Preserving the Bounty...Some More

Well, both I and my oven mitt are tired.  We've been spending a LOT of time together lately.  I need to throw this poor thing in the wash!

I'm not quite sure what overcame me, but one morning, I had just enough energy and little enough planned for the day, that after we had school I started making a ton of food for the freezer.


The Prudent Homemaker has a delicious French Bread recipe that I've been making for a few months now. It freezes well, too!  I made a full, 4-loaf batch, threw three in my freezer, and we had pasta to go with it fresh that night.

The glassware contains some pizza dough.  It's an artisan type, and proofs in the refrigerator overnight.  I baked the crusts to put in the freezer for a quick pizza night.


I also gave my girl and boy some dough to play with.  They were delighted and it kept them quite busy for at least 45 minutes.  They are 3 and 5, so it was a GREAT activity for them.  I made the bread again yesterday, and they again had fun playing with the dough once more.  They definitely enjoyed it, and requested some dough as soon as I told them I would be making bread.


You don't know it yet, but I adore my pressure cooker.  I made 5 types of beans (white, pinto, black, garbonzo, and Pinto Beans in Chili Sauce) and a large batch of brown rice in a few hours due to my marvelous pressure cooker.  I used to be scared of them, but I've learned so much since my mom gave it to me as a birthday gift several months ago.  Yes, it needs to be used with some care, but it's not something to be scared of.  Recipes to come!

Food Pictured Above: 3 loaves of French Bread, 3 pizza crusts, 4 one-dozen-dough-ball bags of Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies, 4-6 bags each white, pinto, black chili and garbonzo beans, 8 one-cup packets of brown rice.  I made a chart with tallies on the side so that I can keep track of what I've got.


I'm not sure about Outrageous, but those Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies are delicious.  My husband usually has one or two cookies/baked items, and then he's done for the entire batch.  He's requested these two times!  They are pretty peanut buttery, fyi.  I wasn't expecting quite that much flavor.

It sure has been nice going to my list to see what we have, and what I can make for dinner and lunches.  I had a pretty decent bake/cooking day yesterday as well, and it's been fun adding to my list.  I LOVE having so much stored up for the fall and winter.