Avalon1984-Chicken, horses, pigs, oh my!

[pinkfox]

see thats the nice thing about crockpots, you dont need to knwo how to cook.

my method of choice for crock pot cooking is
1: pick meat
2: pick veg
3: pick sauce

so ive got chicken things defrosting right now, ill skin them, toss them in the crock pot with some baby potatoes and carrot, mix up a can on condensed soup (1 can soup to however much milk or water you like) and igenerally add pepper and garlic to that) pur that in, lid on turn on and leave it alone for 6-8 hours. tada, chicken stew!
leave out the veggies and soup and add a can of pasta sauce and serve with pasta, tada italian chicken
beef gets the same treatment only ill use musroom soup or beef gravy
also makes things like chilli, sloppy joe meat, ect all easy peasy!

First apliance i ever owned was a crock pot becuase its my firm belife that even a monkey could make meals in a crock pot with minimal effort...and that suits me perfectly lol.

 

[ORChick]

Avalon, it is my firm belief that anybody who can read can also cook. Some things, naturally, are more complicated than others (I'm still working on Thueringer Kloesse!! ), but there is plenty that is easy. A good, basic cookbook would be helpful for you, perhaps with pictures. I don't recommend the internet, just because I find it easier to not have the laptop in the kitchen, and I can make notes in the margins of books

 

[Avalon1984]

I hear you all. Working on bringing up the motivation and have received plenty of cookbooks over the years from people as helpful as you are. I need to get to a point where I can visualize the finished product because it seems every time I cook, it ends in misery and food doesnt taste the way I expected, lots of leftovers I ended up not eating, getting tossed to the chickens and lots of wasted time and energy. My other biggest de-motivator is the lack of a dishwasher. Call me lazy but after a 12-14hr work day, my desire to do dishes is fairly low, same goes for cooking. I might get me a crock pot and play around with that and see what happens. I am finding that my cooking improves when I have the muse for it, which seldom happens.

I think it is something like any behavior modification, it takes time and practice to learn. I usually only cook for myself so doing big meals is pointless because hubby goes out to eat most of the time when hes here on the weekends (he is used to that, long story) and I dont feel like eating the same leftovers 6 days in a row. Freezer is already full of food so freezing leftovers can be tricky. SooI am still in the daunting phase of cooking. It is hard when you dont have the talent and were never taught (I was busy gathering mushrooms an doing other outdoorsy stuff when I was young) and dont have many occasions to practice. Husband says I make killer goulasch, and I can do Thueringer Kloesse and Jaeger Schnitzel, so I try to hang around those options. I do fish sticks and boxed mashed potatoes and sauerkraut out of a jar, which doesnt take much talent but husband likes it. Well see how it goes. In my effort to reduce spending I will have to get good enough o make my husband not want to go out to eat, but he is so used to it from being on the road, then, on the weekends we work our butts off and are both so exhausted, he doesnt want to put me through the effort of cooking so we go out. In a funny sense, it is cheaper than some of my meals (not necessarily healthier, but cheaper). We usually go out and eat for about $10-12 per person. By the time I go shopping for a dinner I spent at least $40-50, plus gas, plus cooking time, plus dishes, etc.

I did cook for myself yesterday and will attempt to do so today. I read Trims post where he talks about trying to eat everything that came from a 25mi radius. Does that include the grocery store???? Anyways, my goal for this year is to make as much from scratch as possible. Well see how that goes. First I need to come home and ensure that everything is well at the farm, that is not always a given. Depending on what I find I will plan the rest of the afternoon, and whether or not I will have time to cook.

Thank you all for your heartfelt support, I really appreciate it. I will keep you up to date on my cooking and baking endeavors. Been meaning to try myself on a strawberry cake but it has been 4 weeks of hell now and I havent checked on the strawberries in the fridge latelysigh

 

[pinkfox]

my crockpot is little holds about 4 chicken leg quaters with bone if i dont add much else, but its perfect for cookign for single/couples...

 

[SSDreamin]

I know a person, who doesn't live TOO far away, with meager cooking skills who might seriously consider trading poor cooking lessons ( ) on occasion for some quality time with your horses Of-course, you'd have to like VERY spicy food and only so-so homemade bread, as those are my specialties!

 

[Avalon1984]

I know a person, who doesn't live TOO far away, with meager cooking skills who might seriously consider trading poor cooking lessons ( ) on occasion for some quality time with your horses Of-course, you'd have to like VERY spicy food and only so-so homemade bread, as those are my specialties!

Oh you do, do you??? You would always be welcome at our farm.

 

[Avalon1984]

Sigh...death has come to our farm today...I lost my honey bees over the winter. Had a funny feeling my hive was too big. Bless their little hearts though, they left me about 80lbs of honey before they died, so I am currently taking the hives apart and harvesting the honey as best as possible. Got 3 big bowls of honey mess on the porch. Will haev to take pictures soon.

 

[Denim Deb]

Sorry to hear. I think a lot of people had problems w/their hives over the winter.

 

[Avalon1984]

Sorry to hear. I think a lot of people had problems w/their hives over the winter.

Thanks Deb. My beek is saying the same thing. He had the exact same problem, tons of honey left behind, no brood, colony failure. Oh well, I am processing the honey now. I already am approaching 2gallons and still have much further to go. Thanks my dear little beesies, you will be missed

 

[Icu4dzs]

Sigh...death has come to our farm today...I lost my honey bees over the winter. Had a funny feeling my hive was too big. Bless their little hearts though, they left me about 80lbs of honey before they died, so I am currently taking the hives apart and harvesting the honey as best as possible. Got 3 big bowls of honey mess on the porch. Will haev to take pictures soon.

We all, who care for animals, share your grief today. The loss of your bees is a sad thing.
I think it was Albert Einstein who said something to the effect "four years after the last bee dies, man will become extinct"

My bees are still in the shed, wrapped in tar paper. I'm pretty certain they are ok, because I see them coming and going through the opening between the big shed doors.

We all hope that your grief passes soon as we know it should. We are, as was said by the character "ET" "right here!"

Trim sends
//BT//