BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style

Subject: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 11:23 AM

In the Robert Parker Spenser novels, busy detective hero Spenser is always looking in his fridge and kitchen cabinets, finding a few apparently-unrelated items, and whizzing up a masterpiece of creative culinary art on the spot for his foxy girlfriend.

At the Greek restaurant we frequent, kitchen goddess Sophie has a LONG menu: page-after-page specialties available ANY time. She does it by having the main ingredients, precooked and unspiced, stowed in the freezer. Dinner at Sophie's restauarant involves hearing the whirring of the microwave as she thaws and then takes these items to the stovetop, adding her unique blends of spices, all-day-simmering sauces, and Greek appetizer items made up early each morning. When she grinningly brings the platter out, the sensible thing to do would be to fall down in worship. But it's too crowded in her tiny space, so the next best thing is to dig in and make appreciative, loud noises she can hear back behind the counter as she assembles the next blessing.


Sophie and Spenser have in common that they can do it all-- a variety of authentic cuisines as well as nouveau, one-of-a-kind, fusion dishes. Between us, Hardi and I have similar leanings, if not the same degree of culinary skill.

So-- in the lower of our double ovens, at the moment, I am roasting about 15 pounds of chicken parts and about 4 pounds of thin-sliced pork. These will be wrapped in various-size packages for the freezer, to become the basis for whatever we're in the mood for on any given day. The pork usually gets slathered in barbecuse sauce and frozen in thin foil packets, later to be slow-cooked in the oven on a cookie sheet, right in the foil, on hockey nights. It won't even need pre-thawing. The chicken will be frozen on the bone and, later, deboned and sauced for all manner of dishes. Later today, Italian-sausage and beef will be food-processed into meatloaf, baked, cooled, sliced, and frozen in small packages. (The Thanksgiving turkey, rather plain in its gravy, is already in there.)

Dinner for one, lunch for two, huge dinner for drop-ins-- it's all going to be there, waiting. Along with some uncooked packages of beef and liver that will thaw fast and go on the grill or stovetop for variety. There are also a dozen muffin-cup-sized packs of refried beans with pulled pork; cornbread in single-serving wax-paper wraps; and two or three big old hambones to crockpot with beans from the pantry.

In two weeks, whatever is on sale in the meat department will be added to the ever-changing rotation. (If you've been here for a pre/post-Getaway Gathering or a weekend Gathering, this is where your arrival-night crockpot came from.)



THANK YOU, Sophie and Spenser, for your great tricks! Just one fragrant day out of every two weeks keeps it all going all winter!


What are your tricks, Mudcatters?


~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 12:18 PM

... and a quart of stock and chicken fat to be separated and stored. It's tie to reboil the Thanksgiving turkey stock, too, and I think I will just add it all together with the next pile of onion ends, and freeze it in Ziplocs after Hardi reduces it.

Mmmm! It's a 3-pound meatloaf. The food processor holds a pound plus fillers/spices, so I laid out 3 little bowls for making up the filler portions, cut the meats into 1-pound pieeces, and whizzed away with minimal fuss, measuring, and mess. Sammiches and hot meals coming!

I love winter cooking!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 12:21 PM

time

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: jeffp
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 03:11 PM

When I fire up the grill, I will cook 1-2 pounds of burgers, a package of hot dogs and 1 or 2 packages of kielbasa or beef smoked sausage. Whatever was not part of the meal goes into the freezer for work lunches, quick dinners, etc. A while back I fired up the smoker to do some pulled pork for a friend for a Veteran's Day celebration. I had room, so I threw 3 racks of baby back ribs in there too. They only needed 4 hours, while the pulled port needed 10, so I (along with a lovely lady friend) polished off one of the racks while the pork continued cooking. I still have the other two in the freezer.

Friday, I'll be cooking 15 racks, 14 of which are promised to people at work. The other one is mine. With the kids coming up for Christmas, I need a freezer full. Besides, cooking a bunch of food at once can be a lot of fun. I'll have to take pictures.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 07:51 PM

Cooking in bulk is actually easier (in a sort of sado-machoistic way!) than cooking individual serves, if you enjoy cooking at all!

One simple thing is that you can more easily overspice individual serves, but in bulk it's easier to get subtle amounts in.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: jeffp
Date: 05 Dec 06 - 08:33 PM

One simple thing is that you can more easily overspice individual serves, but in bulk it's easier to get subtle amounts in.

You know, I never thought of it that way, but you're right.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 10:09 AM

Nero Wolfe does a lot of interesting cooking also. Most of it by Fritz, but some by Nero himself.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 10:31 AM

Not bulk cooking, though.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: MMario
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 10:40 AM

I always figured any cooking done for Nero Wolfe was bulk cooking....

Years ago our church put on a "magic soup pot" dinner - a basic stock and a basic "cream style" soup - to which you added your own ingredients to create your own individual vowl of soup.

I often do a variation - make up a big pot of broth and add different ingredients to it each night until it's gone.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: GUEST,LilyFestre
Date: 06 Dec 06 - 02:42 PM

I love when we get to make individual vowls of soup....*G*

Seriously though,that's a neat idea, kind of a soup omelet...getting to add just what you like! There's a cajun restaurant we like to frequent that allows you to order your soup in the same manner. Each person can have their favorite goodies added to an already outstanding stock. YUM.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 11:59 AM

The winter bulk-cooking approach has worked so well that it's now totally integrated into our shopping and food prep. "Rutmus" (filter search prev thread) worked so well that we'll do a big batch later this week for the remaining weeks of our inter-parish Lenten series suppers.

Today it's a triple recipe of Indian pudding, in the crockpot-- cornmeal, milk, and maple syrup made largely with leftover Pancake Supper provisions. With a side of meat (bacon or sausage for instance, what a dinner that will make! I don;t expect to freeze any, as it will go fast, but on the other hand if I don't get that bulk Rutmus done by Wednesday I will have a good amount left for this week's Lenten supper-- enough to fit in the small crockpot as a traveling warmer.

Also today is a soup made from the leftover pan drippings from pans of baked chicken, turkey thight, and pork steaks. I rinsed the baking pans with a little warm water to get the last bits, and poured it all into a glass quart jar. The fat separated itself and scooped out easily; just a tad of that flavorful grease made a nice roux to thicken a hearty Sunday soup for two. The stock I flavored with half a ramen-noodle flavor pack and some shredded Swiss cheese. I threw in a lidfull of multi-colored couscous as well. Thaw the two chicken thighs and make a salad from the salad bin we run, and viola! Hot lunch for a hungry Hardi due home soon from the morning's Masses.

Tonight, hockey-- and slivered barbecue in the small crockpot, with baked potatoes and fresh-sliced green peppers on the side.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 04:40 AM

I always prefer bulk cooking but somehow, with our tiny freezer, it's never worth it. I do it with lasagne, but that's because the only decent lasagne pot I have will serve 10.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 06:02 AM

I wish to have it on record that I do not pull my pork...

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 10:33 PM

Things are looking up now that I've discovered slow cooker liners. When I can't find them, I line the slow cooker with an oven cooking bag. They seem to be identical except for the dimensions.

Pea soup

Line slow cooker with liner

Wash a one-pound bag of dried green peas (sorry I can't say that in Metric)

Make sure there are no small rocks in the peas. I've seen it happen

Pour in 5 cups water

Slice up a one package of cryowurst into disks. "Cryowurst" is my family's name for sausage such as Eckrich Beef sausage which is about one inch in diameter. It is encased in plastic. The spices and garlic in the sausage will help flavor the soup.

Toss the sliced cryowurst into the pot.

Cover and simmer indefinitely. It may prove advisable to add more water before the day ends.

When the peas are cooked, measure about 1 tsp of dried, leaf thyme. Wet it and stir it into the soup. This is a critical ingredient. Without the thyme, pea soup, in my humble opinion, tastes like animal feed.

If you are not going to eat the soup right away, carefully gather up the liner with the soup still in it, plop it into a bowl, and chill it in the fridge. Freeze half of it, if desired.

Delicious with good bread and raw carrots on the side.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 01:51 PM

Cryowurst Missed that one-- love it!

IT'S NOT REALLY RAMEN

I'm posting here while the following make themselves:

1 pkg ramen noodles MINUS the flavor pkt (save that for another day)
2 small frozen chicken drumsticks
1 sm plastic tub tomato sauce (comes free with delivery pizza)

When it's done I'll strip the chicken meat, add it to the drained ramen that I've covered with the thawed sauce, and sprinkle on some spices and parmesan cheese-- no I think I'll use the jack cheese today-- no maybe the parm---

Quick, hot, good, filling, and good for me. CHEAP!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 01:53 PM

(to correct dupe post above)

Cryowurst...   Missed that one-- love it!


IT'S NOT REALLY RAMEN

I'm posting here while the following make themselves:

1 pkg ramen noodles MINUS the flavor pkt (save that for another day)
2 small frozen roasted chicken drumsticks
1 sm plastic tub tomato sauce (comes free with delivery pizza)

When it's done I'll strip the chicken meat, add it to the drained ramen that I've covered with the thawed sauce, and sprinkle on some spices and parmesan cheese-- no I think I'll use the jack cheese today-- no maybe the parm---

Quick, hot, good, filling, and good for me. CHEAP!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Nov 07 - 12:49 PM

I forget who it was that asked where to find my bulk-cooking secrets; this is one place. I thought it would also make a good place to stash a tip I posted elsewhere.

We have an old, unused coffee urn. You know, the cheap aluminum tower your lcoal thrift shop will have, plus a power cord our local hardware store had.

Since we haven't been hosting the larger Mudcat Gatherings, it's just been gathering dust. One morning an image of a huge speckled-pot canner came into my mind-- I had lusted after one, years ago, that had a SPIGOT to drain off water or stock. With this image, the next image to float into my mind's gallery was that coffee urn. "Yeah, I could put a hinged STEAMER basket into it to catch the bones and vegetable debris from making stock!"

By the time I dug out the urn I had realized it comes with a strainer-- the coffee basket that fits so nice and tight. So Hardi sawed off the metal post that holds it, so it will sit an inch above the heat element in the urn.

And viola! Stock the easy way, any time! Reboiling of old stock to keep it from spoiling! Reboiling old stock with new goodies added for richer flavor! Stock frozen in containers that will fit back in the urn to thaw them! Ai-eeeeeeeeee!


PS, alas our beloved goddess Sophie is selling up. I never figured she'd retire!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: pdq
Date: 25 Nov 07 - 01:10 PM

"The pork usually gets slathered in barbecuse sauce and frozen..."

If you are using one of the common bottled barbeque sauces, you might want to a can of Del Monte "Sloppy Joe Sauce" instead. Be sure you get the 15 oz. can marked "Hickory" and "Bold BBQ taste!". My local supermarket did not stock it and I had a hard time explaining that other brands were just not the same.
It is a bit sweet which is just what I like.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: Bee
Date: 25 Nov 07 - 11:09 PM

Susan, that coffee urn refit is genius! Next time I see one at a yard sale, it's mine.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 12:08 PM

Thanks, Bee. Update: the plastic basket wanted to float up and off the post when I boiled some plain water to reduce the future coffee flavor from the pastic. Should have put baking soda in the water-- needs another boil job anyway. But I think the basket will not float when I put bones and onions in it; if it does I'll just put a folding steamer basket in, instead.


The cakes-in-crockpots thread reminded me that there is a whole side of crockpot usuage I have nver tried, and it just happens to solve a weekly problem, at least in hockey season. That is, we dine out on Saturday nights after the 7PM service, because we're too tired to cook and a good meal is needed to make sure Hardi's evergized ro the early Sunday AM grind. (Services at 8 & 10 followed by busy coffee hour, so open and heat cold building at 6:30 and arrive home at 1 or 2 for 3-hour nap.) But the hockey comes on, on Saturdays, at 7 or 8. If we come straight home and dine at home, we can catch most of the game instead of having to program the VCR.

So-- dry crockpotting to warm frozen goodies, duh.

Today: Turkey wings and drums thawed in nukerator and placed in pre-warmed crock on low, with 3 nukerated potatoes, on top of one unthawed block of gravy (a fat, flat Ziploc-bagful) from the Thanksgiving cookathon. No shopping, no cooking, no fuss, no mess. Season at serving time, make salad at serving time.

While I'm at it:

SALADS, bulk-handling style.

Crisper in fridge way too small!!! Bought a cheap see-through sweater box with tight lid, that fits fridge. Made sure food-OK and cold-OK, then drilled airholes near top of box on all 4 sides. By keeping a damp cotton or paper towel in the bottom, the humidity stays just right. Mine holds 6 or more romaine hearts straight out of the bag, laid in like anchovies fairly tight, plus whatever salad additions are desired. No rot, no browning, no slime, no spoilage. Fresh and crispy, all the time, lasts the 2 weeks it takes to eat it up. No closed containers put in-- for instance the grape-tomatoes box with premade slits from the store goes in with its top torn off. No bagged stuff tied shut-- needs the air.

Fresh herbs don't keep quite so long, but do real well too. All in the box.

Anyway, you grab out the whole box and there are all your salad materials except the dressing. Box to salads-- less than a minute. Travels as well.


TRAVELING DEVILED EGGS
Boil 'em. Chill 'em and peel 'em. Cut the pretty ones into pretty halves and place, cut side down, on wax paper on a cookie sheet. FREEZE THAT. (Chop and freeze the uglies for traveling garnish.) When frozen, wrap the package. Just ignore the ice crystals. Pack that package, still frozen in the paper, into a lidded container or a small cooler (or onto pretty serving platter), along with an unopened small jar of mayo (or some olive oil) and some dry mustard or whatever. Take a small bowl and a spoon. Devil and arrange the platter when you GET where you want to serve it!

:~) Or slice them up as wanted for P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy (see thread of that name).

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Dec 07 - 06:59 PM

Update on Coffee-Urn Stockpot

Well, it wasn't until tonight that I had cheap chicken parts for our first urn-stock effort. WOW! It worked so well!

When I tapped off the stock it was totally clear and no sediment in it. The glass jars were too hot to hold, so I opened a drawer, set the jar in the shallow drawer, and aimed the spigot over the jar. I tipped the pot to get the last of the dregs out through the spigot, and then dumped the whole thing out into the trash. Only about a tablespoon of stock had not drained. None of the basket's contents had escaped outside the basket.

I washed the urn while it was still hot, with hot soapy water. I let the soapy water drain out the spigot to clean it. After a good hot rinse I filled the urn with almost 2 gallons of hot tap water, to drain out from the spigot and rinse the inside of that. The last drops were tasted-- no chicken, no grease, no soap.

A lovely surprise was that when I tapped off the stock, the last jarful got all the grease!!! Grease floats on top; the spigot taps the stock from the bottom. So the grease is the last out of the spigot. Next time I'll tap directly into an old muffin pan and freeze it for big stock-blocks, since now I know they'll be pre-de-fatted.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: Bee
Date: 07 Dec 07 - 08:10 PM

Sounds it worked a treat. Definitely want one.

If the spigot is the type that has an angle in it, making it difficult to clean: I found dollar stores stock the flimsiest small wire bottle brushes. Flimsy in this case is a good thing, because the brush can be bent and hauled through almost any set of curves and angles. A thin bit of cloth covering the bristles can wipe out the last films of grease or soap. I've cleaned bent glass tubing this way, with a string to haul the brush through long pieces.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Dec 07 - 08:24 PM

Well, if I ran lamb in this pot, that might come in handy; lamb fat congeals at a different temp than other common meat fats and is harder to eradicate. The method I used worked quite well for the chickenfat (maybe because I never let it cool).

Now that I know how well this worked, I am lusting after the much bigger unused urn at the parish kitchen. This one I have now will make about a gallon of stock, assuming I fill it halfway with meat and veg and top off the water. The one at the church is about twice that size. It would hold an entire chicken for instance, easily, without having to cut it up.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: Bee
Date: 07 Dec 07 - 11:06 PM

Mmmm... chicken soup! A Russian American Jewish friend taught me, years ago, her family's simple and perfect chicken soup. An old chicken, so it has strong flavour. Cut in large pieces; all goes in the pot, skin, bones and giblets. An onion, carrot chunks, a bay leaf and celery all goes in with the raw chicken, then simmer for a long time, until the old chicken is tender. Take all the chicken out, skim any scum from broth, add pepper, salt, and noodles. While noodles cook, separate meat from bones and skin. Add back in, and there you are. Perfect chicken soup.

The hard part is finding an old chicken.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 Dec 07 - 10:28 AM

While we cut up stuff for a Caldo de Res crockpot yesterday, it was so cool to just throw the onion peelings, carrot ends, etc. into the stock urn. We did quite a bit of cooking yesterday and all the ugly bits when into the urn. Topped off with water, and plugged in, we just LEFT it. Nothing to tend, so easy.

CALDO is a Mexican dish ("cauldron of stuff") that amounts to pot roast or beef stew. Chuck roast, cut up or left whole, is browned and crocked along with veggies on hand. Yesterday, in went the last of the canned chipotles in adobo, some chicken-pork stock from the freezer (blend tastes like turkey stock), a little tomato paste, cumin....

It smelled so good! But by the time we were hungry for a late lunch, the stock urn had produced a thin stock good enough to tap off a couple of cups for a mock Italian Wedding soup knock-off with XL couscous and the dried-up cooked chicken I'd taken off the bone for the stock experiment. That held us off till the Caldo was ready for the evening meal, by which time the stock urn had also run its course more fully.

We congratulated ourselves at the amount of food we cooked and made freezer-ready (some other meats), with hot liquid meals to fend off the colds we were coming down with.


And that reminds me-- SICK SOUP. I may have written about this before. This evolved when we had three growth-spurting teens under the roof, and it's good to have that stock urn to start it again.

Whenever I make a crockpot or soup meal, I try to freeze at least one quart jar of it-- it's easy, because by the time we get to the bottom of the crock we're tired of it. Later, when we're that awful day arrives when we're all sick and no one can get to the store-- especially in bad winter driving-- there is the Sick Soup in the back of the freezer.

There is usually a mild chicken-based one and a spicy beef-based one. It thaws in the microwave (laid on its side with the lid off), in a glass dish to catch the spills.

Because these jarfuls have usually come from the end of the crockpot's consumption, they're concentrated from the evaporation. Thinning them with a splash of milk (or juice or water, depending on the illness) makes healing, all-day-sipped soup for two.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Dec 07 - 10:49 AM

Does the soup simmer or actually boil in that pot? It's great if it doesn't quite boil--that's the trick to keeping your stock from being cloudy. Simmer, don't out and out boil it.

I'll contribute a trick I read in Martha Stewart Living for getting the coffee stains (and flavor) out of that old urn. She recommends dropping an effervescent tablet (denture cleaner, or in hour household, Invisalign retainer cleaner) in a cup and letting it fizz out the stains. You'd need an entire box to clean an urn, I imagine, but it might do a better job than some of the abrasive cleaners and leave no residue.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 Dec 07 - 12:06 PM

The urn I had was clean, and never cleaned with abrasives; but Bee or others will benefit from that trick I am sure. The problem is when coffee oils are allowed to bond with mineral deposits; that's what the denture cleaners and other coffee-cleaners dissolve.

A coffee urn boils the water briefly (the "perking" phase) and then goes into a nice keep-warm sort of simmer as long as you let it run, much like a rice cooker (the non-steaming sort).

It didn't become soup in there-- that happened in the crockpot for the Caldo and in a stovetop pan for the Italian Wedding. The urn is for stock, and only stock.

PS when the stock's done of course I can take the top off the urn and let the stock evaporate down to condense it.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Dec 07 - 05:53 PM

Here's another great cheap-eats tip that's GOOD....

SALAD DRESSING YUM-YUM
End of the marmalade jar (or any jam really), how to use up the buits stuck to the glass? Dump in a few tablespooons of mayo (NOT miracle whip, eeeew), add a drop of good vinegar, and agitate closed jar by shaking. (A generous dollop of sweet chili sauce doesn't hurt either.)
Wonderful on a romaine salad with bread crumbs on top, especially oif the salad includes a few orange or tangerine sectons.

CHEAP/EASY PEANUT SAUCE
A dollop of BBQ sauce and a little soy sauce mixed with a hunk of PB, plus a sprinkLe of basil, and viola. Add fish sauce if you have it.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 02:19 PM

LOL, I've been collecting the nice wide-mouth jars the natural peanut butter comes in, thinking that I must deifnitely see if they freeze safely. Oh yeah-- did you know that you can freeze canning jars as long as you leave enough headroom for expansion. (I leave the lids off till the freezing is complete, just in case.)

So I was looking for an empty "test jar" to fill with tap water to see what would happen before risking any "valuable" stock..... I finally found it. In the freezer. Full of the chicken stock Hardi had made and reduced. Un cracked. Hee-boy! We eat a lotta PB (with the morning oatmeal), so jars forever, yay!

===

UPTHREAD
I gave my XL-crisper trick for keeping Romaine, etc. for 2 or more weeks. Mine's too full right now to add the delicate baby spinach I want to hold until Christmas dinner, so I took a large stainless bowl, put a wet paper towel folded in the bottom, covered that loosely with a small plastic bowl lid to keep the spinach from touching it, and tossed in the spinch (as we call it). Tucked all into a plastic grocery bag, left loose, and bingo! Slimefree InstaCrisper!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 28 Dec 07 - 06:27 PM

$50 for 30 pounds of pork steaks for the freezer: packing it up in BBQ sauce (and slivered, plain, for the panini press).

There will be about a gallon of pork stock, poured off the covered baking pans-- it steams in there. Great for beanpots.

$9 worth of soup and dog bones (beef) for stock, in the pasta maker (stovetop), and in the urn, to reduce later.

I love our butcher. "How do you want that cut and packaged, ma'am?"


As easy as making ONE dinner, so why not? :~)

Nice to have Hardi at home for the heavy lifting!


Cheepily,

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Dec 07 - 11:45 AM

Yield ($64 US for food and packing materials):


25+ frozen foil packets ample BBQ-for-two to slow-heat on a cookie sheet

2 1-1/2 qt. bags of rich pork stock

3 1-1/2 qt. bags of hi-collagen beef stock

12+ wax paper packets of lunch portions for two, shredded cooked pork for sandwiches or Ramen-based soups

7+ sm ziplocs dinner portions, cubed cooked pork for stews, chilis, or stirfry


1 med pan sm-XL dogbones

3 icecube trays of boiled meat/gristle shreds for dog treats for household dogs (as well as luring shy stray neighborhood dog who should NOT be left as a tied-up, outside doggie!!!)


Happy dogs, happy people, happy and now-clean kitchen, full freezer (chix and beef already in there).


~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: Maryrrf
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 09:35 AM

Wow Susan - you are making me seriously think about getting a chest freezer!

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 12:19 PM

We had a large chest-style freezer.... I hated it once the kids moved out-- they were willing to dig to find what I requested, but managing the contents was an ongoing pain in the ass and believe me, I tried all the ways to organize it that there are, including milk crates. (It died in a flood in the basement.)

Even for a good organizer, I recommend a standup. You'll waste less food, unless you are a committed gardener with huge harvests to manage who prefers freezig to canning (I do). I especially did not enjoy any of the starch-included meals I made in bulk in those years, to freeze. Potatoes, pasta-- undercooked, whatever-- it all came out crappy. Only the meats are worth the bother, IMO, and a few types of starchless meals. It's easy to boil up pasta for two, or nuke a couple of boiling potatoes to slice into gravy.

Cornstarch gravy freezes and thaws better than flour-based. Yesterdays' thawed, sliced potroast was delicious. The gravy I'd included kept the meat nice, but didn't come out like gravy at all.


Anyway, all of this is going on in a Granny Freezer-- a standup freezer.... that we got for free... that had been someone's grandmother's.... from Freecycle! It's not even a particularly large one. If it were a fridge, it would be what you call "apartment" size. Not a bar fridge, but this freezer is only about 5' tall with 3 shelves plus "floor space" that forms a 4th shelf. Door shelves hold quart-size canning jars or equivalent containers.

When it dies, we'll lay out for a new, energy-efficient one in the same size, I like it so well. It would fit in a closet-- a factor for many of us to consider.

Oh yeah-- you can run an extension cord into a closet. This one runs on an appliance- weight ext. cord because there is not enough power where I wanted to put it.

Oh well, I'll describe how I handle organizing the freezer, too. :~)

I am constantly reminded how many people there are nowadays who didn't grow up handling food or household chores like a farmer. But that's why I post. If even one lower-income person can benefit from this, or teach me a trick, it's worth my posting time. It helps encourage me to see someone else post in here, BTW, since Mudcat doesn't show how many "views" a thread gets. But if folkies aren't likely to be "low-income," I dunno who is! :~)


I label hardly any of the following. WHERE it is tells me most of what I need to know. I sometimes can put my hand on a permanent marker, but......


There's one freezer shelf each for Beef, Poultry, Pork.

Each shelf has a box on one side that is where the already-cooked materials go, packed upright like file folders in freezer Ziplocs (the regular ones crack so do not re-use well), except the beef because the beef is better stored raw for thaw/cook.

I buy the chix, turx, etc. on sale when I see it in the weekly grocery flyer. I buy without regard to what we "need" because eventually it all works out.

I get a grocery check every two weeks. My butcher works with me-- if he has chuck roasts on sale, I'll call and order my 20 lbs so he can add it to his order. He's happy to hold it for my prefered pickup date (paycheck date), and to cut and pack it as I want. He loves it that I handle it in bulk because it saves on his packaging materials costs! He's just the meat dept. guy at a small mom-and-pop grocery, but he knows meat.

If I have time I'll precook and portion-pack the meats as described upthread (NOT the grill-quality beef). If it's a busy time of year I'll just toss them right in, raw.

I usually break down the beef before I freeze it, into two-portion packets. I use whatever I have on hand to accomplish that; the bitty blade steaks (stripe of edible gristle down the center) that have GREAT flavor, and are usually about $3/lb, come in a large flat pack. I shake the flat while fresh to separate the contents into 3 or more 2-person batches right in the cello wrapper, and toss it in. (When I want to thaw the portions I'll use a knife to cut off the styro section I want, bag the rest still on the flat, and toss it back in.)

The larger steaks/hamburg get divided up into freezer paper, wax paper, or ziploc-- whatever I found recently on sale. Hamburg may be pressed into a cookie sheet first to cut up into square burgers for individual-wrap (freeze in uncovered sheet for 2 hours and then crack apart and pack with wax-paper separators, when frozen), or it may go in 3-lb packs for meatloaf, or it may get cooked and bagged for crock-pot spaghetti-sauce portions.

I use any leftover plastic on hand to wrap batches of packets. It takes very little time to do all this: I try to limit my purchases to about 20-30 lbs. More than that takes two people to process; I just about died managing the beef-stock this week.

If there is something unusual I will label it, but for the most part meat is meat, and when I thaw it I'll see what cut it was and cook/warm it accordingly.

It's simple enough to thaw the right amount, because it's all in two-person packs. If there's company, I just thaw more. Anything not consumed at the meal can be shredded down for lunches and eaten in a few days or refrozen.

Lunch/breakfast materials go in the small freezer section in the kitchen fridge-- so I can easily access them and toss 'em in a cooler for portability, nuke-thaw them for a big brekky, etc., so I like to keep them handy and not have to wreck my knee going to the granny freezer.

A nice side benfit of all of this is that without a kitchen scale, it's easy to keep an eye on portion sizes and therefore calorie control. For me, dieting means remembering TO eat, not preventing excess eating. But in either case, if it's been thawed and cooked, then that's what there is to eat. Eat it. If it's a small portion, good! That's what all that Romaine is for! If it's not "enough," there's usually wholegrain bread or cornbread for a milky snack later, easily thawed by the piece!

Brunch today was a pork & cheese panini on oatbread with a TINY amount of shredded cheese to bind the slivered pork together. The pork thawed right in the warming-up panini press (thank you Santa), while I got the rest of the ingredients organized and ready to go.


Spend a morning watching a grill cook at a diner do his/her work, and soon you too can eat (and feed your honeylove) like royalty for pennies! I cannot recall the last time making dinner started with rounding up all the raw materials for an entree. With a busy pastor-husband whose "schedule" may require a big dinner at midnight, this is GREAT. It will snow tonight; he'll need a lot of food when he plows the big farm driveway tomorrow with the little lawn tractor. I think I'll go soak some beans..... I dunno when they'll be soft enough to eat, but I know what I'll do with them, when they are!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 02:07 PM

DRIED BEANS
Tip: Pick out the pebbles and sticks AFTER YOU SOAK THEM. They're only in there because they're the same size as the beans-- the factory sorter missed 'em. The soaked beans get bigger; the pebbles don't, so they're easier to spot!

I never start beans with, "Oh, I want beans for supper on Friday, so I need to start soaking Wednesday and...." Naw! I soak 'em when I know I'll have something ELSE to serve for supper, and when they're done in the crockpot, they're done. We'll eat some, but we'll freeze the rest to be thawed on the night I want to USE them.

Same thing with roast pork-- which is never, ever, ever done in the amount of cooking time the chart swears it will be done. These things just vary more than I can handle, so I've stopped trying to predict them-- who cares???

I just learned, this AM, that I can get excellent Carnegie Deli pastrami in 75-pound blocks, Fed Ex. Maybe I WILL accept grocery donations for that next Mudcat Gathering!

Hardi brought home stromboli slices for lunch, and I told him the next bulk-buy is Boboli-type premade, prebaked pizza crusts. Oh yeah-- sauce them from the freezer, add cooked meats from the freezer, add cheese from the 5-pound bag of shredded-- throw it all in the panini press, viola! On demand, any time! AND cheap! AND lower-salt!

Remind me I must post my knockoff of spinach pies sometime.... what's that fancy Greek word again.... spankopita. Uses filo-- yummy, but I don't! Sophie is selling her place, I heard.... I used to put these up by the 4-dozen-pack for the hungry teenagers..... cheeeeeeeeeeeeeep.


I have got to get Hollowfox to post here. She roasts whole, unthawed chickens! :~) And it's yummy-- she feeds them to Catters who drop in!


~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 02:08 PM

Mudelf please correct above and then delete this post:

spankopita (above post) should be spanakopita

Thanks,

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: MMario
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 02:27 PM

I kinda like "spankopits"

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 02:28 PM

I knew you would.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 11:27 AM

The last of the pork party is cooking today; the black beans I soaked in anticipation of snow removal became edible last night. The pork stock & water combination they simmered in had reduced by this morning to a lovely, thick, rich broth.

On the stovetop a small saucepan of pan drippings, pork stock that didn't fit in the crockpot, and the hot water with which I rinsed out the empty gallon-jar of BBQ sauce are reducing further; the last pans of pork steaks had been dusted heavily with flour, which turns into a lovely pork jelly to help them stay moist in the freezer (for the cubed/shredded stuff). So when this saucepan finishes reducing it will thicken the chili perfectly.

I'll fish out the mesh teaball holding the bay leaves, serve Hardi some today and tomorrow, and freeze the rest in the leftover Chinese takeout contaners that freeze and nuke so well. They hold two ample servings for upcoming suppers and snowplowings.

An elderly parishioner says she has trouble cooking for two, as well (self and hubby), and follows somewhat of a bulk-cooking plan with her freezer as well. We plan to start a freezer-trade rotation at the parish so we all get a little more variety in our meals! :~) Mmario, I'll put you down for a trade on your next visit, too-- what are YOU bringing? :~)


And no, I didn't use a whole gallon of BBQ sauce on this project-- I just always swill out the empty plastic gallon jugs with water for beans, because there's just enough flavor and sugar in there to put a nice finish on the chili.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: Bee
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 01:29 PM

I do have a chest freezer, though I'd prefer a standup. I find those cheap plastic dollar store square baskets stack well in the chest freezer, and are small enough to be easily lifted out when you need something from the bottom baskets.

Susan, what did your gravy do, separate? I freeze flour gravy all the time and haven't had a problem, comes out same as it went in.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 10:31 AM

Separated into gravy-jelly and water. I just pour off the water, but the gravy volume seems less than what I put in. The flavor concentrates, though. That would be a butter-roux gravy if flour, or a cornstarch-stock gravy if not flour.

I've played with the variables on contents/proportions quite a bit over the years, when I make the sauces. It may be that the freezing period of time is too slow or that the lowfat approach separates too easily. I prefreeze in the fridge-freezer, so it will not bring down the total freezer temp when I toss it into the longterm storage lot. And the fat content is low enough that it may not be binding and hardening enough when it does freeze and thaw.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: Bee
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 12:02 PM

The only difference between our flour gravies is the roux approach. I remove almost all fat, but my thickening method is the direct addition of flour vigorously mixed with cold water to the boiling stock in the pan, stirring all the time. Thickens in seconds, doesn't separate in freezer. But then, I don't like cornstarch gravy.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: maeve
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 12:27 PM

I do love reading this thread!

We've been given an upright freezer from my folks' house, and I'm gradually filling it with portioned meats. My favorite foods tend to be veggies though, and I've been craving winter squash. I buy various kinds (hubbard, carnival, acorn, butternut...), chop into large pieces and de-seed them, pile them in my largest lasagna pan smeared with olive oil. Into the oven, roasting 'till done. Meanwhile I can go about my business making a meal or cleaning or visiting on Mudcat. The cooked and cooled squash is scooped from the skins and tossed in a large bowl, seasoned, mashed briefly to blend, and bagged in portions. I'll often throw washed, foil-wrapped sweet or regular potatoes into the oven alongside, and freeze them as well.

Spinach, kale, collards, and other greens can freeze well, too. Like Susan, I like to have frozen portions of cornbread, biscuits, etc. on hand.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jan 08 - 05:17 PM

Bring it on MAEVE!!!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 11:11 AM

I'm picking up 30 pounds of turkey thighs today for bulk roasting. Each thigh makes an entree for two and is easily thawed. The pan juices will make a lovely stock, frozen in used peanut-butter jars.

We've been loving the stocks frozen in those wide-mouth jars-- the jar is filled 2/3 full, grease and all, with the top left loose until the freezing is complete. To use, set the jar upside down in a pan of coldest running water while the other kitchen operations proceed. Change over very gradually to a trickle of cool water to avoid cracking the glass. The contents will drop to the bottom (top) of the jar when they can be removed.

Use a fork to pull out the cylinder of stock and fat-layer, onto a cutting board. Saw off the fat, and either use it for roux or discard it. (It also can be rubbed across the grill surface of the panini press to keep bread from sticking, and it is amazing how little grease is needed and how much flavor it adds.

The rest of the fat-free cylinder will thaw in no time in a hot pan, and is just the right amount to make a rich, fat-free sauce for an entree for two.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 11:02 AM

Net: 2 qts. stock I'll divide into small jarsful and 25 turkey thighs of various sizes, each individually wrapped. We gorged last night with one of the smaller ones, each. (I couldn't finish mine.) Easiest bulk roast I ever did. Took 3 pans and both ovens. Have chicken breast also on hand (cooked) in case a visiting dinner guest insists on white meat! :~) We like dark and eat less than if it were white, so the fat content equals out over time.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Mar 08 - 12:23 PM

In this one, Sophie and Spenser do the nasty.


Post-Lent, I don't do much cooking the first week, because for me, Lent IS cooking, to feed clergy spouse.

Today, though.... hm, hockey game to watch shortly-- barbecue running out..... hungry.... Hardi due home any minute..... what the heck is IN this fridge??? Oh look, Sophie and Spenser are in there-- together!

<> Leftover Skordalia-- a sour and garlicky spread
<> Leftover whipped potatoes a la Hardi
<> Leftover bulk-crocked corned beef (who sez St. P stops for Lent)
<> Leftover salty chicken stock from one of the above roasting harvests

Hm......

Dang if that isn't St. Paddy's Deli Soup for two, simmering right NOW.

Too bad I coudn't wait till Hardi got home. No, not the soup-- the leftover onion bagel strips from the Easter Hummus dipping meal. They'd have made great croutons if I warn't here typing to YOU all! :~)

You really MUST stop by more often-- and you know who you are. ;~)

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 12:38 PM

Goddess Sophia is tired of restaurateuring, but we were able to get in one last masterpiece of a meal to take home ("surprise us"), and to take some pictures before her annual trip to Greece for recipes, which will be followed by the closing of the restaurant (building is sold). She's working on opening a retreat center in Greece, too, ever the multi-tasker.

Fortunately for all who admire her, she will still do catering after her return from Greece, until she has rested up from the daily grind of managing tables. I am sure she will once again want a restaurant, but in the meantime she'll personalize her ministry to the human palate.

When we stopped in last week, she was eager to tell me with her usual failed attempt at self-deprecation, that she had, unfortunately and unsuccessfully, shrunken her new, rain-wetted shoes in the oven. She'd shrunk what she had thought were going to be her new favorite shoes! We laughed and laughed, and then I suggested she re-wet them, put them on to stretch them back out, and let them air dry before rubbing in a pound of saddle soap.

She then proceeded to turn out a heavenly meal-to-go. "Come back in 2 hours," she'd said as I sat over tea while Hardi ran errands. Yet when Hardi stopped back in to pick me up, "It's just about done, you might as well wait." Redolent bags began to pile up on the table where I sat over tea. Before we left she was still tucking in: "Oh, I want you to have one more thing." She asked me if I knew how to heat up spanakopitas. I quipped back, "Of course! You lay them on your heart and drink 3 glasses of wine with your sweetheart. When you are hungry for spana's, they are just right!" And of course she was not totally sure she could trust us to heat it all back up properly at home an hour later, and so had written instructions on each bag. I (mock-)scolded her that she had a lot of nerve advising me on spana's, after the way she treated her poor shoes... she immediately shot back, scandalized: "But they're not FOOD!" Laughing?!? Oh my.

Her wonderful mother had stopped in, so we also were fortunate to meet and swap stories with her (turned out that we know people in common, back home).

The dinner was perfect of course, with one entree very rich and creamy, and one tart. We split it all and had a fine time toasting Sophia-- for ALL we have learned from her generous self.

She does Greek tours, too. That makes her easily the Seamus Kenndy of Greece. :~)

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 01:38 PM

Update on turkey thigh project, above. Darn if I didn't undercook the damn things, a tad. Safe, but rubbery eats.... UNTIL they are slathered, frozen, in BBQ sauce and slow-heated. Tender and oh my!

Pork ran out before hockey season ended, BBQ turx! :~) Warm enough to fire up the smoker now, too.....

And oh my GOD, I cannot believe that corned beef turned out so well. Next time, 25 pounds. Now Rap tells us we can smoke it for PASTRAMI.....

Visitors welcome, bring sides and dog treats....

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 09:42 AM

Somebody mentioned that it's hard to find food in a chest freezer. I have s small chest freezer, and I agree.

To help with this, I have sewn drawstring bags that identify the contents. It takes half a yard of cloth to make one bag. There's a bag with rooster on it to hold chicken, and a dark green bag to hold vegetables. Butter's in a yellow bag, etc.

I couldn't find any cloth with pigs on it (can't imagine why not) so I bought pink cloth, and the DH, the artist of the family, drew pigs on it with a Magic Marker.

Subject: RE: BS: Cooking Spenser & Sophie Style
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 10:43 AM

VERY cool. I could see one pulling at the different-colored drawstrings to slither the desired item up and out of the morass of a full freezer. It would also make it very simple to take a quick look which bag is getting empty enough for a fill-up buying trip.

The box approach though for the standing freezer is working great for me.... easy to write on, easy to pull out the whole box of uncooked meat if a bulk project is coming up or a large box of cooked meat if a large dinner needs to be created.

~S~