Pork Loin Chronicles Volume 4

Now I will try to show the breakdown of how to make these dishes into a cooking cascade. In these instructions I will be assuming that you have a nearly 10 pound pork loin and want to make the same dishes I did.

Day 1: Take your thawed pork loin and cut it in half. Put one half back into the fridge, covered.  Cut the remaining half in half again. Prepare both halves in the dutch oven and roast.  One roast is served as roast pork today. The other half is sliced and marinated in barbecue sauce and put back in the fridge. Leftover plain roast can be added to the bbq pot if desired.

Day 2: Retrieve the marinating barbequed roast pork. Prepare bbq pork and bake. Take the raw refrigerated half of the pork loin and slice off 1/3 (about a pound and a half). Put the remaining 2/3rds back under cover and refrigerate. Take the pound and a half chunk and slice it into 2 or 3 strips about an inch and a half thick. Make the marinade. Marinade the pork strips in a covered dish or freezer bag. Place it back into the fridge until tomorrow. Enjoy barbeque pork sandwiches today and Chinese barbecue pork tomorrow.

Day 3: Take the marinating pork out of the fridge. Prepare Chinese Barbecue Pork according to the recipe.  While that is baking take the last of the raw pork and cut it into bite sized pieces. Follow the Slow Cooker Pork Green Chili recipe up to the step where it tells you to transfer the meat into the crock pot. Instead let it cool somewhat and return it to the refrigerator. Have Chinese bbq pork today!

Day 4: Finish the Slow Cooker Pork Green Chili recipe where it left off.  This is the biggest meal and it reheats well.

There you have it. Four days of different main dishes all from the same pork loin. The leftovers from these kept us fed for the rest of the week around here.

I hope you have a lovely evening,
Kristin

Quick Fixes: Yogurt Cucumber Salad

Here's a side dish I can whip up in a couple minutes. It also makes a good breakfast.

1 cucumber-peeled and cubed
1 tomato- coarsely chopped
 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 cup plain greek yogurt

Combine all ingredients & serve. 

Plain, simple and so tasty!

See you tomorrow.
-Kristin

Recipe Experiment: Power Cookie ---> Granola Bars

As I was doing the posts this week about leftover oatmeal, I had an idea of another possible way to use it.  I had never found a recipe for granola bars that I had liked at all. Usually they are so hard and crumbly that by the time you get them out of the pan you have a pile of regular granola. In fact that was what made me work out the recipe for power cookies in the first place.

My thought was, what if I added leftover oatmeal to the power cookie recipe. It had the potential to make a pan of bars kind of like the consistency of chewy granola bars. It was definitely worth a shot.

So tonight I tried it.  I used the power cookie recipe  and just added 1 cup of leftover oatmeal along with the eggs. I let it mix until well blended then proceeded to mix the dough the same way as the cookies. Then I poured the dough out onto a greased rimmed cookie sheet and baked it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

The results were not quite what I expected. The bars taste fine, the kids like them just as well as normal power cookies, but the texture is much more cake-like than chewy granola bar-like. They are very crumbly. This is not what I was looking for. 

I may try again. Maybe if I omit the baking soda and add another cup of dry rolled oats along with the cooked ones I will get a texture more like a granola bar. A little honey to make them a tad stickier may help as well.

If I try it I will post my results here.

Thoughtfully,

Kristin

Quick Fixes: Power Cookies

As my family and I were getting ready for a conference, I was trying to come up with a good grab and go snack. One we would want to eat and wouldn't take any work. I came up with a cookie recipe with lots of good stuff in it. I call them power cookies.

Power Cookies

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

1 cup butter (or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup peanut butter)
1 cup rapadura (or 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup cranberries or raisins
1 cup finely chopped nuts
1 cup  chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugar. Add in eggs and vanilla and blend. Mix in salt and baking soda. Gently stir in fruit, nuts and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

When I remember to make these they usually help a lot in getting through a busy week.
-Kristin

Cooking: Blueberry Pudding Muffins

These muffins are some of my favorites and a good use for leftover oatmeal. I call them pudding muffins because they are so warm and moist. In about 1/2 an hour you can have a whole basket of muffins.

Blueberry Pudding Muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Makes 24  muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup leftover oatmeal
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
rapadura (for topping)

Grease or line two muffin tins. In a large bowl mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. 
Add the milk, butter, vanilla and eggs. Mix lightly just until dry ingredients are moistened. In a small bowl mix water and oatmeal until well blended. Add oatmeal mixture and blueberries to the batter and mix gently. Use an ice cream scoop to fill the cups of the muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops with rapadura. Bake for 20 minutes.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do.
-Kristin



                                                                                    

Quick Fixes: Stovetop Oatmeal

Good Morning!

Today I am going to talk about one of our old time staples: Oatmeal. We used to eat this so often that my technique went through a lot of changes over time. I started out like many people with oatmeal packets cooked in the microwave, but those cost too much and were really, too sweet. Then I moved on to quick cook in the microwave, one bowl at a time.... I even worked out an elaborate system of 6 steps to make sure there was a big serving and it was nice and creamy. That did not last long. I tried making a big batch in the microwave, and that took a really long time (it usually boiled over, too so the mess was awful.)

Around this time I found out that the kids really liked the oatmeal cooked in milk. That made the leap to stove top seem impossible. How long was I going to need to stand there to cook it and keep it from scorching?? This was supposed to be a quick breakfast. Ughh.

Then I had an idea: powdered milk! I can do the cooking part with water and add powdered milk right before the batch is supposed to sit. It worked like a charm. It worked so well we had oatmeal all the time and I was left with extra, that I had to find something to do with! Now nobody in my house eats oatmeal, but I still love the recipes I made from the extra. So yesterday I made oatmeal to show you how I do it and I will make other things with the finished product today.

On to the recipe!




Stovetop Oatmeal



3 cups cold water (use less if you like stiff oatmeal, this makes it really creamy)
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
handful of raisins or dried cranberries (optional)
1 cup instant powdered milk

In a 2 quart saucepan add the water, oats and fruit.  Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring occasionally. Once the oats are boiling set kitchen timer for 6 minutes. Add powdered milk and stir 1 minute, the timer will now be on 5 minutes. Turn off burner, cover pot and let rest until timer goes off (5 more minutes).  Stir, and serve.


Makes 4 servings in around 10 minutes.

I didn't add fruit to this batch, since I am using it in blueberry pudding muffins today. (I'll share that tomorrow)










I hope you have a lovely morning and a lovely day.

Thoughtfully,

Kristin

How I Learned to Love Making Waffles

When I mention the possibility of waffles, heads peek around corners, eyes gleam, and I am suddenly surrounded by happy expectation. Why does everyone love waffles so much? Is it the additional surface area? Is it the fancy built in syrup catchers? I don't know for sure, but waffles have an almost supernatural appeal, at least around here.

So why don't I make them all the time? Too. Much. Work!! I can only make them one at a time, The waffle iron is a pain in the rear to clean,...   but they love them.

So yesterday I offered waffles (secretly hoping to be turned down.) The offer was received with great interest. "Waffles?!!" So I was stuck. I pulled out my old recipe, as I started to work I realized a few things.

1. I could have been making these in my mixer instead of the big mixing bowl by hand.

2. Waffles are better fresh, I don't need to make a huge batch to make sure I have some to "save for later".

3. I don't have to watch waffles while they cook. I can do a bunch of little tasks while I cook a breakfast my family loves.

So I set to work and while the waffle iron heated up I put the clean dishes away. While the mixer mixed I loaded the dishwasher and filled the sink with soapy water. While the waffles cooked I cleaned the microwave, heated up the syrup (you can think I'm just that awesome but really it had started to crystallize!),  cleaned the waffle making dishes, and several other little jobs that needed to be done.

When I was done I had a cleaner kitchen, the dishes were done, happy kids, and the wonderful smell of waffles and syrup wafting through the kitchen.  Oh yeah! and the waffles themselves.

I spent a little time reassessing my process and ended up with something much better than I ever would have guessed. So I urge you to do the same. The next time you have a task ahead of you that you are avoiding or just not looking forward to, really examine it. I plan to ask myself these questions more often:
1. Are you using all the tools available to you? I could have been using the mixer the whole time. Other tools you may not have thought about are helpers, and rubber scrapers.

2. Are you taking advantage of what will be happening? Making waffles, leaves about 2 minute wait periods, just enough for a quick task. Other jobs may leave you with the vacuum out or a sink of soapy water or a pot of hot water, etc that you can use for another task.

3. Am I trying to do too much? How many of us are home? How much do we really eat? Where is this army I keep trying to feed? They certainly are not helping with the laundry. I don't need to make a triple batch of anything, necessarily. I think more often I am going to choose to have more energy for other tasks rather than more food for later.

4. Will doing these things make my task easier or my life better in some way? Just because and idea occurs to me doesn't mean that I have to do it or even should do it. I have to remind myself that I get some crazy ideas, some should wait or just stay ideas!

So I am hoping I can find new inspiration in tasks I formerly avoided, more joy hidden in the daily jobs around the house. I will share the major ones in future articles.




Quick Hearty Waffles

3 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup white flour


Preheat waffle iron, oil if necessary. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs mix well, the butter will still be in little lumps. Mix in baking powder and salt. Add milk. Blend until well incorporated. Add flours all at once and blend just until mixed. Scrape the bowl and look for dry pockets and mix a little more.

Pour by measured amount onto your waffle iron. Use the amount recommended for your iron. The number of waffles you get will depend on how much batter you use. I get 7-8 waffles out of this recipe.


I hope your day is lovely.

Thoughtfully,
Kristin

Cooking: Rescued Steak Fail!

Hello I have been busy in the kitchen this week, and busy in life. So of course the writing won't flow. I am going to have lots to write about in the coming weeks so this one should be the least busy on the blog for a while.

This week we were in and out of the house a lot. I pulled a lot of stuff out of the freezer and made plans. Too many plans. I filled the freezer with lots and lots of things to use later. I will talk about those in future posts.

Enter PLAN ONE! The first plan I had was to pull steaks out of the freezer and broil them for a quick hearty lunch before we went out for the day. I pulled out the broiler pan and plopped on the thawed steaks and let them cook for around 8 minutes on a side until they were well colored. I let them rest. After they rested I started cutting one of the steaks into personal portions. It was way underdone inside. I guess I need to read up on and practice my broiler technique!(Oh and using the meat thermometer might have been a good idea). I was flustered and we still needed to eat before we left so I started on quesadillas while I thought about the steak. PLAN ONE:  FAIL.

QUICK TIP: you can avoid using foil for covering resting meat, just use a large metal pot lid instead.

Enter PLAN TWO! While I was flipping quesadillas, I thought, "Hey, why don't I throw the steak into the crock pot, pot roast style and we can eat it when we get home." So I pulled out the crock pot, washed and cubed some potatoes, and carrots, tossed them and the steak in and turned it on high. I also added half an onion for flavor and moisture. Good plan except for one thing, I'm the only one in my house who likes pot roast. So we ate it for supper but most of it was leftover.  PLAN TWO: FAIL.

Enter PLAN THREE! So the pot roast/steak leftovers went into the fridge for a day. I came up with my next plan:  One Pot Stroganoff! For this I used the steak meat and carrots from the leftovers. (Recipe to follow).  It was a hit, someone even had thirds!  The only complaint I got was about the carrots so I will not use them again or include them in the recipe. Unfortunately, I only used about half the leftover steak in this recipe and had a lot of leftover potatoes, so I still needed another plan.  PLAN THREE: WIN!

Enter PLAN FOUR! Now what to do with a crock pot of potatoes and meat.... I made stew. I cut the meat into pieces. Well actually it broke into pieces. Mostly I removed the bones, fat and connective tissue, leaving chunks of shredded beef. I then cleaned dried out edges off the potatoes. I added the cleaned up meat and potatoes to my family stew base along with the pot juices and the onion cut into small pieces. I let this simmer for a while, but it cooked up fast since the veggies and meat were already done. Stew for another lunch and the rest went into the freezer. PLAN FOUR: WIN!

I got to have a kitchen adventure and now I will share the new recipe that saved the day.

One Pot Stroganoff

>1/2 to 1 pound beef shredded if cooked, sliced thin if raw
>1-2 Tablespoons fat
1 medium sized onion finely chopped
1 pound mushrooms sliced
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons ketchup
3-5 cloves garlic
1 quart egg noodles (I use whole wheat)
1 quart water
2 cups plain Greek yogurt

 Melt the fat in a dutch oven or large pan. Brown beef if raw. Add onions and mushrooms cook until slightly brown and soft. Add Worchestershire and ketchup and cook for 2 minutes, stirring. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add meat, if using cooked beef, and water. Bring to a boil and add the noodles.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until noodles are done. Turn off heat and add yogurt. Serve hot.

You can replace all or part of the yogurt with sour cream. You can also add peas or green beans if you like. 


Cascade Factors:

Beef: This recipe can use leftover beef. 
Fat: You can use beef fat skimmed from pan juices or stock to brown the vegetables.
The recipe itself keeps and reheats well. I put some in the freezer but haven't thawed it yet to see how well it survives the process. I will let you know when I do.

  

Well that's all the cooking I'm going to talk about today. I hope my experience helps you to not give up hope when you are faced with a plan that doesn't go according to plan.
Thoughtfuly,
Kristin

Cooking: Pork Roast and a Note on Side Dishes

I came to a realization this week. I have simplified my meals to one pot meals and pretty inclusive main dishes. I really do not make side dishes that often. I just heat up frozen veggies, make carrot sticks, etc. and prepare some fruit  and go from there. I could make a salad but I'd be the only one eating it and I don't like salad that much. I look for vegetables I can add to my main dishes, I don't really look for side dishes at all. I think about how to incorporate vegetables into every meal, or quickly cut up something to serve raw. I guess I'm a main dish girl. So when these cooking posts show up, many of them will not have side dishes. You can assume we ate some carrot stick or frozen peas, and I will assume you made yourself a beautiful salad, or fancy side dish that appealed to you. If you readers want more side dishes I can work on that. For now I will just let it go.

Now on to the cooking!


Pork Roast


1 or 2 Tablespoons of oil or fat
1  Pork loin roast> (I use a 6" length of a whole pork loin)
Seasoning Salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I cook my pork roast in a cast iron dutch oven. You can use any pan for the browning and another for the baking if you don't have a dutch oven. Preheat dutch oven over medium high heat. Add fat and heat to a sizzle. Add the pork and sear on all sides. I sprinkle the top with seasoning salt after each turn.

Cover roast and bake until meat reaches at least 145 degrees on a thermometer. Bake 30 minutes and then check the temperature every 20 minutes or so until done. The baking time will vary considerably depending on how hot your pan was when you seared the meat, how cold the meat was when you started and the actual weight of your roast. Remove from heat and let the roast rest covered for 15 to 20 minutes. 

The roast will shrink as it bakes. Now it is ready to slice and eat! 


Cascade Factors:

Pork roast leftovers: In my house leftover pork gets made into barbeque pork sandwiches, one of my favorites. I also set aside some cubed pork to make egg roll filling. This time I used some to make the fanciest ramen noodle soup my daughter has ever eaten. Of course it can be used in any stir fry. It can be spiced and shredded and used in carnitas. It can be cubed and frozen to be a quick addition in the future. I may have more ideas later, but for now it never lasts that long. How can it when we make things like this:

 


We had a lot of fun cooking this food. I am encouraging my kids to share more of my enthusiasm in the kitchen. I think the meals are getting better and my life a measure more cozy.

Thoughtfully,
Kristin

Cooking: Stock

Since I am doing Freezer Week this week, I have been cleaning out my freezer and making stock. Truth be told, most of the stuff I throw into the freezer is there just to make stock. I use the stock to make all kinds of things but mostly soup and sauces.  I am going to take you through my stock making process.


Stock Making


Step 1. 

Collect odds and ends for stock. I keep a bag in the freezer to pop veggie ends and meat bones and scraps into.  I keep separate bags for beef and chicken. When I have one or two bags full I move on to step 2. 



What I put in the Stock Bag:

Bones, skin, pan drippings, extras (chicken necks, gizzards, etc. NO LIVER).
Carrot ends
Onion ends
Tomato stem ends
Celery leaves and ends
Green onion tops and ends
Pepper tops
Garlic ends and skins
Herb stems
Spinach ends
Any other vegetable scraps that don't have a strong aftertaste or turn bitter


What I keep out of the Stock Bag:

Onion peels
Carrot peels
Pork
Vegetables from the Brassica family (Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Collards, Kale, etc)
Livers


Alternatively you can make stock with fresh meat and vegetables. 



Step 2.

Cooking the stock.  Place all the contents of your stock bag(s) in a large soup/stock pot. Still frozen is fine. If your pot looks vegetable poor, feel free to add: an onion (cut in quarters), a carrot or two (broken in half), and a stalk of celery or two (also broken in half). I usually have enough veggie ends and bits to make this unnecessary. Fill the pot with cold water to cover contents by no more than 1 inch. Add several cracks of black pepper. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Place over high heat and bring to a rolling boil. Only lightly cover the pot at this point. When the pot comes to a boil you can turn down the heat leaving the pot simmering on a low setting. If you wish gently remove any foam from the top of the pot. (This leaves you with a clearer stock. I don't bother). Leave pot to simmer for several hours.


Step 3.

Remove from heat. Strain your stock into another large pot or container. Place your container of stock into a sink of cold water to cool for 10-20 minutes.  Pour stock into storage containers.  I use 1 quart yogurt tubs. Label each one with the type of stock and the date. Place into the refrigerator to cool completely. Move to the freezer when cold. The bones and cooked ends left in the pot can now be (in ascending order of extremity) either thrown away, composted or added to and run through the process a second time. I add more pepper, an onion, a carrot, a stalk of celery, a splash of vinegar and cover with water again.  Then I repeat steps 2 and 3. I never make stock with the same bones more than twice.




This recipe provides me with a rich stock that gels nicely when cooled. Now I am ready to make soup!

Thoughtful Cooking,

Kristin

Cooking: Oven Fried Chicken, Oven roasted Green Beans

This week I punctuated the meals with chicken!

I made:

Oven Fried Chicken
Oven roast Green Beans
Frozen Corn

And this led to some old favorites and a trying something new.


Oven Fried Chicken

Chicken Parts (I use chicken thighs because of their price and ease of reuse)>
1 cup Milk soured with 1 tablespoon vinegar (or buttermilk)>
1/2 teaspoon + Seasoning Salt 
 1/2 cup Wheat Germ 

 Place the chicken parts in a cake pan and pour the soured milk over them, coating well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Mix the one half teaspoon seasoning salt with the wheat germ and place on a plate. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover 1 or 2 cookie sheets (depending on how much chicken you have) with foil. Take each piece of chicken, and sprinkle it with seasoning salt on the skinless side, then press the skin side into the wheat germ mixture. (Discard marinade.) Place chicken pieces, skin side up 1 inch apart on the cookie sheet. Bake for 1 hour or until done. 


Oven Roast Green Beans

Green Beans>
Olive Oil
Garlic Powder
Salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and stem the green beans. Place on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and salt. Bake for 25 minutes turning occasionally, should be lightly browned and slightly shriveled.



Cascade Factors:

 Chicken Meat- The leftover chicken meat can be stripped off the bone and used for chicken quesadillas, creamy chicken pasta, chicken salad, etc. I used it for chicken noodle soup, and a chicken mushroom filling that also used up the leftover corn.

Chicken Bones and Green Bean Stems- go into the stock bag in the freezer at my house, ready for soup making.

Green Beans- The green beans can be added to soup or any saute. They never make it that far around here.

Soured Milk/buttermilk- When making the chicken, I soured too much milk, I had an extra cup which I used to make scones (I cut them into hearts for Valentine's day), but could easily have been used in biscuits, muffins or pancakes. 


That's our cascade cooking for this week, next week I am devoting to the freezer!




Thoughtful Cooking,


Kristin







    
 

Cooking:Baked Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Oven Rice Pudding

This week I will go into more detail about the meal I presented last week:

Oven Baked Pork Chops
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Apple Slices
Frozen Peas
Oven Rice Pudding

This meal led to lots of fun stuff in the kitchen and full bellies all week!
So, let's get started.



Oven Baked Pork Chops

>pork chops, enough for a meal, plus extras for cascading>
seasoning salt


Sprinkle both sides of each pork chop with seasoning salt, lay pork chops out on a pan (with a rim to catch juice) cover the pan loosely with foil and bake at 350 degrees for an hour.

 That's it.  They turned out moist and really tender.



Garlic Mashed Potatoes

8 medium sized potatoes, washed and cubed (I leave the skins on)>
water
4-6 garlic cloves pressed or finely chopped
1/4 cup butter
milk
salt and pepper to taste

Put potatoes in a pot with room.  Add water to cover potatoes, plus one inch. Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Add garlic, simmer 10 minutes more, stirring occasionally.  Test potatoes for doneness, by poking them with a fork. The fork should easily sink into the potato. Test several potatoes. When they are soft drain them, retain a little potato water in the bottom of the pot. Return potatoes to the pot. Mash them with the potato masher. Add butter and stir into hot potatoes until melted. Add milk in small amounts until the potatoes are the consistency you like. Add salt and pepper to taste.



Oven Rice Pudding

>1 1/2 cups leftover rice (can be frozen)
1/2 cup raisins
3 cups water (divided)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/2 cup sugar  
 2 eggs
1 cup powdered milk


Mix rice, raisins, 2 cups of the water, cinnamon, and sugar in a two quart casserole dish with lid.  Bake, covered  at 350 for 1 1/2 hours. Mix 1 cup water, eggs and the powdered milk in a measuring cup. One hour into baking stir into pudding and finish baking.
Bakes to a bread pudding consistency.




Cascade Factors:

Pork Chops- The leftover pork can be used in a many ways. I cut it into thin pieces and made pork lo mein with leftover spaghetti and vegetables,including leftover peas. The kids ate that heartily but left a bunch of veggies in the pan. I used those the next morning to make a frittata. Only half of the frittata got eaten so I put a little cheese on it and ate it as a breakfast burrito the next morning! Meanwhile that was only part of the meat, the rest I cubed and froze on a plate for an hour before transferring it to a freezer bag so it can be added quickly to stirfry or ramen. The juices from the pan I mixed into the potato soup I made with the leftover mashed potatoes. That is what I did, but you could also use the pork to make stir fry, barbeque sandwiches, etc.

Potato Skins-  If you don't like skin pieces in your mashed potatoes, you can peel them. If you peel them thickly you can use them as a potato skin snack or side dish. If you have chickens, you can boil the skins separately and feed them to "the ladies" as they are called around here. My chickens love them, but chickens can't (won't) eat raw potato. 

Mashed Potatoes- I use these to make potato soup, or croquettes. They freeze well for these purposes (they are not so appetizing as mashed potatoes when thawed).  Of course if I have time for soup they don't usually make it to the freezer.

Rice Pudding-  The leftover rice pudding gets a little stiff. I thin it with a little milk in a bowl, warm it in the microwave and eat it for breakfast.




That is the cascade for this week. Let me know what you think. Future posts could get into more detail about the cascades used here or I could start with a new meal.



Thoughtful cooking,

Kristin













  


 

 
  

Cooking: Basics

When I talk about Cascade Cooking, I am thinking about how the meal I am planning can use things I already have and the leftovers can be the basis of a meal tomorrow. This plan is almost never strict, I also try to leave lots of options. You'll see.

I will use a Cascade from this week as an example. I made pork chops, mashed potatoes, and rice pudding. Each of those things either used a leftover I already had or made an ingredient that I can use in the future if there are any leftovers.

Lets look at the pork chops first. I baked them in the oven and the came out tender and juicy.  We ate about half of what I made for dinner. Now I have cooked leftover pork and pan drippings!  The pork can be sliced and left for late night snacks (topping ramen, sandwiches), be tossed into a stir fry or lo mein. If I don't think I'll get to it right away I can toss the slices in the freezer to add to later meals.The pan drippings can be tossed right into the soup pot for potato soup making with the leftover mashed potatoes.

Next let's look at the mashed potatoes. Sometimes these go like crazy and I can't keep them around, and sometimes they are barely touched. So I have had some practice finding uses for left over mashed potatoes. My favorite is potato soup, my kids love croquettes. Luckily, either can be made from frozen mashed potatoes! We enjoy these two options so much I don't usually have any potatoes left for anything else, but they do make a nice thickener for other soups if you need another idea.

The rice pudding I made with leftover rice I pulled out of the freezer. Rice pudding becomes breakfast if there are leftovers.

I have gotten into the habit of looking around the kitchen or digging in the freezer, getting inspired and then projecting that at least one step further. When I make something, I keep in mind, "What can I make next?"

In each Cooking post, I will list out a main meal, with recipes, and put a > symbol in before an ingredient that can be a leftover, and a > after each ingredient that can become a leftover.  These will be discussed after the recipe itself so the cooking can go more smoothly. I will show you my One Pot Asian Rice recipe.  I will use it because it uses all the concepts in one recipe.



One Pot Asian Rice

> 1 lb. hamburger
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
3 cloves of garlic pressed or chopped fine
1 Tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 onion chopped
3 cups shredded cabbage
2 carrots peeled and thinly sliced
1 to 2 cups other veggies chopped (celery, peppers etc.) >
1 cup dry white rice
>1/2 bag bean sprouts (or more if you like)>
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups water

Brown hamburger in a large pot or dutch oven. Keep over medium heat and add soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. Stir until sauce soaks in. Add onion, cabbage, carrots and veggies. Cook 5-10 minutes until they start to soften. Add rice and stir until well blended. Add sprouts, peas and water, bring to boil stirring often.  Turn heat to low and cover the pot. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until rice is done and veggies are as soft as you like. 


Cascade factors:

Hamburger- the hamburger can be leftover already browned from the freezer

Chopped veggies-  If you chop extra veggies for this recipe you can use them in other meals, I like to chop extra for eggs in the morning, or just to saute as a side dish (leftover saute can be used in morning eggs, too)

Sprouts- leftover sprouts can be frozen and this is a good recipe to use them in (any time you plan to cook them until soft you can use frozen). Freeze leftover fresh sprouts promptly they go bad fast in the fridge.



I usually use this recipe after making Asian Shrimp Rolls. I often have leftover veggies, specifically sprouts that need someplace to go.

I hope this post gives a better idea of the concept and starts you thinking!  I am working on the pork chop meal for my next post.

Thoughtful cooking,
Kristin