Bulk Cooking (and buying)

[Larry Caldwell]

It's a long weekend, so my wife and I are freezing a bunch of fast food.
I made waffles for breakfast, so just kept making them. I had a some
old flour that needed to be used up anyway, so I made and froze 8 large
waffles (32 5" quarters) that can be pulled out of the freezer and
dropped into a toaster for a quick breakfast. My wife has a turkey
defrosting in the outdoor refrigerator, and we will roast it tomorrow,
bone it out, boil the bones for stock and make a big pot of turkey
vegetable soup. I have been taking home made soup for lunch every day
for the last 3 months. Yum. I just freeze small quantities in plastic
containers, so I can take a different soup each day. The turkey meat
gets frozen in small quantities, and can be re-heated for dinner or made
into sandwiches. Unfortunately, turkey gravy does not freeze well, but
the stock does. Not much gets wasted. Even the fat goes onto dog food
and cat food. We have a second 17 lb. turkey in the freezer for backup.

I also noticed the indoor maple syrup was getting a little low, so I
brought in the gallon jug of Canadian maple syrup I bought back when the
Loonie was worth about $0.70US. I keep it cool in the outdoor
refrigerator and tightly sealed. It seems to be keeping just fine.

We hadn't replenished the sugar since canning season, so I brought in a
25 lb. bag and replenished the decorative gallon jar. It looks to be
another year anyway before we have to buy more sugar. 25 lbs. should
last us through to canning season 2011. I like low sugar recipes for
jams and jellies anyway.

I have to figure out what to do with all the butternut squash. I hit a
farm stand that was selling the last of their crop for $0.50 each.
Those butternut were 10 lb. squash, and now I have to figure out what to
do with 50 lbs. of squash! Butternut are rich, too. When you roast
them, the oil just drips out. I don't know why they don't use butternut
for biofuels, or sell squash oil. I hate to see things go to waste.
Maybe I can dump a couple on the neighbors, but this time of year,
around here, winter squash are a hard sell. My wife's food bank has 13
tons of them to spread around.

I also bought 5 acorn squash, but they were normal large acorn squash
size. I like to brine the squash seeds and roast them, they make a
tasty snack.

I like to buy in bulk and cook in bulk. I'm thinking about shopping for
divided dinner plates with snap on plastic covers so I could make my own
TV dinners. (It would give me some place to use the squash.) The time
spent cooking is mostly prep and cleanup, and with only two people in
the household, both working, cooking in bulk and storing in small
quantities really saves on restaurant and convenience food purchases.

I invented a new trick for parties too. I like buffalo wings, but the
wings are too expensive any more. Remember when you could buy chicken
wings for $0.09 a pound? I just buy chicken thighs, which are cheaper,
and give them a long marinade in the hot sauce. Then I barbecue them
(well, really grill them for about 45 minutes over low coals), line a
small cooler with foil, and load them straight from the grill into the
cooler. They will stay hot in the cooler for 2-3 hours, leaving plenty
of time to get to the party and have a couple beers without having to
hassle with a barbecue. I call them Thunder Thighs, which always gets a
grin from the women.

Buying in bulk is cheaper, cooking in bulk is no more hassle than
cooking small quantities, and you don't have to cook or shop so often.

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[Linda Hungerford]

<<I have to figure out what to do with all the butternut squash. I
hit a
farm stand that was selling the last of their crop for $0.50 each.
Those butternut were 10 lb. squash, and now I have to figure out what
to
do with 50 lbs. of squash! Butternut are rich, too. When you roast
them, the oil just drips out. I don't know why they don't use
butternut
for biofuels, or sell squash oil. I hate to see things go to
waste.
Maybe I can dump a couple on the neighbors, but this time of year,
around here, winter squash are a hard sell. My wife's food bank has
13
tons of them to spread around. >>

Cut butternuts into 1-2" slices/chunks, blanch, peel off skin and
freeze. I *think* this is how we used to save them.

You could send a few by Parcel Post down this way, I guess. ;-)

Linda H.