2 posts tagged “cooking”

I had a productive day yesterday.  Ages ago at lunch with Ginger Sister she mentioned something about people who cook once a month, and they cook up lots of meals and freeze stuff and just pop something in the oven when it’s time to eat.  So before our move to the new house I decided to give that a try.  Mainly because I know that if I didn’t, that we’d spend a fortune grabbing “fast food” just because we’d both be too tired from the moving work that neither of us would want to cook.  We liked it and I learned a lot in the process.  So yesterday was my second go-round.

I started off making six casseroles with potatoes, sausage and green beans.   It can be a nice combination if the sausage is good and the last time we went shopping I found a five pound bag of cooked sausage and so I bought it.  (And no, I didn’t use all 5 pounds in these casseroles.) 

While I was cooking I had the laptop in the kitchen and I figured out the calorie content of each serving as I went along.  That made a tedious job somewhat intellectually interesting.  And it amazes me how the pile of low calorie high nutrition veggies are equal to a cup of some higher calorie food.  It’s really interesting to cook and do the math at the same time!  So I ended up with some meals under 400 calories and some over 600, so I can do a better job of keeping an eye on my weight.

Then I made six quiches and they look lovely.  I buy the deep dish pie shells at Wally’s and then load them up with veggies plus some sausage.  Each one got three eggs and a ½ cup of milk and cheese on top.  Surprisingly with all that good stuff in there, it’s still a good meal and not nearly as many calories as you’d think.

Then I made six veggie casseroles with a bit of ham for flavor and some tofu to bring up the protein.  I baked them for an hour and that was that.

Then I baked four pork loin roasts and they turned out beautifully and they make the house smell wonderful.  I wonder if that makes my dogs hungry to smell such good things?

Hubby got home just in time to skin two packs of chicken thighs.  So after he did that and popped them in the baking pans I dressed them up with a variety of marinade/flavors from teriyaki to lemon pepper to the last of the honey mustard dressing.  We had the honey mustard ones for dinner and they were yummy!  Those turned into eight pans in the oven, four to a rack and maybe that even saves some energy to cook that much food at one time.  Maybe I lose when I reheat them later, I don’t know.

I made two huge pots of rice, one a Mexican style and the other with a combination was more of a fried rice with some interesting spices plus some pineapple juice that made it taste “sweet and sour” and it turned out pretty good in my opinion. 

Then I packaged up pork loin or chicken thighs with rice and veggie casserole, some in individual servings and some in doubles for when hubby is home.  I counted and it looks like I made 80 meals.  I’m pretty impressed with myself and who knows if it will last me a month or not but I can spend a day making some other kinds of things for a little more variety later on.

I don’t use recipes, so this kind of thing is really an experiment.  And in these kinds of quantities, we’re up a creek if I make something we hate or something that doesn’t survive the freezer.  LOL!  That hasn't happened - YET.  I spent some time on the internet doing research and it looks like some of the good folks who use this method are making primarily meat and potato dishes and a heck of a lot of cream, sour cream and cheese which doesn’t seem all that balanced to me.  I was amazed at the lack of veggies or anything green, but maybe those people are adding a green salad to the meal they are reheating.  But why make food ahead if you still have to make the salad?  That just doesn’t make sense to me but maybe it would if I had fourteen children.  So anyway, I wanted to make sure the meals I was making were healthy and balanced.  When we cook in a hurry we don’t choose a healthy diet and so I have been intentional in my food choices when shopping for this kind of cooking.

When we first started to go to the church we currently attend, the word got out that hubby does most of the cooking.  At the time that was a convenience issue.  As a school teacher he got home long before I did and sometimes I’d be home quite late from the gallery and if the man wanted to eat, he was going to have to make something.  The ladies at the church would talk to me about recipes and stuff and though I understood that they were just trying to make conversation, that just wasn’t my life.  As a business owner I didn’t have time for trying new recipes and entertaining.  It was interesting to notice that their assumption was that my husband cooks because I can’t.  We may be a little outside the box but it would be a mistake to think that I can’t cook.  I can.  I prepared the meals in my family from before I hit my teens, I’ve had years of practice cooking for a family and when I prepare a meal for guests, it gets good reviews.  I still remember one sweet lil church lady suggesting that maybe someone should get me cooking lessons for Christmas.  What a strange assumption!  So wrong on so many levels.  I’m self taught at a lot of things, and if I got “lessons” for Christmas, please let it be something I can use!  (Like dance or metal-smithing or hot glass.)  I’m actually pretty good at creating a delicious, attractive and healthy meal.  And then I put in my facebook status that I was spending the day cooking.  And another woman from church made a comment about that being a sign of the apocalypse.  There it is again.  What’s up with that?  Yes, I cook.  No, I doubt that it will cause the end of the world.  Yet. 

I just had to sit and think about it and decide that I have nothing to prove to these people.  Anyone can tell by looking at us that we are NOT starving.  And though it may be a high priority in some circles for me to stay home, try recipes and take care of my husband… well… that’s just not my life.  And who knows, it may never be.  And before anyone decides to be sad for my husband, he is a capable man who is actually a good cook in his own right.  And his life would be much less dimensional if I deprived him of this creative outlet where he can make the things he likes best.  Society’s roles just don’t work for me, and much less when sweet little church ladies seem to suggest (not with their words but with their expectations) that somehow God is wrapped up in these social gender based role issues.  Honestly, I’d just like to create a new “normal” where women and men both get to do the things they are good or choose to do - regardless of gender.  But look at me, I’ve left blogging and gone on to preaching.  Oh wait, a woman preaching?  All together now:  <GASP!!!>       

Fresh Garden Salsa Recipe

I consider making salsa more of an art than an exact science so if you are looking for a recipe with a cup of this or two cups of that – well – this isn’t it.  I choose things to go in based on color and texture… and (oh yeah!) flavor.  This is a good two person project, and it really takes a while to cut and cook the ingredients, so convince someone to help you and give salsa artistry a whirl.  And pick up a bag of chips while you're out, you're going to want them!

First things first:

Peel and cube garden tomatoes.  Quantity is determined at my house by how many tomatoes are ripe in the garden.  Put them in a large kettle and bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer, stirring often.  It will have lots of chunks and be pretty watery to start with but as they cook they will become a darker red and thicken up considerably.

Garlic and Heat

Jalapeño peppers – cut off the stem.

Garlic Cloves - peel

Be careful handling jalapenos, any cut part of this pepper will burn your skin, especially sensitive areas of skin.  I whack off the stem end and toss them straight into the blender and rinse my knife and cutting board afterward.  Combine the peeled cloves and peppers in the blender.  I use a simple formula to know how much of each:  One pepper equals one large garlic clove.  So far that’s worked well for me.  Add some liquid from the cooking tomatoes and puree this mixture, careful to fully seal the lid on the blender.  Do not touch this mixture.  Put this mixture in a sauce pan and bring it to boil then turn to simmer.  Some of the heat of the pepper will burn off as it cooks so be careful not to inhale this steam too closely.  Use the hood fan to ventilate but this mixture is fragrant and will make the whole kitchen smell divine!  Be careful as you wash the blender and DO NOT TASTE TEST this mixture – it will cause you pain!

The Chunks

I cook each item on the list separately then combine them in a large stainless steel bowl.  Here are the things that I included in my last batch:

• 2 Green bell peppers – remove seeds, stem and membranes and cube.
• A variety of spicy and sweet peppers from the garden – next year I will not plant these, they just weren’t that great.  Remove seeds, stem and membranes and cube.
• 2 Yellow bell peppers – remove seeds, stem and membranes and cube
• 4 – 5 small Onions – red ones, white ones, whatever color you like.  Cube.
• 1 large Zucchini.  For real!  I cut out the seed section and carefully cube the vegetable leaving the skin on.  I cube these fairly fine.  I used them as an experiment because we have so many right now and have gotten tired of eating them but they are very nutritious.  They turned out to be an excellent addition!
• 2 cans pineapple tidbits in their own juice.  (No heavy syrup)  Drained.  This adds just a bit of sweet to the heat, and it is sooooo good!  I’ve also had salsa with mango in it – that’s really good also.
• 2 large bunches of fresh Cilantro.  Pick out the icky looking leaves and carefully wash and drain.  Cut with kitchen sheers.  This is a heat that hits you mostly in the sinuses and is very yummy in my opinion.

Cut each ingredient and lightly sauté each vegetable with ½ cup of liquid from the simmering tomatoes.  (Don't cook the pineapple or cilantro.)  I separate them because different ingredients require different cooking times.  Vegetables should be underdone because the canning process will finish the cooking.  Remove to a large stainless steal bowl.  If I am making a lot I will use a carefully sterilized 5 gallon bucket.  Stir the bowl of cooked chunky stuff and see what seems to be missing.  Tweak the colors and textures of the mix by cutting and cooking whatever needs to be added.  Drain canned pineapple tidbits and stir them in.  Add the cilantro and stir in.

Putting Together the Salsa

Add the pepper and garlic mixture into the chunks and stir thoroughly.  Add the tomato mixture and stir thoroughly.  If it doesn’t seem thick enough to you, then stir in some canned tomato paste.  Some people also add sugar but I think the pineapple is just the right amount of sweet for the heat, so I don’t.  Break out the chips and taste test the salsa.  Be careful because it can be both temperature hot and spicy hot.  Check it for pepper and garlic flavor especially, and if it needs more of one, carefully blend and cook the addition and stir it in.  Keep in mind that the peppers seem to intensify a bit as the salsa sits, so don’t over do it on the heat.  If you’ll be giving the salsa as gifts then consider keeping it rather mild. 

Canning

Fill pint jars with this mixture and seal the cans using the instructions on your pressure cooker.  Add some chili pepper fabric to the jar lid, tie with ribbon and give to your friends with a bag of those tortilla chips that are shaped like little bowls.  Yummmmm!  Who wouldn't love to get that as a gift?! 

If you give it a whirl, let me know how it goes.

Chow