Tag: Stock Posts

Stock is one of those things that seemed magical before I made it. I had purchased a few cooking books, and many recipes said to use ‘vegetable stock’, ‘chicken stock’, ‘beef stock’, or ‘fish stock’. At that time I was used to buying bouillon cubes to take the place of stock, but decided at some point to try making a homemade stock. Not only is making stock at home easy, but it’s a simple way to use up leftover pieces of vegetables and bones. I’ve grown accustomed now to making a chicken dinner on the weekend, and immediately afterwards putting the left over pieces into the pressure cooker to make a nice tasty stock for a week’s worth of soups and dishes. Ingredients Chicken carcasses, or left over bones from a chicken meal One yellow onion Several stalks of celery Several carrots Whole peppercorns Several bay leaves One or two […]

I’ve gone through various mutual fund companies and financial planners over the years, but ultimately decided last year to take my finances into my own hands and manage my own portfolio. My main issue with the financial planning/advice market is that there is an inherent conflict of interest in most of the advice given out. Yes, a par-life plan may in fact be a great investment vehicle, but when your purchase of one results in a $1,000 bonus for the financial planner, how can anyone ever be sure that the advice was given solely because it was in your best interest? Also, most mutual funds have trailing fees build in, which are effectively sales commissions that go back to financial planners who sell them. The majority of mutual funds presented to clients of financial planners have MER (management expense ratios) of between 1.5% – 3.0%, with the majority (in my […]

I first started investing in the stock markets around 2000. Since then, I’ve had front row seats to at least two big market corrections. During the first, I was working out at JDS Uniphase in Ottawa, Ontario. If that name sounds familiar, you probably heard about us on the news — in 2001, JDS Uniphase wrote-off the largest amount of goodwill in history, a staggering $45 billion dollars. When I showed up for work that day, news trucks were lined up all down the block, and employees were being constantly questioned as they tried to get into the building. We watched all the interviews take place from a small corner meeting room on the 4th floor, wondering what all of our fates would be. While most of my friends were nervous, I actually thought the whole thing was rather funny. I remember telling people to look at the bright side […]

I’ve been reading a lot of food/cooking related books lately. No real reason, just haven’t had too much else around to read. I actually stumbled across an 1,100 page culinary manual on the internet a while ago, and have slowly been absorbing it. In addition, I’ve been passively thumbing through various cookbooks I have around the house looking for dishes to try making over the next few months. Last night I made myself a little roasted chicken for thanksgiving and watched a few movies by the fire. After the chicken was done, I decided to make my first chicken stock, thinking I would start making a few more soups over the course of the winter. I made about 8 cups of stock last night, freezing 6 cups in the freezer and leaving 2 cups out for soup today. I decided I would make a broccoli soup this afternoon, something I’ve […]