Cooking Baking Day by Janet Kruskamp
Today I'm having a "kitchen day." That means that I started off my morning with one of my largest pots and filled it with 2 frozen whole chickens. I will debone them once they are cooked and then return the carcass along with onion, celery, and carrots to make chicken broth. I will sneak the carrots in, so that a certain 10 year old boy doesn't notice, and then I will peel 3 or 4 of the biggest carrots for the remaining kids who think they are God's gift of a perfect snack. Mr. C is VIOLENTLY opposed to carrots in all forms, even if strained out. Somehow I must have gone wrong with him. Every meal, he asks the same question. "Are we having meat?" Should I pray he doesn't someday marry a vegetarian? Or should I pray he does? Anyway... I'm hoping these will make lunch and dinner more simplified with the often used ingredients all ready and waiting in my freezer. I'm also going to make a half batch of this bread recipe from Passionate Homemaking. I will be honest here and say that it has been many, many moons since I baked a batch of fresh bread. While I work in the kitchen, I have the big kids working on school at the kitchen table. The littlest is riding his tiny bicycle around the loop that runs through the kitchen, dining room, and living room. Every so often he stops to "help" me and usually I can find something for him to stir. I also have a leg of lamb thawing for dinner. This will be a first and at the price of lamb, I really, really hope I don't mess it up! In fact, Mr. P has commented on the leg of lamb in the freezer ever since we bought it. He texts me recipes and says, "don't mess up that lamb." He is mess. I resolved the other night that if he said anything else, I just might reply that maybe HE should cook the lamb. If time permits, I also plan to wash a shelf or two in the fridge and clean out a drawer or cabinet. My hope is that by Christmas I will have a kitchen in much better shape than it is today. For now, I'm planning on one kitchen day a week, but closer to the holidays I may end up with 2-3 days per week, especially after we are finished with Classical Conversations on December 7.
So do you have a baking or kitchen day? What sorts of things do you like to keep stocked in the pantry and freezer?