Home Cooking ??

[Polar Bear]

Today I decided to do the domestic goddess bit and make a home made steak pie.

So browned the onions, added the steak and cooked it slowly, adding stock, sage, various seasonings and mushrooms. Made the pastry, hunted for and found the correct tin dish, lined the dish, filled the pie and placed the pastry lid on, taking time to crimp the edges beautifully etc. etc. Brushed the pastry with beaten egg using about 2 teaspoons of the egg and flushing the remainder of the not needed egg down the sink, this saves it sitting in the fridge waiting to be used for something else and then eventually flushing it down the sink anyway. The pie was then baked in the oven for 45 minutes.

Hubby and I had 1/4 each for dinner and it was delicious but left us with half a pie that we wouldn't be using over the next two days so we passed it into the young lads who live next door (one of whom is our son).

Making this pie took most of the afternoon. Next time it crosses my mind to home bake a steak pie I hope someone whacks me and reminds me that this is the reason I have been buying the steak pies made by our local butcher which are fabulous, look home baked, and cost less to buy than it cost me to make today. Never mind the time involved.

Forget the domestic goddess bit........

[SquirmingSusan]

LOL, PB. I was trying to be "Suzie Homemaker" a couple weeks ago and actually managed to cook dinner from scratch for 5 nights in a row. OK, it was good food and some of it wasn't difficult or time-consuming at all. Expecially the lasagna made with the noodles that you don't have to boil ahead of time.

I also made french onion soup, figuring that it would be pretty easy and quick. OMG, not! "Add water, cook it down until it turns into a black crust, Add water, cook it down until it turns into a black crust, Add water, cook it down until it turns into a black crust, Add water, cook it down until it turns into a black crust... " Repeat something like 20 times. It was really good, but never again.

My family really likes it when I cook. (Better than when dad cooks - he uses the smoke detector as a dinner alarm ) I tell them that I'll cook if they keep the kitchen clean. I don't know why that's such a difficult concept for them all, but I don't have to cook much.

[ViewsAskew]

These cracked me up.

Hubby has celiac disease. No buying much at the store that's premade and going out to eat is challenging. If I didn't play domestic goddess, we'd not eat very much.

But, it sure is true at how much effort is takes. I find it costs less, but I spend a lot of time doing it. I often try to make extra so I can freeze individual portions for easy meals down the line.

I also have a "I cook, you clean" rule in my house, Susan. Fortunately for me, hubby not only is extremely appreciative of me cooking, but he also is a neat freak so he prefers to clean because then it's actually clean the way he likes it. I get the best of both worlds because I don't like the cleaning part much and I do like to cook.

Last night I was challenged, though. I hadn't shopped and had little in the house. I found pasta (gluten free of course), cannellini and garbanzo beans, kale, 1/2 of a red pepper starting to get soft, some rotten zucchini, garlic, some fresh basil starting to turn black, sundried tomatoes in oil, and not much else. In the freezer, I had homemade Italian sausage (I made it with his Italian mother and we freeze lots of it about twice a year). I also found some "plops" of frozen tomato paste (you never use a whole can, so I freeze tablespoon sized"plops" on waxed paper, then put in a freezer bag to use when needed), and some frozen chicken stock.

I'd have preferred to have onions, but it worked out nicely. I browned the meat, cooked the pepper, cut up sundried tomatoes, basil, and garlic in a bit of the sausage grease, added stock, a T of tomato paste and some other spices to make a light sauce, cooked the kale until done and added cooked pasta and the can of cannelini beans.

It took about an hour, total, and was surprisingly good!

Tonight? not a clue...but a good friend's jazz quartet is playing at a sushi bar, so it may be a lucky night. Otherwise I better head to the store because there's nothing left to reprise last night's success.

[Polar Bear]

I always seem to have frozen leftovers that are more than one portion and not quite enough for two of bolognese sauce/shepherds pie etc. They seem to be in the freezer for ever.

Saturday used to always be 'take-away' night, but since I finished full time work I tend to economise more. Omelettes are fabulous for making a meal out of nothing and for next to nothing, as are pasta bakes. (good for using the frozen left over bolog sauce and bulked out with whatever is about)

Sunday's family roast is always Monday's heat-up.

Any sort of leftovers I generally toss with either potatoes or pasta, bulked up with whatever you can find, and topped with grated cheese, and looks like there has been some effort. A bit of fancy lettuce dresses it up - or fresh crusty bread.

[Polar Bear]

For a 'dip' on a buffet table I tried a tub of philadelphia soft cheese turned out onto a dish and covered with a bottle of mild chilli dip sauce and dressed with a few sprigs of rosemary from the garden. Served with crackers and carrot sticks/cucumber slices it went down really well.

Also baby boiled potatoes tossed in honey and chilli dip and popped into a hot oven for about 15 minutes - yummy. Just remember to line the baking tray with foil or non stick paper cos its really hard to get the caramlised honey off the tray !!