making your own stock c/d

Roast a sheet pan full of beef neckbones at 350 until they're black but not burnt, transfer them to cold water and simmer (never boil) with peppercorns and bay leaves for a couple of hours, add onions/carrots/celery/garlic, simmer another couple of hours. Strain all the solids out, add a little salt but not much, simmer on low until you've got it as concentrated as you want it.

I promise I will do that in the fall when I don't mind having my cooker on all day.

Yeah, that's otm -- I make it twice a year, fall and spring when the weather's cool and the doors and windows are open.

total classic imo. homemade stock is 100x better than cubes or commercial stock. plus you can tailor it for a given soup. i don't make them very summer soups but in the fall, winter, and early spring they make pretty much any soup taste much better. i'm vegetarian too so it's a good way to get much more depth to a soup or stew without meat.

something i learned from deborah madison is to have a "quick stock" going while you are preparing the main soup/stew. so if i'm making a stew that features a few specific vegetables, i'll quickly chop an onion, celery, carrots, some garlic & herbs and get the quick stock started, and as i'm preparing the rest of the main soup i'll add trimmings from the featured vegetables (e.g. asparagus ends, squash peels and seeds, etc)

by the time i'm ready to cook the main stew, i'll will already have a stock hot and ready to add, comes to a boil in like 1 minute

when i cook mexican soups or stews i use a red stock recipe that comes out really spectacularly, i might even use bean broth instead of water for it for extra flavor and complexity.

chickpea broth (from cooking dried chickpeas obv) is a really good substitute for stock, too