Thursday, October 30, 2008

Freezer Cooking

Our freezer came in last week. I'm very excited to get it. We have more room for food. A friend of our is giving us some moose and caribou and believe it or not I'm excited to experiment with it this winter.

On Monday I was home with some sick kids, so I did a big of batch cooking. I made some of the Ham and Pasta Bake, I took one of the big packages of hamburger to make meatballs, spaghetti sauce and just some friend up meat with garlic, onions and celery and a marinade for the pork chops. It all went into the freezer except for one batch of Ham and Pasta bake which we had for supper the next night.

That night we had BBQ steaks.

Okay I was sure that I had posted the Ham and Pasta Bake but I can't find it to link it so I will post it here.

Ham and Pasta Bake (from Company's Coming)

2 cups elbow macaroni

3 qts boiling water

1 tbs. cooking oil

2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1/8tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

1 tbs. onion flakes

2 1/2 cups milk

10 oz. frozen chopped broccoli

Boiling water, to cover

2 cups diced or cubed cooked ham

3/4 cup grated medium or sharp cheddar cheese

Topping:

2 tbs. hard margarine (or butter)

1/2 cup. fiend dry bread crumbs

Cook macaroni in first amount of boiling water, cooking oil and salt in a large, uncovered, saucepan for 5 to 7 minutes until tender but firm. Drain.

Combine flour, salt, pepper, dry mustard and onion flakes in medium saucepan. Gradually mix in milk so no lumps remain. Heat and stir until boiling and thickened.

Cook broccoli in second amount of boiling water until tender-crisp. Drain. Add to sauce. Stir in macaroni.

Add ham and cheese. Stir. Turn into ungreased 2 quart(2L) casserole dish.

Topping: Melt margarine in saucepan. Stir in bread crumbs. Sprinkle over all. Bake in 350°F oven for about 30 minutes until browned. Serves 6.

You can freeze this recipe. I just put it in a large Ziploc bag, took out all the air and flattened it out. I really like this recipe, it's easy and versatile because you can use other frozen vegetable and give it to new moms after they come home from the hospital.

Marinade for Pork Chops (from 30 Day Gourmet)

6-8 pork chops

16 oz. pineapple juice

1/2 c. soy sauce

1 t. ginger, ground

1/2 t. garlic, minced

1/3c. Italian dressing

Combine all marinade ingredients. Place meat in freezer bags or containers. Pour marinade over meat. (Each meal makes approximately 3 cups.)

Label, seal and freeze. To serve: Thaw. Grill, broil or pan fry post chops until browned on both sides and no longer pink in the center. Discard marinade.

Meatballs

Master Meat Mix from 30 Day Gourmet

1-1/2lb. beef, pork, Turkey ground (any 1 or a mixture)

2/3c. dry oats or cooked brown rice

1/2c. onion, diced

1 t. salt

1/2 t. garlic powder

2 eggs

2/3c. ketchup

Directions: Mix all ingredients very well with your hands (you may want to wear rubber or disposable gloves) in a large bowl. We have used big storage containers to do this when making a large quantity. We use this mixture primarily for meatloaf and meatballs.

Make meatballs about the size of a large walnut. (I used my ice cream scooper.) Place on an oiled cookie sheet. Bake at 375°F for 20-30 minutes until lightly browned and no longer pink in the center. Cool.

Place meatballs in a freezer bag or container. Seal, label and freeze.

To serve, thaw meatballs and bake at 350°F for 10-20 minutes until hot.

I only did a small batch of this and we tasted some and it was good.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

High Bush Cranberry Jelly

Some time in August I found a berry bush by my hubby's favorite fishing spot and picked a 4 litre bucket full of the bitter berries while my hubby and oldest son were fishing. Our middle boy had given up fishing and was helping me pick and then the oldest went back and forth a couple of times to to help. So I got this huge bucket of berries to work with.
This is the recipe that I found. I found it after doing a Google search and it brought me to Mother Earth News website, a site and magazine I just love for their ideas. It proved to be a pretty simple task. Thought I had to figure out what 1/2  bottle of liquid pectin was since my package come with two packets and not a bottle, so I did more internet searching and found out that 1 packet is equal to 1/2 the bottle. So that is what I use, 1 packet for this whole recipe. I did used the whole bucket and ended up with two amounts of 5 cups, so I froze the other 5 cups and used one of them 5 cups to make this recipe. And it worked it took a day to really set to a jelly and I was kind of scared I'd just end up with a syrup like the last batch but it took. The syrup by the way is great on pancakes and ice cream.

High-Bush Cranberry Jelly


4 pounds berries
2 cups water

7 cups sugar


Crush berries thoroughly in water with a potato masher and boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Pour mixture carefully into jelly bag or cheesecloth, hang and drain. Do not squeeze the bag: It will make the jelly cloudy. (You can squeeze the extra juice out later and use it to make cranberry juice or spritzers.) Let the bag hang for several hours or until juice stops dripping. Measure out 5 cups juice. Mix with the sugar in a saucepan.

Depending on how many partially ripe berries you have, adjust your pectin accordingly. An average batch uses a half bottle of liquid pectin or one 1.33 ounce package of powdered pectin. Bring juices to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Quickly add pectin all at once. Bring mixture back to a rolling boil and boil hard for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim off the foam. Pour into clean, hot jars and process for canning. Makes 8 cups.

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I had to throw one in of my oldest and the fish, he caught two that day. His very first time catching fish.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Chicken/Turkey Pot pie

1 tb. oil

1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cubed

1 c. chopped onion

1 (15oz) can green beans

1 tsp. onion salt

1 tb. white sugar

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. dried oregano

1 (10.75oz) can condensed cream of chicken soup

Pastry:

2 c. all purpose flour

3/4 c. shortening 1/4 butter

1/4 c. cold water

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar & salt. Cut in shortening and butter with a fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle cold water and sitr until it forms a ball. Divide dough in half and shape into balls. Roll one ball out to fit a 9 or 10 in pie plate. Place bottom crust in pie plate and roll out top crust.

3. In a large cast iron frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Add chicken and onion and cook until misture is just browned. Stir in beans and season with onion slat, suagar, garlic powder, pepper and oregano. Stir in condensed soup.  Heat mixture, stirring constantly, until it just begins to simmer. Pour into pie crust and cover with top crust. Fold top crust under edge of bottom crust, seal and cut slits in top crust.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes: I used my own pastry for this, the usual one I use that makes enough for a few pies. This time I mixed it in my Bosche and it was really hard to work, I won't do that again. I used frozen green beans and used onion powder and garlic salt instead. Hubby was raving about this pie and he loved it! It's a real tasty filling dish. I got this recipe from one of the Mom groups in town.[gallery]