Sunday, April 13, 2008

I'm so proud of myself

My family was all out of the house yesterday so I decided it would be the perfect day to do a big batch of freezer cooking. I made fourteen quiches in six different flavors, a big batch of hamburger that I turned in to sloppy joes, taco meat, and then bagged some up plain, a huge batch of BBQ pork, and I roasted my own garlic. Plus, when I did the hamburger, instead of cooking it in a frying pan like I normally would, I boiled it. It sounds kinda gross, but it worked out really well. The best part about it is that now I have a pot of great beef broth. I took a few pictures that I'll post later. Oh, and I almost forgot-this isn't freezer cooking, but I also dehydrated strawberries and made dehydrated yogurt drops. Today after church I think I'm going to do more. I'm trying to incorporate beans into our diet because they're so good for you and they're cheap, but I don't like the ones from the can. Even after I rinse them off they're still too salty and I don't like the texture. Instead I like to soak and cook dry beans, and then stick them in the freezer for later. I'm going to do lentils, black beans, great northern, anasazi (My personal favorite. If you've never had this kind, you have to try them. I've only been able to find them in the bulk bins at the health food store, though.) and black-eyed peas. I'm also going to dry celery, sweet potatoes and more yogurt, and I have a ton of chicken to stick in the crockpots, plus I'm going to make up a bunch of wontons to stick in the freezer. I also want to try making a sourdough starter. I love sourdough bread (the more sour, the better), and I've got all this yummy roasted garlic that would taste great on it. I think it takes three or four days before it's ready to use though. So anyway . . . that's what I'm doing all weekend. If you can't tell, I LOVE to cook. I'm not so much into baking though. I don't like to use recipes, or if I do, I like to change them, and I don't feel like I can do that very much with baking. You can change the extras in cookies, but you still have to have that basic cookie recipe, and I'm too scared to play around with that. If I have extra time tonight I might possibly do some pumpkin bread and cookie dough. My brother likes to microwave chunks of frozen cookie dough, one blob at a time, so it'll be nice for him to have more flavors than just chocolate chip. I might be too tired though. I'll let you know how it all goes, and I'll try to post some pics of my adventures.

5 comments:

Traci said...

Holy Holy Holy. Do you have space in a freezer for all that?! WOW! That is a LOT of cooking. You won't need to cook for what - a year?! ;) Wow. So, mabye the next time you're in Vegas, you should do all that freezer cooking for me? No, nevermind...cuz then I'll never have an excuse to go out to eat, and I can't give up my restaurants. High Fives to you - you are one amazing woman for sure.

Rebecca said...

Way to go with all the cooking, Kim. Have you ever tried jam making? It can take an entire day. I bet it would be right up your alley. Except you can't experiment with it as much . . .

Kim said...

Traci-we actually have two full-size freezers in the garage. My parents have one, and then when I moved back I brought my own.

Becca-I've only ever done freezer jam. I really want to learn how to can/bottle though. I'll bet I could play with different flavor combinations. That could be fun!

Wendy said...

ummmm why didn't you call me, i would have totally played cooking with you. remember our television show, cookin' cousins...

Kim said...

I didn't know if you were still interested. I'll let you know next time I'm doing more but if you're going to come you have to be willing to pretend like we're on tv. Cookin' Cousins . . . those were the days!