Massive Cook Up - wdyt?

[Danni]

There was a segment on Sunrise last week with a lady and her book abuot freezing everything. There was a website but the name eludes me atm....sorry!

I personally do not like rice that is frozen just on its on. I only like it if the rice is coated in a sauce, or in a casserole iykwim? same with pasta

Potatoes shouldnt be frozen apparently, but the occasional few in a stew is ok.

Par boiling is great for vegies. If you over cook them, then freeze them, they turn to mush!

[Lulu]

Hmm, what about mashed potato?

I might check out the sunrise website.

[Danni]

im pretty sure she said thats the main one that goes yuck

[Bathsheba]

Is the cooler weather inspiring you Lulu?

I've just had (actually still having) my first Big Baking Day of the year. It was all because the morning was so cold and I'm too stingy to put on the central heating. So I decided to heat up the house with cooking!

Last night I had some nice home made bread that had gone hard and stale... was going to do a bread and butter pudding... but no jam or marmalade so had to think outside the square... I vaguely recalled a Delia Smith recipe for traditional Christmas pudding that called for a substantial amount of stale bread... so i dug that out and made it up substituting a few things; cooked pear instead of cooked apple... I don't mind experimenting... didn't have any stout but made up the liquid content in other ways... doubled the rum content for example hehe So that has to rest overnight and it was ready to go on this morning for it's 8 hour stint on the stove... yes, 8 hours with the gas burner on warming up our house... perfect.

I also cooked: spanikopita (Greek spinach dish with filo pastry) and a French leek and potato soup! Oh and pancakes (but that was using the cheats Pancake parlour mix)... so lots of stove top use today... and cosy house. It's been so much fun

My kitchen is old too but at least I have a double oven (two, on top of each other) this is my favourite thing and really helps make big baking days easier.... highly recommended if you decide to renovate Lulu! Much better use of space than those new wide ovens.... you can have two ovens on the go at two different settings.

[Roryrory]

Ooh Bath I love a great big cook up Bummer is our place has floorboards throughout so no amount of oven use gets it toasty.

Lulu, if you google "once a month cooking" you will find heaps of stuff on big batch cooking - problem is most sites are US-based so you need to convert from imperial to metric.

Better go - I hear his (little) master's voice....

[Bathsheba]

Yeah, our house has floorboards except for the bedrooms (carpet)... I think because our main living area is so close to the kitchen it really helps. In between cooking I read the weekend papers at the kitchen table which is part of the open-plan kitchen/dining. The lounge is around the corner and the heat made that area comfortable... not as toasty as the kitchen/dining but at least the chill was taken away. When I finish using one of the ovens I make sure I leave the door open for it to cool down...

Gotta get it cleaned up so DH can cook fish for dinner...

[briggsy's girl]

If you are going to freeze vegies, you are better off just buying frozen veg to begin with - they are usually cheaper and they certainly are better for you - the vitamin ad mineral content is usually a lot higher than fresh veg these days.

i'd be really reluctant to agree with that statement! certainly food that has been stored for a while may not cook up as well, but how can frozen vegies be more nutritious than fresh?? especially market fresh?? i'll be first to admit that the convenience of frozen vegies means they are usually in our freezer - but if we have the par boiled veg we've grown and frozen, or fresh from the market and frozen food - well, i'll put my hand on that any day - it just tastes better! we also use the "stock" from the par boiled vegies for soup or casserole cooking (as my nan used) - either fresh. or freeze and reuse later...

lulu - i haven't done a month worth of cooking in a day. i think i'd struggle with knowing what DH would want to eat! but, we DO cook a lot of freezable meals - all stuff that can be heated in a single pot or in the microwave. DH takes frozen food away with him for work, and always gets lots of home cooked meals instead of take away crap! works a treat for us... we make up spag bol in bulk, and freeze meals for four or five nights, any casseroles are made in bulk (i'm loving the SC!) and frozen - even things like the meat for burritos, chow mein - we cook in bulk, and freeze in portion sized serves. we have a heap of reusable plastic containers that stack together, are dishwasher and micro safe - and ideal size for a decent meal. with DH away, he's able to stop, set up his portable cooker, and drop everything in a saucepan to heat up gently while he organises everything else for dinner. all of our containers are, if need be, disposable - not that i want to spend extra money (99%of the time they're recycled) - but with DH being in the truck, i'd rather lose a cheapy container than a good Tupperware one!

pasta and spud cooked into something - freeze beautifully - especially if they're "just" cooked - if they're a bit softer to start, when they're reheated they break down a bit - i don't have an issue with that personally though! mashed spud i'd do on the day - though we don't have it often so it's not a drama.

i spent last night making soup - heaps of fresh veg and homemade chicken and vegie stocks - chucked in the slow cooker for a few hours. when it cooled, i chucked it in the blender and made it into a beautiful blended soup - am thinking i need to go and divide it up for freezing about now...

one thing - IF you're going to do something like you're suggesting - plan it out - have as much as possible exactly worked out - what to cook when etc. start one thing cooking, then move on to prep with the next - make use of the excess space for things like SC or electric fry pan so you can have a few things on the go at once - and don't try to do the whole undertaking yourself - yeah, having the kids out of your hair is important - but remember that vegie preparation can take a lot of time - so make sure you've got some one there to help peel etc - and borrow whatever extra equipment you need! be creative - bolognaise doesn't have to be be minced meat - we made the simplest bolognaise in the SC with diced chicken and spag bol sauce from the jar - when it was almost time to turn it off to eat, we put almost cooked spag in, mixed it through the sauce and let it sit there to finish cooking - the kids that were here LOVED it!

good luck with whatever you decide to do

[suse]

Lulu - do you have a slow cooker? Our oven is utter crap and it heats the house up in minutes (great in Melbourne but not the desired effect in Nth Qld), since I got the SC I do a huge casserole (curry/tagine/etc) once a week or fortnight and freeze it. It only takes an hour at most to prep and I usually get about 7 nights dinners (for two). We have it with either rice or pasta - I cook enough for a few nights then reheat it as needed, or instant couscous with frozen vegies.

I miss baking so much though - I haven't baked in months.

[LimeSlice]

If you are going to freeze vegies, you are better off just buying frozen veg to begin with - they are usually cheaper and they certainly are better for you - the vitamin ad mineral content is usually a lot higher than fresh veg these days.

As for potatoes and rice, they are fine to freeze if they are cooked adn have a sauce on them to protect them. If you thaw out dry cooked rice, it generally goes crunchy as all the moisture (the thing its cooked in) is released in the thawing process. Same with potatoes and pasta, so they need to be sauced before freezing. iykwim

WRT to the veggies going off before you use them, I make a soup once a week with the left over veggies - potato, pumpkins, zuccinni, broc/cauli, corn, just about anything can be put in to the pot, except capsisums! Doesn't have to be huge, could only do the family for one meal, but it gets rid of the veggies and is really healthy and yummy alternative to throwing them lol!! lo This is what just about every restaurant that serves a soup does btw, helps to keep costs down and you can add anything to it, herbs, curry powder, pasta, rice, or barley, to beef it up....nothing better htan a big fat veggie soup!!

HTH Good luck!