Category: HOMEMAKING TIPS

I’m so embarassed, but promised Barbara I’d post these. Even me, the obsessive compulsive neatnik can let things go a tad too long! I found tops with no matching bottoms and vice versa – they all went for the donation box. I put the more seldom used pieces towards the rear and in the the big tote out of the way and the pieces I use almost daily towards the front and on top. Maybe we can get it to stay this way. Yeah right, LOL.

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Barbara over at Candy Hearts & Paper Flowers is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It’s an all around comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m so excited to help her kick off this whole idea.

COOKING WITH KIDS

My most recent experience of cooking with kids was with my girl scouts on some simple tasks or the time with Amber this summer. What readily comes to my mind is my grandma teaching me way back when. She’d let me wear her apron which she so cleverly converted into a size that fit me pretty well. Then she would bring a kitchen chair over to the counter and let me climb up on it. She would let me help her do simple measurements or read her the recipe (that she already knew by heart, but wanted me to learn to understand) or stir pancake batter. When she taught me to measure it was EXACT. You used a table knife to level off the top of the measuring cup. She also taught me how to make the best cakes with double sifting. These days they say you don’t need to sift, but I feel I get a better texture and moister cake by still sifting.

No matter how old they are, kids want to help in the kitchen and we should be glad and welcome their eagerness. Much of our life revolves around food and cooking in one way or another and boys as well as girls should learn at the very least, the basics. As Barbara pointed out, even finicky eaters become better eaters when they are a part of the process of making their own food.

You can include children of all ages in any food preparation. Just be aware of their capabilities and base their tasks on that. For example, every kid wants to wield the meat cleaver, but probably shouldn’t.

Start their tasks with simple ones like learning to measure correctly, snapping beans, washing vegetables, measuring rice, when to add the different ingredients and even simple things like cracking an egg which can certainly be messy, but every kid wants to do it! Grandma taught me to crack eggs into a separate bowl instead of directly into a recipe which turned out to be a very valuable lesson. You can always pick out egg shells if the only thing in the bowl is a single egg, but you don’t want to be doing it from a bowl with all your cookie makings in it. There was a point when I was using farm fresh eggs and let’s just say I was certainly glad I still used that separate bowl for eggs or my whole cookie batch would have needed to be tossed out. Kids can roll dough or meat into cookies or meatballs. They can use a fork to criss cross the tops of peanut butter cookies. Teaching them to clean up as they go will also be a benefit in so much of their life! If all goes well, this will also bleed over into cleaning up their toys and/or rooms.

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Barbara over at Candy Hearts & Paper Flowers is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It is a comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m so excited to help her kick off this whole idea.

TECHNIQUES TO MAKE WEEK DAY MEALS EASIER

There are many ways to make your life easy to still have made from scratch recipes every day of the week and not resort to hamburger helpers or take out.

By having a menu plan ahead of time you can get organized whenever you have the time. When I do the shopping I buy in bulk to cut the cost and since I have my menu plan ahead of time, I break down the bulk package into meal appropriate sizes before freezing when I get home. During the winter, I like to spend Sunday afternoons preparing for the week’s meals. If I know we’re heading into a particularly busy time I always make double batches and freeze half for another meal. There are times we literally eat out of the freezer for the whole week, but they are all homemade meals.

Remembering to defrost your meat is key to easy meal preparation on weekdays. The most time consuming part of cooking with fresh ingredients every night of the week is the chopping and preparation of vegetables. If you are sticking to your meal plan you can do these all at once. For example if you are going to need a 1/2 cup chopped onion for each of 3 meals, then choose a large onion and chop the entire onion, storing it in Tupperware and taking out what you need for each meal as you need it. I also gather together the seasonings for each meal and have them ready to go.

The key here is to be able to start cooking immediately and just add ingredients without having to do chopping and prepping.

To recap:

1. Menu Plan
2. Defrost Meat
3. pre-chop vegetables
4. pre-measure seasonings
5. pre-set table when/where possible
6. prepare double batches when appropriate

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Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It’s an all around comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m really excited to help her out.

I have every scrap of a recipe I ever saved as well as many of my grandma’s too. It’s like an obsession with me. If a recipe sounds good in a magazine, I figure I can make it better based on my family’s likes and dislikes and tuck it away to try and manipulate at a later date. I recently decided it was time to clean-up this mess.

I found an old metal LP file box at a garage sale for 50 cents and dressed it up a bit so it didn’t look like a trash bin on my kitchen counter. (it was a beat up lime green with stickers everywhere). I have written 2 family reunion cook books in the past which helped some with eliminating the scraps of paper and I’m also in the midst of writing a Tastebook to use as family Christmas gifts that is helping to clean up this mess on a permanent basis.

I have a perpetual list on the counter and every time we use something or run out of something, everyone is trained (finally) to list whatever they used or ran out of on an ongoing basis.

We keep a pretty concise calendar with everyone’s activities, appointments, meetings and such on it. I also write what we will be eating on each day so they’ll know what to expect. For the planning purposes here I’ll show you the rest of the month so you can see the pattern(s). If for some reason we have to cancel a night I will rearrange the week so that the meal actually canceled is one using something from the freezer, not the fresh ingredients I’ve already purchased. When I do the shopping I buy in bulk to cut the cost and since I have my menu plan ahead of time, I break down the bulk package into meal appropriate sizes before freezing when I get home.

9/8 MONDAY ~ Meatloaf & Scalloped Potatoes
9/9 TUESDAY ~ Stuffed Shells & Salad
9/10 WEDNESDAY ~ Seafood Salad & Parmesan Rolls
9/11 THURSDAY ~ Chicken Cacciatore & Salad
9/12 FRIDAY ~ Chicken Carbonara & Salad
9/13 SATURDAY ~ Lemon Lime Pepper Chicken & Rice Pilaf
9/14 SUNDAY ~ Hot Wings and Home made bleu cheese dressing

9/15 MONDAY ~ Out for my birthday dinner
9/16 TUESDAY ~ Mexican Baja Casserole
9/17 WEDNESDAY ~ Spaghetti Bolegnese & Salad
9/18 THURSDAY ~ Sauteed Garlic Shrimp & Salad
9/19 FRIDAY ~ Meatloaf Muffins & Garlic Smashers
9/20 SATURDAY ~ Chicken and Onions in White Cream Sauce
9/21 SUNDAY ~ Beef Stew & Cheddar rolls

9/22 MONDAY ~ Taco Ring Salad
9/23 TUESDAY ~ Chicken Cordon Bleu & Applesauce
9/24 WEDNESDAY ~ Orange Honey Chicken & Fried Rice
9/25 THURSDAY ~ Grandma’s Chicken and Noodles – I’m working on a written recipe for this – I’ve made it from scratch for so long – it’s hard to write it down – LOL
9/26 FRIDAY ~ Chili and Beer Bread
9/27 SATURDAY ~ Chicken Enchiladas & Refried Beans
9/28 SUNDAY ~ Stuffed Pork Chops & Salad

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Barbara at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It’s an all around comprehensive house to home set of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape. I’m having so much fun doing the seasonal change over and cleaning and de-cluttering too! Head on over and see what is going on there!

She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m really excited to help her kick off this whole idea. You all know how much I love being in the kitchen!!

OVERALL KITCHEN ORGANIZATION

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She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m really excited to help her kick off this whole idea.

ESSENTIAL KITCHEN INGREDIENTS

~ Tools, Condiments and Seasonings ~

I’ve been thinking about this category for several days and no matter how you look at it, it is subjective. I mean if I cooked a lot of oriental food I’m sure I’d find a WOK an essential tool, but I don’t so we’ll approach this the same as we did the pantry, we’ll try to apply logic and I’ll list ‘my’ essentials and then you can interpret any way necessary for your household and the meals you prepare.

As for essential tools I have many that I consider truly essential! But, in reality we can truly get by with very few. I consider a good set of cutting boards, a set of great sharp knives, my cast iron skillet, quality stainless steel pans, spoons, spatulas and tongs a necessity. I try to stay away from most plastics as they do wear quicker and tend to harbor bacteria. I’m still using the same stainless steel tools and cookie sheets I spent a small fortune on 20 years ago, so that expenditure has paid off. The cast iron skillet has been passed down through my hubby’s parents and grandparents and it too is still going strong. I did purchase new heavy gauge stainless steel pots and pans about 10 years ago and they look brand new as stainless cleans so well. I also stay away from all non-stick surfaces as they do wear eventually and I just don’t want that in our food. I do change my cutting boards and rubber spatulas every couple of years just to be on the safe side despite always running them through the dishwasher.

As much as I like all my pampered chef toys, they could all be eliminated by using just what I have listed above. Personally I cannot live without my essential Kitchen Aid stand mixer & hand mixer and my Cuisinart mini food chopper. I have a blender, but only use it to make my home made Creamy Tomato Basil soup. I don’t even own an electric can opener. I do love my slow cooker too and my Magnalite stock pots and roaster, but they too could be substituted with other pots and pans.

Now for seasonings, this too is subjective based on the foods you prepare, but honestly if that recipe you cut out of a magazine calls for Herbs de Provence don’t run out and buy it for a one time recipe. It is a combination of herbs you probably already have on hand. It usually contains rosemary, marjoram, basil, bay leaf and thyme. So you can adjust what you have with your own likes. What I consider essential in the spice cabinet around here is kosher salt, sea salt, white & black pepper, celery salt, garlic salt/powder, basil, thyme, oregano, marjoram, parsley, paprika, cinnamon, apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice, PURE vanilla, maple sugar, orange rind, bourbon extract, rum extract and vanilla powder.

In the pantry I have flour, bread and cake flour, self rising flour, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, coconut, raisins, cornstarch, baking soda and powder,rice, barley, split peas, tapioca, white rice, brown rice and various pastas.

In the way of liquid essentials I have Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, honey, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, olive oil, canola oil, balsamic vinegar and several flavored rice wine vinegars.

In the refrigerator I have mayonnaise, ketchup (both homemade when I have the time), mustard (despite my severe allergy everyone else LOVES it), sun dried tomato pesto, Better than Bouillon chicken and beef bases, fresh lemons & limes, minced garlic and chili sauce.

The real key here is to have what YOU need on hand at all times without a lot of effort.

♥

Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It’s going to be an all around comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m so excited to help her kick off this whole idea.

ORGANIZING YOUR PANTRY

Most of you already know that I feel most at home in the kitchen and despite my VIRGO guided perfectionist ways, I too have a tendency to have a messy pantry. We all have those moments when it’s just easier to put it anywhere other than where it really goes.

I’ll show this set of before pictures with the disclaimer that we’ve been super busy around here and it really was easier to just shove it back in.

I don’t use a ton of prepared foods due to health concerns, but we all have a pantry full of this and thats. I was fortunate in that the forced remodel of this kitchen allowed me to set things up my way when it went back together. I like to group like things together and that helps to make meal preparation simpler. In the Lazy Susan next to the stove I keep the small appliances together and then on the shelf above those I keep the canned meats, canned vegetables and soups. In the opposite Lazy Susan I group together canned fruits, Jell-Os, box mixes like cake mixes, rice mixes and stuffing as well as jams and jellies. In yet another cabinet I have grouped together all the” seasoning” bottles like soy sauces, vinegars, oils, Worcestershire, etc…. In the 2 shelves below that I keep all the back stock like extra ketchup, mayonnaise, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, etc… Spices and such use on a daily basis are all labeled and alphabetized in their handy box close to the stove while additional infrequently used spices, bread crumbs, flavorings, baking soda & powder and such are kept in a separate cabinet. Baking staples are also all grouped together.

I have all of my seasonings and ingredients placed in such a way that the butcher block becomes my central point for creating. I try to keep all the necessary tools also within an arm’s reach. All of my reaching into cabinets is also at a minimum and I don’t have to dig for what I’m looking for. Every person and every family is different in their likes and tastes, so there is no right or wrong to pantry organization, just what works for you. That said, I have found that logic, organization and common sense play an integral part in kitchen success.

No matter what the size or shape of you ‘pantry’, the whole idea is to make your job easier and cooking more fun. So take that willy nilly approach and toss it out the window. It’s time to organize and see what you have in your pantry. Knowing will help you to keep things rotated and up to date. When I was growing up, my dad always wiped the lids of cans and then dated them when we got home from the store. I don’t go that far, but I do make sure to rotate the older forward paying attention to expiration dates and replace the restock to the rear.

Now for the after pictures.

I try to group like items together. For example the parts for a Mexican Meal are all together. The green chiles are right night to the enchilada sauce which is next to the refried beans, etc…

I store the back up stock on the lowest shelves since I don’t get in there very often. I also pull forward the most frequently used condiments and ingredients so I don’t have to dig for them. The refrigerator is the hardest ‘pantry’ part to keep organized since everyone is in and out all day some days, but I try to keep like items together here too. The jams are all on the same shelf, the pickles are grouped together, my garlic, pestos, bases etc… are all together on one of the top shelves to keep everyone from moving them!

♥

Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers will be hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It’s going to be an all around comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m so excited to help her kick off this whole idea. These are the topics I will be covering.

9/1 Monday ~ Organizing your pantry

9/2 Tuesday ~ Essential Kitchen Ingredients

9/3 Wednesday ~ Overall Kitchen Organization

9/4 Thursday ~ Menu Planning

9/5 Friday ~ Techniques to Make week day meals easier

9/6 Saturday ~ Cooking with Kids

9/7 Sunday ~ Family Dinners, organizing for a crowd

So stop on by and see Barbara for the Homemaking September Shape-Up. She has many other guest posters, surprises and a giveaway.

Be sure to stop back by and see our other kitchen topics as the week progresses.

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