Food Topic: What's for eatin' ?

GuineaUp wrote:Cooking can be it's own kind of therapy... which is why I do so much of it LOL. Plus something yummy simmering on the stove all day is just... comforting, calming. 

 Right after Thanksgiving turkey, I strip the carcass and make a strong stock and next day turn it into lentil soup, carrots, celery.. onions.  Back to back days of long, sloooow simmering .. and oh, the aromas !!





(are you turned on yet ?)

GuineaUp wrote:Rofl 
All the extra cocks in my flocks get eaten first lol, and any that have too much attitude/testosterone   


You know what they say about too many cocks cooks in the kitchen 

.. um, are there membership dues to this flock thing ?

haha   you 2 are too funny

We had two bags of small sweet apples lying around that for some reason we suddenly stopped eating from.

I hate wasting food. So, even though I never really did it before, I just made apple sauce. Peeled about 14 apples, diced them, and chucked them in the slow-cooker with 5 dashes of cinnamon, and a small cup of liquid, which was a splash of apple juice, and a bigger splash of pear juice. (the expensive biological clean ones with fruit only.) 

Originally I wanted to add pineapple, and I opened a can, chucked it in and then hated the smell. I fished it back out, and rinsed the apple. ugh. never again, if it's not fresh.

It cooked for about 8 hours I think, on low. I mashed it, added one table spoon of sugar about an hour or two before it was done and also two teaspoons of arrowroot to thicken it a little. Now it's in the fridge, i think we will enjoy it tomorrow. 


The only thing that would have made it better for me, is, if I could have hadded those giant raisins I once had. (we chucked a pot, due to expired, boohoo, snif)
I think they would've welled up nicely in those apple-pear juices..... maybe a touch of ....something? port? don't know the English name. brandy perhaps? thing is... I never tasted all those alcohols cuz after a sip of beer, wine, and whiskey, I decided I hated all of em. (tried safari later, did like that, but... meh, still not a fan) so... I really don't know what touch of alcohol one would add to a christmassy apple-pie kind of applesauce.

any ideas?

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There's one other thing. And know before: we're NOT asking for money, just sharing our journey. 

 Now that we suddenly love making and eating SOUP.... I want to make more, and we immediately ran into a problem. Our freezer is dead but for dying.  We REALLY need a new one. However.... danggit hotdiggety, thát is expensive if you want something with a little bit of quality. 
The last one lasted for over 12 years, so, we don't really mind having to spend money on it, apart from the fact that even if we HAVE IT,...it HURTS to spend that much (up to 1000 euro's) on a freezer. 

We have not ordered one yet, as we really can't afford such a big spend, just like that. We have all kinds of priorities in our lives, but cooking and eating healthy is extremely important for both of us, sleepy being a (applying to his sugars) manic depressive diabetic, and I am a bubbling and groaning and moaning Crohn's patient..... we both have a LOT of dietary requirements and until recently we had just given up. 

However....since we DID started cooking again, ....we now want to make 10 liter pans with soup, instead of 3. but where to leave it. 

Our freezer now is a vertical model with drawers. We hate the darn thing. NOTHING FITS. 
So, now we want the freezer chest, as we call it. 



THIS, .... is gonna take some serious thinking. and comparing. 

Still, we more and more ascribe to "if you buy quality, you only cry once".  

Worth saving for. If we can. Of course we WILL.

instead of a drawer freezer with 184 liters of space, we'd go to 331 liters. 

but... ouch. my wallet is hiding from me at the moment... 

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I don't like alcohol at all (the smell! the taste! ) but what about apple cider?

I'm sure the cooks in our forum can give you better ideas but that's all I can think of.

Yuuuummmmm - cheddar garlic anything    

I just ordered some Taylor Street cheese sprinkle - can't wait to get it and make garlic bread.  I bought a variety of herbs, spices and blends from a place here in Chicago.  They make their own blends and I'm addicted to a couple of them.

It's supposed to get cold next week - time for a big pot of turkey chili.

We're making broth and soup again today! 
Changed the recipe quite a bit, (more ACV, fried onions+garlic instead of unfried, more chives, etc) 

Again, it smells soooo good!!! The smell alone feels healing. 


You guys should tell me how you make that garlic bread.... it sounds delicious. 

Fresh baked peanut butter cookies!   Seriously yummy with a cup of hot cocoa.

Wow, haven't been here in ages  .  Made it thru my annual cookie palooza (6 types of cookies, 3 types of bars, minimum 9 dozen each ).  Plus roughly 20 lbs. of jerky in 4 varieties, almost all of which is now gone, lol.  Only took 3 1/2 12-16 hour days.  Would have been faster, but husband was home and kept insisting I stop for totally unnecessary things like eating and sleeping  .  For the first time in recent memory, had enough cookies to make cookie tins for everyone on the list, with lots left over.  Needless to say, my scale and I are not on speaking terms right now. 

Tookie, I've got an awesome tomato soup recipe if you'd like it.  My mother in law got it from one of the local restaurants years ago, and it is soooo good.  I don't like tomato soup generally speaking, but I love this stuff.  

GuineaUp, I also make apple butter, my husband loves it and I can cut the amount of sugar in the recipe by using Splenda brown sugar blend.  It smells divine while it's in the slow cooker, and never lasts very long before it's gone.  My recipe doesn't make much, about 2 jars, so it's not worth canning.  Some day I'm going to make a big batch and can it.  I like to use wild crab apples if I have time to spend peeling and coring them, or tart apples from the store otherwise.

Today we're having homemade chili, it's super cold and chili seemed appropriate.  Have the slow cooker going with goose stew for tomorrow.   We're going to be gone all day, it will be nice to come home to dinner already made.

I would love the tomato soup recipe!! I luuuuv tomato soup! 

and look what I found!