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We have several freezers, so we minimize opening their doors by limiting what kind of stuff goes in each one. It kind of goes by how often stuff is needed, and "If we have time to cook it, we have time to search for it."

Big standalone freezer in pantry shed: as described in last post, non-mysterious stuff, grab fast.

Freezer compartment in top of fridge inside big comfortable trailer: very current or frequent stuff. Non-mysterious. Storebought frozen vegs, new chops to be cooked very soon, etc. Contents limited by compartment size and by wanting to pull out something often while cooking since it's actually right there in the main kitchen!

Freezer compartment in top of big fridge in shed by small trailer: mostly my take-outs, as it's close to the driveway.

Freezer compartment in top of porch fridge adjoining big trailer: miscellaneous and mysterious. In its door some takeouts and some ready to heat servings of our own batch stews etc. Some ingredients ready to add on impulse to things cooking inside, eg scallops or bagged small vegs. Some vegs that should go into the big pantry freezer but I'm too lazy to take them out there.

We have several freezers. The most (nearly ;-) organized is the big one in the outside pantry shed (mild climate here). Because we have to walk outside to it and it's cold to stand there looking in it, we organize it around saving our time, rather than saving space or electricity. This means having a lot of open space inside the freezer, so it's easy to see things and get them in and out quickly.

We use it mostly for batch cooking stuff: finished small servings ready to heat and serve, and also large meat and veg purchases that will be used in future batch cooking.

Instead of putting items straight onto the racks, we have plastic containers sitting on the racks which we use as drawers, labeled BEEF, PORK, FISH, FOWL and MISC. On one rack there's a big shallow plastic container we put fresh vegetables in loosely as soon as we bring them home: transparent bagged bundles of greens etc. The MISC drawer has things to be used such as ready-made pie crust shells and butter from infrequent expeditions to Costco.

Another virtue of the drawers is, if something gets lost in the back, I only have to take out one drawer to look through it, rather than hold the door open to the whole freezer.

The door is for finished batch items ready to heat: deli containers labeled 'beef stew', 'bitter melon soup', etc.

Here are some pictures:

Freezer with drawers and deli containers in door:

Vegetable drawer:

( read more ... and second thoughts )

I'm being cautious, and there are warnings about not letting the contents spend a lot of time warming or cooling, which would put it in temperatures where bacteria could grow.

On the ranch in the 1950s, we kept a pot on the back burner and heated it up once a day to just boiling, which killed any bacteria. At night sometimes we put it in the fridge, but it wasn't a crock, which takes longer to heat and cool.

So to emulate those fast heatings and coolings, maybe I'll try heating the stew in the microwave to bring it up to slow cook temperature before putting it in the slow cooker heating device. To fast cool it before putting it in the fridge, I've frozen about a cupful of water in a dishwasher-safe jar, to insert in the stew (jar and all) as a removable 'ice cube'. (After unplugging the cooker of course!) So as not to get the jar messy, I might put it in a disposable plastic bag before each use.

BTW, my slow cooker lives on the porch, and weather lately has been mostly around freezing or mid-30's. (We're west of Seattle, so temperatures are pretty mild overall.)

ETA: This worked okay, though it took longer to cool down the pot and contents than I'd expected. I froze a 1-pint container of water and put it in a small crockpot (after taking the crock out onto counter). Forgot to time it, but I think it was about half an hour to an hour: didn't have to stay up late for it to get to lukewarm. Then I took out the ice and put the pot in the fridge.

Dunno if I could later put the pot in the freezer, as I could find only one crockpot advertised as freezer-safe.

Catfish shaken in cornmeal, fried in olive oil.

In the same skillet, sauteed chopped fresh chard and fresh asparagus.

That was all, no time for seasonings.

Wow. It was like something in an expensive restaurant.

Chard is convenient. Big bundle bought days ago, straight into the fridge on a ventilated shelf with a light plastic bag lightly around it. Break off a big leaf as needed, this took two leaves. Chard has got some body to it, easy to wash under running water, no sand anyway I think.

Cut it up with kitchen scissors while Himself was using the counter.

Might be good with merlot?

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-develop-growing-up-poor/

ETA: He's right about not knowing how to USE fresh vegetables. How to handle them, store them, cook them.

Sauteing/stir-frying seems less bewildering than microwaving. The vegs are right there under my eyes so I can see how done they're getting, also test their texture by stirring them. Also taste samples. No need to drain or add butter.

Same skillet as the meat, too, so no extra clean-up. No can or box to dispose of. If the veg need trimming or washing, that can be done well before the meal, so no time pressure.

Wow the taste!

Of course these are good veg from Whole Foods or farmers' market, though not necessarily organic.

On top of the homestead story in the last post, I'm also experimenting with the new rice cooker. It makes good rice (brown-round or white-basmati so far) except that the bottom layer is scorched and stuck and too hard to be edible, and the pot, though teflon, isn't wiping clean very well, even if I watch it and stir or remove the rice as soon as it switches to 'warm'. Reviews say the scorched layer is a common problem and can be tweaked around, maybe.

( may have found a tweak )

Wikipedia was helpful.

By design, what controls the cooking time is the amount of water. When all the water is absorbed or lost in steam through the steam vent, the air in the pot gets hotter than 212F, so the cooker shuts down to 'warm'.

I thought it was cooking too long before going to 'warm', so I arranged to let the steam vent out faster. This seems to make a difference. Still experimenting to find the right amount of extra venting.

My cheap little Rival cooker doen't have any adjustment on the vent (a hole in the lid). So I put a couple of pads of folded paper towel between the lid and the pot, to let some steam vent around the sides of the lid. Still experimenting with how much extra vent space this will need.

HOw it goes -- and why I need the 80/20 approach, not perfection....

( Read more... )

On New Year's Day 2012, I finally emptied the dried blueberries out of the dehydrator. They are wonderful. Very dry and crisp and have a concentrated, roasted flavor like the burnt raisins on top of gingerbread.
( Read more... )

http://www.indiavideo.org/lifestyle/dress/mundum-neriyathum-wearing-4626.php
Two piece sari. top tucks into waist and wraps around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RyW1U1wZys
Blue skirt white top.

Both these add the cream or cream cheese after the vegs have had a long slow cooking.

For the tomato soup, you stir in the cream just before serving.

For the cream cheese chicken, after slow cooking you put in the cream cheese then cook half an hour on high.

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Here's one where all the ingredients go in together, but it's short and the cheese -- feta -- is sprinkled on top.
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/04/crockpot-eggplant-parmesan-with-feta.html

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Here's cream cheese and shredded parmesan going in at the same time as the other ingredients.
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/06/crockpot-turkey-tetrazzini-recipe.html

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Here's a fondue where everything goes in at once (mostly cheese and beer). Then "Cover and cook on low for 2to 4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes."
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2010/10/slow-cooker-cheese-fondue-recipes.html

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http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/04/crockpot-pound-cake-recipe.html

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( Read more... )

( Read more... )

On New Year's Day 2012, I finally emptied this summer's dried blueberries out of the dehydrator. They are wonderful. Very dry and crisp and have a concentrated, roasted flavor like the burnt raisins on top of gingerbread.
( Read more... )

Got a crock pot and a place to put it where it can simmer perpetually. Never used one before.

Saw something about 'perpetual soup' where you keep something simmering constantly and add whatever you have from one day to the next. Add scraps, dip out soup. Or maybe it's dip out tonight's bowl of soup, then add some scraps. Whatever stays in the pot too long, dissolves into stock.

Or maybe sometimes, when you come home with a fresh fish fillet, heat the pot a little hotter(?) then drop the fillet in just long enough to cook it, then pull the fillet out to eat. So it's a flavored fillet in sauce, and no fish bowl to clean; the fish juice has gone into the soup?

Has anyone tried this? Any cautions?

We have plenty of freezer space but little kitchen space (travel trailers) so don't want to make a mess with conventional pie crust. Also our time and energy are limited, so I don't want to have a big messy project with time constraints all in the same day.

Maybe try this:

1st day: Make some low-carb cookies, sort of like oatmeal shortbread, patted into shape not rolled out; bake. (Maybe glazed with egg?)

2nd day:
Cook up some cherry pie filling: tart cherries, sugar or xylitol, butter, cornstarch; maybe in the crockpot. Let cool.

3rd day:
Put filling into 1-serving freezer containers and top each with a cookie. (If necessary, prevent the cookie getting soggy by sprinkling dry oatmeal under it, or laying it on the filling glazed side down.)

Hm, a few small slices of Indian paneer cheese (like cottage cheese but more solid) might be good in the filling, added just before the cookie; like a sweet mattar paneer).

We eat out a lot, and lunch take-outs may spend hours in the car while we do other errands, then the hour-plus drive home. Then by default they go in the freezer.

TIPS:

To avoid those big styrofoam 'boxes' (or any big floppy 'boxes'), for wet soupy stuff we ask for a 'soup cup'.

For most stuff I keep plastic bags in my purse, the 'slider' kind, quart size (Hefty brand usually).

To remember I've GOT a take-out, I pull a colored ribbon out of my purse and tie it around the purse handle.

Labeling the container is easier at the restaurant table, so I also keep in my purse a little felt tip marker, medium point.

For our long drives, in the car we have a little cooler that runs off the cigarette lighter. Bags and 'soup cups' fit in it on top of Himself's cold drinks, though the big 'boxes' don't. (This cooler used to run the battery down but Himself found some gadget that only runs it when the motor is on.)

At home the take-out goes straight into the porch fridge freezer door where it's easy to see and retrieve. No letting it sit in the fridge section thinking we'll use it immediately, which doesn't happen. Unless it's something special....

Since take-outs tend to pile up unused, none of them go into the big freezer in the pantry, or the small freezer compartment of the kitchen fridge.

We carry home only the best and/or more expensive parts of a meal. No plain starch such as rice, pasta, bread. (Get good marks in an Asian restaurant saying, "No thanks, I cook rice fresh at home.")

QUESTIONS:

Need to focus on using these up faster. Trouble is it takes thought to remember just what's in the take-out (even if labeled) and what else I'd need to fix to go with it, etc. And all this while holding the freezer door open and getting cold.

Maybe some sort of plastic bag curtain over the main freezer compartment while looking at what's in the door?

Or a resolve to grab and be surprised?

Is it rude to offer such a take-out to a neighbor? Unsanitary?

1. An easy way to make candy or cookies that aren't messy. Want something to carry around like storeboughts without crumbs etc, that I can make low-carb. Or wrap them or something? Like to eat while driving.

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2. Very easy ways to deal with fresh vegetables when I get them home from the store. We live way in the country so it's a long drive, we have other errands too, so by the time we get home it's late and we're too tired to process them. Even next day I'm too tired for much.

Just got a crock pot, so I'm thinking of putting some readymade broth to heat while we're gone, then dumping the vegetables in it when we get home, and letting them cook slowly till next day. Or the next day, or the next.... How long can this go on?