What's for dinner?

I started cooking big batches when I worked full time. It was a great way to save time and money. I didn’t want to grab fast food if I didn’t have food prepared.

I didn’t have a lot of extra money when I was younger to eat out often. Very often I would be really tired after work, so taking something out of the freezer was a great solution.

Black berry cobbler sounds good!! Really good! I use my cast iron all the time, nothing is better than the old ways for somethings.

Thank you for providing a pleasant much needed change of pace / focus than what we usually face. Hubs does not care for leftovers so not much point in big batch/freezer…sometimes! Yesterday - fresh blackberries from Costco into cobbler in old black cast iron skillet . A little remained - had it for supper later. This evening - stewed apples and toast - simple.

I've been in a much better place in my mind, when I'm in a good place I cook! Tonight is eggs Benedict, and home fries. I know my husband is happy to see my head space is better!!

If I could I'd make y'all something good, as a huge thank you!!

Anxiety, I am coming to your house. I won't be eating a lot of broccoli but you may need to put a lock on the barbeque.

Tonight is BBQ chicken, Jasmin rice, with lots of butter, and everything bagel seasoning 🤤 and broccoli.

I usually don’t cook big batches . I just can’t always be bothered cutting down a recipe now that it’s just 2 of us in the house. So at times I freeze ….
Lasagna, Italian meatballs , Swedish meatballs , Teriyaki chicken , pot roast , macaroni and cheese , chicken noodle or vegetable beef soup , pulled bbq pork or chicken , mashed potatoes , Garden chicken.
DH is a pill about liking his food fresh. He’s not a leftover lover . However I am pushing to do more cooking ahead and freezing because DH’s appetite is unpredictable from day to day and meal to meal on Trulicity , even though it’s been almost 6 months . It’s caused too much waste of good food .

Alva, I cook huge lasagna and large amounts because I had 4 boys.
But I don't freeze it. I delivery them to friends. I give a friend down the road some, then I'm sure this sounds strange, but my x husband stops in , my youngest adult boy lives with him too. My mom of course gets some. It's just what I like to do

During the pandemic though, I took up baking , cheese cake, carrot cake, my favorite was a chocolate bunt cake , with chocolate ganash. Scones muffins.

Problem was when we all started to get out again, everyone I was delivering food too , gained a bit of weight.

I have been cooking less but did just make some good chicken Parm. For all of my peeps

Who here cooks big batches of stuff and freezes it?

Best thing we did in pandemic times was get a small freezer. It's on the back porch and I love that thing. Gone are the days I have to stand in T-Joe's wondering if I have room for one of two frozen tilapias.

So I cook big batches. Spaghetti and spicy meatballs, chili, lasagna and tuna casserole, my mom's favorite cheese casserole. And since cooking seldom registers high on my to-do list, when the spirit hits I can make huge things of baked beans and bratwurst.

Some things don't freeze, like my Thai Basil Chicken or my Buffalo hot chicken wing pasta sauce. But most do.


Who else does big batches, and of what?

NHWM,, in a salad, sliced on a sammy, turn it into guacamole,, I love them!!

Please share your favorite ways to eat avocados.

I am not usually an impulsive shopper.

I am careful about not buying more than we need, but I bought five avocados in a bag because the price was great! They were cheaper than buying two of them individually.

Avocados have gone up in price a lot, and I was excited to get Hass avocados at a good price.

Pam - I love cabbage beef soup!!! Have fun with the shower.

Tonight was buffalo hamburger steaks with mushroom onion gravy, roasted carrots and onions, and baby potatoes.

I made a big pot of cabbage beef soup on this rainy day. It is delish! And hubs is brining a 8 lb pork butt to smoke tomorrow. He plans to feed the painters on Monday ( hooray its the last day of this mess), and DD and sig other will be over in the evening to get some, and it freezes well. Some of the soup will go to our neighbor at the river. DD and I have a baby shower for my bonus DD at lunch, should be a good food day! And I'll get some ideas for DDs baby shower, luckily 3 of her friends are helping me. I am hoping this means I just pass out cash and they do the work.. LOL

A night out with me wife to Alexander Steakhouse! With phone on silent and only TRULY emergency calls from facility would be answered!

Needs help, a friend of mine, brought back , sweet corn flavored Pringles from Iowa. They were interesting anyways.

Beatty,

Oh that sounds nasty.. I don't drink but I think I'd grad a shot of something strong to hopefully kill the germs.

One of my favorite shows is outlander, I would love to go to Scotland and Edinburgh and the high lands!

Beatty,

Ooooooh, gross 🤮!

Sorry to the wonderful people of Scotland.. but the worst meal I ever had was on route to the commedy festival in Edinburgh.

A fast food place was open. I order a cheese burger. Figured it couldn't JUST be a patty (as I had experienced with ordering a plain 'burger' before).

Picturing a burger, you know? Bun, meat patty, cheese all melty, onion, salad, maybe tomato sause.. 😋
DH ordered ribs.

Paid, collected order, went outside to eat in the street (no tables). In the cold. Unwrapped our newspapered & greaseproof paper parcels.

DH had what appeared go be a brown-grey small rib-shaped blob of processed sausage meat. Shock & disappointment was an understandment.. but his hunger took over & he ate it.

My 'burger' was a processed meat patty with a slice of processed cheese in the middle of it. Most of it was hot enough to have the grease slide down my arms, but the middle was still a bit frozen.

If we succumb to 'mad cow disease' in the future, my money would be on that meal.

My daughter had to travel to Iowa for business and she came home and said that their food was awful! LOL 😆, no offense to any Iowa posters.

Anyway, there are definitely regional differences in food. One day I decided to look up cities and states with the best and worst food. Iowa made the list for having boring food!

Pam,

I love bread pudding! I make it the way my mom and grandma did. They were excellent southern cooks!

Regional cooking is interesting. We are known for our bread pudding. We are huge rice growers in Louisiana but rice pudding isn’t a thing here.

It makes sense though that we are great at making bread pudding because we make delicious French bread and that is what we make with our leftover bread.

We have a fine dining restaurant here, in an uptown neighborhood called Commander’s Palace. It’s one of the Brennan’s restaurants that makes a bread pudding soufflé that is to die for!

Many of our restaurants serve excellent bread pudding and everyone’s mom and grandma makes wonderful bread pudding!

Must be bread pudding season! My hubs made that this week too!

We all need breaks!!

Anxiety,

Yum!

I feel like a salad. I am going to order this Mediterranean salad with shrimp that I like. I love to cook but I am taking the day off!

My daughters are coming over later on after work.

Chicken Parm! I'm on a roll today.

Old fashion bread pudding with raisins, for brunch, using up older bread

Left over pot roast made into soup. It's snowing and colder so soup is good this week. Just finished the hot, sweet, and sour.

My grandmother bought tea pots to last through WW2 and they lasted many years later. I think she bought linens too.

I will buy a few pairs of shoes or anything else that works well in different colours but then I have them for years. It's time to cull my wardrobe again for things I am not wearing here.

cw - On a different subject some time ago you mentioned having cold arms when you read in bed. I found that here more than my previous house, so I bought a few cute nighties with long sleeves but just thigh length from Amazon. Does the job well!!!

cw,

Your story about expired salad dressing reminds me of my husband’s grandmother.

She served expired salad dressing for Sunday dinners. When we noticed it and pointed it out to her, she decided to rip the date off of the bottles! I never ate salad again at her home! 😁

She was an impulsive shopper. She overbought so many products, especially toilet paper. She had an entire closet full of toilet paper. She also bought a ton of ketchup. There was no way that she could eat all of the ketchup that she bought.

When she died she had tons of toilet paper in her closet. Along with clothes galore! She wouldn’t just buy one pair of black pants. She would buy a dozen pairs at the time! She also bought navy, gray, beige and white pants in bulk. Plus a bazillion blouses to coordinate with them.

Somewhat of a hoarder but very neat, clean and organized.

Willie, I think that's common. Mayo and mustard come to mind. Somewhere along the line I must have figured neither ever expired. Yep...............

Cwillie,
I have started writing the date on stuff when i open them, Mayo especially lol

I was clearing out expired items in the pantry and some never opened salad dressing led me to check the open bottles in my fridge, I was shocked to see one expired in 2021! I knew I hadn't used it for a while, but I never imagined YEARS past date... is this another sign of old age creeping in?