Monday, January 22, 2007

Sunday in the Kitchen

We had a more organized and formal attempt at bulk cooking yesterday. Everyone in the family was involved and as a result we made:

2 batches of minestrone soup
2 batches of pasta e fagioli soup
2 batched of chili
6 loaves of bread
dough for 16 pizza crusts
4 dozen pumpkin muffins with currants and walnuts
guacamole

Having a game plan certainly saved a lot of time and effort. It allowed us to concentrate our efforts by chopping all the onions, garlic, etc at one time. We also made a deal to stop by 3pm to allow everyone to take a break and reflect on the whole process.

In order to involve my 6 & 7 yr old, we found jobs that could be done without much help or supervision from us. Kyle spent a good deal of time tearing the collards off their stems while Rob peeled garlic. Leen spent a good deal of time on clean up while Tasha did a lot of cutting and gathering of ingredients. Jim & I filled in the gaps.

There were a few gaffs along the way. I forgot to let the baked squash drain before pureeing it for the pumpkin muffins. To save the muffins from becoming a crumbly mess, I added a cup of flaxseed meal to the batter (this works out to 1/4 cup per 12 muffins). Thankfully, this did the trick. The muffins were delicious.

I know I've said this before but I'd like to build on this. By combining my last bulk cooking effort with this one, we could really cover a lot of ground. Now I just have to present my findings to the committee!

4 comments:

Ruthie said...

Wowie, I'm really impressed! Do you find that when you're done cooking all that you absolutely don't feel like eating anymore? :)

Katie said...

I wish I didn't feel like eating anymore afterwards! I wanted to taste a bit of everything.

Linda said...

damn that's a LOT of cooking. i love those days! sometimes i wish i had more people to cook for!

Katie said...

I love big cooking days as well. I feel so productive afterwards.