I'm revving up for December, cleaning, preparing, and doing a bit of renewal as well. My website is getting a complete makeover, and soon I'll be changing the descriptions and purpose of this and its sister blog as well as making it a little easier to find me in other places. So hang on and I'll tell you when it's all set!
But I wanted to peek in and let you know something, in case you're a foreigner or a recently-arrived alien from another planet. You've probably figured out that something big is happening. It isn't so easy to tell exactly what it is.
iVillage.com, for example, is all set up for this 'holiday'. View houses decorated for the holiday. Holiday ideas for cooking. Shop for holiday gifts. New trends in holiday decorations.
At bhg.com, a favorite of mine (probably in part because I consider The definitive cookbook to be the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook), you find a better clue. They actually tell you what's coming up.
It's called Christmas. Make a note.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Busy Day Dinner
1 Turkey Carcass
1 cup rice
About 4-6 cups water (estimated)
1 can of peas that are going to go bad soon if they aren't used
So I put the carcass in the crock pot, along with the turkey neck. I don't like to waste parts of the turkey if I can use them! When it was good and soaked and warm, I picked all the meat off with my fingers. Ow! It was hot! But your fingers work MUCH better than a fork.
That left me with water and chicken. Some of the water I put in was saved from when I'd boiled the neck and giblets together in a pot. I just put the neck and water into a container to save for later, and now is later! What do I do with turkey giblets? I eat the liver and give the rest to the cats.
I added the rest of the gravy to make a good broth, and added some chicken boullion and a quarter cup of golden sherry just to make sure it's a good broth. Then I put in the rice and the peas.
I started the carcass heating at around noon, and it's a little after 2:30pm now. Supper is at around 5:30, which should give plenty of time for the rice to be rice and the alcohol to cook out of the broth. It's in a crock pot on high, doing its thing. I shouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Around 5:30 I'll heat up the rest of the rolls from the turkey dinner and serve them with the soup/stew/mash/whatever comes out.
The crock pot shows it's value whenever you are not going to have much time in the afternoon or evening to prepare dinner. It also does if you are going to kind of feed people all day as they go in and out. On Mondays my kid has Children's Choir right around the time that I'm usually cooking. Sometimes my mother brings him and my youngest sister, sometimes I bring him and my youngest sister, and sometimes we go together and chat while they're singing. In the latter two cases, the best meal is one that I can start before I leave and is safe to leave in an empty house. I balk at running the oven when I'm gone. The crock pot, however, is safe.
You can crockpot cheaper cuts of meat because several hours of slow-cooking in fluids will soften up just about anything. If you're doing that, I personally recommend doing it on high to make sure the stuff is heated safely. If you're running it overnight, you probably want it on low.
I love soup in particular in the crock pot because you can start it early and just add stuff whenever you think of it. It'll take a while longer to cook, but it'll get there! As long as you've got enough liquid in there, you can't really burn anything. Meat, rice, barley, certain kinds of beans, just toss a handful in and let it think about soup for a few hours!
As you can guess, I don't cook to recipe so much as I put things together with a creative flair that sometimes goes wrong and often turns out alright. So when I mention what I cook and how, expect a lot of leeway!
1 Turkey Carcass
1 cup rice
About 4-6 cups water (estimated)
1 can of peas that are going to go bad soon if they aren't used
So I put the carcass in the crock pot, along with the turkey neck. I don't like to waste parts of the turkey if I can use them! When it was good and soaked and warm, I picked all the meat off with my fingers. Ow! It was hot! But your fingers work MUCH better than a fork.
That left me with water and chicken. Some of the water I put in was saved from when I'd boiled the neck and giblets together in a pot. I just put the neck and water into a container to save for later, and now is later! What do I do with turkey giblets? I eat the liver and give the rest to the cats.
I added the rest of the gravy to make a good broth, and added some chicken boullion and a quarter cup of golden sherry just to make sure it's a good broth. Then I put in the rice and the peas.
I started the carcass heating at around noon, and it's a little after 2:30pm now. Supper is at around 5:30, which should give plenty of time for the rice to be rice and the alcohol to cook out of the broth. It's in a crock pot on high, doing its thing. I shouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Around 5:30 I'll heat up the rest of the rolls from the turkey dinner and serve them with the soup/stew/mash/whatever comes out.
The crock pot shows it's value whenever you are not going to have much time in the afternoon or evening to prepare dinner. It also does if you are going to kind of feed people all day as they go in and out. On Mondays my kid has Children's Choir right around the time that I'm usually cooking. Sometimes my mother brings him and my youngest sister, sometimes I bring him and my youngest sister, and sometimes we go together and chat while they're singing. In the latter two cases, the best meal is one that I can start before I leave and is safe to leave in an empty house. I balk at running the oven when I'm gone. The crock pot, however, is safe.
You can crockpot cheaper cuts of meat because several hours of slow-cooking in fluids will soften up just about anything. If you're doing that, I personally recommend doing it on high to make sure the stuff is heated safely. If you're running it overnight, you probably want it on low.
I love soup in particular in the crock pot because you can start it early and just add stuff whenever you think of it. It'll take a while longer to cook, but it'll get there! As long as you've got enough liquid in there, you can't really burn anything. Meat, rice, barley, certain kinds of beans, just toss a handful in and let it think about soup for a few hours!
As you can guess, I don't cook to recipe so much as I put things together with a creative flair that sometimes goes wrong and often turns out alright. So when I mention what I cook and how, expect a lot of leeway!
Superclean
Let's see what I can do with my messy kitchen in one day.
First off, I've taken some pictures with what I'm starting out with. This is what happens when a housekeeper gets depressed! Let this be a warning for all of us! I went through a rather dark period just the past month or so, and this weekend I had to stop and shed a lot of undeserved guilt about things that happened years ago. Now, at the beginning of a new month and a new monthly cycle, I'm full of energy and ready to go!
Ok, I started by putting my dishes away and washing the rest. I washed even what would usually go into the dishwasher, because I want them all clean and there isn't enough to make a load. Actually, I started by putting a load of clothes in the laundry and setting the timer for a half hour. Ok, it's 8:20, here I go!
10:30am I pop in to write that I was 'sidetracked' into taking care of all of my overdue cans. One by one I opened them and dumped them into a container that my son carried to the compost each time it was full. Rinsed them and filled up an entire tub. I'm going to have to drop the recyclables at the dump today. This is still kitchen focus, so that's ok!
11:00am Break for lunch.
12pm My pace is going to be slower, but I bet I can still get something done. I'm crockpotting dinner, so I'd better get that going first. I'm going to get the meat off the turkey carcass that we cooked Friday and make a soup. I do that in the crock pot. So far I've taken care of the old cans and thorough-cleaned between the sink and the stove. The stove itself needs a good scrub.
1pm Finish! I thorough-cleaned between the sink and the refrigerator. The stuff in the sink is all new from lunch, which was pasta. I washed out both recycling bins, discovering in the process that the garden hose does in fact spray water when you aren't holding down the handle. So I had to change clothes... In taking care of all those cans, I opened up an entire kitchen shelf that I can use for other things now.
Ok, I admit I'm done for the day. I'll spend the rest of the day dealing with correspondence, taking my son to Children's Choir, making supper, etc. So here's my progress...
It's still going to take another couple of days to really get the kitchen where it should be. This is a good start, though. The crock pot is kind of hiding much of my progress, but it's been made!
First off, I've taken some pictures with what I'm starting out with. This is what happens when a housekeeper gets depressed! Let this be a warning for all of us! I went through a rather dark period just the past month or so, and this weekend I had to stop and shed a lot of undeserved guilt about things that happened years ago. Now, at the beginning of a new month and a new monthly cycle, I'm full of energy and ready to go!
Ok, I started by putting my dishes away and washing the rest. I washed even what would usually go into the dishwasher, because I want them all clean and there isn't enough to make a load. Actually, I started by putting a load of clothes in the laundry and setting the timer for a half hour. Ok, it's 8:20, here I go!
10:30am I pop in to write that I was 'sidetracked' into taking care of all of my overdue cans. One by one I opened them and dumped them into a container that my son carried to the compost each time it was full. Rinsed them and filled up an entire tub. I'm going to have to drop the recyclables at the dump today. This is still kitchen focus, so that's ok!
11:00am Break for lunch.
12pm My pace is going to be slower, but I bet I can still get something done. I'm crockpotting dinner, so I'd better get that going first. I'm going to get the meat off the turkey carcass that we cooked Friday and make a soup. I do that in the crock pot. So far I've taken care of the old cans and thorough-cleaned between the sink and the stove. The stove itself needs a good scrub.
1pm Finish! I thorough-cleaned between the sink and the refrigerator. The stuff in the sink is all new from lunch, which was pasta. I washed out both recycling bins, discovering in the process that the garden hose does in fact spray water when you aren't holding down the handle. So I had to change clothes... In taking care of all those cans, I opened up an entire kitchen shelf that I can use for other things now.
Ok, I admit I'm done for the day. I'll spend the rest of the day dealing with correspondence, taking my son to Children's Choir, making supper, etc. So here's my progress...
It's still going to take another couple of days to really get the kitchen where it should be. This is a good start, though. The crock pot is kind of hiding much of my progress, but it's been made!
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