Tuesday, August 22, 2017

A Busy Saturday to Tuesday-Cooking!

Hubs and I went to Maine Source on Saturday and I picked up some meat and veg-a pork shoulder, 5 lbs. ground beef, 10 lb. bag of onions, 4 lbs. of green beans(@ .79¢ lb.), 6 ears of sweet corn and 3 packages of mushrooms.  I also went to Weis(PMITA)Markets for their Fantastic Friday sale and got two whole chickens(@ .75¢ lb.).

Add in that the cuke plants have been in overdrive while we were gone AND the kids didn't eat a single one(though they picked 5).  I picked another 5 on Friday plus there are SEVENTEEN more out in the garden still.  8-O

So on Sunday(and Monday)I was in food prep/cooking mode.

I tried really hard not to run the oven as it's been typical August weather here(hot and muggy).  I did have to acquiesce on Monday evening though to make the mac and cheese.  College Boy had requested it before going back to college.

Sunday, the pork shoulder got put in the smoker outside.......


That was put in the crock pot last night to perk away overnight and will be pulled pork sandwiches this evening for dinner.

I also prepped, blanched and divvied up the green beans into dinner sized portions and froze all put one bag for later.

One of the whole chickens I bought on Friday got dumped into the freezer and on Saturday the other had a can of beer shoved up it's ass and grilled to within an inch of it's life and served with boxed stuffing and fresh corn on the cob.

I defrosted chicken breasts on Saturday in the fridge and with the addition of Marsala wine and all those mushrooms I bought, I turned this into Chicken Marsala over Noodles and served it with Tossed Salad on Sunday.

I also took a London Broil out of the freezer on Saturday as well and set to marinating it in the fridge for two days.  It was grilled and served along with spinach souffle and homemade mac and cheese(at the kids' request)on Monday.

As for the 5 lbs. of ground beef--1 lb. was reserved for hamburgers for lunch on Tuesday and the other 4 lbs. was turned into WV hot dog chili on Sunday........


I've portioned this big pot of chili up into 4 containers-2 in the freezer for later.  1 container will be heading to school with College Boy on Wednesday.
This hot dog chili is a family favorite now and I especially like it as I can just add beans, green chiles, cumin and more onions to a portion to turn it into Mexican chili, so two different flavor profiles quite easily.

On Monday while making the mac and cheese for dinner I portioned off 1/4 of the bechamel sauce I made and also did a small pot of Cheese and Cauliflower Soup(CB's fav)for him to take to school with him, as it starts with the same recipe.

And all those cukes?
Besides being an addition to the salad served on Sunday I turned 7 of them into pickles.........


Three jars of bread and butter pickles(2 pictured)and a large Tupperware container of my mother's "Almost New Pickles"(a vinegary type pickle)which is not pictured.

After making peanut butter cookies for College Boy to haul back to school with him later today and finishing the sauce for the pulled pork for dinner I am taking a break from cooking for a few days.

Wednesday the Daughter and I are getting a pizza from the local place that does the "sweet sauce" pie that is a fav in this region as Hubs and CB will be gone.  We'll have salad with that.

The rest of the week I hope to get by on leftovers, BLT's using farm market "real" tomatoes and whatever else folks can dig out of the fridge/pantry.

I am done cooking for a bit.

What's been cooking at your house lately?

Sluggy

14 comments:

  1. That is a lot of cooking! No lack of food at your place! Hubs just left for work again so I'll be eating whatever I can scrounge from the pantry and fridge. I keep meals very simple when he is away.

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    1. Sigh...I wish I could do simple meals. If Hubs wasn't here I would.

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  2. That's a lot of cookin'! The weather finally cooled down enough the past week that I've been using my oven again. Made a tuna casserole and a chicken sandwich ring.

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    1. I about died last night turning on the oven to cook that mac and cheese. Weather here is suppose to cool to the 70's on Thursday though which will be nice.

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  3. If you share recipes, I would love the Almost New Pickles recipe. I have a lot of cukes I need to use immediately!

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    Replies
    1. Almost New Pickles
      3/4 C sugar
      1/2 C water
      1 C vinegar(white)
      1/2 TB Dill Weed
      1-3 Cucumbers, sliced

      Combine first 4 ingredients, boil til sugar dissolves. When cooled, pour over cukes and refrigerate. Ready to eat in 4-6 hours. Can reuse liquid when cukes are gone.

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  4. You really made good use of the meat and veggies you bought, not to mention the cucumbers from your garden. Sounds like you'll be eating well for a while now. If more people did that, then their grocery bills wouldn't be so high overall.

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  5. Hi Sluggy, this is Chris. You have been a cooking fool, I am impressed! Thanks for the pickle recipe, I will show to dh, he loves pickles. This week he has jury duty so we are keeping things simple.

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  6. I'm so impressed! The most I'm trying out is some form of oat gluten-free biscuit. I tried oat drop biscuits this weekend which turned out like a science experiment, and NOT what the photo looked like. I may have to use a new recipe because I tried it twice. It tasted okay just not the consistency I'm looking for!

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  7. I'm exhausted just reading this. Plus everything sounds so good!

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  8. That is a lot of cooking. I save that much cooking for winter, but there are more people at your house.

    Will son share his food with roommates? Hope not! Unless this is the deal and what you intended. Maybe you could get a deal to furnish cooked food for their house. Surely one of them could come get it and you could turn a buck or two. That would be a good little business for anyone who lived in a college town.

    At least the kids picked the cukes. Didn't you come home one time and they had not picked one thing?

    What's for dinner here? tonight I had Blue Bell peach and vanilla ice cream. Hey, I had milk and fruit! I will have salad for second dinner/snack.

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  9. We could probably live on the fresh salsa I make every week! It's a favourite and disappears quickly!

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  10. Oh my, reading all your meal descriptions had me laughing out loud. I am in cooking mode this week too. Ratatouille, smothered pork loin, other assorted veggies.

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  11. That is a lot of cooking. Your hot dog chili looks wonderful. It is my favorite thing to eat on chili. Thanks for sharing the pickle recipe. I will be trying it this week.

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