Once-a-Month Cooking

 One way to be frugal is to cook an awful lot of food at one time.  You buy in bulk, cook in bulk, freeze in bulk, and then eat it slowly over the next few weeks.  This is called "once-a-month cooking" or sometimes, "freezer cooking" and it is something that both intrigues and frightens me.  My freezer is constantly being used with best intentions and then stuff just sits.

After the jump find some resources for how to plan such an endeavor and a treasure trove of recipes to use when you decide to take the plunge.

 

Using Everything -- Orange Peel Edition

I always feel like I'm leaving such a waste just throwing out perfectly good orange peels.  But the thought of constantly candying them is exhausting.  Here are some other uses for the mighty orange peel.
  

Things to do with Orange Peels

This is what it should look like: Pantry

Everyone and their mom has something to say about pantries.  Pantries can be as simple or complex as you want them to be and when you are first starting to get involved with cooking, the idea of a pantry can seem very overwhelming.  This is not good because when you first start cooking, your pantry is likely very small and so cooking seems very overwhelming.  It is exhausting realizing that each recipe calls for an ingredient you don't yet own and trying to figure out what you can do away with and still cook is enough to make you want to give up entirely.  Don't!  A healthy well-stocked pantry will be a joy to behold!  Treat your pantry well and it will love you in return:

Basic Pantry Planning after the jump...

Gordon Ramsay explains it all

Gordon Ramsay is one of my favorite chefs to watch. Part of that is because of market saturation, I'm sure; but, it is also because he has such respect for basic food.  It doesn't matter if he's cooking the most intricate and delicate gourmet meal, or something like the video above.  He makes all dishes seem like the most natural things in the world.  I've made this for friends and family, and all have thoroughly enjoyed it.  If you find a deal on fish with skin still on, I suggest some variation of the above.

Get to know a Farmer's Market...

This post is for those of you that live in Atlanta and only think of "farmers markets" as being those high-end open air stalls in the parks.  This is not that kind of market.  This is where I go to get low-cost fresh produce, spices, and nicely prepared meats, dairy, and bakery items.


If you live within a 20 mile radius of this market, you've probably heard about it but maybe never visited.  Please go.  Just check it out.  It will change the way you grocery shop from here on out.

http://www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com/

This is what it should look like

My neighbor is super awesome.  She went shopping with me last week and when I bought those chicken breasts on sale, she jumped right in and bought some of her own...without realizing they were bone-in and included skin.  This is not something that she has ever dealt with before but rather than panic, she did what I suggested earlier we should all do more of...she used the Internet as her menu-planning friend.  I've included my own summary and a copy of the recipe below the fold...

How to Boil Water

This is one of those topics that started out as a joke, and then became kind of helpful in a weird way, and then turned into a delightful romp through Internetland.

"Boiling Water" seems like a task you can't screw up...I mean, really, look at the video from howcast:

Sorry if it started automatically; I think it depends on your browser? 

Back to boiling water...when you think about it, it should be easy, but there are a few things you should know depending on your recipe.  Tips after the jump...

Household Tips

Tips are great.  But I find myself overwhelmed when I try to remember all those handy little tips people pass along.  Invariably, I only remember them when I see someone else doing something smart.  Thank goodness for the Internet.
Tipnut.com

This is one of my favorite go-to sites for tips.  I don't feel so bad when I can't remember everything my mother and grandmother taught me anymore, it's all archived on this site.  It's like Google for household help.  Take that 7th grade Home Ec!



This short blog post inspired by last night's dinner guests who were shocked (shocked!) to see me using lemon and salt while washing the dishes.

• Basic Morton's salt is what I use when I need a quick and easy scouring powder when doing dishes.
• Lemon juice is what I use when I have deep stains that need to come out (like beet juice on a wooden chopping board)
• Salt and lemon juice together is what I use to clean copper cheaply.

You know what? Tipnut knows all that too and more:
25 Household Uses for Salt
15 Helpful Household Lemon Aids

You might want to bookmark them.

Credits
Image: lemon tree a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Darwin Bell's photostream

Starting with a Chicken

Roast chicken is one of the best ways to get a lot of food for a little.  But the more I've shopped this idea around the more I've come to learn that few people really know how to roast one.

I make this for my friends all the time and they are blown away.  I have people come up to me in the grocery store (abashed) asking how one prepares a whole chicken.  Even more impressively, I had my mother over and while she can cook a chicken, she never learned to carve one.  I have a secret: this is one of those things that I learned from the Internet.

  
Here are some of the best links to get you started:

How to Roast a Chicken
This page from about.com is spectacular.  A no-fail basic roast chicken recipe complete with links to making no-fail basic gravy and no-fail basic chicken stock AND teaches you fancy French words for things you already knew how to do.  Adding chopped veggies to the roasting pan? You've made mirepoix.  Gravy? You've probably made a roux and bechamel or veloute sauce.  Aren't we fancy?

How to Carve a Chicken
This video is great.  I love watching chefs do things because they make it seem so easy (and not scary).  The first time I watched this I actually went to Target and bought a fresh new carving knife just to try it out.  It wasn't expensive (about $3).

What to Do with the Leftovers
Cheap Healthy Good is one of my favorite food blogs.  They have helped me out a lot when I'm in a pinch for fast recipes.  "1 Chicken 17 Meals" is one of my all-time favorite posts. All recipe links are included and they are easy to manipulate with whatever ingredients you have on hand. The sesame noodle/peanut sauce recipe might have redeemed my cooking skills in the eyes of my mother.  Powerful stuff.



Credits
Image: Roast Chicken a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from kirybabe's photostream