Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 03/01/12

I can't believe it is March.  The stocks in the freezer and the pantry are holding out well.  This past week the grocery bill under $8 for the week.  I don't really have cost on our menus since I am using a lot of stuff that I bought months ago but do know they were all bought on sale at good prices so am accomplishing my mission of no impulsive buying and buying in quantity things that we eat when they are on sale.

The menu for the week went out the window again this week.  Have been under the weather for almost 2 weeks with this cold which is fine now but didn't always feel like fixing what I had planned.  Did make a dent in getting some of the food out of the refrigerator freezer however but still more to go but most is not protein so isn't happening real fast.  Plus I have been restocking it with breakfast food this week.

Thursday night dinner was Chicken Cordon Bleu with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus.  The chicken was made after I had a weekend garden retreat here and had made baked ham for sandwiches with swiss cheese which were both left over and the group here gave me money for the 16 of them to eat here all weekend so was really free.  The chicken was on sale for $1.99 a pound right after the left so I made up 9 meals and froze them.  Just have to pull them out of the freezer, bread them and into the deep fryer.  Asparagus was on sale here also for $1.99 a pound.

Friday night was crock pot beef stew with fresh homemade bread.  The stew had canned tomatoes from the pantry.

Saturday night Kielbasa with sauerkraut from the pantry on hot dog rolls

Sunday DB had left over beef stew and I opted for poached egg and toast earlier in the day.

Monday night Son-in-law had given us some fresh perch filet that he had caught ice fishing so we had it with mashed potatoes and what else more asparagus.

Tuesday night  pepper steak over egg noodles.

Wednesday Tacos.

Last week I showed a big pot of sauce cooking.  Ended up with 8 pints which cost less than $1 a jar.

Some of the week was spent replenishing the freezer with breakfast food and trying some new things.
Made pancakes and waffles.

Got to try the homemade Canadian Bacon yesterday and it is great.  After slicing it have enough of 13 breakfasts for my brother.

Also made a chocolate bread pudding for his breakfast using the a cup of Sugar Free hot chocolate mix that I made, an egg, a slice of stale homemade bread, 1 T of raisins and a little vanilla.  It makes just one breakfast in an individual oven crock.

I am on to a new adventure with St. Patrick's Day coming it is time to learn how to make my own corned beef.

Don't forget to visit our host Robin,The Gardener of Eden at and see how others are using their stash and what recipes they have to share.

Thursday' Kitchen Cupboard 02/16/12

Not a whole lot happening here this week.  Thursday I did cook up a big pot of spare ribs for the meat and to make pork stock.  Got 7 pints of stock and enough meat for 4 dinners.  Thursday night I made pork tacos.  Guess what they are not on the menu again.  Not such a great idea.

Friday night we had home made pizza and one of the toppings was green pepper strips from the freezer.

Saturday night was dinner for 4.  Made a Sirloin Tip oven roast with gravy, boiled potatoes and fresh asparagus.

Sunday night was fried ham steaks with milk gravy, boiled potatoes and yep fresh asparagus again.
Monday night was hot roast beef sandwiches from Saturday's leftovers, fried left over potatoes and Asparagus.  That was the end of the asparagus.
Tuesday night I made marinated lamb kabobs over Curry Rice Pilaf with peas.

Wednesday was dinner for 1 liver and onions with a baked potato

Besides making the pork stock to add to the pantry, also added 3 meals of pork rib meat and 4 meals of cooked veal stew meat to the freezer and 4- 1/2 pint jars of veal broth to go with the meat to the pantry shelves.

On Monday I showed my latest crop of bean sprouts.

To these I added carrots, celery, red and green peppers, onions, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.

Hot packed them in 7 pint jars.

And now we have chop suey vegetables to make chow mien with.  Granted there wasn't much of a savings since all the ingredients were purchased but come fall when the harvest comes in the only purchase would be the bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.

Be sure to go to our host of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard,  The Gardener of Eden and see what others are adding to their pantry or freezer or using from them.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 02/9/12

Finally did my menu for the Month which I haven't been doing but it does help to get a better variety of meals rather than the simple go to rut that I seem to get into.  Of course it changes often and schedules change etc.

Thursday night we had leftover Chow Mien over rice.  Simple and quick only had to cook the rice.

Friday night was a rather flop.  I had made hero rolls that I pictured here previously.  Well they don't make good hot meatball subs, which we had with a green salad.  The rolls are too sweet and too soft.  They were immediately soggy.  Back to the drawing board.  The meatballs were great though.  Made a big batch that went into the freezer.

Saturday might was dinner for 4.  Baked fish with basil/garlic butter, fresh french fries, canned green beans from the garden and cole slaw made with one of my last cabbages.  One still hanging on in the refrigerator.

Sunday we had Chow Mien over rice again.  I really need to cut that recipe down but that was the end.  Four meal for the price however is well worth it and we love it.

Monday night was veal and peppers (frozen from the garden) over egg noodles and left over green beans.

 

Tuesday night Cheeseburgers on potato buns, french fries and beer batter fried onion rings.  Not one of our healthiest meal but oh so good.

Wednesday night was dinner for one, after a long day of grocery shopping in the city, was baked French Onion Soup from the pantry.

Did do a little baking this week also.

 

English Muffins

 

Same white bread for weekend sandwiches but not done in the pullman pan.  Made great sandwiches from the left over meatloaf along with some vegetable beef soup from the pantry.

 

Potato Hamburger buns

Potato Bread

3/4 cup water

2/3 cup potato flakes (instant potato flakes or 1/2 cup mashed potatoes)

1 egg

2 tbsps butter

2 tbsps sugar

               

1/4 cup powdered milk

1 tsp salt

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsps yeast

1              In the bowl of your bread machine, add the ingredients in the order that they are listed. Make sure that the yeast is not touching the water.

2              Select basic setting.

OK so I can't leave a recipe alone.  They always need my twist on them.  I used a fresh cooked potato put through my ricer and for the water I used the potato water.  I used just the dough setting on the bread machine and then rolled the dough out to about 1/2" or a little less and cut rolls out.  Baked at 350 for about 20 minutes until they were golden brown.

Don't forget to visit The Gardener of Eden

and see what others are using from their pantry or adding to their stash

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 02/02/12

Well looks like I am a day late and a dollar short as usual.  Just not enough time in a day.  Meal planning was a little helder skelter this week, but was pretty much stick to my plan.

Thursday night was dinner for 1.  I had linguini with white clam sauce from the freezer with a slice of the basil/garlic butter I had made to freshen it up.  To go with this was a nice fresh Italian Bread just out of the oven and a green salad with Italian Dressing.

Friday night was meatloaf with buttered carrots from the pantry stash of canned carrots from the garden and curry creamed potatoes.

Saturday night fettuccini with spaghetti sauce from the pantry made with fresh ingredients from the garden last summer, Italian Sausage and Italian bread with Cheese/garlic butter.

Bubbly and hot out of the oven.

Sunday was Ham cakes made some time ago for a meal and these were frozen at the time for a future meal with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes and fried corn with roasted peppers I had canned.

Monday night we had chow mien made with the fresh bean sprouts I grew over rice.  This was the most expensive meal of the week but it actually made 3 meals so not that expensive after all.

Tuesday night was meal for one again and it was left over fettuccini and sausage with a green salad.

Wednesday night the Meatloaf reappeared at a hot meatloaf sandwich, with left over carrots and left over creamed potatoes.

All in all was a rather inexpensive week of main meals.

I did make a lot of bread this week so thought I would share my very simple and inexpensive bread compared to going to the store.

 

This is the Italian Bread.  You can also make one big loaf but I do 2 loaves and usually put one in the freezer.

Italian Bread

This is a bread machine recipe but baked in the oven.

3 C Flour

1T Brown Sugar

1 1/2 T Olive Oil

1 3/4 tsp Salt

1 1/2 tsp Yeast

1 1/8 C Warm Water divided

Corn meal

1 Egg

Even thought I use a bread machine to make my dough sometimes, I still bloom my yeast with 1/4C of warm water and sugar.

I then add the flour, sugar, oil and salt and dump the rest of the water in and put it in the bread machine on dough cycle.  When finished dump onto a floured board and let rest 15 minutes covered with towel.  I then need the dough a little if it is a little too sticky to work with, shape it into loaves, place on a cookie sheet that has been dusted with corn meal.  Let rise covered until double, cut slashes in the top and brush with egg wash.  Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.  This bread cost $.69.

 

Now this loaf of white sandwich bread is not a pretty as the Italian bread but is just as good.

Again this is a bread machine recipe but I do bake it in the oven.  This particular loaf was baked in a pullman pan so it is more dense than if it were baked in a regular bread pan.

White Bread

3C Flour

1T Softened Butter

1T Dry Milk

2T Sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/8 C Warm Water

Bloom the yeast with 1/4 of warm water and sugar.  Add remaining ingredients and put in bread machine on dough cycle.  When finished dump on floured board and let rest for 15 minutes.  Need in addition flour as needed.  Put in a well greased bread pan and let rise until double.  Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes.  Cost $.53.

Either of these breads could be made in a mixer with a dough hook or by hand if you don't have either a bread machine or a mixer with the dough hook.

I made 2 loaves of the white bread.  The second one was a regular loaf of bread.  One loaf of the Italian bread ended up as Panko Bread Crumbs as I was getting low.  The two loaves were very busy.  The pullman loaf was used for sandwiches on the weekend by my DB along with the big pot of Corn Chowder we had for the Weekend, bread in the meat loaf and some regular bread crumbs.  The regular loaf of white bread was used for hot meatloaf sandwiches for dinner one night and for fresh bread crumbs in a big batch of meatballs that went in the freezer.  I am on my way to make a loaf of bread for the weekend lunches now.

Don't forget to visit our host of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard, Robin at The Gardener of Eden

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 01/26

It has been a fun week both adding to the cupboard and taking from it.  It was time to stock the freezer with breakfast for DB.  Made the usual buckwheat pancakes which made 7 mornings, banana muffins using some of the manager's special bananas from the freezer and applesauce muffins with previously canned applesauce.  That was 15 large muffins so another 15 mornings.

 

 

Every Friday I make soup of some sort for DB's lunches on the weekend.  This past weekend was no exception.  Made vegetable beef soup that actually gave us 6 larges bowls of soup.  In the soup besides the beef stock I had made earlier there was also home canned tomatoes and green beans.  Total cost for the pot of soup $1.33.

Thursday night Paprika Wiener Schnitzel, Spaetzle and Brussels Sprouts from the freezer.  No cost on this meal but estimate $5.00

Friday night for dinner was mac and cheese with canned tomatoes and cut up hot dogs in the casserole.  Please don't ask but DB insists he doesn't like mac and cheese but that sure went down in a hurry.  The tomatoes were from last summers stash of canned tomatoes and the cheese and hot dogs were from manager's specials quietly tucked away in the freezer.  1 pound of OM all beef hotdogs $1.00.  Only needed 1/2 pound.  Also include if the fare for the night was left over green beans and a green salad.  Total night out at our eating counter $2.00

Saturday night Roasted Cornish Game hens, twice baked potatoes and dill buttered fresh carrots.  Nothing in the offering from the garden this night but boy it was good.  $4.22

Sunday night dug out an old favorite recipe for Tuna Melt.  I had also made Vegetable beef Soup for the weekend lunch so we had that along with the Melts where were served on homemade hamburger buns.  $3.60

Monday night we repeated the Mac and cheese but this time with corn and a green salad.  Mac and Cheese was free the the corn and Salad were $.60

Tuesday we finished up the Tuna Melt and Soup.  Filling for the Melt was free so it was just the soup and rolls out of pocket so $.70

Wednesday my version of Philly Cheese Steak on homemade hero rolls and fried onions and potatoes from the canned potatoes from the garden last fall.  Again no cost on this meal.

I posted the recipe for Basil/garlic/cheese butter Basil/garlic/cheese butter so thought I would show a picture of it when I made it this week.

My recipe to share this week is Brown and Serve Rolls.  This is my go to roll recipe for dinner rolls, hamburger buns, hot dog buns.  I keep them in the freezer all the time.

BROWN 'N SERVE ROLLS

2 pkgs. dry yeast

3/4 c. water

3/4 c. milk

1/2 c. sugar

2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. Crisco

4 to 4 1/2 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in 105 to 115 degree water. Scald milk. Add sugar, salt and Crisco to

milk, stirring until Crisco melts. Let cool. Add yeast and water mixture. Add 2 1/2

cups flour and beat (with electric mixer) until smooth.

By hand, add rest of flour and knead about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl, then

turn greased side of dough up. Cover, let rise in warm place until double (about 1

1/2 hours). Punch dough down, make into rolls and place in greased pans. Cover

and let rise until double (about 45 minutes). Heat oven to 275 degrees and bake 20

to 30 minutes. DO NOT allow rolls to brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

Place rolls in plastic bag and store in refrigerator or freezer. At serving time, brown

rolls in 400 degree oven for 7 to 10 minutes.

Rolls may be baked after second rising in 400 degree oven for 12 to 15

minutes.

This makes 18 parker house dinner rolls.  These are the hamburger buns and hero rolls made this week.

Stop and take a peek at our host site for Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard The Gardener of Eden and see what others are using from or putting in their cupboards from their garden.

Thursday's Kichen Cupboard

Another week as passed but the pantry stock only went down I am afraid this week other than a batch of buckwheat pancakes that I whipped up and froze for my brother's breakfast.  Also made Artisan white bread dough.  One loaf was baked for bread over the weekend and the rest of the dough is waiting to be baked.

Thursday night we went all out for dinner.  Pan seared NY Strip with reduced red wine sauce, Baked Potato, Canned green beans from the garden and Cabbage with cheese sauce from the garden.  No price.

Friday night one meal was free.  It was a TV dinner made with left overs pulled from the freezer.  The other was Liver and Onions, Baked Potato and Cabbage in Cheese Sauce  total $1.55

Saturday night was dinner for 4.  Roast pork, boiled potatoes with gravy, boxed stuffing and green beans Almondine with frozen green beans from the garden.  Total cost $8.00

Sunday night Spaghetti and Meat Balls.  No price

Monday night one meal was free.  Another TV dinner made from leftovers.  The other was just a burger with onions.  About $1.50

Tuesday night Left over Roast Pork with gravy, box of stuffing and Green Beans Almondine.  Only cost was the stuffing.  $1 plus another TV dinner is now in the freezer with all of the leftovers.

Wednesday night is dinner for one.  It was shrimp Scampi over rice with Basil/Garlic compound butter.  Normally this is made with 6 Shrimp and would cost about $2 a person but since it was the end of the bag of Shrimp it was a feast with more shrimp.

Since I mentioned on Monday's Harvest the next Basil I picked I would make the compound butter thought I would share it here.
Basil/Garlic Butter

2 oz Fresh basil leaves (about 2 bunches)

10 oz Butter, softened (2-1/2 cubes)I use margarine and only 8 oz.

1 tsp Garlic, minced

1/4 tsp Salt

1/8 tsp Black pepper

3 T Grated parmesan cheese plus additional for garnish

1 T Grated romano cheese 

Once it is made I roll it into a log and freeze it for future use.  I probably use about 3 T. for the shrimp.

It is part of a recipe where it is all used on a pound of shrimp and a pound of pasta.

This post is part of The Gardener of Eden Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.  Be sure to visit there to share recipes and see how others are using their harvest. 

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard 12/22

Haven't done well at keeping up on meal price analysis this week but sure have been using from the freezer.  Not sure if I even remember what we had for dinner some nights this week.

Thursday night I had a birthday party to go to so DB had a TV dinner I had made with left over Spanish Rice so no cost.

Friday night was left over Chicken and Broccoli Curry over rice.  Only cost was the rice which was $.32.

Saturday night was dinner for 4.  Mashed potatoes, baked tilapia and cauliflower from the freezer in cheese sauce.  Don't have a cost as the tilapia has been in the freezer and not sure what it cost at the time.

Sunday night Beef Stir Fry with angel hair pasta.  Peppers in the stir fry were from the freezer.   Cost $2.25

Monday night had a Christmas Party.  DB had left over Beef Stir Fry  No cost.

Tuesday night Meat Sauce over pasta made with fresh picked basil from the Aero Garden.  $2.00

Wednesday night DB had a TV dinner from the freezer of meat loaf, mashed potatoes and peas and I had linguini with white clam sauce from the freezer both had been figured in the cost of a meal when made and froze.  Another free night.

So over all I would say we ate well from the freezer and total cost for the week of our main meal was $10.

Have also been baking for the holidays so the garden pantry came in handy.  Made Pumpkin Date Bread with pumpkin and applesauce from the canning as well as applesauce Bread.  Banana Bread was made with the managers special bananas that were also in the freezer.

Note on a substitute.  While baking this week I ran out of baking powder and for me to go to a store is a 10 mile round trip so only go when there are a number of things to do with the expense of gas.  You can make a substitute for baking powder and it seem to work very will.  For every teaspoon of baking powder a recipe calls for add 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tarter and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda.

Some of the basil from the aero garden this week.

A recipe to share

 

Also makes 8 small loaves with a cup of batter each.  Bake 35 minutes.

Be sure to visit our host of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard The Gardener of Eden and see how others are using the stash from their gardens this winter.  

Happy Holidays to everyone and a joyous new year of gardening and cooking.