Next time you gear up to boil shrimp, take a cue from the pros and make a stock.

• The plusses and minuses of eating local in Seattle.
• Hard-cooked eggs are good for more than just coloring.
• What's the difference between stock and broth?
• Renowned mixologist Daniel Shoemaker did the hippy hippy shake for Seattle last week.
• That handy sustainable-fish sushi guide is now available at the Seattle Aquarium.
• The FDA has ordered an expanded recall of Uncle Chen and Lian How products.
• Downtown Seattle's ART Lounge features the famous sliders the now-defunct Cascadia used to serve.
• Recipes for a Tex-Mex dinner: Smoky Beef Tacos, Avocado-Red Onion Relish, Corn and Tomato Salsa, Cilantro-Lime Crema, Cumin Rice and Beans, and Spicy Pineapple Salad.
• A super-handy map for Yakima, Washington's wine region.
• Recipes: Gluten-Free Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies, Reduced-Fat Cheddar Cheese Biscuts, Pork Tenderloin - Three Ways,Three Dinner Salads and Veal Marsala and Sicilian Penne Pasta
• A New Seastar has opened next to the Pan Pacific Hotel and boasts foods like "vibrant ceviches" and servers who go the extra mile, while Malabar South Indian Flavours breaks tradition with beef, chicken, lamb and fish dosas and other tasty dishes.

"To me, making stock is a hassle, and antithetical to home cooking. It belongs to the realm of professional kitchens with salaried dishwashers," writes Jane Sigal in the New York Times. My sentiments exactly. But luckily for those of us suffering the kind of late-winter malaise that only a rich, home-cooked soup can cure, the answer is at hand: Soup bones.

Now that nose-to-tail dining seems to have a permanent place in the foodie firmament, soup bones have gone from being the kind of thing only offered at obscure butcher shops in far-flung ethnic neighborhoods to something you can find next to the organic pork chops at your local farmer's market. And the bones on offer have gone beyond the traditional beef shank and hog trotter, with goat bones and bison marrow popping up in the stew pot as well.

Sigal offers up four soup recipes, all enriched with a different kind of bone: Tangy red lentil soup with nicoise olives, which calls for chicken backs; creamy celery root soup with ham, which uses a ham bone; lima bean and porcini soup, using either lamb neck bones on beef shin bones; and a beets and greens borscht with shin bones.

Alright, Slashfoodies. I have another strange occurrence for you to explain, one that makes the butterscotch cookie mishap seem like nothing -- one that makes me wonder if I've stepped into the kitchen version of the Twilight Zone.

Above, you can check out a slightly blurry (sorry!) picture of my freezer. Since I recently roasted up a chicken, I also made myself some delicious stock. The other day, I got to packaging it for the freezer, and threw most of it into three zip lock bags. I stacked them on the base of my freezer, as shown, so that they could freeze flat and then be moved around.

A day later, the bottom bag was hard as a rock, and the other two were merely very cold and jiggly -- no ice. Confused, I rejigged the setup -- the bottom went on the top, and the door was closed. When I checked again, the new bottom one was now frozen, and the other two were jiggly. Aggravated, I took the picture you see above, and then rearranged a bit and moved one of the bags up to the second shelf. As of now, the one jiggly bag is starting to slush and freeze.

What on earth could cause this? It sure isn't thawing -- the rest of the inhabitants are solid. It's not over or under-packing the freezer, because I've done similar before in emptier and more full freezers.

Please solve this mystery and save my sanity!

Making stock and soup usually takes a lot of prep and time. But if you're itching to get a fully made and finished soup pronto, Pim is once again coming to the rescue with an easy and quicker way to get results. First, tomato sauce. Now, chicken soup!

The recipe isn't nearly as speedy as the sauce, but it definitely cuts down on the time usually allotted to stock and soup making. Her twist is to combine the two into one recipe. She starts the soup, cooks the chicken in it, takes it out when done, and then re-adds the bones to simmer for a half hour.

Having soup ready for the table in just a few hours sounds downright perfect to me. Maybe it will get me out of my habit to stock pile turkey soup each Thanksgiving.

Stop! Before you pour a bag of noodles into your carefully crafted soup, read on!

Before I started making stocks and soups, I falsely assumed that tasty broths were just naturally clear. Then I got my mom to show me how to make her post-Thanksgiving turkey broth. The taste was there, but so was the fat, and that less tasty looking gelatinous goo that came from chilling it in the fridge.

But what about consomme? Michael Ruhlman's latest post details how to turn that homemade stock into a delightfully clear consomme. I plan to test this once Thanksgiving hits, if I can pull myself out of turkey hangover and find the drive.

If you have experience with the art of consomme, is this how you do it? What are your techniques?

Soups and stocks are some of the easiest and tastiest ways to get into the world of cooking, but there are still tips that can make the experience even easier.

Want an easy way to keep stock on hand at all times? Freeze it like ice cubes.

Have you guys discovered the blog Wasted Food yet? I ran across it about a month ago and it's become of the sites I look forward to seeing pop up in my reader with a new post. It's not always a happy site, in that it is devoted to raising awareness about the amount of food that we, as Americans, waste. But it is always interesting, well-written and helps me look at food from fresh perspectives.

Earlier this week, Jonathan wrote a post about how he made a pot of stock with some leftover chicken bones and a few aging veggies. He decided to make stock because it was one more way in which he could walk his talk and attempt to reduce the amount of waste in his personal food cycle. I thought it was interesting, because I rarely think about making stock as a way to reduce wasted food. I make stock because it tastes good and has the power to improve the taste of nearly everything you add it to. It was nice to be reminded that I was doing something right each time I turn the remains of a roasted chicken into a pot of stock or chicken soup.

Those of you without a Target, Panera or Starbucks nearby will be glad to know that you'll soon be able to get a bottle of Fufu Berry at Kmart. The nearly 1,500 Kmart locations throughout the country will soon stock Jones' standard flavors in bottles, the Seattle Times reported. Kmart stock shot up 17 percent as a result of the recent announcement, according to the Times. Will this draw people to Kmart? Probably not. Target is still the only place you'll be able to find the sodas in cans and it's unclear when, exactly, the quirky soft drinks will start showing up at the Big K.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants Outback Steakhouse, Inc. to look into a method of chicken slaughter that is allegedly more humane, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Called controlled-atmosphere killing, the method basically gasses the birds, thus putting them "to sleep." PETA raised the suggestion at the annual Outback shareholders meeting this week in Tampa. How did PETA get their item on the table? They own 80 shares of Outback stock, enough to have an issue voted on at the yearly meeting. According to the TBBJ, PETA has put similar items up for a vote to Kroger, KFC and Hormel. Every time, the proposals for investigation of controlled-atmosphere killing have received more than three percent of the vote. While that isn't much, it's apparently enough to allow the issue to be submitted again next year.

[Via Restaurant News Resource]

This month's Everyday Food magazine has an article about the five essential pots and pans that should be in every kitchen. They definitely picked out the right things, too. If you are missing one of these, or perhaps haven't gotten around to breaking in your kitchen after moving out of the dorms, you will be able to cook most things if you pick up all five items. On the list are:

• 10-inch nonstick skillet - Nonsticks are great because they don't requite much cleanup, but stick to anodized aluminum brands, like Analon and Calphalon, if you want to avoid potentially toxic PFOAs. Use it for scrambling eggs and searing delicate meats, like seafood.
• 12-inch skillet - The best choice for sauteing because you'll have lots of room to work, large skillets will allow for higher surface heat and better searing. Make sure that it balances well on your stove and isn't off balance by a too-heavy handle.
• Large saucepan - A 3 or 4-quart saucepan is the most versatile kitchen pot because it can be used for sauces, small batches of soups or pasta for one for a quick  lunch. Don't get an aluminum one (unless its anodized) because its reactivity with utensils and metal cooking implements can quickly lend an unwelcome taste to your sauces.
• Large pot - Stocks, soups and stews can all be made in a big 8 or 10-quart pot, but the most common use for a pot like this is to make pasta. Lots of pasta.
• Dutch oven - These can work both in the oven and on the stove top. They retain heat better than most other cookware, too, so they're ideal for slow cooking and making soups or chili. Look for enameled cast iron, anodized aluminum or stainless steel with a copper/aluminum base.