Scrap Bag Stock

I've started keeping a gallon-size ziplock in my freezer where I stash leftover bits and pieces of vegetables used in cooking (onion tops and skins, turnip ends, tough bits of celery,etc.). Last night I had enough left to make stock! I use a lot of broth and stock because it's a good replacement for milk in a lot of recipes, and it makes thing much more flavorful than water alone. I dumped the bag contents into my crockpot, added some salt, pepper, and bay leaves, filled it to the top with water, and let it cook all night. Here it is before cooking:The water's already brown because I made carmelized onions earlier in the day, and I just left the juices in the pot. I don't have pictures of the onions, but basically I just filled the pot to the top with sliced onions, tossed it with some oil, salt, and brown sugar, and let it cook for six hours. Crockpots only use as much energy as an incandescent light, so it's a very cheap way to cook. I ended up with ten cup of carmelized onions, which I froze for later use. This stock has onions, celery, rutabaga, parsnips, and carrots in it. (I've also done this with the leftover carcass from roasting a chicken, and it makes a delicious, though somewhat more gelid, stock as well.)

After letting the stock cook all night, it looked like this:

I then scooped out the big bits using my handy wire-basket-spoon-thing and let them drain in a colander over a bowl. After those bits were drained, I dumped them in the trash and poured the rest of the stock through the colander to catch anything I'd missed. I let the stock cool, and prepped the things I would need to store it.
I pre-labeled quart sized freezer bags and stood them upright in a measuring cup. In another measuring cup I placed a strainer, and ladled two cups of stock for every bag. I sealed each bag up and placed in flat on a baking sheet in my freezer.

(You can see the frozen onions on the lower left.) I ended up with three quarts of stock for less than a dollar worth of electricity. I really like it when I can get good use out of something that would have been thrown away otherwise.