Two days of chopping, stirring, baking and cleaning later, we now have:
1 large bag of dried apples (which will likely be polished off by Sunday night)
2 jars of blueberry syrup for pancakes
3 containers of my favorite, creamy, comfort food potato soup
4 breakfasts worth of pancakes in the freezer
5 large jars of delicious yogurt
6 days left until I need to bake bread again (this is probably only hopeful thinking)
7 happy mouths to serve vanilla custard to tomorrow night (the last item on my list I still have to make)
8 apple cinnamon muffins left as we speak
and 9, the hours of sleep I hope to get tonight. 🙂
But it was so worth it.
The Dirty Dozen- Making the most of the money you spend on organics
Laura
January 18, 2008 at 9:10 PMWow girl you’ve exhausted me 🙂
Please share your muffin recipe!
Mab
January 18, 2008 at 10:37 PMJust wondering: Do you have 2 fridges?
I couldn’t fit all that in my little bit of a fridge…. and my freezer is even smaller. I love the idea of cooking once a week [which you almost have here] but how do I store all that?
Bonnie
January 19, 2008 at 3:20 AMWOW !! You’ve been busy !!! How do you make dried apples ??
Stacy
January 19, 2008 at 6:55 AMWow! You have been busy!
It all looks great.
Stacy
Tara
January 19, 2008 at 8:00 AMWow, that’s crazy! Are you freezing the pancakes as a fast breakfast later? What a good idea!
Stephanie
January 19, 2008 at 10:42 AMLaura, I’ll post the recipe later today. 🙂
Mab, I only have one fridge. However, it is currently a very, very full fridge. I do also have a separate deep freezer, which helps a lot with making extra food. A deep freeze is such a great investment, for being able to take advantage of deals. You can often even get them free, through things like freecycle, craig’s list, and spring cleaning, when people put stuff they don’t want out on the side of the road (that’s where we got our first and second freezer!).
Bonnie, to make dried apples you need to have a dehydrator. All you do is peel and cut them up (it’s nicest to core and slice them in rounds, but it’s difficult to core apples when they are getting older and fall apart more easily- I just cut these ones into smaller slices). Then spread them on the dehydrator sheets, put them on a low temperature (around 95 degrees) for around 4-8 hours (depending on your slice thickness and size). That’s it!
Tara, the pancakes are for quick breakfasts. I realized that this worked well after making too many pancakes once and freezing them and just loving the convenience of having them. They’re not quite as nice as freshly made pancakes, but they work when you need something fast. We use our toaster oven to reheat them.
Stacy
January 19, 2008 at 8:05 PMGreat job!
Can I ask how you made so much yogurt in one night? I have a yogurt maker but it only makes 32 oz at a time.
~Stacy
Barb J.
January 20, 2008 at 5:05 PMWhat do you do with your dried apples? Do you eat them dry or reconstitute them?
Stephanie
January 22, 2008 at 8:20 AMStacy, good question! I don’t use a yogurt maker- I use my oven! Here’s the link to my yogurt making tutorial:
https://keeperofthehome.org/2007/11/making-homemade.html
Barb, we eat them dry. Both my husband and daughter love to snack on dried fruits.
Angela
February 23, 2008 at 4:21 PMHow do you make your blueberry pancake syrup? It looks so yummy. You have really inspired me to try and cook things from scratch. I am really enjoying your site. Also, that potato soup looks really yummy. I am going to have to make that one sometime soon.
Angela
February 24, 2008 at 9:11 AMCould you share your recipe for bread? I am just starting to make homemade bread and I thought it would be interesting to try spelt bread. I had never heard of spelt before reading about it on here.
Stephanie
February 25, 2008 at 1:30 PMAngela, I’ll post my spelt bread recipe soon!
As for the blueberry syrup, what I made was loosely based on this recipe from Tammy’s Recipes:
http://www.tammysrecipes.com/strawberry_sauce
I used honey instead of white sugar, and a bit of flour because I didn’t have corn starch (tapioca or arrowroot powders would have worked well, too). It was so, so easy. I’m eager to make and freeze another big batch!