Sunday, February 9, 2014
Bountiful Basket Saturday
This basket contained granny smith apples, black berries, strawberries, bananas, grapefruit and oranges in the fruit side. The vegetables were romaine lettuce, leeks, asparagus, zucchini, cucumbers, and broccoli.
After spending the afternoon making blackberry syrup with some of the add on and freezing part of them, a big bowl of blackberry cobbler topped with real whipped cream was just the great end of the day!
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Help Wanted, Ideas for Roving Food
I live in a world different from most, it seems. Lets start with the general idea I am looking for. I need what I am calling Grab and Go food. It needs to be basically shelf stable in prepackaged containers, and yet things I can make up myself. No 20 year old Twinkies here. It needs to be as fresh and healthy a food stuff as I can manage in this situation.
Now, specifics on this project. We lead an incredibly busy life. Not making us sound like something different than most, I do offer the opportunity to anyone who wants to come follow us around for a few days.
My husband and I own a fledgling trucking company. Currently we have a staff of the two of us, an office manager and one other driver.
My mother and I are also co owners of another very local trucking company that belonged to her and my dad. I manage it pretty much on my own with the help of 2 part time drivers, my husband as the back up, to the back up driver and my right hand in times of crisis. Now, here comes the issue I have that brings us to my food blog. Its the food....
The nature of both of these companies is that we get a call and drivers leave. For the "regular drivers" this is a somewhat more planned thing but when they are out and another call comes, it is my husband who goes. He has health issues that make me want to try my best to keep him around regardless of his not thinking about this issue much.
I need food that I can premake, say over the weekends, have packaged in the fridge or shelf, that I can grab, stuff in a bag or ice chest and shove in his hand as he walks out the door. There are days that he leaves and is gone for 5 hours.. and other days due to the nature of this business that he doesn't roll back in to home base for 24-48 hours and we really never know the ending answer until he actually drives back in.
He has a nasty tendency to just forget about eating until he is starving and the picks up what ever he sees on the truck stop snack shelves to hold in one hand and drive with the other, or hits the truck stop restaurant. Yeah, that brings its own trouble.
So, hopefully you see my dilemma.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Now, specifics on this project. We lead an incredibly busy life. Not making us sound like something different than most, I do offer the opportunity to anyone who wants to come follow us around for a few days.
My husband and I own a fledgling trucking company. Currently we have a staff of the two of us, an office manager and one other driver.
My mother and I are also co owners of another very local trucking company that belonged to her and my dad. I manage it pretty much on my own with the help of 2 part time drivers, my husband as the back up, to the back up driver and my right hand in times of crisis. Now, here comes the issue I have that brings us to my food blog. Its the food....
The nature of both of these companies is that we get a call and drivers leave. For the "regular drivers" this is a somewhat more planned thing but when they are out and another call comes, it is my husband who goes. He has health issues that make me want to try my best to keep him around regardless of his not thinking about this issue much.
I need food that I can premake, say over the weekends, have packaged in the fridge or shelf, that I can grab, stuff in a bag or ice chest and shove in his hand as he walks out the door. There are days that he leaves and is gone for 5 hours.. and other days due to the nature of this business that he doesn't roll back in to home base for 24-48 hours and we really never know the ending answer until he actually drives back in.
He has a nasty tendency to just forget about eating until he is starving and the picks up what ever he sees on the truck stop snack shelves to hold in one hand and drive with the other, or hits the truck stop restaurant. Yeah, that brings its own trouble.
So, hopefully you see my dilemma.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Sunday Afternoon food prep
Sunday afternoons at my house are either spectacular or horrible.
I love to cook and I love to prep for the coming week any time I can as I work more than 40 hours a week and then people still expect to be fed as well. (No really, I could skate out of a lot of what I do, but I just love to cook)
But which way the story goes on any given week is determined by the condition of my kitchen on any given Saturday Afternoon, when I get home from work. You see, I have other grown men who live in my house, and even sometimes invite friends and then some how feel that MOM should be doing all the cleaning up after them. I disagree.
But you would THINK that after all this time, they would grasp the concept that cleaning up after themselves in the kitchen will in the long run BENEFIT THEM.. greatly.
Last week, the whole house was a wreck so the weekend was spent with me yelling, and crying and threatening, and just generally "loosing it" as I had warned them what to expect if my demands had not been met.
Well, this week, they tried much harder for the most part and I was able to walk in to the dining room and kitchen and be very pleased with the space I saw around me.
You see, my kitchen is really rather small for someone as adventurous as I am. I will at some point add pictures of my kitchen and surroundings to a blog post.
As for today, Oh Men In My Life.. this is what cleaning up when I tell you has brought to you in the present and near future.
RED VELVET CUPCAKES W/CREAM CHEESE FROSTING LARGELY BECAUSE WE TALKED ABOUT THEM THE OTHER DAY AND NOW I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT THEM, BUT MORE BECAUSE MY DEAR FRIEND SUZANNE HAS NEVER HAD ONE, AND WE JUST CANT HAVE THAT
ON THE LEFT IS A BAG OF MANGO SALSA MADE FROM ALL FRESH INGREDIENTS. THIS WILL GO ON SALMON STEAKS LATER THIS WEEK FOR DINNER. ON THE RIGHT IS A BOWL FULL OF MANGO SALSA WITH AVACADO AND SALAD SHRIMP ADDED TO EAT ON CORN CHIPS AS A DIP/SNACK DURING THE FOOTBALL GAMES
4 FULL QUARTS AND MOST OF ANOTHER OF PASTA SAUCE. THIS CONTAINS ALL OF THE ITALIAN VEGETABLE PACK FROM MY LATEST BOUNTIFUL BASKET, YELLOW SQUASH, EGGPLANT, MUSHROOMS, RED ONION, RED BELL PEPPER, PLUS SOME GRAPE TOMATOES THAT HAD SEEN BETTER DAYS BUT WERE STILL GOOD ENOUGH TO COOK, SOME CELERY THE BASIL, OREGANO, AND PARSLEY HUMMMM NOT SURE WHAT ELSE BESIDES THE DICED TOMATOES AND TOMATO SAUCE. The partial jar is going to be Vegetable Lasagana Monday night along with some Garlic bread and a nice salad. THANK YOU FOR THIS IDEA FROM MY DEAR FRIEND AMI!!
I love to cook and I love to prep for the coming week any time I can as I work more than 40 hours a week and then people still expect to be fed as well. (No really, I could skate out of a lot of what I do, but I just love to cook)
But which way the story goes on any given week is determined by the condition of my kitchen on any given Saturday Afternoon, when I get home from work. You see, I have other grown men who live in my house, and even sometimes invite friends and then some how feel that MOM should be doing all the cleaning up after them. I disagree.
But you would THINK that after all this time, they would grasp the concept that cleaning up after themselves in the kitchen will in the long run BENEFIT THEM.. greatly.
Last week, the whole house was a wreck so the weekend was spent with me yelling, and crying and threatening, and just generally "loosing it" as I had warned them what to expect if my demands had not been met.
Well, this week, they tried much harder for the most part and I was able to walk in to the dining room and kitchen and be very pleased with the space I saw around me.
You see, my kitchen is really rather small for someone as adventurous as I am. I will at some point add pictures of my kitchen and surroundings to a blog post.
As for today, Oh Men In My Life.. this is what cleaning up when I tell you has brought to you in the present and near future.
RED VELVET CUPCAKES W/CREAM CHEESE FROSTING LARGELY BECAUSE WE TALKED ABOUT THEM THE OTHER DAY AND NOW I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT THEM, BUT MORE BECAUSE MY DEAR FRIEND SUZANNE HAS NEVER HAD ONE, AND WE JUST CANT HAVE THAT
3 BUNDLES OF KALE BAKED INTO KALE CHIPS WITH A LITTLE ORGANIC OLIVE OIL AND SOME SEA SALT. I ALSO ADDED A LITTLE PEPPER FLAKES AND SOME CURRY POWDER TO SOME OF THEM AND A LITTLE GARLIC SALT TO SOME OTHERS. YUM YUM YUM. I AM ADDICTED TO THE STUPID THINGS NOW, THANK YOU MY DEAR FRIEND JENNIFER 4 FULL QUARTS AND MOST OF ANOTHER OF PASTA SAUCE. THIS CONTAINS ALL OF THE ITALIAN VEGETABLE PACK FROM MY LATEST BOUNTIFUL BASKET, YELLOW SQUASH, EGGPLANT, MUSHROOMS, RED ONION, RED BELL PEPPER, PLUS SOME GRAPE TOMATOES THAT HAD SEEN BETTER DAYS BUT WERE STILL GOOD ENOUGH TO COOK, SOME CELERY THE BASIL, OREGANO, AND PARSLEY HUMMMM NOT SURE WHAT ELSE BESIDES THE DICED TOMATOES AND TOMATO SAUCE. The partial jar is going to be Vegetable Lasagana Monday night along with some Garlic bread and a nice salad. THANK YOU FOR THIS IDEA FROM MY DEAR FRIEND AMI!!
Saturday, January 11, 2014
January Bountiful Basket
Today I picked up the first bountiful basket I have gotten in on since the beginning of November.
Tomorrow I will decide what I am cooking, saving and preserving. There are two mangos in there and if I make a small run to the grocery store for jalapenos I can make some more mango salsa. I have found I really LOVE that stuff and since we have a freezer full of fish to top, I am excited!
More to come!!!!!!
Tomorrow I will decide what I am cooking, saving and preserving. There are two mangos in there and if I make a small run to the grocery store for jalapenos I can make some more mango salsa. I have found I really LOVE that stuff and since we have a freezer full of fish to top, I am excited!
More to come!!!!!!
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Dining During the Depression
This is a cook book I have had for a number of years. I bought it while on a fact finding mission to Tennessee. I have scanned through it a few times but never really took it seriously. I believe now is the time to experiment with it.
The inside cover says: Strong family ties, hard work and good old fashioned cooking sustained folks through the 1930's. these are the recipes and precious memories of those who lived through the Great Depression.
It was published by a company called Reminisce Books. I have the address if anyone is interested in purchasing a copy if they are still available.
It contains your basic chapters, and introduction, a chapter on Vegetables and Salads, A chapter on soups, one on Breads and Biscuits. The next chapter is the one that interests me most at the moment called This and That. The food budget was tight, but cooks of the day found was to make filling fare out of some unusual ingredients!
The next chapter is Casseroles, then Meat Dishes, the best loved one Desserts followed by Canned foods and lastly Cherished Family Favorites ( a place to add and preserve my OWN families tried and true recipes from the depression era.
Spiced through out the book are stories from those who have come before me about life during this time. The stories may be even more interesting to me than the recipes as I am a people watcher, even if it is from generations bygone.
I am finding it interesting to see things that were "staples" and "just what was around" that are going to be much more difficult for me to acquire in my day and age.
From the chapter on This and That however, I plan to immediately try the Candied Cranberries recipe as I have a bag of fresh cranberries in my fridge that I don't want to go to waste but have no idea what I want to do with them.
There is a recipe for Lemon Crackers that sounds good as well however Im not sure what baking ammonia is. Could it be baking powder? Anyone know?
To my friend who is going to teach me to can V-8 style juices, There is a recipe for Tomato gravy using a quart of tomato juice in the ingredients... Interested in the rest?
There is a recipe for making your very own grapenuts.... can you imagine?
I cant wait to try a drink called Switchel and can you imagine something called Irish Potato Candy?
It uses yes, an Irish potato, confectioner's sugar, peanut butter, chopped nuts and red and green cherries.
There are a few more recipes in that chapter that seem pretty ordinary to me. Cinnamon Pancakes, Homemade noodles with Peas, Cornmeal mush, Buckwheat Cakes, Scrapple.
I have to do an inventory of my kitchen and freezers to see which way to go first, and I want to try to include some nutritional information with at least part of these if I can figure out how as we really do want to get healthier with our eating this year as well. This will mean that many of the recipes in this book that are Deep Fried, will have to be sparsely used, but that won't mean we CAN'T.
I REALLY cant wait to get started. Feeding people is one of the most important things in my life. I love the looks on the faces of happily, full people.
Eat Whats In the House Challenge
I have decided that I waste way too much food.
To give just a small amount of back ground into the thoughts in my head. I generally cook dinner at least 4 nights a week at my mothers house. The rest of the time I cook meals at my own house, we eat out or we just don't eat. So, I end up wasting a great deal of food for which I regret.
At the moment, I have a kitchen with various amounts of food items in it and not one but two freezers. My mother has a freezer full of things we need to clean out, eat what we can and get rid of the rest, not to mention the packaged food and staples at her house. I have no idea yet how I am going to achieve the plan, but my plan is to see just how long I can go with making creative meals for my family with what I have. I plan to have to purchase milk, maybe bread and some cheeses through out the time, but other than that, I can not think of what I might HAVE to purchase. Daily, or so updates to follow.
Any encouraging words and ideas would be very welcome!! OR if you want to join my challenge, jump in and we can encourage each other.
To give just a small amount of back ground into the thoughts in my head. I generally cook dinner at least 4 nights a week at my mothers house. The rest of the time I cook meals at my own house, we eat out or we just don't eat. So, I end up wasting a great deal of food for which I regret.
At the moment, I have a kitchen with various amounts of food items in it and not one but two freezers. My mother has a freezer full of things we need to clean out, eat what we can and get rid of the rest, not to mention the packaged food and staples at her house. I have no idea yet how I am going to achieve the plan, but my plan is to see just how long I can go with making creative meals for my family with what I have. I plan to have to purchase milk, maybe bread and some cheeses through out the time, but other than that, I can not think of what I might HAVE to purchase. Daily, or so updates to follow.
Any encouraging words and ideas would be very welcome!! OR if you want to join my challenge, jump in and we can encourage each other.
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