Mommy Makes a Cooking Show

Last week, we filmed Sam’s cooking show. It was so much fun that I decided to film my own.

This video is pretty long–almost a half an hour. It took me about two hours total to make the dish, which is a version of shepherd’s pie aimed at rescuing some freezer burned vegetables I found in my freezer and a few other things I found lying around. It was totally spur of the moment but it was a lot of fun and it certainly made making dinner a little more exciting. Still new to this food video thing–note the abrupt transitions and lack of planning (I totally forgot to show you the final product and the shot of us eating it never filmed because my camera ran out of battery)–but I’m learning!

This meal went over really well with my family–especially Sam. He ate almost a whole serving without complaint, which is rare for him, especially when it contains so many vegetables. Violet didn’t touch it, but I suspect that’s because I made the mistake of serving it with bread. So she only wanted bread. But the gravy on sourdough–yummy stuff.

Here’s the “recipe” promised on the video (I did this all off the cuff–forgive the approximations):

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It’s Hot Out, but I’m Freezing

Do you ever wonder who uses their oven in the summer?

Also, what has two thumbs and a batch of cookies in the oven?

This girl. (You’ll have to imagine me in my Minnie Mouse apron, pointing to myself with my thumbs.)

Okay, to be fair, we have heat pumps, which is kind of like air conditioning. Plus it’s actually kind of mild today–only 74. But that really isn’t the point.

You see, I’m going to have a baby in four-and-a-half months. If you’ve never had a baby before, let me tell you: the last thing I’m going to want to do after pushing a seven-to-ten pound human out of me is cook. And if I do want to cook, about two minutes on the hard kitchen tile will remind me that I’m not yet in the condition to stand on tile floors. I’ll have my husband and mother for a little while, but not for long, and if I manage to work out the whole breastfeeding/pumping thing, I will be hungry. As I recall, pregnancy hunger is nothing compared with nursing hunger. So I should probably have some healthy options on hand. Maybe a few tasty treats, too.

So now I’m experimenting with freezability, which means baking and roasting in the middle of summer. Today, for example, I tried a cookie recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Basic butter wafers. They strike me as too delicate for the freezer. So much so that I’m not going to try. But that’s why we test things. How upsetting if I’d frozen the batter and then gotten awful cookies out of it later.

I already have a few recipes I know work. Lasagna and shepherd’s pie freeze beautifully, as do pound cakes and chocolate chip cookie dough. I’ve got some pot pies in the freezer that I’ll thaw soon to see if the dough kept. Chili and marinara do okay for short bursts (I’ll be freezing those this fall), so I thought I’d try freezing ratatouille, too.

I realize that there are whole cookbooks dedicated to freezer recipes, but as we see from my butter cookies, not every recipe is perfect for every occasion. So I thought I’d ask: do you have any favorite freezer recipes? I’ve been thinking of doing chicken strips and burritos. What else?