This years cooking goals . . .

[KatyTheChickenLady]

Does anyone else make a plan to learn new things every year? I DO

Over the years I found it's too hard to learn everything at once, and too easy to wind up just doing the same old thing. So I assign myself new learning adventures in all areas of my life, but I keep them small enough that I might actually accomplish them.

this year my cooking list is:

Bread
Cheese
Saurkraut
Canned Chicken

The kitchen aids I am buying this year are a crock for saurkraut, a bread machine and a pressure cooker

what are you guys doing new?

 

[HEChicken]

I just bought a pressure canner and I'm still reading up on it to learn how to use it. Probably the real learning won't come for months though, when I have enough produce from my garden to have excess to can. I'm also thinking about getting a pasta maker and learning how to make my own pasta. This has potential to be a great thread - I'm subscribing!

 

[bigmike&nan]

To really excel in these things:

Making a really terrific sourdough starter/bread items
Making unusual and tasty fresh pastas
Making more Weight Watcher's worthy recipes for my wife (who has lost 56 pounds !!)


Just getting better at writing it all down here too - it's a challenge to cook something and I want anyone using my recipes to feel inspired and confident in the process I describe

 

[A.T. Hagan]

If you really want to learn to make bread I'd buy a quality mixer rather than a bread machine. It is ever so much more versatile.

 

[bigmike&nan]

A.T. Hagan :

If you really want to learn to make bread I'd buy a quality mixer rather than a bread machine. It is ever so much more versatile.

YUP !!​

 

[Olive Hill]

bigmike&nan :

A.T. Hagan :

If you really want to learn to make bread I'd buy a quality mixer rather than a bread machine. It is ever so much more versatile.

YUP !!​

 

[savingdogs]

I have some great new goals!

For one, I have dairy goats due to kid in 10 days. I would love to make my first batch of goats milk cheese this year! Depending on how much milk I get, I also hope to make soap, fudge and yogurt, too. This is their first year so I cannot expect too much, but I do have two does who will be giving birth.

We are also raising our own meat bunnies this year and I hope to try to supplement the menu with rabbit at least twice a week and figure out how we like to eat them.

We are also raising chickens, ducks and turkeys for meat and we will attempt to buy a lot less meat at the store and depend on our own flock for everything except beef, pork and fish. We are still learning the proper way to process these animals.

I want to collect nettles (which grow wild on our property) and make nettles soup and nettles and eggs.

I plan on making blackberry wine this year with blackberries from our land as well. I have never made wine before (or drink much) but it seems like a good way to use these blackberries since they are so seedy.

I plan on planting an enormous garden and using the fruits of the land in our meals. I was hoping to make a salad for dinner one evening, and a soup the next, and alternate so that I can vary how we eat the fresh vegetables. I wanted to freeze some vegetable soups in individual containers. I hope to freeze whatever I can, but don't think I'm ready for canning yet. I think I have enough projects! If I have more vegetables than I can use or freeze, I have the animals who can finish them up for me or I can share with my family and neighbors.

I would also like to buy a breadmaking machine and make some of my own bread, but I'm not sure I'll get around to buying one with all the expenses we will have with starting milking our goats. I still have quite a few supplies to buy and that should keep me busy for a while, but I was thinking perhaps in the fall it would be a good time to try breadmaking.

Does that sound like an ambitious plan for the year?

 

[BettyR]

I would like to learn how to make hand made pasta this year. I want to learn to roll it out by hand as well. I also want to make some homemade ravioli.

Edited to add: I also want to learn to make really good food on a budget. I've been doing fairly well so far but I know there are things I can do to help stretch that dollar.

One thing I need to learn is to be more organized. I need to learn to make a menu for the week and plan my meals to work off each other.

 

[cheri222]

For the sauerkraut we use large plastic food grade containers(think garbage can size). We freeze some and give the rest away. Yumm!

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
savingdogs, that was the best part of my garden last year. I grew a lot of different greens - swiss chard, collard, kale etc. We used a combination of those as the greens for the salad. You can also use carrot greens in salad and to make a delicious tea, which I was glad of because they seemed a waste otherwise (even though we composted them). I also grew cucumbers, tomatoes and a variety of herbs. When it was time for dinner, I'd go and harvest greens, tomatoes, cukes, herbs and while DH put together the salad, I'd hard boil some of my own chicken eggs, and we'd add those to the salad as well. He drizzled a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar over it when it was done and that's all we added that didn't come from the garden. Those were the best salads I've ever had. My garden plans for this year include quadrupling the greens so that we can do this just about every night instead of only 2-3 nights a week. It is a really good feeling to make a meal entirely from food produced right there in the backyard.