My Once A Month Cooking (OAMC)

Saturday, August 6, 2011

August 6, 2011

Another busy week at our house. This was fair week. The Police Department (my employer) had a booth there and I worked it or did some things for it, every night! I took in the foods of course. All the canning, baking, and of course the fair foods!

My poor garden sure has suffered this week. I think my tomato plant has got the wilt! Probably won't have any tomatoes this year. I'm not happy about that! Not at all.

Today I picked green beans and cucumbers and jalapeno peppers and okra. Only got enough green beans to have for lunch today. All the cucumbers I picked, I used the larger ones to eat now and the smaller ones for pickling. I made dill pickles. Not many...only got a couple of quarts. I pickled the jalapenos and the okra...so had a canner full. I had purchased some chives from the farmer's market today so I diced them up and got a half pint jar full of chives.

Tomorrow is our family reunion. I need to fix something to take for the potluck. haven't decided what to take. Here is it 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I still don't know what to fix. I need to be deciding. So I'm off of here to figure it out and I'll let you know.

Later

Monday, August 1, 2011

August 1, 2011

Well I hope this week is a bit more calm than last week was. For those of you that don't know, my husband had a terrible bout with kidney stones. He had surgery to have them blasted on Monday...By Wednesday he was in so much pain, he couldn't eat or sleep. Thursday morning he couldn't stand it any more. The Dr. here in town admitted him to the hospital for pain management, re-hydration and to get his bowels in order. Friday morning they transferred him to Hays, 2 1/2 hours away. Saturday morning they did surgery to remove two stones, both the size of a pencil eraser and place a stint. He feels so much better! He is back to his old self again, and I like the old self! Thanks to all of you for your prayers and thoughts and calls.

Sunday we had the kids over for dinner, as usual. I did something easy....Roast in the slow cooker, homemade buttermilk biscuits, and green beans. After lunch I was going through our refrigerator, taking inventory. I discovered I had a quart of heavy whipping cream that we had since the 4th of July. I knew we couldn't possibly use that much cream before it went bad, if it wasn't already. So I decided to make butter out of it. I can always use butter! It was good so out came the mixer and the beating began. When I was done making the butter, I had a pound of butter and 1 1/2 pint of buttermilk. So, I'm stocked up for a bit.

This weekend is our family reunion in Monument, Kansas. So I will be doing some serious cooking on Saturday. I'll let you know what I cook and try to post the recipes and pictures too. This week is our fair here. I'm working the booth for our department 4 out of 5 nights....and making ribbons tonight. Friday night is the tractor pull...we used to go to tractor pulls all over the area when we were dating, and we still like going to them. We have missed very few over the years. So...this will be a busy week, but hopefully not as stressful as last week.

Is anyone out there willing to have cooking classes or Once A Month Cooking seminars? I'm interesting in doing those.

All for now. Until next time.

Introduction

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by deciding what to prepare for a meal? I know I have. Many times. Especially our evening meal when our three children were growing up. Then one day I stumbled across a program called "Once A Month Cooking" (OAMC) and thought I'd give it a try. It was a lifesaver and I loved it. I did it for years, from the time my youngest was in preschool until he was in the 8th grade. I don't remember why I quit, just that I did. When I was doing the OAMC back then I prepared a lot of full, complete meals and froze them, entree, side, and dessert. The only thing I had to actually prepare for the meal was the vegetable or the potatoes. For those of you not familiar with the OAMC program, I will try to explain it to you here. This blog is to try to help you see what it takes, how to do itm give you ideas and how much fun you can actually have. OAMC is the ultimate do-ahead dinner preparation technique. The secret of the OAMC technique is that you cook all your dinner main dishes for a month (or two weeks or even a week) in one day, freeze them, and enjoy eating tasty food, every night without the hassle of lengthy meal preparation. In this blog, I will try to provide the menu we use, shopping lists and recipes. You do not have to have organizational skills, nor do you have to be a good cook to successfully accomplish OAMC. What you need to expect and plan to is: Take a longer-than usual shopping trip, preferably the day or night before your cooking day. Spend the bulk of your month's food budget on this shopping trip (saving money over the course of the month) Cook with a partner or two or three, like I do, for maximum fun and efficiency. Cook half a day for a two week cycle, a full day for a month cycle. Love the freedom and possibilities this will bring to mealtimes. Enjoy family building times around the table and like us, the time we cook together. Take the stress out of having company for dinner I suggest for the first few time you do the OAMC to try to do the two week cycle. Then when you get the feel of the "system" advance on the full month if that is what you want and have room for the food. Also in this blog I will frequently give you suggestions of what to serve with a certain recipe. Please feel free to email me with any suggestions and question syou might have. Even leave a comment here on the blog.