Ketherian's Profile

Typically the pot luck events I run (as I don't always host them) is along the lines of I'll bring the main, and someone needs to volunteer to bring side A, appetizer B, etc. The groups are small, and most are willing to either donate money to the pot or bring something. Donations go towards buying pizza if, for whatever reason, the dinner becomes a disaster.

Croutons in your soup, slivers of stale bread in your pasta or just coated in your favorite pasta sauce. When all else fails, grind down the bread crumbs, coat liberally in your favorite oil & dust with parmesan. Add the zest of a citrus fruit (or two). Bake until dry (shake the pan a bit during the cooking). Store in a mason jar and add liberally to anything you cook.

Bread pudding is a simple way to use up stale bread. Butter the slices and the tray. Make a simple egg custard, and let the bread soak into it. A nice cream vanilla sauce is a great topping, but then again so is whipping cream, ice cream, or just plain cream. Serve it hot.

When you tire of bread pudding, soak the bread in milk (or any liquid you like), layer it (butter-side up) in a well buttered pan. Fill it with fruits (berries, diced apples, you name it) and a tablespoon of vanilla. Top with more buttered and milk-soaked bread. Bake until the bread is well browned and the mix is soft. Serve over ice cream.

When I was in college my pantry was: seasonal or frozen veg, whole chicken, rice, beans & bread. It's grown since then. A lot actually.

Only 8? I love mustard so much that, as a child my mother referred to me as the Mustard kid. I typically have at least two mustards on hand (yellow and dijon), two types of seeds (brown and yellow) and mustard powder too. I make my own mustards from time to time (beer mustard, rosemary mustard, and honey dijon are my favs); but usually I cook with mustard. To me it goes in/with everything. YMMV.

* With beans. Baked beans, refried or not, go great with a dab of your favourite mustard.
* With soups/stews. Add a few mustard seeds to the soup when you start, or a teaspoon of the powder when you add your herbs. Alternatively, add a teaspoon to the finished product and stir to incorporate. I especially love to do this with thick stews. It adds so much flavour.
* With salads. Make your own dressing by creating an emulsified mix of vinegar, oil and mustard (diced shallots, garlic, & other herbs optional). Perfect.
* With chicken. Rather than egg-wash your chicken before rolling in crumbs and baking; try coating it with a thin layer of mustard instead (thin with either a bit of buttermilk, or water if necessary). Roll in breadcrumbs and bake. I like using grainy mustard for this one.

This is getting pretty long so I'll stop. But there's so many ways to enjoy mustard. :D

Today, I'm taking it easy. I shopped and cleaned the kitchen. Tomorrow I'm :
* Roasting meat, beets, sweet potatoes and pumpkin. Leftovers make great lunches.
* Making crock-pot turkey soup. Mostly to serve later this week when guests come calling.
* Cooking Chicken Vesuvio in the hot oven. Its hard to make this on a weeknight; but tastes great reheated.
* Making a big pot of brown rice (lunches, dinners) and a big pot of oatmeal (breakfasts).
With that my fridge will be full, and dinners should be easier. Whew. Now I feel tired. ;)

This substitution chart might come in handy. I typically cook with unsweetened chocolate so that I can better control the sweetness of whatever I make.

My favorite chocolate using recipes: Flourless chocolate torte, Truffles or this chocolate cake recipe (cooking it in a jar is optional).

I have. It's a great tip. But don't forget to mash the leftovers to get all the liquid out of them. I usually resort to a metal strainer and a potato masher.

Since I usually make stock in my crock pot, I line the crock pot with cheesecloth. Then, I just carefully fold the edges over to make a loose package (sometimes I tie up the edges, sometimes I leave it loose). Once cooked, I lift the cheesecloth package out of the crock pot and place it in a strainer over a bowl to drip.

Filling my fridge and freezer with meals almost ready to eat is a great way to curb the drive to order Take out. Which is, by the way, my typical solution when I don't know what to cook. Either eating from my fridge/freezer or getting take out a time or two is a great way to stop stressing about the planning and just enjoy the food. Typically, after a night or two of low-stress I'm quite willing to go back into the kitchen and start cooking; that is - of course - assuming someone else has cleaned off my kitchen counters. :D

I wish I had a good system.

Once a season I try to update a spreadsheet file on my computer with items, amounts and rough bought-by dates or use-by dates. Often I don't have all this information (as I store many things in mason jars and other containers -- thus losing their expiry dates if I forgot to write them on the container).

The file goes up on the fridge, and I keep a copy with me (really I should load it up to my springpad notebook). I refer to it often when planning my menu and again when cooking (mostly to make new shopping lists).

But even with all of this I still have stuff I throw out because it is no longer safe to eat.

Ages ago, my Dad built a wood pile holder out of old bricks. The base was about 1/2 a foot off the ground (effectively a box of bricks - with lots of gaps between the rows and columns thanks to broken and odd-sized bricks, but the cracks were too small for critters). He then built end supports (which were just a brick wide, but 20-30 bricks high.

Leftovers he used as edging for the garden, flower beds, and the driveway.