Saturday I made stock. I used two of Cook's Illustrated's kitchen tips. One, putting a ziploc bag in a coffee mug and folding over the ends before filling with stock, was a great one. The second- lying all those ziploc baggies flat on a baking sheet to freeze? Not so great. One of them still leaked- one always does- and dripped over the rim down on top of a quart of ice cream.

Saturday night we had parsnip fries with tuna, which I coated in lemongrass essence before searing. The A New Way To Cook crusting and searing method is very easy and I think I'm going to try it with a spicy rub and some catfish, soon. The lemongrass-tuna combo was excellent, and I think I may brew some iced tea with some of my leftover lemongrass essence.

Sunday I made the West Lake fish soup from last week's Minimalist. Yum. And so, so easy. And yum. However, I can never eat too much soup. I have five or six spoonfuls and that's it. I don't know why. Nonetheless, if you CAN eat a full bowl of soup, you should try it.