Speeding Food Prep was Re: Inaccurate Taste memories?

[Guest guest]

Wow, you sound so like me.

> Well, it takes so long to cook... If I ever do anything other than

> come home and cook, I don't eat good. Especially when running

errands

> (still in a mostly new house, barely a year and still a lot to

do), or

> catching up on chores.

I had to quit running chores between work and dinner, because there

just wasn't time. I kind of tangled myself up in rules too- must

use fresh ingredients, cuz old food creeps me out - must eat by

6:30, otherwise too hungry or it would just sit there at bedtime -

stuff like that. If you have a bunch of rules too maybe you could

loosen some of them while you learn. I think it took 3 years (!)

for me to transform my shopping and cooking. But I'm really risk

averse for new recipes, because if it doesn't work, then yuk there

goes my dinner, and I would only try a couple new things each week..

Anyway, now I really do have a shopping day and a prep day. It

feels like a drag sometimes but the weeks go soooooo much better.

oh and crockpot.

>

> I need a good 8 hours of sleep a night, so that really cuts out a

lot

> of my time. I go to bed by 10:30p on most days, if not earlier.

I need 8.5 too. It sure does mean there's hardly anything but

personal and family care and work during the week.

>

> I need to get better at prepping ahead of time. I think its just

> something that comes with practice. I just feel like a tangled

ball

> of yarn right now, trying to get the right components premade.

Yes. Practice helps. plus trying things you like and getting more

of those.

> I'm thinking about getting a meat grinder - that would open a lot

of

> fast easy meals (and easy ways to slip liver and heart into my

SO).

what fun!

> The other thing I was thinking of getting is one of those jet

stream

> ovens. I hate the microwave.

those appeal to me too. You know what I really like? a weird

infomercial pan called the Turbo Cooker. It uses slight steam

pressure and really does save some time with good results.

Connie

[Guest guest]

Christa-

>The only vacuum seal system for canning jars I'm familiar with is Food

>Saver, and they charge upwards of $8 per lid. Too much for me. Do you

>use another brand, or could you recommend a different source for the

>lids [question for anyone here]?

$8 per lid?

Oh, right, I know what you're thinking of. There are these plastic

FoodSaver lids which you supposedly can use with any jar, but in my

extremely limited experience, they suck. What's great and cheap,

though, are the mason jar attachments. You use the canning lids for

mason jars, so there's no extra cost beyond the FoodSaver itself and

the mason jar attachment, which just enables the machine to suck a

lot of air out of a regular mason jar. Here's the wide-mouth version

on their

site.

<http://foodsaver.jardendirect.com/products.ad2?ProductID=1095 & CatalogID=1004>

It's $9.99 direct, but I bet it's cheaper elsewhere. I must have

hundreds of mason jars by now, and I vacuum seal them all the time.

>I'm not entirely comfortable using plastic bags for freezing foods, but

>I suppose I'd do it as a last resort.

Yeah, I could be a lot happier about that too, but at least at

freezer temperatures the damage is reduced. If mason jars were

practical for vacuum-sealing and freezing sausages, I'd use them for

that too, but I'm afraid the plastic vacuum bags are the only thing

that works for that application.

-

[Guest guest]

This is a trick I learned from a man named Charlie over on

PicklinNPreserving or FoodDrying, I don't remember which (maybe

both!).

Take regular canning jars, twist tight and back off a small bit.

Place in a regular food saver canister and vac. When you release the

vac from the canister, you'll hear a little ping and the canning jar

will be sealed using its own lid. Make sure you leave enough space at

the top or it won't work.

-Lana

> The only vacuum seal system for canning jars I'm familiar with is Food

> Saver, and they charge upwards of $8 per lid. Too much for me. Do you

> use another brand, or could you recommend a different source for the

> lids [question for anyone here]?