patti

Says the woman who raises, grows, hunts, processes, cans, etc. the majority of her own food?!! Haha, I pale in comparison! And would share macaroni and cheese with you, anytime. Thank you! Pun appreciated! For the record, I do think about food safety every time I prepare these meals. I’m aging my hands a thousand times more with all of this hand washing! I start with a clean kitchen, I wipe down and sanitize surfaces, I use a Lysol cloth to clean my phone and iPad before starting each time, knowing I will be repeatedly touching them. I haven’t checked my fridge temps, but I know some items that get placed in the very back of the main shelf will freeze. I really should take a food safety course, and might. My previous job at the local university was in the Continuing Ed dept and we offered the food safety certification courses all the time. Not that I picked up any info by osmosis! But I worked with the woman who taught the class when I offered a south Louisiana cooking program when I coordinated a Road Scholar program. The cooking portion of the program took place in a university teaching kitchen, and it was under the supervision of the food safety instructor (side gig for her, as she was also head of the hospitality program). Anyway, she had rules for our kitchen usage, which I had to follow. Again, it doesn’t mean I know all of the rules, just that I have a basic understanding. Unfortunately, the Continuing Education dept. no longer exists, so no more food safety classes through them, although the community college probably offers it. I definitely need to work on purging outdated foods, but 90% of the ingredients (except spices and seasonings) are purchased the week the meal will be made. Except for that damn coleslaw dressing that I threw out. I appreciate your input and will be following that best practices link. Thank you. Haha, that made me smile. I too, am surprised I have this much energy, but it feeds on itself. I seem to be able to recover and do it all again! So far.

Thank you! How I would love to share the mac and cheese with you! Honestly, last night I wanted to serve myself a big plate of it. Sigh. But didn’t. I love Tabasco green sauce. It’s my secret ingredient in a number of things. 😉 Louisiana Gold Green sauce was another favorite, but it’s been discontinued. Wish I’d known soon enough to stock up and hoard. Haha!

I do understand that, but I was caught off guard and wasn’t sure how to feel and/or how to address it. Regarding the Magnalite, yes, they’ve been put into heavy use during this project! My enthusiasm for Magnalite has varied over the years. As a young bride, it was something I definitely wanted to receive as a wedding gift! Along with a rice cooker and a Talk About Good cookbook. We south Louisiana cooks are devoted to it. When I discovered eGullet in 2004, I was influenced to get Le Creuset, and I switched my allegiance to those, sort of pushing my Magnalite away. Speaking of hanging your head in shame, I gave my mother’s 17 quart Magnalite to my sister, instead of treasuring it. I’m glad you kept yours! In recent years I’ve revived my love for it. I bought both a 13 quart and 17 quart roaster on eBay, but original Magnalite, not the new versions. They are so handy for larger scale cooking! I used my Magnalite chicken fryer for the cheese sauce. I have saucepans and 6 & 8 quart gumbo pots (I guess other people would call them stock pots, but we know they’re for gumbo!) Also, the weight difference means you can get them in and out of the oven easier than the Le Creuset (or Lodge, or Staub, or which ever). Terrebonne Parish? My sister has lived there for many years. Bon jour, cher! I’m ashamed to say that I ignored my mother’s warnings and used to put my largest Magnalite skillet (used for smothered round steak and smothered chicken, etc.) in the dishwasher, and it is pitted and ugly. Mom, I shoulda listened!! I haven’t found one on eBay, but then I don’t cook those kinds of meals (for home) anymore. You’ve taken me down memory lane! Mais la!

You are the sweetest! Your support means so much.

A local seafood restaurant collaborates with the sponsors of two of the community fridges to donate leftovers four days a week (Tues - Fri). My husband and I volunteer to do pickup of the packaged meals from the restaurant for delivery to a community fridge. Community volunteers sign up for the delivery, and it’s been working for the last six months. Sometimes the meal donation is as small as 12 plates, but more often it’s more than 20, and even 40 plates, four days a week. I admire this restaurant!

After a very long but successful couple of days, 24 pulled pork meals were delivered to the community fridge! I fretted over the pulled pork so much! My intention was to make pulled pork mac n cheese, but to make that work, I should’ve put the pork in the oven much, much sooner, so that it could be ready to go into the mac n cheese before baking. Since I needed to have the pans of mac ready to bake in the morning, it was easier to refrigerate the oven ready pans the night before (when the pork was only beginning its journey in the oven). Did that make sense? I thought I’d use my two large Dutch ovens in separate ovens, but the 17 quart roaster won out. All the pieces of pork butt fit, and it would tie up just one oven. I seared all four pieces, deglazed with onions, bell pepper, celery. I used Serious Eats recipe as a guideline, but skipped the bourbon, and tailored it a few other ways. Serious Eats - Oven Pulled Pork I poured in half of the barbecue sauce which was made of ketchup, molasses, (and some Steen’s cane syrup, which tastes a lot like molasses, but I didn’t have enough molasses for a double sauce recipe), cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, brown mustard, hot sauce (I used Tabasco Green sauce). In the oven at 300 degrees for twelve hours (I hoped). Searing three of the four pieces of pork shoulder. Deglazing. They all fit! Half of sauce poured over, and ready for the oven after covering the pot. My husband grated 8 pounds of cheese! (I was quadrupling my mac and cheese recipe). We didn’t end up using it all. No pictures of boiling the elbow macaroni, but I did 2 pounds in each pot of boiling, salted water, before spreading out the macaroni in two hotel pans (one pot per pan). I made the bechamel in two batches. I usually use 5 cups of buttermilk per batch, but quadrupling meant that I would be four cups short after a using a gallon, so I added two cups of whole milk to each batch. Making the bechamel. Melting that much cheese took forever, it seemed. Almost there! Mixed the cheese sauce and mac in each pan, covered them in foil and refrigerated. (This is where my husband always doubts me when I tell him I can fit something in the fridge. Or in a pot. Or in a bag. Heck, this is a man who will choose a gallon ziplock back to store 10 leftover crackers.) 😏😂 I woke up to the tantalizing aroma of delicious meat cooking in the oven. At 5:30am I checked the pork. It was definitely to temp! You really can get a bark in oven baked pulled pork! I double wrapped each piece in foil and placed them in a cooler, with newspapers all around to further insulate. I let the roasts rest until ready to pull the meat. I skimmed the grease from the pan sauce, and then strained it, mashing the veg as much as I could to get the flavor. I strained simply because there were unattractive bits in the sauce, otherwise the onions, etc. tasted pretty damn good. This is before straining. I combined the strained oven sauce with the remainder of the barbecue sauce, and used this for saucing the meat before plating. My husband washed and peeled the sweet potatoes. There were a few more than pictured. Ready for the ovens. The mac and cheese ready for the ovens. After the ovens. This much of the second pan left. Wow, did I overestimate. I knew I’d be seeing my son later that day and was sure he’d want some mac and cheese. Nope, his wife made some the night before for supper and they had plenty. Joke’s on me! I have this much in my fridge in three containers and maybe I’ll just take them to the community fridge. The pulled pork. I added more sauce to it as we plated. For some reason I have zero pictures of the coleslaw. I used bagged coleslaw, which my husband volunteered to chop finer because he doesn’t care for coarsely chopped. The pleasure was all his. I had two bottles of commercial coleslaw dressing, one in the fridge and one in the pantry. It is far too sweet, so I matched it with mayo and added red wine vinegar. Tasted it. YUCK!!! The bottle of dressing that was in the pantry should’ve been refrigerated. Tossed all of the dressing and my husband picked up more at the store. I know I should’ve just made it from scratch, but I didn’t. Added mayo and red wine vinegar to the newly purchased dressing and it was fine. No pictures, except plated. We both agreed we didn’t work this hard when we worked! The delivery was made at 12:30, and we wanted to collapse. But I was babysitting my 20 month old grandson at 2:00, so I put my collapse on hold. Luckily, he loves to sit on my lap and listen to children’s music on my phone (holding the phone is part of the draw). We sang and couch danced for a couple of hours. My Mimi heart was restored.

Well, that changed the energy of the thread! While my enthusiasm was momentarily quelled, I won’t let it stop me from continuing this project. I’ve been aware of community fridges for five years and I’m not sure how long they’ve been in existence, but in that time, this type of meal donation has been allowed. I will continue to do it until personal circumstances or the law tell me that I can’t. Everyone has the right to approve or disapprove (at least we currently have the right). Indifference kills more people than feeding them does. And now I’ll work on the post about yesterday’s CFM.

And to share it with your granddaughter. It doesn't get any better than that. This. My heart is full because of this part.

After much indecision, I started on the pulled pork. I cut each roast in half(ish), slathered in mustard, and applied the dry rub, which consisted of brown sugar, smoked paprika, salt, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. I was out of onion powder. About to make the rub. Added the rub. Wrapped the pork in plastic wrap and put back in the fridge until later today. I still have plenty of time to be indecisive about the mac and cheese, as well as which pot(s) I will use. Meanwhile, my idea for sandwiches for kids home from school next week has exploded! I posted a on a Facebook group page, suggesting that if a lot of us made just one loaf of sandwiches each, we could keep the fridges full next week. “Fill the fridges with sandwiches” has taken off, as people have shared the suggestion on their own pages. I can’t wait to see how it works out next week! My three year old granddaughter will help me with sandwiches next week. 😍

Your photos are stunning and the composition of the food is exquisite … WOW!

The pork shoulder roasts total a little over 18 pounds, so I won’t be buying a third one. I’m grateful to be given them. Frozen solid, so I’m not sure when I’ll be cooking them, but not today! ! Along with the pulled pork mac n cheese, coleslaw and roasted sweet potatoes are still being considered as sides. Neither is complicated and that is helpful to me.

The most important part. It looks really good (from a native Louisianan)!

@FauxPas and @Darienne - Both of those recipes are intriguing, and I will keep both the Adobo in mind for future reference, as well as the Puerco Pibil, but I’m going to have to go with a southern style pulled pork this time around. Thank you! I agree that pulled pork can be a revelation and it is a great bang for your buck. Hmm. I’d thought I’d do pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and roasted sweet potatoes, but now you have me debating…. Decisions, decisions! 🤔

Air fryer bacon wrapped shrimp, pecans, sweet and spicy Cornichons (chili crisp and sweetener of choice added to jar of your favorite Cornichons), pickled onions, white cheddar.

The manager of the food pantry offered me a couple of small pork shoulder roasts to use for a CFM, so that means I’ll put my other idea for this week on hold. When people donate meat, someone has to cook it, and I accept! I will pick up the roasts tomorrow and buy a third one, if necessary. Pulled pork sandwiches? Pulled pork baked potatoes? With pasta? Not pulled pork? TBD. Disclaimer: My husband says I ask for his opinion and then do it my way, anyway, so, um, fair warning!

Even though I haven’t decided on this week’s CFM (but have an idea), I think I’ve decided what I’ll do for Thanksgiving week. It would seem obvious that I’d do some kind of Thanksgiving themed meal, like roasting a turkey or baking a ham and making a few traditional sides. But I’m thinking that during Thanksgiving week, school kids will be home and maybe I should make lots and lots of sandwiches, instead. There are numerous places offering free Thanksgiving meals (one place says they are preparing 5,000 meals), so this would be different. Not that I’m trying to be different, just trying to be practical. I’m not sure if I would do them as bag lunches or just packs of sandwiches, but pictured is a bag lunch I’ve done in the past. The sandwich was PB&J, but I could do a variety. Here’s a pic from a community fridge in Oshkosh. Inspiring!

Yay! I know you’re going to make some families very happy. So many have to go without the fun extras, and I know it must hurt, both as a parent, not to be able to provide for your kids, and as a child, not getting to feel special on their birthday. Thank you.

Sounds like a great idea!

Oh, yes ma’am!

I couldn’t love your response more. 😀

My husband loves a good sausage and potato skillet and/or casserole, but I’ve never heard of the sliced hard boiled eggs addition. Interesting. I looked at a few recipes of the Hungarian dish and it looks delicious! Agreed! I will make a practice dish for my husband to see if it would be workable for a CFM. Yum!

We reuse these containers for a variety of things, but now I wish I had been saving even more of them. I’m afraid my stock of them is mostly depleted, for now. As far as the food looking good, I do think the soup looked (and tasted) really good. My cornbread does not look good in that pic, but it was decent cornbread, imo. Thank you. My husband had some with his supper of meatball stew last night. He is a sugar lover, but it was too much, even for him. I’m just sort of embarrassed that people would think I made it! Even though I’m fine with making subpar food for myself. Haha.

My supper on Thursday when I was too tired for much effort. Blackened chicken strips (frozen from Costco), air fryer green beans, and a small salad with a couple of heirloom tomato slices that were surprisingly okay. And a little bit of Ranch from a packet for dressing the salad and dipping the chicken (the only way it is halfway decent). I had leftover tortilla pizza for supper last night. Low carb wheat tortilla, Rao’s pizza sauce, Italian blend shredded cheese, sausage crumbles, red bell pepper, mushrooms, and bits of leftover rotisserie chicken. At lunch the chicken was less dry.

Being supportive is as valuable as a good idea. Thank you!

You are very kind. And despite the complaints I made in today’s post about this week’s meal, I am having fun (when I’m not this tired). 🙂 I get a lot out of it, for many different reasons. Thank you for appreciating this project.