopping online. It’s huge. Well, for me it certainly is. I am a preaching locavore when it comes to food. And this year is a good year to be just that. Start simple, you probably have a neighbor within three miles that has chickens and fresh eggs. Make it happen, say hello. They’re probably cheaper and so much better for you than any factory farm produced junk that could have salmonella. Know Your Source! Then take it up another notch and get some milk. Did you know there are cows here? Milking cows? It’s true. Oh yeah, and you can get a CSA farm share from the Boyd farm that’s not only reasonable, but supports local farmers in the best way possible. Not to mention the fair number of roadside farmsteads with a plethora of fresh produce. Or just park your car somewhere near my house and leave it unlocked, there will be squash on your passenger seat when you return. So anyway, yeah, shopping online. I buy all kinds of things online. If you’re worried about internet security in that regard, you need to not be worried, as much as educated. Be sure that you are paying through a secure site and if a deal seems too good to be true, well, there it is…

Mac’s vs. PCs. Mac’s still win. But PC’s are cheaper. So go ahead, the economy stinks.

Home Theatre? Same as before. Things keep getting shinier and less expensive. HD content is becoming more and more prominent and it’s fantastic. Duncan Cable is working on a new HD distribution system with great promise and we’re eagerly awaiting it’s full rollout, we’ll keep you posted! 3D is still kind of a joke. Cool for gaming and animated movies, but the home experience is still in it’s infancy. We’ll see if this not new technology can somehow do what it has historically failed to do… Succeed.

SPAM, the delicious Hormel product, and ubiquitous junkmail that we all suffer from. I still say the best defense is to protect your email address and to have multiple email addresses for just that reason. One for family/friends, that you NEVER give to an outside company. One for online shopping, and another just for junk that you can use to ‘sign up’ for random bits of online information and otherwise ignore.

Word. Well, they’ve gone ahead and released Microsoft Office 2010, and early reviews are outstanding. It’s much snappier than 2007 and cleaned up a little, so if you didn’t bother with 2007, but upgraded your computer somewhere along the way, well, I say go for it. Especially if you’re running Windows 7.

I’m quite sure that everyone could use a reminder about the tragedy of data loss and the need for at least one backup if not two. Online backup solutions are convenient and inexpensive insurance. Having an external hard drive that backs up your data automatically is a no brainer with the cost per GB dropping daily. If you’re not backed up, you WILL lose your data eventually. So there’s fair warning.

Viruses morph and change constantly, but the basic tenets stay the same. we’re still a fan of Microsoft Security Essentials for free and while there are a number of fantastic paid solutions. ESET Nod32 has been consistently fantastic for a long time.

Recycling. Yes we still gripe about recycling. One good thing has occurred since that article. The WSWMD has gone forward with accepting pretty much all forms of recyclable plastic. I applaud their efforts greatly, especially as it is by no means a money maker to do so. As well, it’s gotten a bit less expensive to recycle your old computers and peripherals. Just bring them by your local transfer station and pay the fee, don’t dumpster them, that’s just bad karma.

So there’s a general recap of a number of topics we’ve covered in the past. Sure, I’m mailing it in with this article, but there’s some gems in there somewhere, I’m sure of it. If you have questions or would like a specific topic covered, send me an email at colby@vermontgeeks.com and we’ll see about making everything better in your geek world.

Not that you are following my posts online for any reason, but I’ve had a chance to talk directly with some of the confab’ers after my remarks and voiced my displeasure. I even have one of their signs here at the geeks for a keepsake. I have no problem with their particular cause, or the people who perpetrated this whole mess. In fact, I think it’s a good cause and that they did a bang up job of creating a buzz. Impressive in a lot of ways. Let’s remove that from this entirely though. Let’s remove the individual people that we all know and respect, and let’s remove the ’cause’ from the equation. If instead of motherly locals advocating for the safety of their children, we had someone like me, a smartass musician/comedian who wanted to promote his scatalogical humor with a similar stunt. How would I be treated when it was found out who/what was behind it. Would I be given the same kid glove, slap on the wrist? What if it wasn’t me and my potty mouthed humor, but someone who was promoting gay sex education in our schools, or legalization of methamphetamine suppositories for children?

Politically I understand the desire to let this blow over, but personally, I’d be appalled to see it dismissed and then to crucify any future abusers. Rest assured if this goes unchecked I will be one of the first to take advantage of the hypocrisy, I have no taste for it. If you want to make a silk purse out of it, fine them appropriately and donate the money directly to an organization like ParentUP (http://parentupvt.org/). They are an organization doing good work directly in line with the confab’ers.

That’s my 4 cents.

Once you have that topic chosen, it’s time to do the homework. Read everything you can on the subject and form definite opinions that may or may not be based on factual evidence. Stick to these opinions even after they are clearly disproven. Talk about your subject to anyone who will listen, and then continue to talk about it once they’ve turned away. Reinforce your own beliefs by restating them often and you’re well on your way.

It will also help you dramatically if you make this one very difficult choice. Star Trek or Star Wars? Sure you can easily just go with Star Wars if it’s 1985 and only three epic movies were made, but it’s 2010 and they hammered us with a second trilogy of mediocrity, forever tarnishing the name. And Star Trek? You’re going to go with the tribbles?!? Unconscionable. But a choice must be made, and it is a difficult one. Extra points if you go ‘Deep Space Nine’ only, or forsake them both for Battlestar Galactica and net double points. Take it a step further by having a well reasoned argument prepared for or against the Starship Enterprise vs. a fully functional Death Star.

Buy at least four small, unnecessary, but shiny electronic items. Extra points for being able to attach them all to your belt simultaneously. At least one of these devices should cost more than a weeks worth of your current salary, which is minimal, because you are a geek. Using these items should frustrate you to no end. Upgrading them is de rigueur, and talking about the next revision before it exists is perfectly acceptable.

Your clothing can’t be particularly stylish, at least not all at once. Sure, a nice pair of jeans is fine, but only if paired with a shirt that says ‘Don’t Panic’ on the front with the name Zarniwoop above the number 42 on the back. Shoes should be Chuck Taylor All Stars, unless you are a shoe geek, like me, which is probably one of the most appalling types of geeks around. It does improve the overall ‘look’ when I sport a well worn pair of Carhartt painter pants with some spiffy Cole Haan’s, no doubt about it.

As an electronics geek, you must be willing to spend hours, if not days, trying to make something work, without ever having the slightest desire to read a manual or call any manner of tech support. They clearly can’t help you. Any software installation ‘wizard’ will be wholly ignored. Extra points for authoring or modifying your own video or printer driver. +4 for calling tech support after three weeks of mucking about to tell them it’s ‘defective’.

Playing video games, it’s a given. Just like knowing which house you would belong to in Hogwarts. -10 for Hufflepuffs, no exceptions. Knowing the definitions of non-words like pwn, grok, and n00b. Dressing up as a paladin at Halloween is cool, dressing up as a dwarven warrior is really cool, seeing a girl dressed up as a night elf druid is epic. Being able to count in binary using your fingers and showing it off at cocktail parties. I can’t tell you how popular this will make you.

The downside of being a geek is that as your geekness increases, the amount of questions asked to you about any technical problem increases almost exponentially. At first it’s flattering, but after a while, it’s just madness, din, and vex. Using the word ‘vex’ as a noun is worth even more points, regardless of the impropriety. The best part about being a true geek is that it doesn’t matter what your answer is, so long as you offer it up with confidence, in truth you can take that broken thing and google up a fix as fast as anyone else out there. Being able to implement that found knowledge is where it’s at. Everyone has google, just like everyone had a set of Brittanica’s, or in my case the geekier World Book’s, but those who could actually use them to great advantage, well, they’re winning.

Yep, it’s a pretty good time to be a geek. Our time has truly come. Sure it’s painful as can be at the high school level, but the infinite rewards are out there, and most of us couldn’t un-geek ourselves if we tried. So I say to go for it, learn a programming language and annoy your teachers by constantly staying ahead of the curve with technology, because at some point, even the geekiest of us all, have to stop, stick with what we’re surrounded with and let go. Like an upside down kill screen in Ms. Pacman, all things must end. But I for one have plenty of time left to keep reaching for the next gadget, to see the Star Trek reboot and like it, and to re-read the entire Harry Potter series, or at least listen to the audiobooks. I’m a geek, it’s what we do.

1. press the sleep/wake button and the home button simultaneously for about ten seconds.

2. watch as the screen lights up with a glorious apple logo

3. rejoice when it starts back up and works perfectly.

So no need to fear. It’s not broken, at least mine wasn’t. Hope this helps someone out there who’s heart is fluttering with fear…

Here’s the first one, and it may be too late. The holiday buying season and the Superbowl came and went, and maybe, just maybe, you made it through without buying a new flat screen. Maybe you didn’t make it, but if you resisted, good for you. The prices that magically appeared just after ‘Black Friday’ (Monday for us internet shoppers), have stayed and perhaps dropped further. And they will continue to do so. My advice is to hold out as long as you can. If you’re looking at a specific model of television, wait for at least a 25% price drop off from it’s original retail price. And don’t get too caught up in the 1080p, 120Hz, higher numbers are better idiocy. It’s a lot of fluff. They are better, but the amount they are better aren’t generally justified by the price. For the human eye at 20/20 to actually perceive a difference between 720p to 1080p, you’d have to be sitting closer than 5′ from a 42″ screen. My mother told me not too sit that close to the television. You can now get a very good name brand 42″ 720p LCD or plasma for less than $500. That’s just awesome. Somebody paid $1000 for that same shiny box less than a year ago. Sit ten feet away and enjoy.

Want a new computer? Well, it might be time. It’s a fine time to get one, they are cheaper than ever. A decent Dell laptop is sub-$500 now. We are nearing the end of a technology cycle in terms of computer processors and hard drive design, so those components in addition to all major companies decoupling warranty coverage from your purchase has made them all the more affordable. By decoupling warranty coverage, I’m talking about the fact that when you call the 800 number you talk to someone with less than spectacular english. You used to pay more for your computers so that they could provide you with decent service after the sale. Apparently, this quality, as with so many other things, is the first to go to make sure that we can have it cheaper. Sad. I have a Mac, not that it’s ever needed service, but I promise you’ll be talking to someone stateside when you call. If for some reason you bought a computer within the last couple of years, you may be best served by upgrading the RAM and perhaps the hard drive to maximize performance for short money. Why buy new if you can upgrade your current machine and improve productivity for $150 or less?

Leakage. Where is the leakage? Sometimes it’s as easy as taking a closer look at your monthly credit card statement. Hosting a website? You’re almost definitely paying too much. I happen to know of a local company that will certainly save you money on that. Paying for your antivirus program? Sure it’s not much, but it’s really no better than the free versions available in Microsoft Security Essentials and AVG. If you don’t watch a lot of current release television shows, drop the satellite/cable bill and start streaming them online. Hulu.com streams even the biggest new release television shows the day after their on air premiere, and it’s free. Have a Netflix account? Drop it to one disc at a time and check out their stream on demand service. The selection is limited, but it’s pretty cool. If you have a XBox 360 with a Live account, you can stream Netflix through that direct to your television. Or pick up a nifty little wireless box from Roku to make it happen. Or maybe that new TV you just bought has it built in. For real, they make that. Telephone bills driving you to the poor house? An internet phone is a no brainer, especially if you are making any international calls. Vonage is solid, but we recently switched over to Ooma for even our business lines. Great service and all but free after your initial hardware investment. There are even more high tech ways to sweeten the phone deal utilizing Google Voice and other services, but they get pretty in depth and going into it here would bore even me.

Perhaps the best way for a geek to survive the downturn is to stay vigilant. I strongly believe that taking a bit of that new found idle time to educate yourself to new technologies is time well spent. Just brushing up on more recent versions of software that you already use regularly can make you all the more productive and effective in your current position. This is no time to sit idly by. The job market is rough as can be and your skills may need to be much sharper if you find yourself suddenly without work. Take some of this time to push yourself forward and to break through some of the walls that have crept up around you while you were otherwise occupied. Invest in yourself, clean up your own web presence, whether it’s an out of date website, a long lost myspace account (at least go to facebook), or just checking your search engine rankings, there’s no doubt that some part of you or you business has been neglected and can use a facelift. What kind of impression are you giving online right now? Take a look at what’s out there and be honest with yourself, it can always be better.

So that’s just a handful of things, and maybe you’re doing just fine and none of this applies to you. In that case, feel free and give me a call, I’ve got some business ideas for you. But if any of these makes you think even just a little bit about ways to improve your inner geek, well that’s good. I say go for it, and I’ll be happy to help. I will also accept an iPad as payment.

So Ooma’s cool, it’s working fine, I’m happy, but if you’re a current Vonage customer and you call our work line, you get a message saying the the line is out of service and can not be connected. This is because Vonage still has routing in place for my number that assumes it to be ‘within network’ if you will. But now that the number resides elsewhere in the ephemera, I am not at all ‘in network’. There are numerous posts about this phenomenon online, and there are some people saying that Vonage isn’t trying to be malicious, it’s just the system, blah blah. That’s bullshit. A five minute phone call to Vonage Technical Support is all it takes to ask them to fully release your number. It’s a simple task, and it should be automatic whenever anyone cancels their account. The fact that it is not automatic is what makes it malicious. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for them not to release the number completely and the only thing it causes is inconvenience.

Furthermore, most people do not realize that this is going on. We’ve gone for at least three months before it became strikingly obvious that Vonage customers were unable to contact us properly. How much business did we lose? Probably enough to negate the savings that I assumed in using a VoIP phone line.

So there’s a quick rant, hoping that someone else may stumble across this and it will help them to avoid the same negative affect. If you cancel your Vonage, make a point of telling them to release your number completely, and then go and confirm that it has been done by having a friend or foe with Vonage call your line to check it.

Now some may scoff, wince, and turn the page at this, mumbling something about never owning a cell phone, or maybe that the set of World Book’s from 1986 is all they need to reference any question they have about the platypus. And I will not deny them their say as I had that very set of encyclopedias and felt smarter for having them, in 1986. I also got my first Apple IIe computer at roughly the same time, and by no means do I take for granted the printed pages and their part in my education. I was fortunate though, to have that computer at such an age and to have Mrs. Millett, my third grade teacher as a early adopter and advocate for computers in the classroom and beyond. My generation was the first to receive hands on use of computers at an early age in the public school system. This is why we have little or no fear in computing today, and it’s also why your grandchildren can show you how to navigate the menus with ease on your flat screen television, tivo, iPod, GPS, blackberry, you name it. I was setting the clocks on the worlds VCRs when I was a boy, but today kids that age are writing simple programs that can control the appliances in your home.

If you have moved past the first stage of technology acceptance, the second level is the ‘user by rote’. This type despises any and all changes to a computer, program, or system, but can work efficiently for a near eternity, so long as the order of actions remains the same. I still have many customers that fall into this category, and they are invaluable members of our workforce. They just want a list to follow, and they prefer it stay ‘just so’. A computer upgrade is not an upgrade to them, it is a hinderance, and at times a return to zero. These users would just as soon stick with an outdated, virus-ridden operating system than upgrade to newer, faster, more secure lifestyle. To them Windows 98 was the zenith of computer development and any changes since have caused more trouble than not. Many of them have a poster of a kitten perilously clinging to a branch with the phrase ‘hang in there’, posted near by. Another tell tail sign of this user is the number of times they click the button on the mouse. A double click for everything? This person has not adapted to change well at all.

Moving past this stage we have our most feared user. He who knows just enough to be dangerous. Clearly this individual wants to accept and use technology. It is likely that, some well meaning IT professional or youth has shown them enough keyboard shortcuts and tricks that he feels empowered. Empowered enough to buy into the newest technology, an iPhone perhaps, only to have it seemingly blow up in his face when those keystrokes don’t apply similarly. They usually power through however, and the best advancement for this group can be found when they are not afraid to ask questions, or seek out help.  Help menus and google are invaluable to them. These are the folks who got burned by the Lord Voldemort of operating systems, Vista. The early adopters of that system can barely say it’s name without vitriol, if at all, and deservedly so. They are also the rather vocal majority that has everyone repeating the scorn in mockingbird fashion. Vista has gotten much better, but they’ll never know it, it’s on to 7! And good riddance I say. 7 is a cleaned up, streamlined Vista 2. Believe the hype, as much as you believed in the maligning of Vista, 7 is solid.

And then there’s fools like me. I want the latest, bleeding edge, beta version of everything. I don’t care if it wipes out my entire computer, I can fix that. I’m the one who was using an internet phone service more than five years ago. It sucked. I still have it, although under a different moniker, and now it’s great. I still have my first iPod, the first generation one that’s as big as a deck of cards. They can fit as much music onto a player the size of a thumbtack now. I have a Mac computer museum graveyard that I should really do away with. It begins to remind me of how much those things cost and how quickly they depreciate. And yes, I always upgrade to the latest operating system, and it’s good for you that I do. That way, when you call and ask me if you should upgrade, i can give you a hands-on response which typically is, ‘not yet’. We are societies beta testers, and we get taken advantage of by the big companies for our inability to resist their shiny claims, but it also puts us in the position to resolutely pan an emerging technology that doesn’t live up to it’s advertising ballyhoo.

So I need you, and you, like it or not, need me. I’ll be vetting these new trinkets eternally, and on the far end, you will accept these pieces as useful, but only after they’ve become so ubiquitous and inexpensive that it’s a near impossibility to functionally exist without it, and that’s just fine. By that time, I will invariably be on to the next, and I can’t wait.

Old school viruses and infections were usually little more than simple pranks and exploits, ‘mostly harmless’ if you will. Sent as a ‘worm’ that spread easily to others. But things quickly took a turn for the worse as hackers and crackers took to creating viruses that would not only spread and pop up goofy messages, but that would, in fact, erase portions of your data. And that’s just not nice at all. More recently they aim to get your credit card information, which is not amusing either.

The trojan horse method of infection involves a simple disguise for the virus, more often than not running alongside some other desirable piece of software that you said ‘yes’ to, not knowing that there was something else lurking beneath it. Pop-up windows were extremely effective mediums for these viruses until it became frighteningly obvious that pretty much EVERY pop up window is a bad thing. And they are. Any website programmer worth his salt will strongly advise against pop-ups in any form as they are not to be trusted and are just plain annoying. Trojans were originally created for notoriety. A good programmer could use a virus to show the holes in a popular piece of software, gain notoriety and eventually land himself a better job for his efforts. Not landing a better job however can easily lead to bitterness and unfortunately, the viruses became all the more malevolent as an effect. Phishing is the art of crafting an email or a popup that looks legitimate, but links you to somewhere very much the opposite. Some of the most popular phishing scams used Paypal and various bank logos to create very convincing looking emails telling you to login and verify your information. No bank will ever ask you to do this via email. If an email asks you to ‘click here or your account will be deleted’, it is lying. It has nothing to do with your account and wants you to type in a credit card number. Someone in Brazil or India is collecting numbers right now, making a lot of small transfers, and getting away with it.

Spyware is one of the more recent terms that is generally associated with bits of malicious software that are used to track your browsing habits, log your keystrokes, and otherwise gather information about you or your accounts. They are built to make money. Many of these exploits are unlikely to ever show themselves to you as you work on your computer. They are just running in the background, in hiding, waiting for your passwords, and sometimes just sending your browser history to a company looking to collect data for advertising and promotion. Eventually you may find that you get more emails related to your browsing habits. This might seem like a good thing, but it really isn’t. Companies like HP, Google and Microsoft all use spyware to  gather information about you. They are not nearly as malicious, but HP in particular installs enough junkware with a printer installation that tries to sell you ink, paper, and lifestyle to ruin your day. This may seem harmless, but it adds up fast. If you aren’t using the latest greatest computer with plenty of RAM, all of these little programs constantly running can slow your system down substantially. All of those ‘toolbars’ that you installed, they are spyware. All of those ‘customer feedback’ options that you checked off (or that you simply didn’t UN-check) installed another bit of spyware. And now your computer is slow. Bummer eh?

Malware is a portmanteau using malicious and software. And that was clearly a gratuitous use of the word ‘portmanteau’. This malicious software is meant to infiltrate and potentially damage your computer without your proper consent. Usually they are small bits of software that you inadvertently obtained while browsing an insecure website. But as of recent, even websites that are generally considered safe including the New York Times website have been hosts to some nasty malware. Myspace is positively soaked with malware, and of course, pornographic sites have plenty of it to offer as well. No longer constrained to pop-ups, the viruses can be easily attached to a simple jpeg picture or flash software piece. The most recent spate of malware has been downright nasty. Without getting too technical and talking about bots and rootkits, I will tell you that it has gotten very sophisticated and increasingly hard to remove. It uses ‘backdoors’ created with one small bit of software to download another malicious component. It hides itself well and it hides itself within a daunting number of files, many of which are essential to your computers operation.

The most recently coined phrase in the world of computer viruses is perhaps scareware. Scareware can best be described as a more advanced form of phishing. If a pop-up that looks very much like a virus scanner comes up an alarmingly pronounces that your computer is infected, it may not be lying, but it could very well be the virus itself. Clicking the button to clean it will do nothing of the sort, it will only dig it’s hooks in deeper. If the message is from the virus software that you personally installed, then by all means, trust it to do it’s job. But if it’s unfamiliar and not from your recognized software, well, frankly, you might as well call the geeks immediately because it’s a real pain to get rid of.

So what is the average computer user to do? Buy a mac? Absolutely. Sure they’re more expensive, but they’re great computers, and how much money will you spend over the life of your computer on anti-virus and professional removals? Stick with your old windows box? Fine by me as well, those viruses make us money. But you really must keep your anti-virus software updated. There are a great number of companies offering paid and free anti-virus solutions. Our favorite this month is none other that Microsoft’s Security Essentials. It’s very comprehensive, and it’s free. We have had excellent luck with Norton, AVG, and Avast! in recent months as well, but it’s an ever moving target. The programmers are working on another unbeatable code for tomorrow while the AV companies try to patch up yesterday’s breach. There is no end in site to this cycle without all of us becoming more educated computer users.

The best advice perhaps is to just be careful out there. Use some common sense when clicking on links. If it uses the word free more than three times, it’s probably fake. If it’s a company asking you for personal information, think twice, or go the old fashioned route and call the company directly to verify the post. If you must view questionable websites, then you really need to educate yourselves to some more advanced protection methods. Simply using a browser other than explorer is probably the simplest thing that anyone can do to be more secure. New products like GeSWall offer insight into the future of protection and we look forward to them being more end-user friendly. I have a feeling that 90% of the time, a user has a moment, a split second before clicking that mouse button, and they realize that their next move is potentially unsafe. The key here is to restrain yourself, and to quickly ask, “Is this the right move?”. Perhaps not. This might not please you, but very nearly all infections on the computer are the fault of the user. Don’t feel too bad though, because they’re trying awfully hard to attract you to that shiny ‘yes’ button with all sorts of claims good and bad that will surely improve your life somehow. So contrary to my ‘geekness’, I will postulate that the best way to improve your life is not the ‘yes’ button, but the ‘off’ button.

Colby Dix is co-owner of Vermont Geeks and is far more scared of computer viruses than he is of H1N1.

]]> http://vermontgeeks.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=152 0 http://vermontgeeks.com/blog/?p=147 http://vermontgeeks.com/blog/?p=147#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:04:03 +0000 Colby Dix http://vermontgeeks.com/blog/?p=147 Making Your Own Stock: A Primer…

I like to make my own. No doubt about it. It is hands down the best way to make better soups. Good stock. It’s easy, inexpensive, and it’s an efficient use of vegetable portions that you might otherwise discard. The basics of this are obvious enough. Take some vegetables, throw them in a pot of water, boil it for a while, strain it, done. But there is certainly some nuance to be had and some insight to be shared.

Vegetable Stock is the simplest stock to make. In it’s simplest form, you could take:

2 onions, chopped

5-6 carrots, chopped,

4 stalks of celery, chopped

1 head of garlic, crushed

a toss of salt and some peppercorns

10-ish cups of water (cover the goods)

Bring everything to a boil, reduce heat slightly so that the boil is gentle, not roiling for 1.5 – 2 hours. Strain it with a colander. Use it now or freeze for later. Stocks can be kept frozen for about three months before they lose their magic.

Sure, that’s simple enough, but it’s lame. And it looks like a recipe, this is stock! And why bother using all of those perfectly tasty carrots and onions when you can be even more environmentally friendly? What I do is to keep a large freezer bag that is just for cuttings. This includes the spines of kale and assorted greens, onion and garlic skins, the butt ends of celery and cabbage, and various peelings from cucumbers, carrots, and just about anything that is a vegetable. I say vegetable but need to specifically exclude fruits, root vegetables and tubers. You will find many a seasoned cook that tosses in the potatoes and turnip as well, but I find that it just starches up the stock unnecessarily, and if you want a nice clear stock that is useful for all manner of cooking beyond soups, well, just skip the potato peelings.

Summers provide an obvious abundance of the fresh vegetables that make for the best stock, but I think you will find that year round, you have plenty of fodder for the stock pot. The bag just pops back into the freezer for safe keeping after the dinner and salad prep time concludes. Bring the bag out and have it right next to the cutting board with you and it will fill all the quicker for the convenience and it’s well worth it. Once the bag is full, you’ve got enough to make your own custom stock. As a brief aside, I say to not be afraid of a little dirt either. rinse your veggies of course, but we’re going to clarify this later anyway, so don’t fret if a little dirt on the celery is involved, it’s good for you, trust me.

Take your full bag of clippings and toss them into a stock pot, if you feel your clippings are too ‘green’ feel free and modify the pot with some more carrots or onions to suit. Cover the goods with water and boil gently for 2 hours as above. You stock will be all the more complex and the richer for the varied ingredients and will certainly improve your soups dramatically. You may be tempted to start throwing lots of peppercorns, bay leaves and salt at your stock. I say to resist. While a bay leaf is a fine candidate to subtly flavor a soup from it’s inception and certainly belongs in the clarified stock when you’re brewing up the final product, it’s best to let your stock be a little plainer for the sake of versatility later on. I resist adding herbs other than parsley as well for the same reason. And in my opinion, salt and pepper, while essential, should be added later, at least mid-way through the actual soup preparation once ‘tasting’ begins…

One of my favorite things about creating an all vegetable stock is that we get multiple uses per vegetable and extend the cycle. We of course enjoy the fresh carrots on our salad, but the peelings go into the stock bag and create stock. Once the stock is strained, all of the boiled down vegetable cuttings go into our composter and spin around for a few months. Finally, it becomes excellent dirt for our modest vegetable gardens enabling fresh carrots to grow again. Cycle complete!

For a chicken stock, we of course use the same vegetables, but we add all of the chicken bones and carcasses collected over many nights of dining on the fine bird.  A separate freezer bag is kept for chicken bones and yet another for beef bones. Saving the little bag of gizzards, liver and such that comes in the carcass of a whole chicken and tossing them in the bag is a must as well. The difference in cooking the chicken stock is that a lower heat should be used, something just above a simmer and of course a much longer cook time accordingly. Plan on at least 3-4 hours on the stove. Beef stock works in very much the same way, but utilizing the bones from steaks and shanks and of course cracked soup bones that are generally available for short money at your local meat market.

The last thing that needs to be covered is clarification. Indeed we can use the stock as is. It will be flavorful and delicious, but it’s a little dirty, hopelessly cloudy and frankly, just not as pretty as it can be. If you want to make a consommé or aspic, this cloudy mess simply will not do. To clarify your stock, you will need little more than an egg and some cheesecloth. Let the stock chill to at least room temperature before beginning the clarification.  In fact, just cover it and come back tomorrow. Don’t put it in the fridge. Don’t put anything that hot in the fridge, it’s ridiculously wasteful, just let it hit room temp and then refrigerate if you must. Meat stocks may need degreasing. The easiest way to degrease the stock is to skim the fat from the top once it has separated after refrigeration. You are welcome to keep this fat for all sorts of other uses, as it will prove an excellent cooking oil for sure.

After degreasing, separate the egg and feed the yolk to your dog. Keep the whites and the eggshells. Crush the eggshell into bits and add to the whites in a small bowl or ramekin. Add a small amount of lukewarm water, 1.5 Tbsp or so and whisk the egg white, shells and water with a fork briefly. Dump this mixture into the pot of stock and whisk it around a bit to evenly disperse. Turn the heat back on to medium. The key to this part is that you want the heat to come on gradually, and you do not want to disturb the stock. Once ‘medium’ has been attained you will see that egg begin to do it’s work, separating the gunk from the glory. Turn the heat up another notch to medium-high and await a gentle boil. Once that boil hits, shut off the heat and move the pot to a vacant burner.

Let the pot cool again. When it’s cool, it’s much easier to remove the firmed egg on the top with a spoon. Get the biggest bits and whatever is easy, but don’t go crazy, the cheesecloth will get the small stuff. Use a colander here, over another stock pot or reasonable container large enough to hold your finished stock. Line the colander with cheesecloth. I use at least four layers to strain through. Pour slowly. Clean the cheesecloth under cool water and repeat. Two strainings should suffice.

What’s left is a beautiful, translucent stock that would make my grandmother proud. Taste it. If it is too weak, boil it down a bit to strengthen it. A little salt at this point can aid in bringing out the true flavor of your stock. Your stock can be used as a base for soups of course, but portioning it into ice cube trays makes for an easy additive to all sorts of sauces and meals. Using stock in lieu of water when making rice, couscous, and other boiled grains provides an immediate boost in your culinary prowess as well, quickly adding that special ‘something’ to an otherwise simple side. I firmly believe that the simple act of making your own stock makes you a better cook and gives you another ingredient in your arsenal to bring your meals to the next level. That and a nice bottle of wine of course…