/vacation from cooking

[cafe]

For the last year or so, I've basically been on vacation from cooking. It's been nice and I don't feel bad about it. I did a dang fine job keeping us fed on next to nothing for years and I'm proud of that. But all good things must come to an end and I need to get back on the job. We can't afford for me not to be, financially or healthwise.

I am not going to go back to cooking every day, though. I will do the cooking once a week or once every two weeks and freeze it. We have a chest freezer and while I'm no SJ, even I and my inferior Se have picked up some skillz over the years. I'm not a neat cook, I'm not a fancy cook, I'm not a fast cook, but I'm a good cook.

So Friday I will do the shopping and Saturday I will cook. I'll make two of each dish because it's the lazy way.

Right now I'm thinking:

• baked spaghetti
• chicken pot pie
• jambalaya

I'll switch out turkey sausage for the ground beef where I can to make it healthier.

I hope I can find my one dish cook book. It's perfect for this kind of thing.

 

[Geoff]

Exactly! One dish cooking is your friend. If you make big enough portions, and let them sit for a day or so in the fridge they get better.

That applies especially to spicy food - mexican and indian both improve with sitting, and are prime candidates for affordable large scale catering.

I find a good tip is to keep fresh herbs (like cilantro/coriander) and use it at the last minute before serving to rejuvenate some left over one cook spicy food. Same goes for frozen ready to eat prawns/shrimp, just stir some in a few minutes before serving.