Investment Cooking

Instant Pot

January 23, 2016 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Have you heard of the lastest craze in the appliance arena? Instant Pots! It is like having 6 appliances in one! It can Saute, Steam, Cook Rice, Slow Cook, Pressure Cook, Make Yogurt with just the touch of a couple buttons! It even has a delay setting and a keep warm setting. I purchased an Instant Pot nearly 2 years ago with my birthday money and I am ever so glad I did!

Many of my friends raved about pressure cookers but I have always been scared of them! When I was young, my grandma was using a pressure cooker to make jam and her cooker exploded knocking out a tooth and covering the ceiling with jam! I decided then and there I wasn’t going to risk using one myself!

But then I started reading more and more about how much time pressure cookers could save and how delicious the food turned out. And then one fateful day I read about the new instant pots. Not only could they do just about anything, they had built in safety features that prevented them from exploding! I was sold!

Now I have found that it has a learning curve (as do most worth while things) and I am still working towards perfecting my technique. But the more I use it the better I get at it. One of the biggest things I learned was that just because a recipe says it takes “20 minutes” to cook doesn’t mean that is a real “20 minutes.” It takes time for it to come up to pressure and then you have to wait for the pressure to release at the end. I generally plan for 30 minutes more than the cooking time to account for the getting it assembled and the extra time it needs for those steps.

I regularly make yogurt, cook roasts, whole chickens, beans, “baked” potatoes and broth in it. The 6 quart stainless steel insert makes it super easy to clean and impermeable to absorbing the smells of the different foods I cook in it. It has earned a permanent spot on my kitchen counter.

I love how easy it is to make yogurt! You just pour in the milk and push the yogurt button until it reads boil. After it beeps you open the lid and let it cool down to 115 degrees, add the yogurt culture, put the lid back on and push the yogurt button again setting the timer for at least 8 hours (more if you like it tarter) and leave it until it beeps again! It maintains the temperature at the perfect temperature creating wonderful creamy yogurt for 1/3 the price at the store.

So if you are looking for a workhorse in your kitchen for just over $100 I would highly recommend an Instant Pot! I bought mine at Amazon and the link will take you there.

Let me know if you have any specific questions I can answer!

MamaKay

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

January 30, 2014 by mamakay 1 Comment

We love REAL lemonade! No powder substitute for me. Please give me the real stuff! And if you are looking for an alternative to gatorade just add a little salt and some calcium powder and you can be refreshed with electrolytes without any corn syrup or other nasty chemicals!

To make fresh lemonade you start by making a simple syrup. Basically dissolve equals parts of sugar and water. We do this one of two ways. You can put the sugar in a pan with the water on medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved or put the sugar in the bottom of your glass jar or pitcher and add hot water to it whisking it until it dissolves.

Then add your lemon juice and dilute with water to your desired tastes.

We like a ratio of 1 part sugar, 1 part water, 1 part lemon juice and then dilute with 4 parts water.

Homemade Lemonade

Makes 1 gallon

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice

8 cups water

Dissolve 2 cups of sugar with 2 cups of water.

Add lemon juice and mix well.

Dilute with water until you achieve your perfect balance.

Serve and Enjoy!

MamaKay

Lemon Curd

January 29, 2014 by mamakay Leave a Comment

What is lemon curd? Think of a lemon meringue pie. The lemony part at the bottom is very much like lemon curd except that you can spread it on piece of toast, serve it on pancakes, mix into some yogurt, or top ice cream with it. In the store a little 4-6 ounce jar costs around $4. At home you can enjoy 16 ounces for considerably less (especially if you have access to lemons).

My 10 year old daughter helped me make our lemon curd this time around.

Fill a double boiler with water to about an inch below the top pan and bring it to a boil. Then add the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and egg yolks to the pan.

Cook for 10-15 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken and can coat a spoon.

Remove the mixture from the heat and then 1 tablespoon a time melt the butter into the mixture before adding the nest tablespoon.

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Transfer to a bowl or jar and refrigerate.

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The lemon curd will thicken as it chills. It keeps in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks if it lasts that long.

The Recipe:

Lemon Curd

Makes 1 pint

5 egg yolks

2 cups sugar

1 cup lemon juice

Finely grated zest of 4 lemons

1/2 cup butter cut into pats

Fill a double boiler with water to about an inch below the top pan and bring it to a boil.

Then add the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and egg yolks to the pan. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken and can coat a spoon.

Remove the mixture from the heat and then 1 tablespoon a time melt the butter into the mixture before adding the nest tablespoon.

Transfer to a bowl or jar and refrigerate.

The lemon curd will thicken as it chills.

MamaKay

Processing Lemons: Finding Some Sunshine in January!

January 27, 2014 by mamakay Leave a Comment

When we lived in Arizona we had a wonderful lemon tree in our backyard as did my husband’ parents. Although I absolutely love living in Montana I do miss our lemons! Thankfully my in-laws are so generous that every year they send us lemons in a flat rate box! And they often juice several lemons and freeze it to bring when they come up in the summer.

This year my 4 year old son was my big helper when we got our lovely box of sunshine!

We love our juicer (and we have used a lot of different ones). This one gets the most juice out of any manual juicer I have used. They have them at Amazon and we have found a couple at thrift stores.

From our box of lemons we were able to squeeze a little over a quart of juice. Lemon juice goes a long ways! We were able to make a gallon of lemonade, a pint of lemon curd, a lemon coconut impossible pie, a batch of lemon coconut power balls and had a little more left over besides.

I also used my microplaner to grate the zest from the lemons and got about a cup of zest. I will freeze that and be able to add some lemony goodness to foods throughout the year.

I will be posting our lemony recipes through out the week. What is your favorite lemon dish?

MamaKay

Angel Biscuits

January 13, 2014 by mamakay Leave a Comment

Warm biscuits straight from the oven! Yum!

We love to have some form of bread to go with our dinner but time gets away from me more and more. I have loved investment cooking for over 15 years now but somehow I had gotten away from this wonderful method of putting dinner on the table even on the busiest days. No more I tell you! It’s a new year and I’m determined to get back on track and that starts with some investment cooking!

One of my favorite recipes to store up for another day is Angel Biscuits. They bake up light and fluffy and are perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner. This recipe makes 100 biscuits! You can have enough for today and many meals to come. I baked up one batch and then flash froze the rest of the biscuits. After they were frozen we bagged them up in gallon sized freezer baggies. Now we can just take out as many as we need. Put them on a pan to thaw while the oven is preheating to 425 degrees. Then pop them in the oven for 10-15 minutes and you are ready to eat!

To make the biscuits mix all of the dry ingredients.

Next cut in the butter and lard (or shortening). I have learned most of my techniques for making light biscuits from Alton Brown. One of my favorite ways to make this recipe easier is by using my food processor with the cheese grating blade to grate frozen butter. This makes it much easier to blend the butter into the flour. This is how the dough should look before you add the liquids.

Next mix all the liquids together and pour them into a well in the dry ingredients. Stir just until mixed. Turn onto floured surface and knead lightly.

Roll out to about 1/2 inch. Cut the biscuits out and put into greased pans. Bake at 425 oven about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Angel Biscuits

Makes 100

1/4 cup SAF yeast

20 cups of flour (one 5 lb bag)

1/3 cup baking powder

3 Tbsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups butter (frozen)

2 cups lard (or shortening)

8 cups buttermilk

Combine all dry ingredients. Cut in butter and shortening. Add buttermilk. Stir just until mixed Turn out on floured surface. Knead lightly. Roll out to 1/2 inch. Cut out biscuits and bake on greased pan in 425 oven about 10 minutes.

We flash freeze most of them before baking. Put them on a pan to thaw for at least 20 minutes as the oven preheats.

Cooking Day 11/4/11

November 22, 2011 by mamakay Leave a Comment

I got together with another friend whose family is similar sized to ours for a cooking day. A successful cooking day is made possible by spending a couple of days getting ready for the cooking day. We planned out our menu, made the grocery lists, went grocery shopping, did prep work and then finally spent 6 hours together assembling and cooking the meals on the actual cooking day.

Here is a list of what we made:

120 Meatballs
4 9×13 Chicken Stuffing Casseroles
4 9×13 Poor Man’s Casseroles
6 9×13 Sloppy Joe Casseroles
4 Gallons Black Bean Chowder
50 Beef, Bean & Cheese Burritos
40 Calzones

Chicken Tenders — were on the list but we decided to make them up separately since I forgot to thaw out the chicken ahead of time

Spent $332.33 for 56 meals which comes out to $5.93/meal or $0.74/person. (We both have 8 people in our families.) These meals are main dish only in most cases and will require additional sides such as bread, salad, etc…

Prior to cooking day we split up the following list of items to prep:
Cook ground beef
Cook chicken
Make chicken broth
Make bread crumbs
Chop onions
Chop celery
Chop carrots
Cook black beans

On cooking day we tried to be as efficient as possible. Here’s how we worked through the recipes.

1) Started the Calzone Dough
2) Made the mashed potatoes for the Poor Man’s Casserole
3) Made the white sauce to use in the Chicken Stuffing Casserole
4) Boiled the pasta for the Sloppy Joe Casserole
5) Assembled the Sloppy Joe Casseroles
6) Cut up the cooked chicken
7) Prepared the stuffing (from mixes)
8 ) Assembled the Chicken Stuffing Casseroles
9) Assembled the Poor Man’s Casseroles

10) Made the meatballs
11) Flash froze the meatballs
12) Took a break — yeah! look at all we accomplished so far!
13) Made the Black Bean Chowder
14) Assembled the burritos (the whole crew helped with these which resulted in some crazy looking burritos but boy were we done fast with 8 kids helping!)

15) Assembled & baked the calzones (again with all the kids helping)
16) bagged up the meatballs, burritos and calzones
17) bagged up the extra ground beef all cooked & ready to go
18) divided up the food and dishes

19) Cleaned up the mess (well, partly anyways)
20) Rested! Shew! That was a long day but so worth it!