Cooking Fresh Food - breaking the jar/can/bottle habit...

[briggsy's girl]

we've been doing really well with this. had HEAPS of fresh home made stuff frozen in meals in the freezer (from spag sauces down to vegie soups with fresh stock) - then the bloody fires hit and we lost everything from the power being out so long. we've got fresh veg coming in daily, so we're slowly going to build it back up, but to get stuff in the freezer in a hurry, we'll have to resort back to jars off and on for a while

DH has been fantastic at working with me to get to this point though. we were talking about making spag bol last week before going away, and that we needed jars to make it - and neither of us could remember if we even HAD jars in the cupboard....


we've been making a very tasty base sauce with tomatos (fresh), onion, bit of garlic (minimal as i've been suffering reflux with the ms), zucchini (they're going nuts at the moment) and multicolored capsicum. to make it go further we just add more tomato - makes a fantastic chunky sauce on it's own over pasta (or with steak yummmm!) or can be blended down to make a smooth sauce for using in a spag bol with extra added veg. IF we dont' have quite enough of this to go through the meat we're cooking up (we usually cook a kilo of mince at a time) we will add a jar of plain spag sauce just to make sure it's not dry - but we've only done that once lately...

have started coming up with our own curries as well - can't get them to come out the same twice in a row, but always delish!

spent yesterday blanching and freezing veg from our garden too...

[Astrid]

Been doing so much better starting with Christmas, having a productive veggie garden helps so much. Basically, it is there so we use it the best we can, which sometimes is not easy as the garden is only new and there is a bit of mismatch with what comes through. Made a nice pea and ham soup with the leftover ham leg from Christmas that we froze down for later use.

Made a pav for Australia day, so we decided to make a nice mayo with the egg yolks. Both were a hit with everyone. Making more effort to make biscuits and cakes for the family (even though I am trying not to eat food like that myself). Sometimes I am thwarted by my pantry not having an ingredient, but that is slowly changing. Making my own rissoles more often now, but I do admit for grabbing chicken jumbos from Lenards to keep in the freezer, will need to experiment with my own version.

Just need to get the sausage parts for the Kitchenaid and we will have a go a our own sausages

BG - what a pain losing all that food in the freezer

[briggsy's girl]

BG - what a pain losing all that food in the freezer

yeah something of a PITA seeing we bought over $500 worth of meat just before Christmas, about $200 of veg from the markets same day, spent the next two days cooking and completely filled the freezer with meals

the big dog is loving it now though - he is getting all the meals. it was all frozen when we got home, but pwer had been out on 40degree+ days so it's just not worth the risk...

[christy]

ohhhh Astrid!! That's exciting about home-made sausages!!!!

I was thinking (as DH made the 5 minute chocolate cake for visitors..) about how we have few packaged things except for lunches for M at school. I have yet to get enough homemade things for M for lunch. One day a week she takes hummous (homemade) and carrot sticks and rice cakes with her sandwich. And another day is vege muffins with her sandwich, but still she needs more snacks and stuff.... being dairy free is difficult for snacks and trying to not use package ingredients.

[Astrid]

I find that homemade biscuits are eaten so quickly. I think next time I might need to bake up a couple batches (and hide one) so there is something for the end of the week.

DH had everyone jealous at work one day as he rocked up with silverside, parsley sauce and veg for lunch. Sauce was homemade of course with our own parsely

[christy]

Astrid I actually make a double batch and freeze half the dough for my biscuits for later! That way I don't have to make them twice. I have choc chip cookie dough in the freezer as well as the biscuit part of jam drops for later....

[TheBear]

It's great to see people getting into this - keep up the good work...

This was my New Year's Eve effort this year - Click here for pictures

[Rouge]

Delish Bear Nothing better than a spit We were actually talking about this a couple of weeks ago!

Bit of a warning though who might be vegetarian or have an aversion to cooking animals

Awesome work, next time send me an invite

[TheBear]

Fair point - if you are squeamish then I'd give the link a miss...

The comical thing was the preparation - the pig had been in the deep freeze in my lockup for a couple of months, so the night before I had several interesting learnings:-
1. It is much easier to put a freshly killed pig into the freezer than it is to extract a frozen pig that has molded to the shape of the freezer.
2. When transporting a frozen pig across town, think twice before sitting it in the passenger seat of the car and putting a seatbelt on it....think a third time before driving past an active RBT site!
3. How the f*&*( do you thaw a 55kg lump of pork overnight?

:-)

[thepixie]

I'm making my own marmalade at the moment. Damn that Bear, I never even used to eat marmalade and now he has me making it myself!

[thepixie]

3. How the f*&*( do you thaw a 55kg lump of pork overnight?

Not in the bathtub, unless you're angling for a divorce! LOL

[suse]

2. When transporting a frozen pig across town, think twice before sitting it in the passenger seat of the car and putting a seatbelt on it....think a third time before driving past an active RBT site!

:-)

A friend of mine had exactly the same problem, except that he'd pulled up at the lights next to a police car. He'd tried to make the pig incognito by putting sunglasses on it, but it didn't work for some strange reason...

[alioops]

PMSL Suse and Bear!!! I am sure they would just have a bit of a laugh about it, they see worse!!

Bear I SSOOOO Hope you didn't put it in the bathtub!! Pixie I would be as peeved as you!!, It does look like a good night though, and I bet it tasted great!!

[Astrid]

ooh spit - nice one Bear. We have a couple goats out back that are looking rather nice, just need to find a spit. For our Viking feasts we would always do a lamb on a spit. Amazing the number of people at the Vic Markets who freaked out at a whole lamb being carried to the car, some people must be very disconnected to where their cut up meat comes from.

[TheBear]

The pig didn't seem to bother people that much, but a few of the neighbours did get a bit funny about the Xmas geese - Don't click if squeamish

[Sair]

I will forever bookmark those photos to try and remind myself how gross meat is. I was vegetarian but for some reason started eating meat again, lets see if the photos can change me back.

Slowly starting to get back into the swing of cooking fresh again, I didn't realise how long it would take to get the energy after giving birth. I have delegated a night of cooking a week to Juz, he is an expert at the Old El Paso kits I plan the meals for the next fortnight which makes things so much easier as I can get the kitchen set up the night before for things like perogies or a slow cooker meal. So hopefully I can start poking my head in here more often now.

Tonight is chicken strips with curried rice, not very fresh cooking considering aside from the chicken and rice the only other ingredients are cornflakes, egg and spices from a jar. I am making perogies on Thursday so that is fresh food

[Danni]

would love some recipes for fresh food. I have an abundance of flour atm...so flour recipes would be good?

I have been making something called "monkey bread" lately. Basically you put all the normal loaf ingredients into a bread maker, with a bit of garlic.

Put it onto dough setting, take it out, divide the dough into small balls, dip in melted butter mixed with garlic and herbs, then place in a kugelhopf(sp). (you know the tins with a hole in the middle?)

let it rise again, then bake for 20 mins. All the butter seeps through, and it is amazing. Serve with dinner, and all the small pieces get picked off with ease.

[Michelle71]

Danni - that sounds fabulous!!! If you are trying to use up flour what about pasta, pikelets, fritters etc??

Pasta you can mix in your breadmaker and then roll out yourself or put through a roller. I have one that attaches to the bench but I also have one which attaches to the front of the Kitchenaid which is pretty good You can then make lasagna, fettucini, ravioli, canneloni and more with the pasta. If you have the extra bits you can also make macaroni and spaghetti too.

Fritters are basically savoury pikelets. You can add meat and vegetables of your choice and they are great finger food for the kids.