Did You Cook Anything Interesting the Week of September 25, 2016?

[BakerAunt]

My husband was on dinner duty on Sunday, and he roasted a chicken. On Monday, when I was home for lunch, I made Cauliflower Soup. The recipe comes from a cookbook I've had since graduate school, The No Salt, No Sugar, No Fat Cookbook. I just like the recipe and how it tastes (especially now that I use 1% milk in it). It consists of chicken/turkey broth (homemade of course--there is a lot in the freezer), cauliflower, onion, 3 Tbs. of whole wheat flour to thicken, and milk. After being cooked, it is pureed in the blender. I like it with sandwiches. [Note to self: when cleaning the blender afterwards by running water in it, be sure that the bottom is tightly screwed on. Sigh.] On Tuesday, I made soup with Bob's Red Mill Vegi-Soup Mix [lentils, split peas, and barley], ground turkey, and seasoning with 1 Tbs. Bouquet Garni and 1 tsp. dried chives, and a bit of tomato paste (used up the last bit in tube). On Saturday, I sautéed carrots, celery, red bell pepper, mushrooms, and broccoli, added a cup of broth and leftover diced chicken. I mixed it with cooked buckwheat noodles, then added sliced green onion before serving.

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[Italiancook]

Another week where I don't remember what we ate, because it wasn't memorable. Last night, I made Cauliflower & Pasta Soup from "Italian Family Recipes from The Romanoglis' Table." I had planned to package it for the freezer, but by the time it was cool enough to do that, I could barely stay awake. I put it in the refrig and will process it when I finish with this website. I know from experience that the pasta will have swelled overnight, so I'm concerned about the thawed product. I think it would have been better to freeze it last night.

I've never frozen anything with pasta, so I don't really know how it'll turn out when thawed. Some Internet articles suggest it'll be sticky and mushy when reheated. They say to freeze cooked pasta you need to stop the cooking process before the al dente state. I read those after the soup was cooked.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by Italiancook.

[cwcdesign]

Reading what you both made inspires me to get some cauliflower this week. While it's still way too hot to think about soup, I love to roast it.

I made my favorite Shepherd's Pie from Simon & Pia Pearce's "A Way of Living." I forgot how much it makes and we've been eating it all week! I also made a delicious squash, sausage and goat cheese pasta dish from Fine Cooking on Friday. All I had to do for leftovers was add some cream - it made a nice sauce.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--I usually don't freeze soup with pasta in it, so I do not know how it will work out. If I have a soup that uses pasta, and I want to freeze, I often freeze a quantity without the pasta in it, then add it when I reheat the soup. Of course, that does not work well for single servings.

Cwcdesign--that pasta dish sounds wonderful, but I know my husband would not eat it. Sigh.

[Italiancook]

Thanks for the info, BakerAunt. My mind is blank right now. I can't recall if I make any dishes with pasta that I may want to freeze. For soups, I package them in quart deli containers. One quart will feed us for one meal -- 2 serving per quart.

[luvpyrpom]

On Monday, made chicken chow mein with less vegetables as the kids didn't like too much of. On Friday, tried out a new-old recipe - lasagna rolls. I didn't want to open up a new jar of spaghetti sauce, dug up my old recipe for lasagna and made the sauce from scratch. Instead of ricotta cheese, used vegan ricotta which uses tofu as the base, and layered each pasta with grated spinach, ricotta, black beans, and small amount of cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Baked the dish and then divided them out into individual portions and froze each portion for future lunches. Baked salmon on Saturday.

Italiancook, I freeze a lot of soups in individual mason jars so I can take them to work. I've found that small pasta and potatoes don't freeze well. So if I know I'll be eating that soup for the week, I'll precook a batch of pasta, and keep it separate in the refrigerator. Pack a small portion to add to the soup when I take it to work. The last time I made Manhatten clam chowder and instead of potato, I substituted with white beans. With rice, I use the wild rice or barley as they're harder to break down after freezing and reheating.

[Italiancook]

luvpyrpom, I've often wondered whether I could freeze mason jars. I've been afraid to try; I didn't want a bunch of glass in my freezer. Are your jars made for the freezer? I know there are some that are marketed as being made for the freezer.

[Mike Nolan]

We have several cabinets full of Tupperware (my wife is a former dealer) and Ikea containers, and that's what I freeze stuff in. Last week I froze 18 small containers of beef stock, ranging from 2-4 ounces. That should keep me in beef stock until after Christmas.

[luvpyrpom]

Italiancook, I use the Ball brand mason jars - the 8 oz wide mouth jars. I cool the soups in the jars in the frig before putting them in the freezer. I also put the jars in the gallon size Ziploc bags to hold them. I'm always afraid I would accidentally knock one jar out and then have a mess. I just take a jar of soup out in the morning when I'm packing my lunch for work and I have access to a microwave so just reheat it with the lid off.

Mike, I used to use the plastic containers but all my soups/lunch meals are tomato based and every time I reheat tomato based foods in the plastic, it stains them pretty bad. Thus, I switched over to glass. I do use the take out containers for stocks as I don't use them to reheat stocks with.

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