In the Kitchen

well, I don't use any gadgets to cook. Have a gas stove, which I love. use caste iron skillets. and have other pots and pans that I have had for 40 years, an awesome set. somehow able to put supper on the table within 30 mins of arriving home from work. Proactive with large roasts for following meals. My oven does have a timer on it, so if I chose I can put a raw frozen chicken in it, and it will turn on, roast and be ready when I get home. Yes, have an outside BBQ, but don't use too often, tired of keeping it clean. I freeze lots of homemade bone broths, left over roasts for later. Make homemade pot pies for the freezer. Homemade meatballs for the freezer. On the weekends do have things that take longer to roast.

 

Yes that's what i do. I have to follow a recipe for the batter to make the toad in the hole.

 

Yes i do a batch of meals and put them in the freezer, like the toad in the hole and Yorkshire pudding, i cook a whole Turkey and portion it up and the roast beef. Used to make meat pies and put them in but gone off them. Also cut down on red meat so i don't make meat loaf or meat balls. These days haven't got room in the freezer, half of it is full of fruit from the garden.

Used to have a sandwich maker but it went out of use so got rid of it. I would like one of those air fryers but haven't got room to put it.

 

Thank you Shiney I've been having a look-see...I'm on to it.

Make that eleven..

 

So. Following on from my chat with John on the subject of potatos.

Do you grow your own, if so variety etc. or do you grab whatever bag comes first at the supermarket.

Then when it comes to cooking. How do you cope with different varieties. Not only spuds but all veg. My childhood days. I ate everything on offer. I well remember Sundays. Dear old Mum, born in the closing days of Victoria, days when much of the cooking amounted to boiling the life out of whatever. How I remember to this day. Visiting friends and relatives on a Sunday morning. Dinner was on the go, or should I say. On the boil. Ah! do I detect the fragrance of, boiled cabbage. Cabbage always ended up as something, once green, now semi transparent and. Sorry, but what is it supossed to taste like.
Then the spuds. Some would be like bullets and others like some kind of thick drink.

Perhaps I have exagerrated a bit, but you know what I mean. ( well I hope you do. Buggered if I know. (Joke)).

 

Add a few years on to that, and its about the same time since I stopped growing them.

In my view, its a bit pointless growing them. Much better to use the area that they would take to grow things that one likes that are either difficult to find in the shops, or too expensive if they are available.

 

Potatoes. I am a little fussy about them. I like using the "All purpose white" for mashed. The Idaho for baking, the red skin for cold salad. I cook the red skin just enough to be firm but toothed, as I hate it if it were to fall apart as your mixing it with the veggies. I love when I run across the fingerling potato, that is nice as a quick cook, with some butter. And for fried potatoes I use goose fat to fry them in.

 

Over the years I have done my own kitchen experiments when it comes to freezing foods Yes, you can read the "recommended" length of time and be hooked to that. BUT. I will take some homemade cookie christmas dough, wrap well and freeze it, cut off some of it in 2 months and bake, some in 6 months and bake, some in a year and bake. This November for Thanksgiving, I thawed out the last Apple Cranberry Walnut loaf from the freezer that was one year frozen. And it tasted wonderful, and looked wonderful. Squash soups, have frozen for a year, and just fine.