Oliver decides what's for lunch

After deliberating for a few minutes Oliver decided he would go with two butter-fried eggs dressed simply with Celtic sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper, some ends of olive-rosemary whole wheat sourdough toasted with raw butter (alas! all out of sourdough now), two breakfast sausage links, and a cup of Mama's special turkey-spelt-fava bean soup. Actually Mama ended up eating pretty much everything, but Oliver enjoyed some delicious bright-orange egg yolk and even some cooled turkey broth in his little bottle shaken vigorously with pureed chicken liver! He was having so much fun drinking from the bottle that he didn't even realize he was getting lots of great nutrients and minerals, particularly iron and calcium.

On to the soup...

Remember how I was soaking spelt and kamut the other day? Well, first I simmered our turkey remnants (bones, skin, etc. from 3 drumsticks) for an entire afternoon (about 6 hours) in a potfull of water with 1 tbsp. apple-cider vinegar. This (apparently) is how you make stock, though of course usually you would want to add veggies to flavor the broth. I prefer to add vegetables later. In the early evening I removed all the bones and pulled off all remaining meat to return to the pot, then added the pre-soaked whole grains to the broth and allowed them to simmer several more hours to get nice and soft and a little puffy. I also added celery (w/leaves), onions, carrots, and a can of fava beans, plus some frozen peas that had been hanging around too long, and a good amount of seasoning (sea salt, rosemary, thyme, etc.). I let this simmer again the second day so the flavors could incorporate well and the broth could gel properly. Bone broth (as this might be called) that is properly made will become a bit gelatinous in the fridge, which is a good thing -- it's a sign that it is full of minerals. Broths and stocks made from bones of conventionally-raised animals will sometimes not even form gelatin at all, which is not a good sign. Of course, when you re-heat the soup the consistency returns to liquid. Broths are especially good for sick persons because they are so incredibly rich in minerals and absorbed very easily.