The Modern Home Economist: Cooking Lessons

It feels like it's been forever since I put up a Modern Home Economist post...and it has!  But I have a wealth of goodies to share with you.  Today's post is related to cookery.  I've found a number of good articles in the vintage magazines that are truly instructional for some basic cooking and thought we'd start out with a few of those.  I hope to soon figure out how to arrange the Home Ec posts into categories but that might be stretching my technical knowledge!  We'll see.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these articles.  I want to start with a link to an article about proper oven use.  I found this around Christmastime and found it very helpful.  I had no idea it took 20 minutes to get an oven up to temperature.  For a few dishes this might not matter so much but it's very important when baking to have the oven at the right temperature before the dish goes into the oven.  Hope you find it as helpful as I did. 

Coffee Chat - February Gloom and Cheer

 

Come in, come in...It's time for a good hot cup of coffee once more.  Do have a seat. 

It's so nice today, the windows are open once again, but there's cold weather on it's way. Not complaining.  Cold weather has it's place just as hot weather has and February is the proper place for cold weather, at least in my hemisphere.  I always thought it quite odd that other parts of the world would have summer in February and then I gained a pen pal in Scotland who moved to Australia and we complain daily over the great heat in her area and the great cold in mine all through these months and come summer we'll complain just the opposite.  I'll grumble over hot weather while she mentions huddling over a heater trying to stay warm.  At least we amuse one another when one side complains the temperature is too hot and the other replies that it's far too cold.

How about a piece of  Italian Cream Wedding Cake to go with the coffee?  It's birthday month in our home.  Not that we celebrate all month long but there are many birthdays crowded into this month for us.  Three birthday presents down...

Post Script to Questions,Answers and Replies, Oh My!

I was just reading through my recent post and I found I'd said that Louise wanted to know what frugal blogs I followed.  Now I honestly meant to tell you, Louise, so do forgive me for merely mentioning and skipping over.  I meant to go back you see, and write them in, but I obviously forgot.  So here they are:
http://frugalandthankful.blogspot.com

http://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/

http://zeahrenaissance.blogspot.com

http://theprudenthomemakerblog.blogspot.com/



So there you go Louise, and I do apologize for leaving it off.  I shall cheer you a bit more dear and tell you the geese are heading North.  They've been flying over by the hundreds the past few days.

Questions and Answers and Comments, Oh My!

Well hello dears.  I am trying hard to make this post more timely, so that it falls right at the beginning of the month and not later.  Here's hoping I can sustain this momentum the rest of the year!

It wasn't a high post month.  Part of that due to back problems that continued to bother me throughout the majority of the month.  And then when I felt better I was hurrying along trying to catch up on all the things I'd missed, like treasure hunting!  I think I'm about caught up now.

Let's get started!

Breahn thanked me for sharing my menu plans. I seriously considered giving this up at one point but a flurry of protests came assuring me that others found this most helpful.  I like planning meals.  I carry them out more often than not too, but I like planning them.  Some people like to rearrange furniture. I like to think about how arranging foods just so on a menu will create a meal that is nutritious, appealing and satisfying. I am glad that they are appreciated.

Weekly Meal Plan and This Week's Plans

Steak, Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, Tossed Salad, Rolls
Do you ever get in a rut with a menu plan?  I do often.  I so often serve baked potatoes with steak that I forget that I could have anything I wanted as a side.  Steak and potatoes do have a lovely affinity for one another, but why be so rutty.  This week I decided to make sour cream and chive potatoes. 

Tortellini and Meatball soup, Garlic Bread, Grapes
I've made this soup exactly once.  It's from Country Living magazine and is so tasty.  However, if you plan to make ahead and freeze a portion, I strongly urge you to hold off adding your tortellini even if you opt to use the dried shelf stable type instead of fresh or frozen.  It takes absolutely no time to overcook and becomes gummy and unpleasant.  I learned my lesson the hard way.  However, this soup is sooo good and takes only a little while to make from scratch.

My Frugal Week: Feb 1 - 7

Saturday:  Lori forgot the children's chocolate drink mix.  I hadn't made any of the homemade syrup and didn't really have time to do so.  I sent John into grocery for chocolate syrup on our way home from synagogue.  Cheaper for him to go into the grocery than for me to trail in and pick up this and that while wandering about.  As it was, he grabbed two deli sandwiches for us to eat on our way home, and a bag of the roasted salted in shell peanuts that he liked so well that we'd only recently tried.  I forgot to tell him I'd purchased two jars of dry roasted nuts the day before.

Made breakfast for us.  The kids and grandchildren slept in until just minutes before we left home.  I pointed out where all the foods were for their breakfast and we headed out to synagogue.

Weekly Menu and Plans List

Well!  We've had an interesting week...That 'Winter Non-Event' snowed on us around 10pm Monday night.  We stayed home and looked at all the pretty snow Tuesday and Wednesday and did our best to keep the house and bodies warm.  Fortunately we never lost electricity, the gas man came last week just before this whole business was news and all was well.  John went out on Thursday to class, I didn't budge until Friday when I had to leave home to pick up groceries for the weekend company that came in.  Daniel was pleased to find we had plenty of snow on the back deck and trekked up and down and up and down and packed it in really good.  By the time we'd returned home from synagogue Saturday afternoon, there was no remaining bit of ice or snow.

Since I worked menus for the week before we had plans worked out for the week a few things were changed.  I'll start with Saturday's menu which Lori planned and cooked and served.  Really good new recipe she brought up and I think I want to incorporate that recipe into my menus in future.  We had a number of leftovers this weekend, all sweets, so I put them in the freezer.  We can piece them out over the next few weeks.