Cook and Freeze

I am a big proponent of cooking things and then freezing them. That way, when you have to have a meal, and you're too tired and lazy to cook, there's already something thrown together. I think Saturdays are a good day to do this. This last Saturday, I did exactly that, much to the chagrin of my laundry which is still sitting in the baskets waiting to be washed.

Part of the reason I decided to cook so much was because my family was coming to visit. So, I set out, with a few speed bumps to come. First I made chicken casserole, which is incredibly easy. It's even easier if you get one of those day old rotisserie chickens from Wal-Mart on sale, and use it. Then you don't even have to cook the chicken. However, this does leave you with a lack of chicken broth, which was my first speed bump. I didn't have any thing to even make chicken broth, no bullion cubes, nothing.

Next I decided to make meatloaf. This was a wonderful idea, except, I've never made meatloaf, and I didn't have a recipe for it. So, I put in what seemed like it should go into meatloaf. I have no idea how it tastes, but this is what it looked like uncooked.If it's any good, I'll share the "recipe" later.

Lastly, I made lasagna. For the wedding, I got an amazing lasagna dish. The problem with it is that it makes the most ginormous lasagna in the world. One box of lasagna noodles is not enough to fill this pan. So, again, we shall see how it turns out.
Here is a picture of the process. Look how crazy big that pan is! It took seven noodles to barely cover each layer! The other problem with making the lasagna was that I do not have a large pot to cook the noodles in. I used two sauce pans and kept emptying them out and adding more noodles.

Then, in my cooking crazed state, I realized that tomorrow was Sunday, and that meant we would want lunch soon after church. Sundays are my days to rest and take naps. The last thing that I want to do is cook. So, I made a chicken and rice casserole and put it in the fridge.
I love having a "full" freezer. Right now I have a casserole, meatloaf, and lasagna in there. Yummy!

Just Call Me Julia (or Paula Works too)...

"I am a combination of Paula Dean and Julia Child!" These are the words that I found leaving my mouth as I talked with a friend last night. Perhaps I have set my expectations for myself a little too high. I blame commercialism, though.

First Paula Dean signed a contract with Wal-Mart, and now her beautiful kitchen utensils flood the aisles. At first, when she started with her speckled pots and pans, I shuddered at the Paula Dean emblem. Maybe the woman could cook, but her taste in colors was atrocious. Then, this woman, or I suppose a team of highly trained designers and such, completely changed my ideas and opinions of one Paul Dean. I'm enthralled with her wonderful new collection. The rolling pin caught my eye first. It was a French one, which meant that there weren't handles on it, like the typical rolling pin. It was made of beautiful wood, and I could imagine rolling out table tops full of homemade noodles, pastas, and cookies. I HAD to have it, but I didn't need a rolling pin, at least this is what others said. I had already received one from my grandmother. This was not one of those cheap new ones either. Grandma gave me an old, tried and true, not going to fall apart in your hand, rolling pin. Still, I had birthday money, and I am now the proud owner of a Paula Dean rolling pin. Soon, I hope to be a proud owner of the Paula Dean stoneware. The only thing stopping me is the knowledge that I have NO room in my cabinets for such things.

Then there I was sitting innocently on my couch one day, when a movie trailer came on television. The movie was called "Julie and Julia," and it told the story of how a woman named Julie cooked the Julia Child's cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," in a year. I knew that I had to see it. It was a cooking movie, and I love to cook. It was just perfect for me. I found out that there was a book with the same title as the movie, the book that inspired the movie, none the less. This I soon acquired, and began reading. Now, I'm still in the middle of the said book, and while it's not the greatest piece of fiction, actually, Julie Powell, the author, is not that great of a writer, but I will not go into a literary critique at this point. What the book and the commercialism surrounding it and the movie have done, is instilled in me the desire to become the next Julia Child.

Again maybe my expectations are too high. This, however, can be discussed at another point. Right now I have to get the tv dinner out and put it in the microwave.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

"I'm going to have my own show, and call it, 'Meals You Can Cook with Food You Actually have in Your Kitchen.'" This I declared to my husband as I sat watching the Food Channel. Sure, the food looked delicious, but never would I have any of those ingredients in my cabinets. I couldn't even pronounce them.

So, in honor of my new show, or book, whichever comes first, I'm willing to share some of my experiences, mistakes, and general knowledge (or lack there of) when it comes to the art of cooking.

So far, Bananas have been a wonderful thing to have. As our air conditioner was not working, they have been a cool treat when the temperatures reached the upper 80's inside. I took the bananas, peeled them, cut them in half, and then put them on a fork into the freezer. I put them on the fork so you can eat them like a popsicle. They are a delicious and easy treat, and much healthier than ice cream or freeze pops.

Not every cooking experience has been a success, although I declare that it has nothing to do with a lack of experience on my part. While grocery shopping, we discovered a package of frozen ground turkey for only $1 a piece. They also came in flavors like taco or Italian. Being as they were only a dollar a piece, we decided to try one of each. Much to my chagrin, the meat was thawing out by the time I hit the check out counter. Not a lot of time had passed, so I was surprised at this. My shock continued when I went to cook them. I tried the Italian one first, planning on having some nice pasta.

Let me preface what I say next with the fact that I don't get nauseous cooking raw meat, and it takes some pretty strange meals to make me think twice about eating them. When I put that "meat" into the skillet, I understood why it only cost a dollar. Let's just say, I took a picture of it, but I can't even bear to look at the picture to post it. I also don't want to traumitize me few faithful readers.

I tried the meat, I promise I did. I thought the Italian one may have been a fluke, so I went ahead and cooked the taco flavored one. My husband, the one who eats anything, even declared that it tasted weird. It became lunch for the garbage disposal. Lesson learned, meat sold for a dollar, probably is only a dollar for a reason, and maybe not even meat.

Pickles? Yes, Please.

As I unloaded the groceries, trying to find a spot for each item, and crying at the same time, I realized that things will never be the same again. Don't take my crying as a sign that I am living a miserable life. That's not true. It was more of all of the emotion from the last month finally welling to the top of my head and spilling out of my eyes. Day Camp seems ages ago, then there was the wedding, honeymoon, and the saying goodbyes and moving. I had been so busy through it all, that I keep forgetting that I turned 24 in the midst of all of that. Sheesh.

The long awaited (and dreaded) Thursday finally arrived. We left with all of our stuff, and Bert's car packed into two trailers. It took us 8 hours to get to Clarksville, and when we got here, I was a little miffed to discover that we couldn't get into the apartment for another couple of hours. Finally, we got in, as well as getting all of our stuff in. I had no idea I had so many books. I think there are still 7 or more boxes of just my books that are packed away.

It was amazing to have family here for the first couple of days to helps us move furniture, hang things, and wash and wash all kinds of new dishes and kitchen appliances. Oh, my kitchen...I doubt this "quaint" kitchen has ever been packed so tightly. There was hardly any room for any food. So, when we hit the checkout line at Wal-Mart, and gazed into the overflowing cart, I realized that it would take a miracle to fit it all into my kitchen. That is indeed what happened. After some more crying (see aforementioned disclaimer above) I opened up a cabinet next to my refrigerator. It was like finding a 20 dollar bill on the ground. It was completely empty. Quickly I grabbed the bag of potatoes and onions and threw them in.

Apartments have their own personalities. Ours has several little quirks, which I can live with, but the one that annoys me the most (at least at this moment) is the "air conditioning." First of all, in my opinion, there is no need for it to be 7 p.m. and it still over 90 degrees outside. That is just absurd. Our little brick apartment likes the sun. It likes it a lot, and as it passes over our roof and onto the west side, my living room gets warmer and warmer. I took a nap on my couch today, surviving the warmth with our new fan blowing on me, when about an hour later, the warm room woke me up. After making sufficient complaints to my husband, and inwardly pronouncing curses on the evil ball of burning gas in the sky, I headed to the refrigerator. What I needed was something cool and refreshing. I had the perfect solution to my conundrum. I headed to the fridge and got out one of my favorite new items. It's a wonderful invention from the Tupperware company. You open the lid, pull on the handle, and walla! crisp, cold pickles come out. I love pickles. I have every since I was little, and my parents let me drink the juice from the jar when the pickles were gone. I grabbed the container and headed back to the couch. Before I knew it, I had eaten six baby dills. I watched my husband as he sat across from me, wondering how many I could eat before he took them away from me like had had done the day before. For some reason, he has this notion that I should not eat a jar of pickles a day. I agree...that is unless the AC is not working.