Food Prep.

Here are a few pictures Ri took of our food prep day.
  

The sink is pretty big, so the pumpkin looks very

small.  This was one of the smaller ones though.

This was one of the mid-sized ones. Don't know

what happend to the color on this one - it's a little off.

The outsides may be dull colored, but as you

can see, the inside is bright.

We ended up filling the roaster oven 5 times,

though on the last run it was only about 2/3 full.

Two platters loaded up with pumpkin ready

to be scraped out of it's skin and blended.

Nearly done.

Now, this is what happens if you have a brain

lapse and walk away from the table without

removing the stick blender from the bowl.  The

cord will pull it out of the bowl and make a huge

mess on the floor, wall, and all surrounding furniture.

By the way Ri, thanks for cleaning that up!!

Now I'm mixing up the filling for the egg rolls.

I know the meat for the filling is usually raw, but

we usually make a huge batch, freezing most of it for

future use.  I have found, through trial and error, that

it's much easier to cook the ones that were frozen if the

meat has already been cooked.  Then you don't run

the risk of overcooking the outside, but not quite

getting the inside done. 

Ri, Beenie, and I rolled them up.  I was impatiently

waiting for Ri to pull off one of the spring roll wrappers.

The color is a little weird on this picture too.

We didn't get any good pictures of making

the pomegranate jelly, but here is some of

the finished product.  I found myself a little

short of 1/2pt jars, so I used whatever I had.

We tried our best to get a good picture of the

beautiful dark red this jelly is.  This picture

doesn't really do it justice.

Of course, this wasn't all we did that day, but this is already a really long post, and I didn't think to get any other pictures.

I like to do food prep days at least twice a month, even if it's just something like making chicken broth or stock, or beef stock, culturing yogurt and buttermilk, and cooking up some kind of meat that we can pull out and use for a quick supper, or for lunches.  For me, having homemade broths and stocks on hand is invaluable.  Already cooked meats have also been a real life saver when we need a quick meal, or want something a little different for lunch.  I also like making spaghetti sauce in a large enough amout that I'll have enough left that I can freeze some for at least one spaghetti or lasagna dinner (usually 2).  I've heard of families that also cut up veggies and stuff to keep on hand for quick snacks, and while I've often thought that was a good idea, if it was already cut up the kids seem to eat it twice as fast.  If they have to put forth a little effort for it, it keeps it from evaporating from the fridge.  Shoot - if they had to peel grapes we might be able to keep them around for more than a day!

BTW - we are all feeling better, but T.Lynn still has a yucky sounding cough.

Becky