Cooking Day!
I love Cooking Day! Lots of meals prepared, portioned, and frozen in one day to last us for weeks. A couple of weeks ago I made Chicken Parmesan and Eggplant Parmesan and put it n the freezer, but this weekend, we really got serious. We cleaned out the refrigerator, restocked our staples and started in on a pretty big list:
Blueberry Muffins - Carl made them for breakfast this morning. YUM!
Sandwich Bread - Carl baked 2 loaves while I was at church and the whole house smelled like warm bread when I got home!
Hummus - We're actually freezing some as an experiment, just to see if it can be done. Did the same thing with some guacamole a while back; we'll be thawing some of it out and trying it soon.
Cheese & Onion Quiche - A really nice all-in-one breakfast item that can also be eaten for lunch. Carl will probably make another one later on for himself that will include sausage and/or bacon (he made this one for me, and he knows I don't eat pork). ;)
Crawfish Etoufee & Rice - Made with langostine tails from Trader Joe's (since Whole Foods stopped carrying crawfish tails and only carries whole crawdads which would be way more trouble to prepare for this dish than it would be worth) using a recipe from the now-defunct Crawdaddy Bayou restaturant, one of our former faves.
Shepherd's Pie - We make ours with bison instead of lamb and we use more wine than the original recipe calls for because it tastes better that way. This is a classic example of divide-and-conquer: Carl made the meat/veg filling and I made the mashed potatoes that got spooned on top (and you thought I could only cook in Café World on Facebook! Ha!).
Cock-a-leekie Soup - We had to do something with the 64 leeks we've got growing out in the garden, one of the few success stories from this year's agricultural foray (there weren't many, given our almost total abandonment of the garden overall). Unfortunately, this dish will have to wait until tomorrow because the 4 pounds of chicken hasn't yet thawed, but at least it's started.
Apple Crisp - Got lots of Michigan apples for this one: MacIntosh and Granny Smith - crisp, tart, and oh so yummy!
Vegetable & Potato Mix - We wanted to make a mix to freeze in portions to serve as a quick side dish: small red potatoes, carrots, peppers and onions. No reason to buy pre-packaged vegetable mixes when we have plenty of fresh local vegetables here that we can prepare ourselves. We just need to make the preparation of those veggie easier and faster to comply with our busy weekday schedule.
Other projects down the line will be a tomatillo salsa, sauerkraut, pickled red cabbage, "Cheesy Pickle Poofs" for the McCarthy's Harvest Party, and lots of canned tomatoes, but for now, I think we've got a pretty good start.
Blueberry Muffins - Carl made them for breakfast this morning. YUM!
Sandwich Bread - Carl baked 2 loaves while I was at church and the whole house smelled like warm bread when I got home!
Hummus - We're actually freezing some as an experiment, just to see if it can be done. Did the same thing with some guacamole a while back; we'll be thawing some of it out and trying it soon.
Cheese & Onion Quiche - A really nice all-in-one breakfast item that can also be eaten for lunch. Carl will probably make another one later on for himself that will include sausage and/or bacon (he made this one for me, and he knows I don't eat pork). ;)
Crawfish Etoufee & Rice - Made with langostine tails from Trader Joe's (since Whole Foods stopped carrying crawfish tails and only carries whole crawdads which would be way more trouble to prepare for this dish than it would be worth) using a recipe from the now-defunct Crawdaddy Bayou restaturant, one of our former faves.
Shepherd's Pie - We make ours with bison instead of lamb and we use more wine than the original recipe calls for because it tastes better that way. This is a classic example of divide-and-conquer: Carl made the meat/veg filling and I made the mashed potatoes that got spooned on top (and you thought I could only cook in Café World on Facebook! Ha!).
Cock-a-leekie Soup - We had to do something with the 64 leeks we've got growing out in the garden, one of the few success stories from this year's agricultural foray (there weren't many, given our almost total abandonment of the garden overall). Unfortunately, this dish will have to wait until tomorrow because the 4 pounds of chicken hasn't yet thawed, but at least it's started.
Apple Crisp - Got lots of Michigan apples for this one: MacIntosh and Granny Smith - crisp, tart, and oh so yummy!
Vegetable & Potato Mix - We wanted to make a mix to freeze in portions to serve as a quick side dish: small red potatoes, carrots, peppers and onions. No reason to buy pre-packaged vegetable mixes when we have plenty of fresh local vegetables here that we can prepare ourselves. We just need to make the preparation of those veggie easier and faster to comply with our busy weekday schedule.
Other projects down the line will be a tomatillo salsa, sauerkraut, pickled red cabbage, "Cheesy Pickle Poofs" for the McCarthy's Harvest Party, and lots of canned tomatoes, but for now, I think we've got a pretty good start.