Smithy

I've read that the commercial jars (like spaghetti sauce jars) shouldn't be reused because they may not be as strong as the official canning jars. Considering the treatment they receive during canning, packing and shipping, I have trouble believing it. I've never had a problem with them, and I can't see why they wouldn't be just as clean after good cleaning and sterilizing as official canning jars. They don't always have the same lid thread, of course, and that's a deal-breaker. If I'm missing something, somebody please set me straight!

Beans for breakfast. Cooper's beans, to be specific. We're in Llano, TX! We had 4 long days of travel, covering something over 1300 miles. This is the first stop where we've opened out and had all available room again, going from this: to this: There isn't an obvious difference in the kitchen area, but if you compare the "living room / sitting" area you can see that with the Princessmobile closed up we have to use a folding table in front of the easy chairs. When we're opened out, the back area through the doorway stops being a garage (look carefully at the doorway in the left picture) to a full-blown dining room. (Sorry about the light imbalance. I shot that right-hand photo before the sun started shining into the room.) This has been a trip already of firsts and mosts: warmest days before we left (it was above 60F on our departure day); latest departure hour (09:30 rather than our usual 08:00); 4 solid days of driving into a strong headwind; most things forgotten! Among the things we (that would be 'I') forgot to pack: our silicone ice cube trays, still sitting in the home fridge with ice in them and awaiting placement in this freezer; all quarter-sheet AND eighth-sheet baking pans; broiler pan with a grate (and I need it tonight!); my darling's electric pepper mill; the 6" diameter silicone lid for covering bowls - I have other sizes, but this one is most used and got left behind; parchment paper and Pam; 11" cast iron griddle that I keep in the oven for temperature control and bread-baking; detergent sheets I've been experimenting with: no plastic jug, just an envelope full of sheets that dissolve in the laundry; maybe half of the charging cords for our electronics (I'm still looking for them); and 2 stainless steel nonskid, nontip dog bowls. Some of these things can easiy be replaced along the way. Some can, if necessary, be forwarded by our house-sitter. But it's a sign of just how disorganized we were this time around. Things tossed willy-nilly into any cranny we could find, because the garage was packed early and access to storage hatches was blocked. Too many of a few things. (I think we have enough shampoo and conditioner to last the full 6 months!) What happened was that I worked much later into our preparation time than normal, and that took precious time away from packing and planning. in addition, we're slower than we used to be, as are all our friends. Finally, we have a full-time housesitter this year whom we trust, but is new to the house and had to be shown where everything is and how to take care of it. The headwind cut our fuel mileage immensely, and added to the general noise level on the drive down. I don't think the wind was ever less than 25 knots; sometimes, it was a crosswind rather than a direct headwind, and we were singing about the trailer "rockin' and a-rollin', rockin' and a-reelin'." We still won't name her Barbara Ann. That wind continued all the way to Llano, where despite the 80F+ weather we had to keep the doors and windows closed the way we could actually put things down and keep them in place! One reason we pushed so hard was to get ahead of storms that were to go through the country along our way. Our haste paid off. That night, after one of several road-trip dinners and considerable beer, we sat out enjoying a light show playing out to the northeast near Mineral Wells, TX, where we'd spent the previous night. The rain and tornadoes in our wake made us glad we'd kept going. It was a grand light show from where we sat. The beer made it even better. This cup is from my favorite local brewery at home. There was a festival earlier this year for which they made special aluminum cups to give away, and I scored several. Aluminum isn't a great cold retainer, but the cups are a festive reminder of a fine, fun evening in August.

@lemniscate i too am curious about the pomegranates. At first I thought you were showing dried slices, but now I think I'm looking at seeded slices...is that how you process them? What do you do with the seeds then?

I know you've said before that you often get kitchen toys, play with them a while and then pass them on. It looks as though the A4 Box Induction Cooker is a keeper for you? I keep being tempted....

Yes, new lids are needed but they're cheaper than the entire jars. I've successfully used quart jars from, say, pasta sauce, by using new canning lids and functional rings.

Thanksgiving Dinner is a long and provoking subject! It's well worth revisiting each year to see what people's plans are, and to report back afterward on successes and failures. The many Thanksgiving topics we've had over the years may also provide some inspiration and reminders. Feel free to search for yourself on "Thanksgiving" in topic titles to see what I mean. These two are particularly relevant right now: Green Vegetable Side Dish for Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Side Dishes Those who wish to kvetch about the rigidity of Thanksgiving menus, or insist on the rigidity of Thanksgiving menus may wish to laugh, cry or participate in these topics: What Absolutely Positively Has To Be On Your Thanksgiving Table? Thanksgiving's Day Traditions Finally, here's an oldie from 2005: The Funniest Thing About Your Thanksgiving

Regarding green vegetables: one of my favorite green bean treatments is Lynne Rosetto Kasper's Green Beans with Lemon, Garlic and Parmigiano Gremolata.

Most of us know that it is a major PITA to move. That said, I hope you'll share the culinary decisions and activities with us as time and energy permit. "Before and After" or "Here and There" for instance. At any rate...good luck with the move!

Alas, my goddess has clay feet. 😉

Along the lines of what @kayb is asking: I have a frozen venison backstrap. Its packaging is not airtight and I really need to do something with it. Earlier this summer I sous vided a tenderloin from frozen, and we were both pleased with the results. (This was especially encouraging because my Other Half professes not to like venison.) The biggest problem is that I can't find my notes on what I did: time, temp, or even whether I seasoned it before sealing. If I could find those notes I'd repeat the experiment with this backstrap...but now I'm back to by-guess-and-by-golly. Suggestions? I'm thinking along the lines of cooking it properly, then slicing thinly for tacos or a dinner salad.

That's three of us. I still have one of the smaller pans, but the others are long gone.

It may depend on the recycling program. Ours includes plastic film as well as grocery and produce bags, so I assume it includes vacuum sealer and freezer bags. I'm not sure how widespread such a program is. For this reason I prefer reusable plastic containers to bags although the geometry can be problematic.

Whole bullfrog! I'd have assumed the innards needed to be removed, as with fish. It's so long since I ate frog that I can't remember what my hosts did.

Oh, thank you for that link. It's likely to be a while before I try cooking it, but I can already take pleasure in this sentence:

Staff note: This post and the response to it have been moved from Batch cooking: one large batch, many small meals. Share your ideas! I do. We use, and reuse, and keep reusing our plastic containers until they fall apart. We wash them thoroughly between uses, of course. I think a reasonable test would be to wash the containers, allow them to dry, then see whether they (a) keep a greasy feel, (b) hold an odor or pass along an off-taste to other contents, or (c) *shudder* grow mold. I've never seen any of those things happen. My biggest objection to sous vide and similar boil-in-bag packaging is the waste. I wash and reuse sturdy freezer bags (Ziplock, Glad, etc.) unless they're noticeably grubby with fat deposits or food stains. Such reuse is more difficult to do with vacuum-sealer bags, because they have to be cut open. Our area is beginning to have plastic-bag recycling, but it still isn't easy to find.

I don't remember a difference in the texture between the original and the melted/refrozen concoctions, but there wasn't a side-by-side real-time test. (That woud be a useful experiment, wouldn't it?) When i haven't been satisfied with the texture, so far I've just respun and been pleased. The original chocolate and vanilla recipes did not involve custard, but they did involve a small amount of cream (Neufchatel, in my case) cheese. I was essentially following the recipes in the CREAMi manual, although wasn't very strict aboutt milk vs. cream vs. half-and-half.

I didn't add anything. It was just the mango chunks from the can, with enough of the syrup to come up to the fill line. (I think that was all of it, but can't find my notes to be sure.) I thought they were appropriately sweet, like mangoes: sweet enough, without setting my teeth on edge. I thought there was a faint tinny taste from the can, but nobody else commented on it.

We make burgers in batches also. I didn't really think about those, although we've just finished making and freezing a batch. One of my problems is knowing how large a container to use for saving things like broth. I'm not very good at making soups, for whatever reason, so if I save a quart of broth in one go I'll probably have some left over from the pilaf I make. Smaller containers work, if I have room. Then there's the problem of labels that stay on. My husband probably has forgotten, but I still remember the time I made pilaf with beautiful, golden, homemade chicken broth, only to discover at dinner time that it was actually Meyer lemon juice!

Same here! "Southern Cooking," as I recall.

In our household we make large batches of chili and split pea soup, then freeze them for later use. We'll be hitting the road soon with the contents of those two batch cooks occupying part of the freezer, like the top part of this photo: I look forward to more ideas, and demonstrations of how to do it nicely -- that is, with good results at the end. The convenience of being able to decide in the morning what to have at night, and then simply pull it out of the freezer, is very attractive.

Very artistic, as usual, @dcarch. What did you put atop the tomatoes?

No pictures, but I wowed the family last weekend with the non-dairy Coffee ice cream, a mango sorbet and a blend of the remnant chocolate and vanilla ice creams we hadn't finished before. In that last batch, I had two roughly half-sized containers, so allowed them to melt, then mixed them. I think my grandson will be buying one for his bride as a Christmas present. The non-dairy ice cream was a big hit because my DIL is lactose--intolerant. She went home with my old, large, old-fashioned ice cream maker that requires ice and rock salt, AND with the recipe for that coffee ice cream. I used oat milk instead of the specified rice milk because that's what I could find. We all loved it. The mango sorbet (made from canned mango chunks) needed to be spun 3 times before it looked like sorbet; on the first two tried it had that funny granular appearance. What I'm especially enjoying about this gadget is the ability to freeze many different flavors, have them lurking in the freezer, and pull them out on a whim.

Ham and cheese on toasted sourdough, all warmed in the microwave, topped by the last of the summer's ripe tomatoes. Delicious. Filling. Time for a nap now!

Although I tend to donate my cookbooks to the library (or, more recently, to interested relatives just starting out) I want to call out the topic FREE cookbooks for those of you who wish to share around within this community!

How will you reheat these particular dinners when the time comes?