Independence Challenge - Week 31

The turkey stock bagging operation.

My mom gave me this huge lidded 6-qt container that is low and wide. It just fits on the bottom shelf of my fridge. I chill stock overnight to make it easier to skim most of the fat, then I dip out quart measures of stock and pour it in baggies. I had 8 quarts in this batch, and jarred two in glass for the fridge. I see stock in those paper quart boxes for $2.49 in the store - this batch would cost almost $20 to buy. It probably cost me less than $2, with turkey backs on sale Thanksgiving Week. I feel so thrifty when I make this stuff.

I fold the air out of bags as I seal them. Six quart bags fit in this cardboard box, which corrals them on a wire shelf in the freezer. To thaw, I usually just slit the frozen bag, peel off the plastic, and put the frozen block in a saucepan over very low heat until it melts, about 15 minutes. One bag of stock and two cups of rice gives me 6 cups of cooked rice, enough for dinner and a leftover lunch.

Planted: Nothing.

Harvested: Seven little heads of cabbage. Ooooh, it's cold now. The top inch or two of soil is frozen.

Preserved: Nothing. But I have apples to peel for sauce this coming week.

Cooked: Ever since I won that Bacon-of-the-Month last December, I have been Blogging for Prizes. Haven't won anything yet, but my latest effort was an attempt to win a dutch oven or a stand mixer over at Pioneer Woman Cooks. I was entry number 3219 of many thousand. It's a random drawing out of all the entries, so really there are no points for content, but we had to comment on our favorite pasta dish. Here's what I wrote - and then made for lunch!

I grew up on boxed Kraft Mac-n-Cheese. I needed to find an adult substitute that was just as fast and easy to make. I boil up about a cup and a half of macaroni in salted water. Then I drain it, and put it back in the pan with a lump of butter. I stir it around to melt the butter, then I sprinkle a bunch of grated Parmesan cheese on it (s’ok to use shaker cheese, really). Then I get out a blob of the pesto I make and freeze each winter, and mix it in. Done! You can also use purchased pesto, obviously. Don’t fuss too much about the quantities of mac, butter, cheese, and pesto - it’s good every time. And it really takes no longer than the boxed kind. Yummmm!

I was the Queen of Leftover Turkey this week. Turkey sandwiches, turkey vegetable sautes by DD15, turkey curry, turkey stock. All turkeyed out, for the moment. This is such a good time for hot savory food. I made crockpot BBQ chicken, chicken corn noodle soup, a new recipe for crockpot pinto beans adapted from Paula Deen. On Sunday, I baked a 12# ham, which freed up a lot of space in the freezer, but stuffed the fridge.

Crockpot Pinto Beans

DD15 made two quarts of her Alfredo sauce at home and lugged a big pot to Virginia, to make penne for 20 people at a youth committee meeting. It used 5 pounds of dry pasta and a lot of butter, parmesan, and half & half. She also brought back two gallon-size ziplocks of leftover sauced pasta. Fortunately, it goes well with the ham leftovers, since we will be eating it for days!

Some of what you can see: On the top, a pot of soup that needs to go in quart containers, a pan with the dwindling ham carcass, containers of leftovers, two kinds of chai mix, yogurt, baked sweet potatoes, a little scrapple, bagged spinach, a lonely leek, wheat germ. Middle: more leftovers in sourcream and yogurt containers, cranberry sauce, bagged pasta, green beans, crockpot pinto beans, spelt flour. Bottom: buttermilk, more bagged pasta, turkey/bean burrito filling, 8 blocks of cheese.

I cannot believe how much food is in our fridge right now! I need to find a source for freezer tape and a grease pencil to do better labeling. *I* know what's in there, but no one else can find anything. I am still swinging back and forth between having nothing in the fridge and having too much. But, I think I have learned some new lessons:

• Instead of planning something for each day, I list the things I want to make, in the order of ingredients that need using. Then I just make the next thing on the whiteboard list.
  
  
• It's starting to look like making one "big" meal per week works, if it is big enough to produce leftovers. Like a turkey, a ham, a large chicken, a pan of lasagna, etc.
  
  
• I really like Chris Musser's 10 Meals ideas. She has about 10 basic go-to meals that she rotates through - many of them are things we make, too. They all use stuff she keeps in the pantry and freezer. I need to mash that idea into my 6-week cycle idea to make sure I keep using the pantry staples.
  

Stored: 8 gallons of water in recycled cider and milk jugs. Four pounds of cheddar cheese that was "buy one, get one free." Cornmeal, nonfat dry milk, boxed cereal. I am feeling a little anxious after reading about various agricultural crises, so I bought 15# of rice, 25# sugar, and a block of yeast - and ordered 50# of wheat berries from a local source. Is that "shopping therapy" or prudent preparation?

Prepped: Found two crappy windows that will not stay completely shut, in DD12's room and DD15's room. I need the landlord to fix them, but I need the girls's rooms and the attic to be more presentable before I call him in. I want to nail him down about insulating the attic. So, we spent time on Sunday doing some cleaning and organizing. Gotta do more of that this coming week.

A piece of filling popped out of one of my bicupids this week. That worries me, since I have no dental coverage. We were using a very affordable dental clinic at a local technical school, but they are unreliable with appointments. I'm not in pain, and the tooth doesn't seem sensitive, but I worry that food will get stuck in the gap and cause a lot more decay. Rats.

Managed: I baked a pan of sweet potatoes that were getting dried out in the cellar. I think I learned that larger potatoes keep longer than small ones, and that I should label my potatoes according to which farm I got them from, so I know whose tater variety stores longest.

I have quite a number of projects to check on lately. The worm bin is.... wormy, and smells fine with a scattering of peels and tea bags. I might need more worms. The cider fermentation bucket is bubbling merrily through the airlock. The yogurt is culturing and the bread machine is plugging away.

The one project I have failed to finish is the box of walnuts outside. I gathered a large nuber of black walnuts, and put them in a plastic recycling bin to wait for me to have time to hull and clean them. But I kept forgetting about them, as black plant-killing sludge leaked out the bottom. Now they are half rotted, and frozen to boot! I think I will dump them out back in the alley for the squirrels, and the juglone in the wanuts kills the weeds. The poor squirrels would probably love them, since the acorn harvest is almost non-existant this year.

Reduced, Reused, Recycled: DH was ready to yell at the kids for not taking out the recycling on pick-up day. But I told him there were only three tin cans to put out - we reused the rest, or avoiding bringing it home altogether. Buying bulk, and the use and reuse of canning jars and other containers makes a real difference, especially reusing milk jugs. The worm composting will also help. If we had a wood stove, we could also use up little bits of wood (like citrus crates) and non-recyclable paper. Considering the huge slump in the market for recycled materials, reducing the output has suddenly become even more important.

I started a Tattoo Fund. I want to get a tattoo when I turn 50 in a few years. I've never gotten one because the expense seemed frivolous. But I think it's OK to do something frivolous on my 50th Birthday. Will I have the cash? Magic 8-Ball says, "Answer Unclear." I decided to save all my change until then, starting with a blue plastic piggy bank I got for free from a bank branch opening. I'll just empty my change purse into it once a week.

Local/Family: I collected two grocery bags of donated food at the annual soccer award banquet, and took it to our food pantry along with cereal, applesauce, and hot cocoa from us. I have an idea to run a raffle at the next youth conference, where you can only "buy" a ticket by bringing a food item to donate; need to figure out what the prize could be. Ooo, I know! DD15 can hand-paint one of her coveted art t-shirts.

People at church are getting excited about the food group I said I would start. New people are asking me about it all the time. I think that ramping up our food pantry efforts will be a first project. The number of people served by our monthly distribution has tripled in the past few months. We all recognize that the canned goods we get from the county system are not enough, and don't always suit the needs of our clients, many of whom are Hispanic or have health issues like diabetes. We need more rice, beans, dry pasta, cornmeal, fresh food. And maybe to start providing recipes to use the food we give out.

I follow a couple of LDS/Mormon food storage blogs. Their structured storage program makes sense to me: 3 months of pantry, 72-hour emergency kits, and 1 year of staples in long-term storage. They have an emphasis on canning dry staples in #10 cans, which appeals to me for wheat, spelt, sugar, oats, rice, etc. The LDS church supports that by having regional church canneries that may also often be used by non-Mormons. Alas, there is no regional cannery near me. But I just read that some regions have canning machines as loaners. I am going to contact my local Mormon church, and see if they have a canner, and if they would be interested in sending a food storage speaker to a canning workshop.

Learned: For Sharon's Competency Project, my first commitment was to build a worm farm and a rain barrel. We got the worm farm done last week, and now I am working on the rain barrel. As with so many of my projects, there are obstacles. My drill chuck is stuck, so the first thing I need to do is go out and find someone that can help me unstick it. Then I will go hunt down a barrel or two. Then, I can go to work on gathering the parts and figuring out how to assemble them.

I also researched raw-food pet diets, so our cat can also eventually eat sustainably. Not sure what the cat will think of that! I need to get some supplements to make sure she gets enough taurine. Basically, the cat would get raw chicken or turkey with sweet potatoes or squash, with some yogurt.

Library: DH bought the Crisis Preparedness Handbook and a bound copy of Where There is No Doctor. You give that man a mission, and he is thorough!

Weekly Menu Review

I really need to do better at organizing the freezer. Who knows what
is in the back? I added 3 quarts of stock, 2 pints of pizza sauce, butter,
half&half, pork bones for stock, and a bag of DD12's potato smiles
since last week. Making waffles to freeze this weekend.

UPDATE: Alert! Do NOT try freezing stock in jars.
I did one jar that did not break, but when I did these three,
they all broke on about the 3rd day, wasting both jars and lovely stock.

Time to see how well I did with the new menu plan. I know this seems silly to people that have used a menu plan for years, but writing it down helps me think about cooking from storage. For years, I just knew what to cook, and bought it weekly at the store, according to what was on sale. Now, I am trying to coordinate using my stored food, eat locally and seasonally, and watch the sales to replenish my long- and short-term storage.

This was the plan:

Mon - Shrimp Fried Rice
Tue - Bangers and Mash with White Pepper Gravy
Wed - Chicken and Spinach Lasagna
Thu - Red Beans & Rice with Chicken
Fri - Hawaiian Pizza

Monday went OK, except that I didn't get dinner done until 9:30 PM. I took DD15 to work at 4, and did grocery shopping until she was done at 6:15 PM. All I had to do was go home and cook, right? Ha. Got sidetracked by a business emergency as soon as I walked in. But we did have Shrimp Fried Rice, by gum! With broccoli from our garden, bacon from the Bacon Club, local eggs, and basmati rice.

Tuesday's plan to make roast chicken for lunch was derailed - it takes longer than I thought to thaw a whole frozen chicken. Oops. But I didn't need the chicken to be cooked until Wednesday night, so that was OK. Tuna sandwiches for lunch. Baked cookies. Tuesday dinner was the "locavore" version of Bangers and Mash, which I posted for the Dark Days local eating challenge.

By Wednesday lunch, the chicken was still not fully thawed. DD15 made her own shrimp curry for lunch to take to work, and I asked her to make enough for both of us. Really busy day, and dinner was suddenly a struggle. There was a storm front moving through, and both DH and I got sinus headaches. We ended up declaring an "on your own" night - everyone forages for themselves. Gotta use that canned soup in the cellar sometime, right? DD15 made us look bad by making herself rice with beans, peppers, and shreds of chicken she picked from the bones leftover from stock-making.

Thursday we finally had chicken! But for dinner - DD15 and DH were both out in the afternoon. I put the chicken in before I got DD15 from work. DH made experimental Sausage & Sage Dressing to go with it, using a bag of stale rolls I bought from the discount rack. I made gravy using both sausage and chicken pan juices, with fresh chicken stock. Scorecard: gravy needed more kick, maybe mustard or more pepper. Chicken was predictably good. Dressing was like a savory bread pudding - I really liked it.

OK, so now it's Friday. But, there is not enough leftover chicken for lasagna. A 5-pound chicken doesn't go as far as I thought for 4 people. I have only managed to make 2 out of 5 planned dinners. Am I maybe planning too much food? Maybe only four large meals per week, and more homemade "quick food" ready in the fridge. People keep wandering into the kitchen looking for something to eat, and not finding something easy to put together.

Cleaned and inventoried the fridge this morning, to see what needs attention. Emptied a few containers from the back - mostly leftover sauces made by DD15. Things that need using: 4 leeks, a quarter pound of bleu cheese, cooked sweet potato, some carrots getting limp, three stale rolls, a pineapple (now on counter).

Top shelf: Uh oh- out of milk! Have pickles, chocolate syrup, red cooking wine, spelt and WW flour, wheat germ, flax meal, buttermilk, half&half, red miso, homemade yogurt, duck sauce, ginger plum sauce, 2 qts ricotta, 3# mozzarella, lemon juice, salsa, pizza sauce, sour cream, bacon fat.

Middle Shelf: Plastic basket of tortillas and assorted cheese, bag of dried beef, 2 quarts of chicken stock, containers of carrots and cooked sweet potato, piece of scrapple, 2 yogurts for DD12, jar of maraschino cherries, lard, tomato sauce, DH's beverage.

Bottom Shelf: Leftover chicken, leftover cooked rice, leftover dressing and gravy, 2 cartons of live red worms for compost bin, bag of spinach, 4 leeks.

Drawers (not seen): 3 dozen eggs (making pasta) 1/4lb bacon, 1/2 lb keilbasi, bags of carrots, half sleeve celery, 2 apples, small cabbage head, celeriac.

Today, I am making Celeriac-Leek Soup and Sweet Potato Cornbread. Making a little apple bread pudding from the rest of the stale rolls. Cutting up that pineapple. We have a busy weekend ahead, and we need to have some easy fridge pickings.

Next week is Thanksgiving Week. We will have dinner at DH's large (40-50 people) family gathering in Philadelphia, so I get out of cooking a big meal. But I need to take a dish for the buffet. I am a relative newcomer to this event, and most of the attendees staked out a niche on the buffet table years ago. First time, I took a nice ginger applesauce cake from a premium bakery. Last year, DH took his blonde brownies, having reconstructed his late father's recipe (a sentimental hit). This year, DH will make his luscious sweet potato pie (the secret is Cream of Coconut). And I need to produce something fabulous, that does not complete with another guest's traditional contribution. The dessert table is packed, so no more of that. I better call the hostess and consult before taking a side dish - maybe I can make something she can check off her list.

We'll eat heavily on Thursday, so I we'll eat lightly the rest of the week, with easy cooking. Apples, clementines, muffins for snacking. I'll leave next Friday completely unplanned, to take advantage of yummy leftovers.

Monday: Chicken Corn Noodle Soup
Tuesday: Turkey Burritos with Refried Beans
Wednesday: Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese Crumbles
Thursday: Bagels and honey lebne w/fruit (breakfast)

Dinner Prep: Thaw a pack of chicken thighs and a roll of ground turkey. Thaw dried beef to make Creamed Chipped Beef for a lunch.

Regular Weekly Prep: Make bread, yogurt, lebne, freezer waffles, carrot muffins and/or parsnip coffee cake.

Shopping: Get tortillas, ginger root, horseradish root, semolina flour, bananas. 15# basmati rice and 25# sugar for storage. Swiss cheese, milk, half & half, eggs.

So, now I am going to the farmer's market, list in hand, to try to stick to the menu plan. It's hard, when there is so much holiday food on display, not to come home with more produce than we can use before it spoils. Produce is my biggest food-wasting area, and I am trying to stop wasting ANY food.

What's in YOUR fridge?

Meadowlark posted pix of her fridge, so of course, I had to post mine, too. Come on, everybody can play! If you post yours, put the link in the comments. No fair cleaning it first! I'd love to see a post from someone with a non-traditional cold storage, like a spring house or ice box.

I can't back up far enough in my small kitchen to take a photo of the whole thing at once so I'll do bits and pieces. The fridge is somewhat empty. I am actually cooking stuff right now to put in there, so I made room for yogurt, apple butter, brewed ice tea, and chicken stock.

The top shelf is jars of pickles and jam, milk, bags of spelt and WW flour, and ricotta cheese stockpiled back in the corner. There is a bottle of red cooking wine hiding out behind the chocolate syrup. A pile of spinach, cabbage, and parsley, crowned by a takeout box of leftover homefries. Middle shelf has a barely-visible basket of tortillas and cheese for DD12 to make pizza, and then a lot of stuff in containers: carrots for munching, bacon fat, sour cream, leftover potato soup, cooked sweet potato, miso, lard, yogurt, lebne, etc. Oh, let's not forget the not-quite-rotten bananas I keep saying I am baking into bread. The bottom (dirty) shelf is currently dominated by leeks, a bowl of over-ripe pears, and thawing chicken, but I just made room for a large container of chicken stock to congeal overnight, so I can skim it. DD12's yogurt is down there - she won't eat my homemade, yet.


I am SO happy I recently cleaned these drawers. The left one is the egg and pork-product drawer. I don't like the foam egg cartons, but they get recycled constantly to my organic egg lady. I see DD12's organic hot dogs, kielbasi, a package of cheddar, and my just-arrived Bacon of the Month package. The drawer on the right is just carrots, apples, and celery. I stopped putting leafy greens down there - I forget them and they liquefy in unappetizing ways. Note the lovely vintage 70's harvest gold vinyl flooring - Mmmmm!

Fridge and freezer doors. The top freezer door shelf guardrail is missing, so we don't use it for much beyond freezer packs. On the door are bags of odds and ends like frozen lemon juice cubes and pesto lumps. The fridge door is butter and cream cheese, yeast in the "garage," mayo and Miracle Whip (no judging!), assorted jam, relish and mustard, leftover partial bags of chocolate chips, pickle jars, and a bunch of seldom-used dressing bottles on the bottom. Why can't I throw those away? Hopefully, you can't see the mold in the door gasket, which I can't ever seem to scrub out completely.


You would never know I organized this freezer about 2 weeks ago. People just *root* in here. Visible are DD12's frozen yogurts, back-up butter, a strip of slab bacon, bags of broccoli, beans, and peaches. The box holds things that fall out, like quart bags of stock and rolls of ground turkey. There is a 3-lb bag of shrimp I intend to portion into pounds, a beef bone for stock, DH's "hidden" cookie stash, and the ice cream maker freezer-thingee. I think the blue bag in the bag corner with the clothespin is corn niblets. The string at the top is attached to a glowstick that DD12 is trying to cryosave from Halloween.

The freezer in the basement is new, so it's cleaner, but no better organized. I filled it so fast that I lost track of what is in there. Inventory is an up-coming project. Visible on top: pork chili, ham-n-bean soup, blueberries, tortellini, pork chops, bacon. Pork was the last thing I bought, so all the chicken is on the bottom, another reason I need to re-organize. The basket has assorted sausage and brats.

So... what's in your fridge?