Scratch
We've turned most Sunday afternoons into a bake-fest for Johnna and Grandma. Time permitting, I'm usually able to cook the main course for the week's meals. Everything baked/cooked on these cooking days is from scratch.
Baking accomplishments for the day: 1 large crusty French bread loaf, 1 skillet of cornbread, 1 very, very moist, melt-in-the mouth banana-nut bread, and the starter for this week's sour dough bread.
Miss J also helped mix and shape her first batch of hamburger patties. (Which, are seasoned so richly as to make it a crime to put them on hamburger buns!) Meanwhile, I threw together a spicy chili, a bone-warming beef, vegetable and barley soup, butter beans, cabbage, Spanish rice, and a tongue tingling steak simmered and seasoned with a chipolte sauce for burritos. We'll be eating good this week.
It makes me a little sad to know so many families buy most of their meals already prepared. Rarely, we'll buy something prepackaged and frozen for a quick meal, and the flavour is always such a let down. We still use spaghetti sauce from a jar. I don't like the "common" stuff (Prego, Ragu, etc) so our spaghetti dinners aren't a cheap meal. Very soon, I'll begin canning our own sauce, fashioning a more authentic Italian receipe, or at least comparable to the better commercial brands. After we buy the KitchenAid I also plan to make our own pastas fresh. Johnna will get a real kick assuming this chore. Salsa is also a very easy recipe that readily lends itself to canning.
It's amazing how much money we save by baking our own breads and cooking large batches of soups and chilis for freezing, and when we get to it again, canning sauces. For a small investment in time, we pay only pennies on the dollar. And as for the time invested, I can't think of a better gift than to share that time with a child teaching them to cook. Will home cooking become a lost art for the next generation and beyond?
We don't do exotic here. Just down home food that brings comfort and tastes wonderful.
Week's Menu
Monday: Steak burritos, sliced advocado and lettuce salad, Spanish rice and refried beans
Tuesday: Beef & vegetable soup with hot-out-of-the-oven sourdough bread
Wednesday: Baked chicken, home fries, boiled cabbage, butter beans, French bread
Thursday: Chili and cornbread
Friday: Dinner at Christmas party we're attending
Saturday: Hamburgers
Baking accomplishments for the day: 1 large crusty French bread loaf, 1 skillet of cornbread, 1 very, very moist, melt-in-the mouth banana-nut bread, and the starter for this week's sour dough bread.
Miss J also helped mix and shape her first batch of hamburger patties. (Which, are seasoned so richly as to make it a crime to put them on hamburger buns!) Meanwhile, I threw together a spicy chili, a bone-warming beef, vegetable and barley soup, butter beans, cabbage, Spanish rice, and a tongue tingling steak simmered and seasoned with a chipolte sauce for burritos. We'll be eating good this week.
It makes me a little sad to know so many families buy most of their meals already prepared. Rarely, we'll buy something prepackaged and frozen for a quick meal, and the flavour is always such a let down. We still use spaghetti sauce from a jar. I don't like the "common" stuff (Prego, Ragu, etc) so our spaghetti dinners aren't a cheap meal. Very soon, I'll begin canning our own sauce, fashioning a more authentic Italian receipe, or at least comparable to the better commercial brands. After we buy the KitchenAid I also plan to make our own pastas fresh. Johnna will get a real kick assuming this chore. Salsa is also a very easy recipe that readily lends itself to canning.
It's amazing how much money we save by baking our own breads and cooking large batches of soups and chilis for freezing, and when we get to it again, canning sauces. For a small investment in time, we pay only pennies on the dollar. And as for the time invested, I can't think of a better gift than to share that time with a child teaching them to cook. Will home cooking become a lost art for the next generation and beyond?
We don't do exotic here. Just down home food that brings comfort and tastes wonderful.
Week's Menu
Monday: Steak burritos, sliced advocado and lettuce salad, Spanish rice and refried beans
Tuesday: Beef & vegetable soup with hot-out-of-the-oven sourdough bread
Wednesday: Baked chicken, home fries, boiled cabbage, butter beans, French bread
Thursday: Chili and cornbread
Friday: Dinner at Christmas party we're attending
Saturday: Hamburgers