Giving Freezer Cooking a Try

First of all, I want to apologize that the picture is not of all the freezer food I made over the past 4 days. Both my food photography skills and the lighting in my kitchen are atrocious.  So, although I took pictures of everything I made, the pictures did not all turn out well.  The wonderful colors of the foods  have disappeared in most of my pictures and very few are even in focus.  So, I'm showing you the big salad I made, the hot dogs and chicken I grilled, the bread I baked and a spoonful of soup I pulled out of the pot to taste.   Onto freezer cooking…

I've wanted to do if for some time but was afraid - of the amount of time needed, the cost of buying all that food at once, the kitchen being such a disaster that I would run from the house, screaming.  See, I had this idea in my head that Freezer cooking meant cooking all the meals your family would eat for an entire month, all in one setting.  That was the wrong impression I got from all the articles and books out there from people who spend time, one day a month, freezer cooking.  I equated "freezer cooking once a month" to "cooking everything my family will eat for the next 30 days".  It's not so.  Phew!

I decided to start small on Thursday but it wasn't small enough for this scatterbrain, because I didn't cook everything I thought I would.  I didn't get upset, though, and did a little more on Friday.  I did well, so I did some more Saturday and today, too.  Although I don't have every meal, not even every dinner, my family will eat this week, I have some meals and a some meal elements in my freezer that I can go to on those days when life gets away from me.  Those days when I didn't plan ahead or I just don't feel like cooking.  I enjoyed it because I took baby steps and I'd like to do this regularly to keep my head above water in the kitchen.

BABY STEP #1: Doubling Up.  I made Salisbury Steak, mashed potatoes and roasted green beans for dinner on Thursday.  While I had the ingredients out and my hands were in raw meat, I decided to make enough steak for two dinners.  Just the Salisbury Steak, mind you, I didn't make extra potatoes nor green beans.  But the protein is always the hardest part of meal planning, for me; throwing sides together are easy.  So the extra portion of Salisbury Steak is in the freezer.

On Friday, I decided to make a fake-lasagna bake for lunch, so I doubled the recipe.  I dislike making lasagna.  The noodles are a pain to cook, they peel apart while I'm trying to put the lasagna together and all the layering is messy.  So now I just heat all the lasagna ingredients in a skillet, along with whatever shaped pasta I have on hand (B's fav is Rotini), pour into a baking dish, top with some more cheese and bake until the top gets some color on it.  The extra one went into a baking dish and received cheese on top, but went to the freezer before baking.

My New Favorite Breads Are From Wegmans

At the beginning of this month, we went on a field trip to Wegmans grocery store with some other homeschool families.  It was their Eat Well, Live Well 4th Grade Tour, but we included 3rd through 5th graders.  We had a great time, learned new things with hands-on activities and ate food - best kind of field trip in my book! We sampled foods from the bakery, produce department and cheese shop.  Unfortunately, there were no samples in the fresh meat & seafood department.  :o(

Two items we sampled in the bakery were so good, I've been buying them.  They are the Marathon Energy Loaf (pictured on the left) and the 5 Grain 4 Seed Multigrain Bread (pictured on the right).  All of us moms who bake our own bread were so jealous that the multigrain bread was moist and not as dense as the loaves we have baked.  They weren't giving up the secret, though.  The marathon bread has both fruit and vegetable, in addition to all the seeds.  YUM-O!  I've had them toasted, buttered, cream cheesed and around a delicious BLT.  If you have a Wegmans in your area, give it a try!

"Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

I checked this book out of the library because I've tried to make bread at home before and failed.  Well, "failed" might be the wrong word.  It was a long, arduous, involved process and then I could not get the loaves of bread out of the pan.  Even when I've used a bread maker, the crust is so hard and thick if cooked in the bread maker and if I cooked it in the oven, once again, I could not get the loaf out of the pan without destroying it.  So I gave up.  Then I saw this book title and decided to give it a try.  I was doubtful of the "Five Minutes a Day" part.

Well, I'm happy to say that I can make bread now, it does not take a lot of time and it turns out pretty darn well!  Just take a look at the loaves I've made in the last week and a half...

My two favorite parts of making bread this way - I use my Kitchen-Aid mixer to make the dough and there is no kneading!  You can mix the dough in a bowl with a wooden spoon, too, so don't think you need a mixer.  I am just happy to have an excuse to use that dough hook on my Kitchen-Aid.  ;o)  The dough is wetter than most standard bread dough.  I mix up a batch that makes 4, 1-lb loaves, put the dough in a food-grade bucket with a non-airtight lid, let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours then store it in the fridge for up to 14 days!  When I'm ready to make bread, I pull off a loaf's worth with floured hands, stretch the dough out and fold it under itself for 30 - 60 seconds to make a nice ball and let it rest for 40 minutes on the counter.

Now, the book says to let the dough rest on a cornmeal-laced pizza peal.  I do not have a pizza peal.  I used parchment paper for the 1st 3 loaves and then ran out (I did not have much) and have been using the underside of a paper plate since then.

After 20 minutes of the 40 minutes of rest have gone by, the book says to turn your oven on to 450.  At the end of the 40 minutes, you put the bread in the oven and your oven is not supposed to be up to that temp yet.  My convection oven got to 450 in 11 minutes and the 1st loaf I made did not rise much.  Plus it tasted strongly of sourdough.  So the 2nd and all other loaves, I've baked in the non-convection oven and turned it on with only 10 minutes left of the 40 minutes to ensure it is not up to 450 before I put in the loaf.

When you turn the oven on, you are to place a pizza stone on the middle rack and a baking sheet on another rack.  When you put the dough in the oven on the pizza stone, you also pour 1 cup of hot tap water onto the baking sheet to create steam.  30 minutes later, I have a wonderful loaf of freshly baked bread!  These are small loaves and we've been going through 1/2 - 3/4 of a loaf with dinner (and some after dinner snacking).  Tonight I am going to use the half a loaf left over form last night and the leftover heels from a couple of other loaves, to make French toast.  We're having a breakfast dinner.  I bet this bread would make great croutons and bread pudding.

All I've made so far is The Master Recipe.  However, the book is full of recipes, some variations you can make on The Master Recipe (i.e. baguette, ciabatta, herb or cheese, etc.) plus plenty other loaves, pizzas and pastries (i.e. olive, rye, pumpernickel, pizza, calzone, challah, pecan caramel rolls, etc.).  On my list to try is rye, pumpernickel, herb and cheddar.

If you like to bake your own bread, have been wanting to try your hand at it or, like me, have tried before and failed, I highly recommend you checking this book out and giving it a try!

Leftover Wednesday - Steak Soup

Once again, I found myself with leftover steak this week.  I also had leftover baked potatoes, but they got eaten by someone around here.  I didn't even get to make any breakfast hash with the leftovers.  So, I made Steak Soup for dinner.  Soups are a great way to use up leftovers; I'm a big fan.  I use Simple Comfort Food's Steak and Potato Soup recipe as my base but, as usual, I make modifications.  That's the beauty of cooking - it's an art - and art is subjective.  So we can change anything to our tastes, dietary needs and what's on hand.

SCF's recipe calls for adding the onion and garlic to a hot pan at the same time.  I rarely add garlic to a pan first.  It burns quickly; the smell is unpleasant and the taste will negatively effect your dish.  I'm allergic to olive oil, so I heated half butter, half Wegmans Basting Oil over medium heat and sautéd a whole Walla Walla Sweet onion, diced.  (So excited that the shipment of Walla Wallas arrived from my aunt in Washington!)

While my onions softened in the pan, I scrubbed and chopped the last of the carrots in the house (they were on their last legs so I was glad to use them up).  Because we buy organic carrots, I don't peel them.  A good scrubbing is all they need and you get more good-for-you parts in your food.

While the carrots and onions were enjoying themselves in the pan, I peeled and chopped 3 good-sized white potatoes ($1.99/5# bag, that's why I had white potatoes on hand).  I usually don't peel potatoes, but decided to do it tonight because B does not like the peels and I did not feel like hearing about it.  I threw the potatoes in the pot and put the garlic on top of them.  There is now plenty of cushion between the garlic and the bottom of the pan to save it from burning.

The hubs' tummy is sensitive to cooked tomato products so I don't add the 1/2 cup tomato sauce called for in the original recipe.  Below, you'll see my squirt of tomato paste.  I stirred that in and let it caramelize for a minute to add depth and flava!

Below, I've already stirred in salt, pepper and worcestershire sauce.  The author of the original recipe is so right about the worcestershire - it is key to the flavor.

Added in my diced up leftover steak and stirred...

...then added beef stock and brought it to a boil.  I did not add in the full 4 cups of stock, probably 3 or slightly more than 3, just enough to cover everything in the pot.  Since it cooks for a while with the lid on, more liquid will be created.

Yummy Steak Soup served up with fresh, homemade bread; it doesn't get any better than that!

Oh, yes, it does - I had enough for a freezer bag full of leftovers.  :oD

Leftover Wednesday - Breakfast Dinner

I know, I know; it's Saturday.  I'm sorry I was unable to get this post up Wednesday night.  B was preparing to take his brown belt test in Tae Kwon Do today (which he passed) and B and I were finishing up his end of year test because our state requires proof of progress from homeschoolers each Summer.  But I did use up some leftovers to make a great Breakfast-Dinner (that's what we call it when we have breakfast foods for dinner).

Last Saturday we went to a local farmer's market and the hubs bought a loaf of cinnamon apple bread because it, "...smells so gooooood!"  By Wednesday, the loaf was still sitting on the counter, unwrapped.  The cinnamon sugar covering the outside of the bread was starting to liquify.  So I sliced it up and made fabulous French toast with it.  I also made my favorite chiffonade (cut into ribbons) of ham luncheon meat that was at it's use-or-lose date and half an orange I found in the fridge.

Look at the swirling cinnamon in this slice...

...and the chunks of apple in this one!

The bread was so filling, none of us could eat more than 1 slice.  So I cut up the rest of the loaf, wrapped each slice in plastic wrap and then put 3 slices each into 2 freezer bags.  Now the bread won't go to waste, and I can pull it out the next time I was to make a hearty, filling French toast, regular toast with butter or maybe a bread pudding.  Will have to look into that last suggestion...

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Recipes: Baked Potato and Sausage Soup with Beer Biscuits

The soup is a dump recipe I made up a couple of years ago as the result of a craving.

Baked Potato & Sausage Soup

2 baking potatoes, baked and cooled 

8oz smoked sausage, sliced 1/2" thick and then quartered 

1/2 tbsp butter 

1/2 a small onion, diced 

2 tbsp flour 

3 cups milk or chicken stock

3/4 cup frozen corn, rinse to thaw

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Fresh ground pepper, salt and onion powder, to taste 

Cook sausage in dutch oven until brown; remove. Add onion to same pot and cook in sausage fat until soft. Add butter if needed in order to cook onions. While they are cooking, cut cooled baked potatoes up and mash with a fork. Once onions are cooked, sprinkle with flour, stir to coat and cook for a few minutes to cook off the flour taste. Gradually add milk or stock, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.

Continue to stir until mixture thickens, scraping the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add potato, sausage, corn and cheese to mixture and stir until cheese melts and everything is heated through. Add pepper, salt and onion powder and/or whatever other spice to suit your taste.

Do you know Paula Deen?  She ranks right up there with The Pioneer Woman, in my book.  Ben used to think she was really Mrs. Claus and Paula Deen was her alias.  I made her wonderful Beer Biscuits to go with the soup.  I usually half the recipe and bake 6 biscuits when it's just us.  The hubs then eats the leftover biscuits for snacks.

Beer Biscuits

4 cup Bisquick 

1/2 cup sugar 

1 12-ounce can of beer 

2 tablespoon butter, melted 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all ingredients well. Pour into well-greased muffin tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with honey butter. Makes 12 - 16 biscuits. 

Honey butter: mix room temperature butter with honey in a 3:1 or 2:1 ratio, depending on your taste.