Vegetable Stock

I am notorious for letting celery linger in my refrigerator until it is past its prime. And as part of my "no-spend/clean out the pantry" month, I decided to whip up some vegetable stock and use up some of the vegetables I had lingering in my fridge - including some very limp celery.

This article on Making Vegetable Stock may be found at AllRecipes.com and includes some pretty useful photos.

But here's how it was done:

Easy Vegetable Stock
adapted from AllRecipes.com

1 onion, rough chop (**I was watching Bobby Flay the other day and it said that if you threw in a whole onion without peeling it, it would give your stock a lovely golden hue. Just a thought. I peeled and chopped mine.)
4 carrots, peeled and rough chop
3 stalks celery, cleaned and rough chop
1 bulb garlic, broken up and peeled
10 peppercorns
2 bay leaves

Assemble all ingredients in a stock pot, add water (enough to cover vegetables) and bring to a quick simmer. Simmer the vegetables for about an hour (you don't want the veg to get too mushy), let the stock cool and strain after about an hour after you've taken it off the heat. Keep it in the fridge until you're ready to use it. You can also freeze it.

What do you use vegetable stock for? I used mine for a crockpot lentil dish, but it can be used to cook rice, make soup, etc.