Tired of Broken Jars

I make vegetable stock to use in our soups, and then I freeze it until I'm ready to use it.  I don't like to use Ziploc bags to freeze it in, because I always make a mess, so I experimented with quart jars.  I made sure it had cooled completely before I filled the jars, left the lids off until it was frozen solid, and I left plenty of space for the stock to expand, and still the jars kept breaking in the freezer!  I did a little research and discovered that I was not the only one to have this problem, so I thought a little harder and came up with a new solution.

I freeze the stock in a muffin pan.  I can control how much goes in each cup before I freeze it, and my quart jars don't break any more!  It's also a lot easier to get the stock out of the jar, and I don't have to use all of it if I don't need it.  This method also works well for my chicken and turkey soup bases and for the beef stock I make out of the leftover roast juices.

I think this would also work well for freezing leftover soups!  It would be frozen in nice little portions, simple and easy to warm up for one, two, or more people, and the smaller portions melt faster, too.  A good thing when it's lunchtime and your children are starving!

I only wish I'd thought of this sooner!

There are always lots of great ideas and recipes on Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammysrecipes.com!

Vah Humvug!

Thump thumpity thump thump thump!  The sound of my four-year-old's feet skipping across the floor woke me up.  I knew instantly who it was, and dragged myself out of bed to go find out why she was up...at 4:48 a.m.  And that other sound I was hearing...yes, it was definitely whispering.  When I got upstairs, she was just climbing back into her bed, my seven-year-old daughters were together in one bed, and all three of them were whispering excitedly about the valentines I'd left at the ends of their beds.

Vah Humvug.

I am a Valentine's Day Scrooge, but thanks to their grandmas, the girls have been counting down the days until Valentine's Day.  They've planned out what they were going to wear today, and they've been working all week on envelopes for each other that are overflowing with notes and drawings.  My oldest daughter gave me a Valentine's note a few days ago, and when I went to bed last night, I found an envelope from the other 7-year-old daughter on my bedside table:

So I dug out some valentines and put one at the end of each girls bed, and one by Mr Adorable's door.

And now, the girls and I have all been up since 4:48.

Hmph.  Vah Humvug.

Opportunities

Remember the chaotic lunch preparations I wrote about the other day?  I got an email yesterday morning that made me look at our time spent together in the kitchen in a whole new way.  

Someone older and wiser than I shared with me her own experiences with her young children helping in the kitchen and commented, "what fun, and what an opportunity for teaching and patience."

Before yesterday, I was looking at my kitchen-ful of kids and seeing messes, enthusiasm, inexperience, the learning process, spills, helpfulness, waste, wonder, and excitement.  I saw the potential for fun, and the opportunity for me to teach, but I missed seeing the lessons that are there for me to learn.

My dictionary defines opportunity as: "a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something".  I just went back and counted, and in that description of our lunch-making process, there were 17 opportunities for patience.  And for the record, since I'm being honest here, I only took 7 of them.  I missed 10 opportunities to be patient...but at least now I know what they look like.

I'm excited now to learn to recognize all my opportunities for patience!  I'm sure that I can find them all day long, and not just when we're working in the kitchen.  The challenge will be in reminding myself that they ARE opportunities for patience, not just another mess to clean up or problem to solve!

Group Cooking 101

I'll admit it.  I have not been very excited about the prospect of having the kids help me in the kitchen.  They're 7, 7, 4, and 21 months, and they're messy, they're slow, and they tend to enjoy the strangest things at the most inopportune moments.  It is SO much easier and faster to do it myself.

On the other hand, I want to teach them how to cook, and they're eager to learn, so I decided (and yes, it took a conscious decision) to start teaching them now, before they decide it's not fun anymore.  I just make sure we're making something that is easily salvageable in case of accidents, and that we have plenty of time to get it put together.  And I'm teaching them to start with a clean work area and to clean up after themselves as we go.  :)

So, the other day for lunch, we made Creamed Tuna on toast because our bread was going stale.  (You wanted the truth, right?)  :)  My part of the process sounded something like this (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

"Everyone washed their hands with soap?  OK, Addie, you can unwrap this butter and put it in the pan.  No, if you want to unwrap the butter you can do it now and get a drink after you're done.  Molly, please get the flour.  Julia, find a tablespoon.  That's a cup.  You need one of the spoons that says 1 TBS on it.  Molly, if you keep whining at me you won't get to do anything else.  You'll get a turn doing something.  I know, you can get the toaster out and put the bread in it.  Addie, are you about done opening the butter?  Julia, while we're waiting for the butter you can measure one tablespoon of flour, but don't dump it in yet.  Isaiah, take the ball out of the kitchen.  No, I'll pour the milk into the measuring cup because I just opened this gallon and it's too heavy for you, Molly.  Addie, is that butter unwrapped yet?  Put it in the pan and throw the paper away, then wash your hands again.  Molly, stir this butter until it melts, but be careful not to touch the pan.  It's hot.  Julia, you can put the flour in and then get one more spoonful.  Molly, keep stirring all over the pan so that the flour doesn't stick and burn.  No, thank you Julia, I'll put the milk in.  Keep stirring, Molly.  Julia, you can put the flour away.  Yes, Addie, you can get out the ketchup.  Hold on a minute, Julia.  I don't know yet what you can do next.  Addie, why are you getting the stool?  No, the ketchup is in the fridge!  Isaiah, please shut the drawer.  Here, Molly, let me stir for a minute to make sure it's mixed up good before we put more in.  Julia, it's your turn to stir.  Molly, fill this tablespoon two times with ketchup and dump it in.  Isaiah, get out of the cupboard!  Yes, Addie, you can put the ketchup away.  No, please put it in right side up, it's too full to put upside down yet.  It keeps falling over.  Would you like to help open the tuna fish?  These are neat packages Daddy bought, aren't they?  Keep stirring Julia.  What?!?  They even put corn syrup in Worcestershire sauce!  OK, dump the tuna in, Addie, but be careful of the hot pan.  Just one, Molly, and let Addie open the other two.  You can push down the thing on the toaster now, Molly.  Let me break up those chunks, Julia, I don't want you to get splashed.  Molly get plates, Julia get forks, Isaiah get in your highchair.  Everyone helped, Molly, not just you and Julia.  Quit trying to upset your sister.  Who wants milk?"

In spite of the chaos, it was kind of fun!  So, after snack, when no one wanted to help me work in the kitchen, I wondered aloud if I had enough energy to make the cookies I had planned to make.  Julia immediately changed her mind and volunteered to help me.

So, Julia and I made cookies Thursday afternoon, just the two of us.

And since Addie was the only one still at the table after lunch when I discovered that my new crock pot had been delivered, she helped me create "Stoneless Stone Soup".

Molly, not to be left out, helped make bread later in the afternoon to go with our soup.

And we all survived the experience!  :)

Soup's On!

My new Crock Pot came on Thursday!

When I tried to make a double batch of Crock Pot Granola and barely had room to stir, and when our favorite recipe of Crock Pot Ajiaco came close to overflowing the pot, I decided it was time to research and buy a bigger Crock Pot.

I had a hard time finding what I wanted.  I knew I wanted an oval one, 6 quart capacity or larger, with white stoneware, and after doing some research, I also knew that I didn't want a "smart" one with pre-set hour selections.  My initial shopping ventures made me think that the Crock Pot I was hoping to find did not exist.  But I persevered, and finally found what I had in mind, and it was exactly what I wanted!

What I want to know is, when did I become this person...this person that got so excited about the delivery of her new Crock Pot that she immediately washed it and began to make soup?