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Making Stewed Rhubarb — Photos

I picked up making stewed rhubarb because my mom always liked using the rhubarb grown in her garden to make stewed rhubarb and rhubarb chutney. (Ironically, for this post, and often enough, I use rhubarb purchased from the grocery store!)

Note that this recipe effectively needs to be done over two days, or at least with a pause of several hours (roughly equivalent to a minimum of “overnight” ) between preparing the rhubarb, and beginning to stew the rhurbarb.

Note that I also am using the “packing in mason jars and heat-processing” method to preserve the stewed rhubarb, and to allow for the making of larger amounts of stewed rhubarb at once; once the heat-processed jars have cooled, the stewed rhubarb is ready to eat.

Making the Stewed Rhubarb:

Day one:

After buying some rhubarb at the grocery store, some mise-en-place was done by taking out a cutting board, a mixing bowl, a measuring cup, a kitchen knife, and a kitchen scale:

Cutting board, mixing bowl, measuring cup, kitchen knife, and kitchen scale taken out

To avoid confusion a bit later on, the tare weight of the mixing bowl was measured and noted (instead of using the tare function on the kitchen scale):

Tare weight of bowl measured

The rhubarb purchased earlier was taken out (yes, it is a bit shabby!)

Rhubarb taken out

The elastics and labels were removed from the rhubarb bunches:

Elastics and labels removed

I began to wash and rinse the rhubarb:

Washing and rinsing rhubarb
Washing and rinsing rhubarb

The rinsed rhubarb stalks were brought to the cutting board:

Rhubarb brought to cutting board

The rhubarb stalks were trimmed:

Trimming rhubarb stalks
Trimming rhubarb stalks

The trimmings were placed in a kitchen waste bucket for later disposal in a municipal composting programme:

Trimmings placed in bucket for composting

If the rhubarb isn’t completely fresh, or especially typical (in my experience) for commercial rhubarb purchased at the grocery store, sometimes there is some minor damage to the stalks to be removed:

Stalk damage to be removed

The stalk damage was removed (and while my name can be found on my — this — website in several places, I have blacked it out from my knife, on which I had inscribed my name years ago):

Stalk damage removed

The trimmed rhubarb stalks were piled up …

Trimmed rhubarb

… and the rhubarb stalks were rinsed again to remove the last of the bits:

Rhubarb rinsed again

Some stalks were laid on the cutting board for chopping:

Rhubarb laid out for chopping

The rhubarb stalks were chopped using a slicing motion against the grain:

Rhubarb chopped

As chopped rhubarb started piling up on the chopping board, it was transferred to the mixing bowl:

Chopped rhubarb transferred to mixing bowl

The rest of the rhubarb was chopped, and transferred to the mixing bowl as it was produced:

Chopped rhubarb transferred to mixing bowl

The bowl of chopped rhubarb was placed on the kitchen scale and weighed:

Chopped rhubarb weighed

The weight was noted, to be used in a moment:

Chopped rhubarb weighed

A large pot and wooden mixing spoon were taken out:

Pot and wooden spoon taken out

The chopped rhubarb was transferred to the pot:

Chopped rhubarb transferred to pot
Chopped rhubarb transferred to pot

A calculator app was started, and the net weight of chopped rhubarb was calculated by subtracting the bowl tare weight from the weight of the bowl filled with the chopped rhubarb:

Net weight of chopped rhubarb calculated

Since my recipe is based on the Imperial system, the weight of 0.895kg (above) was converted to pounds, giving a result just barely shy of two pounds of chopped rhubarb:

Rhubarb weight converted to pounds

Next, a multiplication factor for how many “recipe units” was calculated by dividing the weight of the chopped rhubarb by the base amount of three quarters of a pound:

Multiplication factor calculated

The multiplication factor was multiplied by the required amount of sugar and lemon juice for per “recipe unit” of 3/4 lb of chopped rhubarb: Half a cup of sugar, and half an ounce of lemon juice, resulting in 1-1/3 cups of sugar, and 1-1/3 ounces of lemon juice:

Multiplication factor applied to sugar and lemon juice required

Sugar and a measuring cup were taken out:

Sugar and measuring cup taken out
Measures on measuring cup

Sugar was measured out:

Sugar measured out

The sugar was poured onto the chopped rhubarb:

Sugar poured into pot of chopped rhubarb
Sugar poured into pot of chopped rhubarb

The chopped rhubarb and sugar were mixed with the wooden spoon:

Chopped rhubarb and sugar mixed

Lemon juice was measured out:

Lemon juice measured out

Extra sugar was added to the lemon juice:

Extra sugar added to lemon juice

The lemon juice and extra sugar were mixed:

Lemon juice and extra sugar mixed

The lemon juice and sugar mix were added to the chopped rhubarb and sugar:

Lemon juice and sugar added to chopped rhubarb and sugar

The chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice were mixed some more:

Chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice mixed
Chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice mixed

A lid was placed on the pot of rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice:

Lid placed on pot of chopped rhubarb mix

The pot of chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice was placed in a fridge overnight:

Pot of chopped rhubarb mix placed in fridge

Day two:

Early the next morning, I checked on the pot of chopped rhubarb:

Pot of chopped rhubarb checked

As can be sort of be seen above and better in the following photo, a good amount of liquid had been drawn by the sugar from the pieces of chopped rhubarb:

Liquid drawn from chopped rhubarb

The chopped rhubarb was mixed again with a spoon:

Chopped rhubarb mixed

The pot of chopped rhubarb was returned to the fridge until later that evening (after coming home from work.)

That evening, a jar wrench, a jar funnel, tongs, a ladle, and a stainless steel flipper were taken out:

Jar wrench, jar funnel, tongs, ladle, and stainless steel flipper taken out

Mason jars, a few more than I expected to need, and new lids and lid rings, were taken out, but kept aside for the moment:

Mason jars and lids taken out

A pot and trivet were taken out, to act as a boiling water bath soon:

Pot and trivet taken out

The trivet was placed in the bottom of the pot:

Trivet placed in pot

The pot was filled with water:

Pot filled with water
Pot filled with water

The pot of water was placed on a burner on the stove:

Pot of water placed on stove

The stove was turned on:

… and the lid was placed back on the pot:

Lid placed on pot of water

Since I had placed the pot of water on a smaller burner, which proved to be a mistake, I still waited a bit before taking out the pot of chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice, and placing it on the stove:

Pot of Rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice placed on stove

After waiting a bit more, having gauged the heating up of the pot of water, the burner under the chopped rhubarb mix was turned on:

Burner under chopped rhubarb mix turned on

The lid on the pot of chopped rhubarb mix was removed:

Lid removed from pot of rhubarb mix

As the rhubarb mix was heating up, I of course mixed it to avoid burning:

Rhubarb mix being mixed while heating
Rhubarb mix being mixed while heating

The rhubarb mix began to boil:

Rhubarb mix beginning to boil

At this point, the rhubarb mix was taken off the burner, and since the water bath had not yet reached the boiling point, I brought it forward to the larger burner to bring it to a boil more quickly:

Water bath brought forward to larger burner on stove

Fortunately, it was obvious that the water bath was “hot enough” to dip the (clean) bottle funnel to sanitize it:

Sanitizing bottle funnel

The bottle funnel was placed in the neck of a jar:

Jar funnel placed in neck of jar

The ladle was dipped in the hot water to sanitize it:

Ladle sanitized

I started ladling the boiled rhubarb mix into the jar until it was filled:

Ladling boiled rhubarb mix into jar
Jar filled

A lid and ring were brought to the jar, and screwed onto the jar (oops, I forgot to take a picture of this second part):

Lid brought to filled jar and screwed on

The rest of the boiled rhubarb mix was transferred into jars, and lids were screwed onto the jars:

Filled jars with lids screwed on

At this point, the water in the water bath was finally starting to boil:

Water bath starting to boil

Using the jar wrench, the filled jars were transferred to the water bath:

Filled jars transferred to water bath
Filled jars transferred to water bath

Once the water had come to a rolling boil …

Water bath coming to a rolling boil

… a timer was set to 15 minutes …

Timer set to 15 minutes

… and the lid was placed back on the pot with the water bath and filled jars:

Lid placed on water bath

At this point, the water was boiling so vigorously, that water was splashing out of the pot!

Water splashing out of boiling water bath onto stovetop

After 15 minutes had elapsed, the filled jars were removed from the water bath using the jar wrench:

Removing filled jars with jar wrench

The now heat-processed jars were placed on the the cutting board:

Heat-processed jar placed on cutting board
Heat-processed jars placed on cutting board

Hot water collecting on the jars was soaked up with a towel:

Water on jars soaked up with towel

The jars were moved apart from each other to allow for some ambient cooling for a few moments:

Jars separated to facilitate ambient cooling

Then, the still-warm jars were moved to a fridge to complete cooling.

Jars moved to fridge

At this point, I changed tack a bit and printed out some labels for the jars, modifying another label template I have for my pickled eggs:

Printed labels for jars of stewed rhubarb

Scissors, a hole punch, and some elastics were taken out:

Scissors, hole punch, and elastics taken out

Four labels were cut from the sheet:

Label cut from sheet
Label cut from sheet
Labels cut from sheet

A date code (in this case for 09 August, 2023, the day I filled and processed the jars) was written on the back / inside of each label:

Date code written on backside of label
Date code written on backside of labels

The labels were folded over onto themselves:

Label folded over on itself
Label folded over on themselves

I should note at this point at which the print is more legible, that I live in Montreal, where French predominates, hence the labels are in both English and French. As it happened in the picture above, the folded labels with the English showing were upside down because that’s how I inadvertently happened to flip them over. 🙂

I then picked up the labels, piled them one on another, and crimped the folds:

Labels brought together and folds crimped

A hole was punched through the labels on the end opposite to the fold:

Hole punched through labels
Hole punched through labels

On each individual label, the end near the hole was folded over:

End near hole folded over
Ends near holes folded over

Ah here, the English labels are right side up. 🙂

An elastic was threaded through the hole of a label:

Elastic threaded through hole in label

The elastic was looped into itself, and loosely tightened to allow for it to at once hold the label, as well as have a loop to use to go around a jar’s neck:

Elastic looped into itself

… which was repeated for the other three labels:

Elastics looped into themselves

The following morning, the cooled (and fully sealed) jars were removed from the fridge, and brought to the workspace where the labels were:

Cooled bottles brought out

Labels were looped around the jars:

Label looped around jar
Labels looped around jars

These jars will be kept to be donated to my church’s fall fair, along with a few jars of my pickled eggs! (And, Mom will receive any which don’t sell. 🙂 )

Making Mashed Sweet Potato and Ground Roast Pork Casseroles — Photos

This is a relatively new addition to my collection of recipes, after having looked through an old community cookbook given to me by a neighbour. It is based on a near-identical recipe obviously (and expressly) intended to use up leftovers from a roast pork Sunday dinner; however, after trying the original recipe, which called for the use of brown sugar and apple slices, I decided to omit the sugar, which made the dish too sweet, and the apples, which didn’t suit us, and replaced them with cooked carrots.

This cooking session occurred in early April, 2023; for a variety of reasons, including the sheer number of photos to organize and prepare for this post — I went into overdrive! — it has taken a bit more than three weeks for me to build this blog post. Also, for the sake of the narrative, the photo progression presented here occasionally differs from the precise progression of when the photos were taken, either because of some mise-en-place activities, actual progression of the food preparation, photo shooting (and occasionally its impact on progression), several operations occurring concurrently, and the like.

Preparing the dish:

Firstly, a countertop convection oven was turned on:

Countertop convection oven turned on
Countertop oven turned on
Oven turned on and set to 350F
Countertop oven turned on

A roasting tray was taken out:

Roasting tray taken out

A package of (frozen) pork loin, defrosted prior to the cooking session, was taken out:

Defrosted pork loin taken out

Scissors were taken out to open the vacuum pack sealing the pork:

Scissors taken out

The pork loin’s vacuum pack was cut open:

Packaging cut open

The pork loin, removed from the vacuum pack, was placed in the roasting tray:

Pork placed in roasting tray

Garlic salt was taken out:

Garlic salt taken out

Garlic salt was liberally shaken on top of the pork loin:

Garlic salt shaken onto pork
Garlic salt shaken onto pork

The pork loin was placed in the countertop convection oven:

Pork placed in countertop convection oven

A timer was set for an hour as a reminder for how long to cook the pork loin:

One hour set on timer

A pot was taken out for boiling carrots:

Pot taken out for boiling carrots

A scale was taken out to know roughly measure out the right amount of carrot:

Scale taken out to measure carrots

Carrots were taken out:

Carrots taken out

About a quarter pound of carrot — in this case, a single carrot — was taken out of the bag:

Quarter pound of carrot measured out

The carrot was cleaned and rinsed:

Carrot rinsed

The cleaned carrot was placed on a cutting board:

Cleaned carrot placed on cutting board

The carrot was trimmed:

Carrot trimmed

The carrot was sliced lengthwise:

Carrot sliced lengthwise

… and again sliced a few more times to make carrot spears:

Carrot sliced lengthwise to create spears

The carrot spears were chopped:

Carrots chopped
Carrots chopped

The chopped carrots were transferred to the pot:

Chopped carrots transferred to pot
Chopped carrots transferred to pot

Water was added to the pot of chopped carrots until the carrots were covered:

Water added to pot of carrots
Water added to pot of carrots

Salt was added to the carrots and water:

Salt added to water and carrots

A stove burner was turned on:

Stove burner turned on

The carrots were brought to a boil …

Carrots brought to a boil

Once the carrots were boiled for about ten minutes, the boiling water was drained off:

Boiling water drained from pot

A mixing bowl was taken out in which to transfer the carrots:

Mixing bowl taken out

The boiled carrots were transferred to the mixing bowl:

Boiled carrots transferred to mixing bowl
Boiled carrots transferred to mixing bowl

The carrots were put aside for a bit.

A microwave-safe cooking vessel was taken out, ready for a few moments later when the sweet potatoes would be peeled:

Microwave-safe cooking vessel taken out
Microwave-safe cooking vessel taken out

A bowl was placed on the scale, and the scale set to zero:

Bowl placed on scale, scale set to zero

A bit more than four pounds of sweet potatoes were measured out:

Sweet potatoes taken out

A potato peeler was taken out:

Potato peeler taken out

The sweet potatoes were peeled, with the peels placed in a bucket to keep for later disposal in a municipal composting programme:

Sweet potatoes peeled

Peeled sweet potatoes were placed in the microwave-safe cooking vessel:

Peeled sweet potato placed in cooking vessel
Peeled sweet potato placed in cooking vessel

A kitchen knife was taken out:

Kitchen knife taken out

The sweet potatoes were sliced and quartered:

Sweet potatoes sliced and quartered
Sweet potatoes sliced and quartered

… and placed back in the microwave-safe cooking vessel:

Sweet potato quarters placed in cooking vessel

Water was added to the cooking vessel …

Water added to cooking vessel

… to about a bit below the surface of the sweet potatoes:

Water added to cooking vessel

The vessel was covered …

Sweet potatoes covered

… and placed in the microwave oven:

Sweet potatoes placed in microwave oven

The microwave oven (1200 watts) was set to 18 minutes:

Microwave oven set to eighteen minutes

… and the microwave oven was turned on:

Microwave oven turned on

While the sweet potatoes were cooking, a package of dried gravy mix — turkey gravy, which is what I had on hand, and in a package that makes a cup’s worth of gravy, as called for in the recipe, was taken out:

Gravy mix taken out

The gravy packet was opened and its contents transferred to another pot that was taken out:

Gravy mix added to pot

A measuring cup was taken out:

Measuring cup taken out

A cup of water was measured out:

Water measured out

The water was added to the pot:

Water added to gravy mix

The gravy mix and water were mixed with a spoon:

Gravy mix and water mix

The gravy was put aside, since the time on the roast pork ran out:

Pork taken out of oven

A meat thermometer was taken out …

Meat thermometer taken out

… and stuck into the pork, giving a temperature reading just right for fully cooked pork:

Meat thermometer reading of cooked pork

The pork was removed from the roasting pan:

Pork removed from roasting pan

… and the juices in the roasting pan were drained into the bowl with the cooked carrots

Pork juices drained into bowl with cooked carrots

The roast pork was sliced thickly:

Pork sliced thickly
Pork sliced thickly

The roast pork was cut into cubes:

Pork cut into cubes

A small blender with chopping blades was taken out …

Blender with chopping blades taken out

… and the blender was plugged in:

Blender plugged in

Cubes of roast pork were placed in the blender …

Cubes of pork placed in blender

… and the lid placed on top of the blender:

Blender lid installed

The pork was ground finely without creating a mush:

Pork ground

The chopped pork was transferred to the bowl with the cooked carrots and pork juices:

Ground pork transferred to bowl with carrots
Ground pork transferred to bowl with carrots

Larger bits of pork which did not get ground finely enough were removed from the bowl, to be ground again with more pork cubes:

Larger bits of pork removed from bowl to be reground with the rest of the pork

The rest of the pork was ground and transferred to the mixing bowl.

Returning to the gravy, a burner on the stove was turned on, in this case, the smaller inner part of a larger burner which has two settings:

Stove burner turned on
Gravy being heated

The gravy was constantly mixed while being heated, to avoid burning:

Gravy constantly mixed

Once the gravy came to a boil, the timer was set to a minute …

One minute set on timer once gravy boiling

… while the burner setting was reduced to just about minimum to only allow for simmering:

Stove burner setting reduced

Once the minute ran out, the gravy was poured over the ground pork and carrots:

Gravy poured into bowl with pork and carrots
Gravy poured into bowl with pork and carrots

The gravy, ground pork, and carrots were mixed with the spoon:

Pork, carrots, and gravy mixed

At this point, oven-proof dishes were taken out, for filling:

Oven-proof dishes taken out

The meat mix was spooned into containers to about half full, and spread out evenly:

Meat mix transferred to oven-proof dish
Meat mix transferred to oven-proof dish
Oven-proof dishes filled with meat mix

At this point, I came back to the sweet potatoes, which had long since finished cooking in the microwave oven:

Cooked sweet potatoes taken out of microwave oven

The sweet potatoes were checked with a fork to see if they were properly cooked through, which they were:

Cooked sweet potatoes checked for degree of cooking

The water was drained off of the sweet potatoes:

Cooking water drained

A container of margarine was taken out and opened:

Margarine container taken out
Margarine container opened

A dollop of margarine was taken from the margarine container with a spoon:

Dollop of margarine taken from container

The margarine was added to the sweet potatoes:

Margarine added to sweet potatoes
Margarine added to sweet potatoes

A measuring cup and milk were taken out:

Milk and measuring cup taken out

Milk was measured out:

Milk measured out

The milk was added to the sweet potatoes and margarine:

Milk added to sweet potatoes
Milk added to sweet potatoes

Measuring spoons were taken out:

Salt was taken out:

Salt taken out

Salt was measured out:

Salt measured out

The salt was added to the sweet potatoes:

Salt added to sweet potatoes
Salt added to sweet potatoes

An electric mixer was taken out, to mash the sweet potatoes:

Electric mixer taken out

The electric mixer was plugged in:

Electric mixer plugged in

The sweet potatoes were mashed with the electric mixer:

Mashing sweet potatoes with electric mixer
Mashing sweet potatoes with electric mixer
Sweet potatoes mashed

A plastic icing spreader was taken out:

Plastic icing spreader taken out

Mashed sweet potatoes were picked up with the icing spreader …

Mashed sweet potato picked up with icing spreader

… and, back to the containers with the pork, gravy, and carrots mix, the mashed sweet potatoes were spread on top of the meat mix :

Mashed sweet potatoes spread on top of meat mix
Mashed sweet potatoes spread on top of meat mix
Mashed sweet potatoes spread on top of meat mix
Mashed sweet potatoes spread on top of meat mix

Plastic bags were taken out and identified and dated:

Bags taken out and identified

The dishes were placed in the individual bags:

Dishes placed in bags

And finally, the bagged dishes were placed in the freezer:

Bagged dishes placed in freezer

This tasty dish is now a favourite!

Making a two egg, ham and cheese omelette — Photos

I picked up making omelettes for Mom a few months ago out of the blue, because they’re easy to make, and Mom seemed to appreciate them right off the bat. As of this post’s writing, I don’t have a formal recipe written up, but I imagine I could soon; hence for the moment, this post *is* The recipe can now be found here! 🙂 (20240128)

Making the omelette:

I normally keep ground ham in the freezer, divided into serving sizes in small containers, so I took some out, about 15g to 20g (about half to three quarters of an ounce):

Ground ham taken out from freezer

Should you not have ground ham on hand, here’s how I make the ground ham:

Deli-style sliced “old-fashioned smoked ham”, in this case purchased at the grocery store in the pre-packaged deli meats counter, was taken out:

Deli-style sliced “old fashioned smoked ham”

… and a coffee grinder was taken out:

Coffee grinder taken out

The package was opened up, and a couple of slices of ham were placed in the coffee grinder …

Ham placed in coffee grinder

… the coffee grinder was closed …

Lid placed on coffee grinder

… and the ham was coarsely ground (though not turned to mush!) a few pulses at a time:

Ham being ground
Coarsely ground ham

(… and, the rest of the ham in the package was similarly ground and placed in a couple of containers, divided up into individual serving sizes, and frozen.)

The frozen ham taken out earlier was placed in the microwave oven to defrost it:

Frozen ground ham placed in microwave oven

… and the microwave oven (1100 watts) was set to about 30 seconds, just enough to mostly defrost the ham:

Microwave oven set to 30 seconds (1100 watts)

The microwave oven was turned on:

Chopped ham defrosting in microwave oven

Finally, the defrosted chopped ham was broken up with a fork:

Defrosted chopped ham broken up with fork

The chopped ham was put aside for a few moments.

Again, normally, I keep cheddar cheese sliced off the block in the fridge, so I took some out:

Container of cheddar cheese sliced off block

Should you not have sliced cheese on hand, here’s how I slice the cheese: A block of cheddar cheese and a cheese slicer in the form of a slotted lifter, where were the slot has an edge intended for slicing the likes of cheese off of a block, were taken out; normally we like mild cheddar, but you can choose any kind of cheese you like that will slice, shred, or crumble nicely:

Block of cheddar cheese with cheese slicer

The block of cheese was unwrapped:

Unwrapped block of cheddar cheese with cheese slicer

Cheese was sliced off the block:

Cheese sliced off block

… and as the cheese was sliced, it was placed in a container:

Cheese slices placed in container

The cheese slices which were produced for this demonstration were put away in the fridge, while the cheese slices taken out earlier were put aside on the counter for a few moments.

Back to the omelette, a mixing bowl was taken out:

Mixing bowl taken out

Two eggs were taken out:

Eggs taken out
Eggs taken out
Two eggs taken out

Two eggs were cracked in the mixing bowl:

Eggs cracked in mixing bowl
Eggs cracked in mixing bowl

Milk was taken out, and about an ounce of milk was measured out:

Milk taken out and measured

The milk was added to the eggs:

Milk added to eggs
Milk added to eggs

A bit of salt was added to the eggs and milk:

Salt added to eggs and milk

The mixture was beaten with a fork:

Beating eggs and milk and salt with fork
Ingredients beaten with fork

For this amount of egg mixture, I use a 6 inch / 15 centimetre non-stick frypan:

6 inch / 15 centimetre non-stick frypan

Also, an aluminum pie plate was taken out:

Aluminum pie plate take out

The stove was turned on to a low setting, but, crucially, given that I was using a larger burner and that this burner can be set to only use a smaller, inner circle, I should have only set it to that smaller, inner circle.

Stove set to low setting

Cooking oil, in this case olive oil, was taken out and added to the frypan:

Olive oil added to frypan
Olive oil added to frypan

The olive oil was spread over the cooking surface of the frypan:

Olive oil spread over cooking surface
Olive oil spread over cooking surface

The beaten egg mixture was poured into the frypan:

Egg mixture poured into frypan
Egg mixture poured into frypan
Egg mixture poured into frypan

The aluminum pie plate was placed over the frypan as a means to cook the top of the egg mixture somewhat more quickly:

Pie plate placed on top of frypan

A few slices of the cheese was taken out of the container, about enough just to cover half the surface of the omelette, twice, with a not too thick layer of cheese, especially since there will be two layers (see below):

Cheese taken out of container

The aluminum pie plate was taken off the frypan, revealing that the egg mixture was cooking through:

Aluminum pie plate removed from frypan

About half the cheese slices were placed on half of the omelette (in this case, on the left hand half of the omelette!):

Cheese placed over half omelette

The ground ham was spread over the cheese on the omelette:

Ground ham spread over cheese

The rest of the cheese slices were placed on top of the ground ham:

Cheese placed on top of ham

The aluminum pie plate was again placed on top of the frypan, in order to help melt the cheese and warm the ham:

Aluminum pie plate placed over frypan

A few moments later, the pie plate was removed, and half the omelette was flipped over onto the other half:

Omelette flipped over on itself

A bit of water was drawn from a tap and into a glass …

Water drawn from tap

Some water was poured into the frypan, in order to create some steam:

Water poured into the frypan to create steam

The aluminum pie plate was again placed on top of the frypan to capture the steam to continue cooking the omelette:

Aluminum pie plate placed on top of frypan

The aluminum pie plate was again removed from the frypan, and the omelette cut in two:

Cutting the omelette in two

At this point, the two halves were quickly turned over (oops, I forgot to take a picture) and cooked for another very small moment.

Half the omelette was served on a plate for Mom to have right away, and the other half was placed in a container to place in the fridge, for Mom to have at a later time:

Omelette split in two

Ketchup was added, and the omelette was served to Mom:

Omelette served with ketchup

To my pleasure, Mom yet again found it to be tasty!

Freezer Cooking and Lunches

In mid-2006, my employer at the time was acquired by another company, and my new employers required me – rightfully so – to take some basic training that I should have taken several years earlier. The training was after work hours, two evenings a week, for a few weeks.

Normally, my eating habits were (and still are) such that a given day’s lunch was composed of leftovers from the previous evening’s supper; in fact, normally supper meal plans at the time and still to this day usually intentionally include cooking for one more serving than the meal would call for, so that I would have a lunch the following day.

The training course, however, had the effect of not only requiring me to improvise for my supper plans, such as eating fast food, but also required me to improvise for the following day’s lunch too. My memory of this period is that there was a snowball effect on much of the week’s meals, although it probably was not quite as dramatic as what my mind has woven into my memory.

One of the solutions I came up with — but never quite fully implemented at the time — was the idea of a cooking weekend, targeted at being done at the cottage. My ambition at that point was to stock the freezer with a variety, as well as a large stock, of dishes and prepared meals, including lunches, so that the above situation wouldn’t be a problem moving forward. I had notions that were fairly ambitious, both in terms of the variety of meals to be made during the weekend, as well as the sheer amount of food that I suppose I expected to make over such a hypothetical weekend.

I developed the following planning table:

The table I created with basic plans for such a cooking weekend

As can be seen, one of the goals was to make a number of dishes based on a common ingredient, my spaghetti sauce, which I had begun making in the early 1990’s.

As also can be seen, although there were a few numbers of dishes to produce, overall the list is rather vague in what I would end up with in terms of numbers. Among other things, while I did have rough ideas of how much of most of the items I would make (or at least envisioned making), for instance, I didn’t start planning out the required amounts of each of the ingredients and sub-ingredients needed to make the dishes and components.

Overall, it seemed — and still seems to this day — rather vague and all over the place, and overly ambitious to the point of being daunting. Critically, although I knew that I would be making about seven to eight quarts of my spaghetti sauce, I didn’t plan out its ingredients, determine just how many of each of the other dishes for which it would be used would be produced from the seven to eight quarts, or whether some of the “larger” dishes were to be prepared for their own sake and the freezer, or to be ultimately cooked and divided up into lunch containers. Except as an afterthought, I just about didn’t even insert the making of the spaghetti sauce into the weekend’s already ambitious cooking plans!

Before coming to this last realization, I realized that my plan would only produce two or three servings’ or meals’ worth of each, which might all be eaten in short order.

Unsurprisingly, the planned weekend was never executed, and after a few weeks, my evenings freed up, and my regular lunches returned.

Years later, I realized despite the usefulness of the intentions behind my plans for the cooking weekend, at least for me, it suffered from not only being too ambitious in its own right, but from being even more ambitious than I thought. At the same time, the overall plan suffered from being a bit too wide in its intended scope given what would be a limited amount of base (the spaghetti sauce). As such, the plan was likely to produce — should I accomplish it all in such a weekend — merely an amount of food, especially the lunches, that would be consumed far more quickly than I had hoped.

My spaghetti sauce — and what I do now for tomato sauce based dishes

My spaghetti sauce was a bit of a marathon sauce to make. Based on canned tomatoes, it also included an inordinate variety and amount of chopped vegetables for a spaghetti sauce, and — especially the end product — was not unlike my current vegetable soup recipe, which I have been making since about 2013. I had a prideful joy in making it, partly as a result of it being so chock-full of vegetables, but, to a degree than I didn’t care to admit at the time, also borne of a stubborn pride resulting from it being a showcase of all the vegetables it contained and a desire to show off a certain (naïve) cooking acumen.

My chili recipe recipe from the early 1990’s, which is essentially my spaghetti sauce with the addition of the red kidney beans and the chili powder (image scanned from my church’s cookbook, published in 1996)

However, one of the things I realized in looking at my big cooking weekend, both early on without realizing it, as well as more formally just recently, was that I just wanted to make, say, lasagna, chilli, beef rolls, pasta dishes, or my eggplant dish (as well as a few lunches not involving my sauce). The “without realizing it” part (early on) was overshadowed by the prideful notion that it made sense at the time to want to use my spaghetti sauce to then make all these other dishes.

Except … I have come to realize that the effort to make the sauce to begin with, as well as my pride in wanting to use it, was perhaps core to the difficulty in implementing the cooking weekend. While the dishes were meant to be a showcase to myself for my spaghetti sauce and as well as my cooking in general, I realized that all these dishes were about showcasing the whole dishes, and not so much meant to showcase my spaghetti sauce.

As such, for a long time now, many of the tomato sauce dishes I make call for commercially prepared tomato / spaghetti sauces, as opposed to, specifically, my home-made sauce.

(As a side thought, were to I make spaghetti sauce again, I have a few vague notions about simplifying it somewhat, as well as chopping the vegetables much more finely, to the point of grinding them, instead of the coarse chopping I favoured for the “sauce” in the 1990’s.)

How things have evolved to today:

Despite the fact that the above weekend plan never materialized, I soon took to often planning cooking weekends when I went to the cottage, especially during the off-season (it’s a family cottage, so there always have been occasional scheduling issues which haven’t always allowed me to do what I would like, when I would like. 🙂 )

However, the first thing that should be mentioned, since this post is at least partly predicated on a period of time in which having ready-made lunches handily available in the freezer was essential, but was not the case, is that … I haven’t since planned out cooking weekends dedicated to cooking ready-made lunches for the freezer, or form a cooking club with a few friends in which we fastidiously make a week’s worth (or more) of lunches and other meals every Saturday, or otherwise come up with a systematic method of stocking the freezer with ready-made lunches.

In the intervening years, the principal approach I have taken to rectify unforeseen needs for prepared lunches is to hoard lunches and leftovers in the freezer; in addition to routinely making extra food for the following day’s lunch, I would occasionally also, at random opportunities, zealously make an extra lunch to place in the freezer. As such, my supply of extra lunches at any given time ebbs and swells according to how many lunches I have managed to hoard at that point in time, versus how many I have needed to eat recently. Fortunately, some of my recipes somewhat ease mounting full lunches in the freezer by being pair-able with odds-and-ends leftovers, such as bacon wrapped chicken, meatballs, and stuffed potato skins.

What I do do is plan “big” cooking weekends many times while I am up at the cottage, including quite often during the off season in winter, incidentally without running water. This is done in conjunction with weekend afternoons in the city with similar objectives (including a cook-through-my-collection-of-recipes project I did mostly in 2021, accessible off my home page at https://www.malak.ca ). Depending on my desires and ambitions, I usually concentrate on single projects, per day anyway; during a week over Christmas to New Year’s, for instance, I usually plan for almost as many large cooking projects as there are days – to cook various large cooking projects to fill the freezer.

I had begun large, more focused, cooking weekends not too long after my above planned weekend should have taken place, continuing a certain tradition I had started years earlier of occasionally making large quantities of my recipes, from a then-limited recipe répertoire, typically focusing on large freezer quantities of one, or perhaps two, recipes from my collection.

Therefore, early on — at this point, exactly “when” being lost to the sands of time and the multiple computer upgrades over the years, during which dates of creation, or at least the last edit, have been lost several times over — I had put the following list together. I tried to write down what my aims and guidelines had become. Note that the text of the list has been slightly edited to fit the current narrative:

  • A dish needs to be just as easy to make several units of the recipe as one unit – if not easier, and as such not more difficult to make because it’s in quantity (barring the extra time and labour merely due to extra quantity – taking advantage of economies of scale);
  • A dish needs to be easy to make in large quantities, using a repetitive production line process;
  • A dish must be appropriate for freezing – for instance, my zucchini dish is not appropriate for freezing, although its sauce is appropriate for freezing!
  • A dish should be something that just needs to be defrosted and reheated / cooked in toaster oven or regular oven;
  • A dish should be “convenience food” — the operative notion being “convenient because it’s made in advance and ready to eat” (or brown and serve), not as in “junk food” or like industrially produced, store bought frozen lunches;
  • A dish should not be something at its core easy enough to make any day of the week fresh (looking back, I suppose that this is barring a notion to make multiple units of otherwise easy to make lunches to stock the freezer, were that have been a priority at the time);
  • A cooking project should not just be components for other dishes – ie. projects should be to make full meals, not just cooked hamburgers or burger meat, nor just cooked chicken pieces, etc.

Given that over the years, my objectives have evolved, changed, and widened, I have long since abandoned at least a part of the guideline regarding making meal components or single items, because I now regularly cook large quantities of breakfast sausages for freezing, have in the past cooked whole packages or more of bacon for my mom, and I regularly make bacon wrapped chicken, meatloaf, meatballs, stuffed potato skins, as well as cooked ground beef frozen in ice cube trays to keep in the freezer for other times calling for small amounts of cooked ground beef.

Of course, it would only be appropriate to show a recent planning table for a week’s stay at the cottage over Christmas , 2021 (regular meal planning blocked out):

Yes, there are still a lot of details missing here from this list, such as specific numbers, arguably allowing for somebody besides myself to look at both lists and wonder, beyond the more relaxed pace and the specific list of foods and ingredients to bring, what the difference between this 2021 table and the 2006 table are. However, each entry is based on, normally, the standard amounts in my various recipes, plus often slight excesses. And, according to my notes, I also made stuffed potato skins, bran muffins for my mom twice instead of once, and the chocolate buttercrunch twice, as well as, as intimated in the “bring” list, a container of cheese sliced off of the block for my mom to consume the following week.

These days, my freezers are usually full of many tasty dishes from my collection of recipes, individual servings of many foods both from and beyond my collection of recipes, and various lunches made up of leftovers, some consisting of components from multiple meals and cooking sessions. This is actually served by a certain hoarding instinct; I often fill containers with bits of leftovers from a given meal to freeze, and as possible I add to them with other little bits already in the freezer as they are produced.

And … do I run out of lunches? Usually not! However … managing the freezer is a work in progress and a continuous project, sometimes a daily project beyond simply preparing tomorrows lunch; I sometimes grab opportunities to make a second lunch or portion thereof!

Making My Mom’s Rhubarb Chutney — Photos

My mom has been making a rhubarb chutney (of the British variety, not the Indian variety) since I was young, and she has loved it as long as I remember. Every year, she would harvest the rhubarb growing in her garden and make at least one batch per season, or two, or even three, depending on the yield.

I have been saying for years that I should learn how to make the chutney for her, although it has taken until this year before I finally consulted her recipe card and notes. The recipe I present here is adapted from (and very closely tracks) the recipe on my mom’s recipe card with several years’ worth of notes. The recipe on the card, if my recollection of her stories is accurate, is apparently derived from a recipe developed by her church ladies’ group in the early 1980’s, and which was possibly assigned to her after one of their canning sessions with a request to make some at home for an upcoming fall bazaar’s preserves’ table. It also incidentally is identical in ingredients and comparable in amounts to a recipe found on the internet for a barbecue sauce … so go figure.

Mom eats it as a condiment to various dishes, such as roast pork, chicken pot pies, shepherd’s pies, and many other dishes … basically, despite its sweet nature, it is also savoury, and pairs well with a number of savoury dishes.

Making the rhubarb chutney:

First, I took out two groupings of commercially grown rhubarb, in this case, about nine stalks each:

Two groupings of nine stalks each of rhubarb

The individual stalks of rhubarb were washed:

Rhubarb stalks washed
Washed rhubarb stalks

The rhubarb stalks were trimmed of their ends, leaves, and as the case may be, torn or damaged parts:

Rhubarb stalks trimmed

A non-reactive stainless steel pot (yes, there are some cheap stainless steel pots which will react with acid contents!) was taken out, and put to the ready beside the cutting board:

Stainless steel pot taken out

The rhubarb was sliced into 1/4″ to 1/2″ slices:

Rhubarb sliced

The chopped rhubarb was transferred to the stainless steel pot as sufficient amounts accumulated on the chopping board:

Transferring chopped rhubarb to pot
Transferring chopped rhubarb to pot

Once all the rhubarb was chopped and transferred to the pot, to be sure of the amount of rhubarb I had chopped was enough for the recipe, I measured it out …

Rhubarb measured out

… and placed it in a bowl:

Measured out rhubarb placed in a bowl

Once measured out, the rhubarb was placed back in the stainless steel pot.

Next, packed brown sugar was measured out:

Brown sugar measured out

The brown sugar was added to the chopped rhubarb:

Brown sugar added to chopped rhubarb
All brown sugar added to chopped rhubarb

The chopped rhubarb and brown sugar were mixed with a wooden spoon:

Wooden spoon used to mix chopped rhubarb and brown sugar
Brown sugar and chopped rhubarb mixed with wooden spoon

The chopped rhubarb and brown sugar mix was covered with the stainless steel pot lid:

Stainless steel pot covered

The stainless steel pot with the rhubarb and brown sugar mix was placed in the refrigerator overnight:

Pot of rhubarb and brown sugar in fridge

Onions were taken out:

Onions taken out

The onions were trimmed:

Onions trimmed

The onions were sliced into half-coins:

Onions sliced into half coins

The onions were coarsely chopped:

Onions coarsely chopped

The onions were transferred to a measuring cup to keep track of how much onions I had:

Onions measured out

The chopped onions were transferred to a sealable container:

Chopped onions transferred to sealable container
Chopped onions transferred to sealable container
Chopped onions transferred to sealable container

The container of onions was covered and placed in the fridge until the next day.

The next day, the first thing done was to fill a pot with water, for use later as a boiling water bath for the mason jars used to bottle the chutney:

Pot filled with water
Pot filled with water

A burner on the stove was turned on:

Stove turned on

The pot of water was placed on the stove to bring it to a boil:

Pot of water placed on stove

The pot of rhubarb and brown sugar was taken out of the fridge:

Pot of rhubarb and brown sugar taken out of fridge

Another burner on the stove was turned on:

Second burner turned on

The pot of rhubarb and brown sugar was placed on the stove:

Pot of rhubarb and brown sugar placed on stove

As the mix began heating up, it was mixed to loosen some brown sugar at the bottom of the pot:

Rhubarb and brown sugar mixed

Throughout the following process, the mix was constantly stirred in order to avoid burning at the bottom of the pot.

The chopped onions were added to the pot:

Chopped onions added to pot
Chopped onions added to pot
Chopped onions added to pot

The ingredients were mixed together:

Ingredients mixed together

Vinegar was measured out:

Vinegar measured out

The vinegar was added to the pot:

Vinegar added to pot
Vinegar added to pot

The ingredients were yet again mixed together:

Ingredients mixed

Raisins were measured out:

Raisins measured out

The raisins were placed in a small blender, to coarsely chop them:

Raisins placed in small blender for chopping

The raisins were chopped:

Raisins chopped
Chopped raisins

The chopped raisins were added to the pot:

Chopped raisins added to pot
Chopped raisins added to pot

The raisins were mixed in with the rest of the ingredients.

Ground cloves were measured out:

Ground cloves measured out

The ground cloves were added to the pot:

Ground cloves added to pot

Ground cinnamon was measured out:

Ground cinnamon measured out

The ground cinnamon was added to the pot; as evidenced by the rising steam, the ingredients were heating up nicely:

Ground cinnamon added to pot
Ground cinnamon added to pot

Ground allspice was measured out:

Ground allspice measured out

The ground allspice was added to the pot:

Ground allspice added to pot
Ground allspice added to pot

At this point, the chutney was starting to boil, and, for reference, two hours was set on the stove timer (because the original recipe called for two hours of simmering):

Timer set

The stove burner was turned down to a low setting:

Stove set to low setting

The ingredients were constantly stirred in order to avoid burning and sticking on the bottom of the pot:

Ingredients constantly stirred

After about half an hour of simmering …

Half an hour elapsed on timer

… this is what the chutney looked like:

Chutney after half hour of simmering

At this point, the pot of water for sanitizing the jars came to a boil and its burner turned off:

Water bath coming to a boil

After about an hour of simmering …

Hour elapsed on timer

… this is what the chutney looked like, and was at the point of being syrupy:

Chutney after hour of simmering

As such, I knew I wasn’t going to need to continue simmering the chutney for another hour.

Canning tools were taken out: a ladle, a jar funnel, tongs, a large spoon, and a jar wrench:

Canning tools taken out

Mason jars, rings, and lids were taken out — and yes, I used good condition used lids for this batch, since I had no intention of giving away any of the jars:

Mason jars and lids

The water for the water bath was brought back to a boil, and mason jars were placed in the boiling water:

Water brought back to a boil and mason jars placed in boiling water

The canning funnel was quickly dipped in the boiling water to sanitize it:

Canning funnel dipped in boiling water

Unfortunately, at this point, I could not take as many photos, in order to quickly fill the jars while the chutney and jars were still hot, and create a proper seal with the lids.

The chutney was taken off the stove; a mason jar was taken out of the boiling water, and the jar was filled with chutney:

Mason jar filled with chutney

A mason jar lid and ring were dipped in the boiling water:

Lid and ring dipped in boiling water

The lid and ring were placed on the mason jar and the ring tightened.

The process was repeated until all the chutney was bottled, in this case, filling seven jars:

Filled chutney jars

The jars were placed in the fridge to cool down a little more quickly:

Jars of chutney placed in fridge to cool them down

Afterwards, labels were placed on the jars, and the jars were placed in the cupboard.

And … Mom loves it, and has even whispered “it’s better than when I make it!” … no doubt (at least) a mild exaggeration. 🙂

Making Roast Potatoes — Photos

One of my mom’s perennial holiday dinner treats was her roast potatoes, something I figured it was time to learn how to make. As such, I asked her how to do it — it is fairly easy — and adjusted the basic recipe to two generous servings, which can be multiplied and adjusted according to the number of people to be served.

Note that the recipe as presented can be easily made in a countertop convection oven — as was the case in the following series of photos at the cottage — but there may be some minor variations when scaling up to larger amounts cooked in a conventional oven.

Making the roast potatoes:

First, the oven was pre-heated to 400F:

Oven preheated to 400F
Oven preheating

Water was poured into a pot:

Water poured into a pot

Potatoes were taken out, in this case, about 400g or 3/4lb to 1lb of potatoes:

Potatoes taken out
Potatoes weighed

The potatoes were peeled:

Potatoes peeled

Peeled potatoes were placed in the water:

Peeled potatoes placed in water
Peeled potatoes placed in water
Peeled potatoes placed in water

Potato peels were collected, and in this case burned in the fireplace, since it was heating season:

Potato peels collected to place in the fireplace

Peeled potatoes were taken out one by one to slice:

Peeled potato to be sliced

Potatoes were sliced in half lengthwise:

Potato sliced in half lengthwise

… and then sliced into pieces:

Potato cut into pieces

The potato pieces were placed back into the water:

Potato pieces placed back into water

The rest of the potatoes were similarly cut up:

Potato pieces in water

The water was drained from the potatoes:

Water drained from potatoes

… and fresh water was poured in the pot to rinse the potatoes:

Fresh water poured into pot

A clean, dry towel was laid out on a cutting board:

Clean dry towel laid out

The drained potatoes were placed on the clean dry towel:

Drained potatoes placed in dry towel

The towel was folded over in order to pat dry the potatoes:

Towel folded over to pat dry the potatoes

Parchment paper was taken out:

Parchment paper taken out

An oven tray was taken out:

Oven tray taken out

The parchment paper was placed on the oven tray:

Parchment paper placed on oven tray

Margarine was taken out:

Margarine taken out

The kitchen scale was set to zero with an empty spoon on it, and then margarine was weighed out:

Margarine weighed out

A bit of margarine was picked up with my fingers:

Margarine picked up with fingers

Pat dried potato pieces were picked up one at a time and slathered with margarine and placed on the oven tray:

Potato pieces picked up and slathered with margarine
Potato pieces slathered with margarine and placed on baking tray
Potato pieces slathered with margarine and placed on baking tray
Potato pieces slathered with margarine and placed on baking tray

And as can be seen, the roughly 75g / 3oz of margarine were used up:

Measured out margarine used up

Onion salt was taken out:

Onion salt taken out

Onion salt was shaken somewhat liberally over the margarine covered potatoes:

Onion salt shaken over the potatoes

The timer on the oven was set to about 45 minutes:

Oven timer set

The tray of potatoes was placed in the oven:

Tray of potatoes placed in oven
Tray of potatoes in oven

Here is a shot of the roasting potatoes after about 25 minutes:

Partly roasted potatoes

The potatoes were turned over at this point:

Potatoes turned over

The potatoes were taken out just before 45 minutes, ready to eat:

Roast potatoes ready to eat

(Note that because of the excessive amount of parchment paper used, yes, I did have to deal with some burning parchment paper!)

Supper is served!

Supper is served

Yummy!

Making my mom’s stuffed butternut squash — photos

My version of my mom’s stuffed butternut squash is a new addition to my collection of recipes, although it is a dish that my dear mom has been making for years. Yummilly, it very closely tracks my mom’s version.

It is actually a fairly easy recipe, and is fairly easy to scale up to feed a larger crowd than the two to four servings to which this recipe is tailored.

Beyond being a tasty dish, Mom used to make it as a way to use up rice she’d already made earlier in a larger, more conveniently sized batch, or as a way to have rice in the fridge to use later in the week; for this post, I show the photos making rice, to have more rice for later. Conversely, I do not show the cooking of the ground beef, already having some previously cooked and frozen ground beef on hand.

Also with regard to the rice used in the photos below, I used a commercial flavoured rice I like; however, the point of the recipe lies in using any rice that suits your tastes.

Note: This post uses photos from two separate cooking sessions, as I was working out some of the required specific amounts of each ingredient and techniques. As such, in some cases, one may notice slight discrepancies between two or more photos showing the progression of steps the narrative identifies as sequential, when in fact in some cases the photos may switch between two separate sessions which may have inadvertently involved slight differences.

Making the stuffed butternut squash:

I began by taking out a commercial packet of a flavoured rice I like:

Flavoured rice package taken out

The flavouring packet was taken out of the package:

Flavour packet (on right) taken out

The rice in the packet was measured out, and a matching amount was measured out from a bag of plain rice, since I find the amount of flavouring in the packet too strong when the rice is made with the amount of rice as packaged:

Rice measured out

The rice was added to a pot:

Rice added to pot
Rice added to pot
Rice added to pot

Water was measured out:

Water measured out

The water was added to the rice:

Water added to rice
Water added to rice

The contents of the flavour packet was added to the rice:

Flavour packet added to rice
Flavour packet added to rice

The rice, flavouring, and water were mixed with a fork:

Rice, water, and flavouring mixed with fork
Rice, water, and flavouring mixed with fork

Margarine was taken out:

Margarine taken out

Margarine was spooned out of the tub …

Margarine spooned out

… and transferred to the pot with the rice:

Margarine transferred to pot of rice
Margarine transferred to pot of rice

The stove burner was turned on …

Stove turned on

… and the rice was brought to a boil …

Rice brought to a boil

… at which point the stove was turned down to a low setting …

Stove turned down to a low setting

… and a timer set to twenty minutes:

Timer set to 20 minutes

The rice was simmered for 20 minutes:

Rice simmering for 20 minutes, partway through

While the rice was still simmering, a butternut squash of approximately 2lbs was taken out:

(Approximately) 2lb squash taken out
Squash taken out

The squash was cut in half along its length:

Squash cut in half along its length

The seeds were removed from the squash:

Seeds removed from squash
Seeds removed from squash

The squash halves were peeled and trimmed:

The squash halves were peeled

The squash halves were cut in two:

Squash halves cut in two

The halves without a natural hollow were hollowed out, and the extra kept:

Squash halves hollowed out

About an inch’s worth of water was added to the microwave-safe cooking vessel:

Water added to cooking vessel

The squash pieces, including those cut out from the solid pieces of squash, were placed in the cooking vessel:

Squash placed in cooking vessel

The squash was covered and placed in the microwave oven:

Squash placed in microwave oven

The microwave oven (1200 watts) was set to 10 minutes:

Microwave oven set to 10 minutes

The cooked squash was taken out of the microwave oven:

Cooked squash taken out of the microwave oven

The water was drained from the cooking vessel, and the pieces cut out to hollow out two of the pieces were transferred to a bowl (while the rest was put aside for the moment) …

Cooked pieces transferred to bowl

… and the squash pieces were mashed with a fork:

Squash pieces mashed with a fork

The mashed squash was put aside for a few moments.

Normally, I cook ground beef and onions in advance, and freeze it in ice cube trays, which conveniently hold roughly an ounce in each well. Earlier, two and a half cubes, about two and half ounces, were taken out of the freezer, and allowed to defrost on the counter:

Cooked ground beef and onions taken out of freezer
Cooked ground beef and onions taken out of freezer

The ground beef cubes were broken up with a fork:

Cooked ground beef broken up with fork

The mashed squash was added to the beef:

Mashed squash added to cooked ground beef

At this point, the rice was cooked:

Cooked rice

A cup of rice was measured out, while the rest was placed in a container to freeze and eat later:

Rice measured out

The cooked rice was added to the cooked beef and mashed squash:

Rice added to cooked ground beef and mashed squash
Rice added to cooked ground beef and mashed squash

The cooked ground beef, mashed squash, and rice were mixed together with a fork:

Cooked ground beef, mashed squash, and rice mixed together

The rice mixture was put aside, and a can of condensed tomato soup was taken out:

Condensed tomato soup taken out

The can of condensed tomato soup was opened:

Condensed tomato soup opened

The cooked hollowed out squash pieces were taken out again:

Hollowed out cooked squash taken out

A small amount of the condensed tomato soup was placed in the bases of each hollowed-out piece of squash:

Condensed tomato soup spooned into hollowed-out squash
Condensed tomato soup spooned into hollowed-out squash

The rice, cooked ground beef, and mashed squash mix was spooned into the squash:

Rice, cooked ground beef, and squash mix added to squash
Rice, cooked ground beef, and squash mix added to squash

The rest of the condensed tomato soup was spooned onto the top of the rice, beef, and squash mix:

Condensed tomato soup spooned onto the rice, cooked ground beef, and squash mix
Condensed tomato soup spooned onto the rice, cooked ground beef, and squash mix

The cooking vessel was covered …

Dish covered

… and the dish was placed in the microwave oven again:

Dish placed in microwave oven again

The microwave oven (1200 watts) was set to seven minutes:

Microwave oven set to seven minutes

After seven minutes of cooking, the stuffed squash was ready to eat:

Cooked stuffed squash

… and the stuffed squash was served:

Cooked stuffed squash served
Cooked stuffed squash served

It was, of course, yummy, and of course, Mom approved.

(… and, at the risk of sounding like I’m bragging, putting aside that, well, I *had* cooked it, I couldn’t tell whether I’d cooked it, or whether Mom had cooked it!)

Making my mom’s turkey stuffing — Photos

This week, leading up to Christmas, and generally taking advantage of a week of holidays, I delved into my collection of recipes, and made plain white bread, as well as raisin bread (twice), lemon squares (twice), blondies, bran muffins (twice) for my mom, shortbread cookies, corned beef hash, my pepperoni pizza, and, the subject of this post, my mom’s turkey stuffing — of course, to use for family Christmas dinner, which I also made this year!

The various steps were performed over several sessions during the week (mostly cubing and drying bread), however, for the sake of narrative, the photos are listed, largely, as though it could have been done in two sessions. And, despite stating in the recipe that its cooking in a turkey is beyond the scope of the recipe, I do indeed show at the end of this post the cooking of the stuffing with the Christmas turkey, in response to a conversation with, and comment from, my brother: “If you get a trailer, you want to see it hooked up to a truck.

Making the turkey stuffing:

Although the following picture was taken this past week as part of preparing for making the stuffing, normally, throughout the year I collect bread bits and bread crusts …

Collected bread crusts

… and as I collect them I cube them and dry them, to add to a container of dried bread cubes:

Bread crusts cubed

This week, bread I’d just made was taken out:

Freshly baked bread taken out

The loaf of bread was sliced for freezing, and some slices were put aside:

Bread slices taken out
Bread slices taken out

Bread slices were sliced into spears:

Bread sliced into spears
Bread sliced into spears

The bread spears were cut into cubes and placed on a tray to dry:

Bread cubes placed on a tray to dry
Bread cubes placed on trays to dry

Once dried, the bread cubes were placed in a container I fill over time with dried bread cubes:

Container with dried bread cubes

Fresh bread cubes were also put aside in a freezer bag and frozen, to be used later in the week when I made the turkey stuffing:

Fresh bread cubes in a freezer bag put aside for later in the week when I made the stuffing

On the day I made the turkey stuffing, onions were taken out:

Onions taken out

The onions were cleaned and trimmed:

Onions cleaned and trimmed

The onions were cut in half:

Onions cut in half

The onion halves were sliced into half coins:

Onions sliced into half coins

The onions were somewhat finely chopped:

Onions somewhat finely chopped

The chopped onions were transferred to a microwave oven safe cooking vessel, and put aside for a few moments:

Chopped onions transferred to microwave oven safe cooking vessel

Bulk sausage meat was taken out:

Bulk sausage meat taken out

… and removed from its packaging:

Bulk sausage meat removed from its packaging

The sausage meat was broken up by hand and placed in the microwave oven safe cooking vessel along with the chopped onions:

Bulk sausage meat broken up by hand and placed in microwave oven safe cooking vessel along with chopped onions

The sausage meat and onions were mixed together by hand:

Sausage meat and chopped onions mixed together

Time was set on my microwave oven:

Time set on microwave oven

The microwave oven safe cooking vessel was placed in the microwave oven:

Microwave oven safe cooking vessel placed in microwave oven
Microwave oven safe cooking vessel in microwave oven

Part way through cooking the sausage meat and onions, they were taken out and large pieces were broken up with a large spoon:

Sausage meat and onions broken up with large spoon

Mostly cooked sausage and onions:

Mostly cooked sausage meat and onions

The fresh and dried bread cubes were taken out:

Fresh and dried bread cubes taken out

Fresh bread cubes were measured out:

Fresh bread cubes measured out

Fresh bread cubes were transferred to a large mixing vessel, in this case, my 16 litre soup pot:

Fresh bread cubes transferred to large mixing vessel
Fresh bread cubes in large mixing vessel

The cooked sausage meat and onions were added to the bread cubes

Cooked sausage meat and onions added to bread cubes

The bread cubes and the cooked sausage meat and onions were mixed with a large mixing spoon:

Ingredients mixed with large mixing spoon

Chicken soup base was taken out:

Chicken soup base taken out

Chicken soup base was measured out:

Chicken soup base measured out

The chicken soup base was added to a measuring cup:

Chicken soup base added to measuring cup
Chicken soup base added to measuring cup

Water was added to an electric kettle:

Water added to electric kettle

The kettle was turned on:

Kettle turned on
Kettle turned on

Once boiled, boiling water was added to the measuring cup with the chicken soup base:

Boiling water added to measuring cup with chicken soup base

The chicken soup base and the boiling water were mixed together:

Chicken soup base and boiling water mixed together

The chicken soup was added to the rest of the ingredients:

Chicken soup added to rest of ingredients

The ingredients were mixed together again with the large spoon:

Ingredients mixed with large spoon
Ingredients mixed with large spoon

Savoury (spice) was taken out:

Savoury taken out

The savoury was sprinkled over the ingredients, and the ingredients were mixed again:

Savoury sprinkled over ingredients

Dry bread cubes were measured out:

Dry bread cubes measured out

The dry bread cubes were added to the rest of the ingredients:

Dry bread cubes added to rest of ingredients

The ingredients were yet again mixed together with the large spoon:

Ingredients mixed again
Ingredients mixed again

Gauze poultry stuffing bags were taken out:

Gauze poultry stuffing bags taken out
Gauze poultry stuffing bags taken out

A gauze bag was filled with the stuffing:

Gauze bag filled with stuffing
Gauze bag filled with stuffing

The gauze bag was tied off:

Gauze bag tied off
Gauze bag tied off

The gauze bag was placed in a sealable freezer bag and placed in a fridge for use later, on Christmas day:

Stuffing placed in a plastic bag for later use

And in the spirit of seeing the “trailer hooked up to a truck”, here are photos from Christmas day, cooking the turkey and stuffing:

On Christmas day, the gauze bag with the stuffing was taken out of the freezer bag, and placed on a baking rack in a roasting pan:

Stuffing on baking rack in baking tray

Bacon was taken out:

Bacon taken out

Slices of bacon were placed on top of the stuffing:

Bacon placed on top of stuffing

Two turkey breasts, tied together with butcher’s string, were placed on top of the stuffing:

Turkey breast place on top of stuffing

Bacon was liberally wrapped over and around the turkey and stuffing:

Turkey and stuffing wrapped with bacon

The Christmas turkey was placed in the oven:

Christmas turkey placed in oven

After some cooking, basting, and browning, aluminum foil was placed on top of the turkey partway through cooking the turkey in order to avoid burning on the outside and drying out of the turkey, while the inside of the turkey and stuffing continued to cook (a meat thermometer was critical):

Aluminum foil placed on top of turkey

The fully cooked turkey and stuffing were taken out of the oven:

Fully cooked turkey and stuffing

The turkey stuffing was taken out of the gauze bag and transferred to a serving vessel, ready for Christmas dinner:

Stuffing transferred to serving vessel ready for Christmas dinner

Yummy!

(And — mom loved it!)

Making Eggplant au Gratin — Photos

It has been several months since I’ve done an entry on a recipe from my collection of recipes, mostly just because last winter and spring, I’d run through most of the recipes that I regularly make and which at the time I had considered to be of “sufficient” note to highlight here, save for the recipe which is the subject of this post (but yes, there is a small number more which may eventually be featured!) As such, many of my recipes from my collection of recipes have since been made at least once, and in many cases, several times, over the past few months.

Over the past couple of weeks alone, I did a lot of cooking at the cottage while on holidays, making:

Yes, that’s a lot of potatoes, ground beef, chicken, onions, carrots, eggs, flour, cheese, olive oil, and other secondary ingredients prepared, as well as beer consumed, during the multiple cooking sessions! And, yes, this is how I like to spend winter holidays at the cottage!

Note that this recipe is vegetarian of the lacto-vegetarian variety (basically, meatless) if the tomato sauce used does not contain meat.

Making the Eggplant au gratin:

First, a nice beer was taken out — Brune d’Achouffe, a Belgian brown ale 8,5% alc/vol in a 750mL bottle, brewed under licence from the Brasserie d’Achouffe by Brasseurs RJ in Montréal, Québec.

Beef taken out

Next, the beer was poured into a glass:

Beer poured out

… and of course, right away I had to do a bit of quality control on the beer:

Yes, this is a good beer!

Now to the cooking of the eggplant au gratin, really, this time:

Ramekins were set out — as it turns out, another ramekin was needed to be added later on:

Ramekins set out

An electric skillet was taken out and plugged in:

Electric skillet taken out

The skillet was turned on

Olive oil was added to the skillet:

Olive oil added to skillet

The olive oil was spread out in the skillet with a plastic spatula / egg flipper:

Olive oil spread out in skillet

A couple of eggplants were taken out:

Eggplants taken out

An eggplant was rinsed with water:

Eggplant rinsed with water

The eggplant was trimmed:

Eggplant trimmed

Coins were sliced off the eggplant:

Coins sliced off eggplant

Slices of eggplant were placed in the hot skillet:

Eggplant slices in skillet

After a few minutes of frying, the slices of eggplant were turned over:

Eggplant slices turned over

The fried slices of eggplant were placed in ramekins:

Eggplant slices placed in ramekins

The rest of the first eggplant was sliced, the resulting eggplant slices fried, and the fried eggplant slices were placed in the rest of the ramekins, such that the fried eggplant slices were roughly equally distributed amongst the ramekins:

Eggplant equally distributed amongst the ramekins

Half of the zucchinis were taken out:

Zucchini taken out

The zucchinis were rinsed with water:

Zucchinis rinsed with water

The zucchinis were trimmed:

Zucchinis trimmed

In order to quickly slice the zucchinis, a food processor with the slicing blade attachment was taken out:

Food processor with slicing blade taken out

The zucchinis were fed into the running food processor in order to slice them:

Zucchinis fed into food processor
Sliced zucchinis

Zucchini slices were placed in the electric skillet with more olive oil:

Zucchini slices frying

The zucchini slices were turned over:

Frying zucchini slices turned over

Fried zucchini slices were placed in ramekins:

Fried zucchinis placed in ramekins

The rest of the first half of the zucchini slices were fried:

More zucchinis frying
More zucchinis frying

The rest of the fried zucchini slices were placed in the rest of the ramekins, such that the zucchini slices were roughly equally distributed amongst the ramekins:

Fried zucchinis placed in ramekins

Onions were taken out:

Onions take out

The onions were cleaned and trimmed:

Onions cleaned and trimmed

The onions were sliced in half:

Onions sliced in half

The onions were sliced into thick half coins:

Onion half sliced into thick half coins

The onions were roughly chopped:

Onions roughly chopped

The chopped onions were placed in a bowl:

Chopped onions placed in bowl

About half the chopped onions were placed in the electric skillet with more olive oil, and salt was added:

Chopped onions in skillet with more olive oil and salt

The chopped onions were fried:

Chopped onions fried

The fried chopped onions were roughly equally distributed amongst the ramekins:

Fried chopped onions spread in ramekins

At this point, my beer chalice was empty and needed refiling:

Beer chalice refilled

It was time to repeat the process, and the second eggplant was sliced and fried the same way. When the eggplant slices were placed in the ramekins, the contents were patted down with a fork, in order to get rid of deadspace in the ramekin:

Ramekin contents patted down with a fork

The rest of the steps were repeated with the zucchinis, and the chopped onions, and both were placed in the ramekins in the same order as above, after the second layer of fried eggplant. Note that at this point, another ramekin was added to accommodate what proved to be more ingredients than I originally estimated that I’d had:

Ramekins filled with all fried ingredients

A jar of commercial (meatless) tomato sauce was taken out:

Tomato sauce taken out

The tomato sauce was spread over the ingredients in the ramekins:

Tomato sauce spread over ingredients in the ramekins

A block of mozzarella cheese was taken out:

Mozzarella cheese taken out

Mozzarella cheese was sliced off the block of cheese:

Mozzarella cheese sliced off the block

Cheese slices were placed on top of the ingredients in the ramekins:

Mozzarella cheese slices placed on top of ingredients in the ramekins
Mozzarella cheese slices placed on top of ingredients in the ramekins

Zipper bags were taken out and identified:

Zipper bags taken out and identified

Filled ramekins were individually placed in bags for freezing:

Filled ramekins placed in identified zipper bags

The bags were placed in a freezer (in this case the freezer door) for future eating:

Bagged eggplant au gratin in the freezer

A few days later, an eggplant au gratin was taken out, defrosted, baked, and eaten; of course it was yummy!