Below-Zero weekend ahead! Anyone else excited?

I'm looking forward to this cold cold weekend. I have already stocked up on groceries & wine. I started a beef stock 2 days ago (roasted the beef bones, slow simmer stock on the stove in the evenings), and I'm thinking I'll either make french onion soup or homemade tomato soup.

Also bought a boneless pork sirloin roast and a beef chuck roast. Maybe I'll make Hungarian goulash with the chuck, but not sure what to do with the pork, maybe something spicy, something curry...or maybe with red cabbage & apples. Any suggestions?

I intend to hibernate indoors this lovely frigid weekend....cooking & then freezing up a bunch of great dinners to eat during the weeks ahead.

Liz...you and i have exactly the same idea! Although...i'm not making my own stock. I am making sure I have some, though.

I'm probably doing a soup and baking. i got this wonderful cookbook over the holidays -- in fact, the idea to get it was from a poster telling us what he got for Christmas --

Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More: 200 Anytime Treats and Special Sweets for Morning to Midnight by Carole Walter -- and so far, everything looks tempting. I made a sour cream pound cake with crystallized ginger that was just delicious.

It's sort of energized me and it's made me really popular at work.

I may even go so far as to make Julia Child's french bread....just the idea of my kitchen windows steaming up with that smell makes me happy.

Good luck with the Soup -- go with French Onion!

shannon

I'm thinking French Onion soup as well. I want to try out the Cooks Illustrated recipe in the current Cook's Illustrated. I'll also probably roast a chicken with some veggies and maybe even stuffing. That is subject to change according to my whim when I get to the butcher shop.

I had exactly the same thought!
Sub-zero weather = braised lamb shanks with lentils.

Here's a really good Bittman recipe from the NYTimes:
"Lamb, lentils and time"

"...French Onion soup as well. I want to try out the Cooks Illustrated recipe in the current Cook's Illustrated."

Do that! We did it a couple weeks ago right after the CI arrived. It's a bit of a hassle, with the repeated pot-scrapings, but it is completely worth the trouble.

Nothing better on a cold winter night.

Mike

sub zero weather with nothing to do usually = tamales for me!

I'm done with soups. Have gallons of split pea with garam masala - (YUM!)
Chicky/veggie, and Turkey (thanksgiving carcasses) with veggies all portioned up and in the big freezer.

I do have a few frozen pounds of short ribs, and a brand new crock pot though...

I've also been threatening to make sausage out of that venison...
So much meat, so little time.

Sub-zero weather = pack porch doubles as a walk-in freezer
I've got 25 for dinner next Saturday so I'll be making a couple
of batches of a beef daube

nope, hate cold weather, and Chicago winters. One would think I would wise up after 37 of them, but I cant take my home, and property with me, so no plans to run off to Florida, and paradise any time soon

With the above said I pulled a ham out of the freezer yesterday, and it should be good to go for Saturday dinner, or Sunday dinner.

I will have to run out to my local butcher to pick up some beef on Saturday morning, since he closes before I get home from my daily commute during the week.

Menu's will be simple, and hearty. Perhaps arrachera(marinated skirt steak) for some tacos on Saturday or Sunday for lunch, Some steak(perhaps a nice prime filet, or t-bone and maybe some crab legs for one of the other dinners.

Sunday afternoon & evening will be spent watching the NFL playoffs in HD by the fireplace. Go Packers

I didn;t know you could freeze ham!

Liz in Norwood Park wrote:I didn;t know you could freeze ham!

ive never had an issue freezing a bone in ham. I get a few around the holidays as gifts, and cant eat them all between Thanksgiving & X-mas.

this one I will bake, then use the leftovers for ham and scalloped potatoes, and perhaps some other dishes.

I plan to stay home and assemble a few lasagnas and batches of stuffed shells for the freezer. And perhaps some vegetable noodle soup -- my youngest doesn't really like the taste of meat and is leaning towards vegetarianism. The rest of us are diehard carnivores. It's not always easy finding something she will eat because she is such a picky eater and I don't usually have the time or inclination on a weeknight to make two different dinners.

Our old house is rather drafty, so I'm going to keep the oven going all weekend to help warm it up!

Suzy

stevez wrote:I'm thinking French Onion soup as well. I want to try out the Cooks Illustrated recipe in the current Cook's Illustrated. I'll also probably roast a chicken with some veggies and maybe even stuffing. That is subject to change according to my whim when I get to the butcher shop.

Looks like I have a change of plans. I'm still going to make the Onion Soup, but I just found out that I have to smake a brisket on Sunday, so Brett Favre and I will both be outside working in the frozen tundra.

stevez wrote:

stevez wrote:I'm thinking French Onion soup as well. I want to try out the Cooks Illustrated recipe in the current Cook's Illustrated. I'll also probably roast a chicken with some veggies and maybe even stuffing. That is subject to change according to my whim when I get to the butcher shop.

Looks like I have a change of plans. I'm still going to make the Onion Soup, but I just found out that I have to smake a brisket on Sunday, so Brett Favre and I will both be outside working in the frozen tundra.

So you will be firing up the grill? Or the smoker? Or...? It will be interesting to see how much more difficult it will be (if at all) to maintain a suitable temperature when the wind is howling at -20 to -30 below....

Make sure you have a nice glass of port before you go out...or a hot something when you come in! Please report back on your efforts.

I admire your dedication!

Same idea. I am basically hibernating but may have to run a few errands that are minimal. I will be making either lentil soup, or maybe chili or something warm and comforting. I have not been able to do any thing diet and having a salad for a meal just does not sit well. I am thinking gravy, fat, cheese, meat, stew, chocolate, etc. I always feel like eating these things when the weather is cold.

Man, this is almost the "make something from the new Cook's Illustrated" thread.

I just made that chicken in a pot recipe they had, and it turned out good. Wife said the potatoes were the best I've made yet, so there's that.

However, when it gets really cold, I usually turn to my jambalaya, which has already been requested for Sunday.

Hi,

I am making a pot roast on Sunday, which will allow me to make a variant of beef noodles over mashed potatoes.

Tomorrow morning I will keep the oven humming making Civil war era hardtack and Johnnie cakes. I will also make a batch of date-nut bread to finish the dates purchased for Christmas.

Regards,

I was impatient and pulled the turkey carass from the freezer and am about an hour away from finishing my turkey soup. I pull most of the bones out but I dont strain it. All these years of eating biryani and hacked chicken have inured me to their presence and I like how earthy it makes the soup.

Yesterday I made some beef curry using the very last of the special curry mix that Erik M gave to me lo the many years ago. It held up well in the freezer.

If you have a crazy-long URL, like the two above, you can enclose it and give it a [url=http://crazy_long_link_from_hell__that_stretches_the_page_width out_to_kingdom_come.com]short name, like this[/url].

Then only the linked words ("short name, like this") will appear. (I've turned that off for demo purposes, but you can see such a link in my signature below.) Then it doesn't stretch the page width, making it hard for others to read.

As a rule of thumb, it's a good idea to do this for any URL that is longer than the width of the text-entry box.

Note that you can go back and edit your post to make this happen by clicking the "Edit" button.

Laz, that's genius! Thanks so much for the tip. You've just made me a better online citizen.

Absolutely, it is basketball season.

I've got two 4-pound bone-in pork shoulders which I browned and are now braising in sierra nevada pale ale, brown stock, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, and a mix of onions, garlic, and serrano peppers that I sweated in chorizo fat. When the meat's done in a few hours I plan to shred it, add it back into the liquid along with the chorizo I cooked earlier to render the fat, and mix in a puree of tomatillos and roasted poblanos. That ought to keep me (and an army of people, should they choose to descend upon my condo) warm for the weekend.

The turkey soup turned out very well but last night on a whim I tossed in a couple cups of leftover rice that was mixed with red curry and WOW! It punched the soup up to a new level, I was very surprised. The hint of cocnut milk and the curry just meshed with the broth and carrots perfectly.

I just finished making the filling for pineapple tarts! Not as brown as I like it, but my arms are tired of stirring... Tomorrow I will make the dough and the baking begins!

Nothing warms up my apartment better than baking a HUGE loaf of bread. In anticipation of the chilly weekend, I fed my starter last Thursday inoculated with our very own local airborne yeasts. It's a 3-day process but always worth it. My nth attempt at recreating Pain Poilâne, weighing in at over 4 lbs:



I can't wait for it to cool down so I can cut into it already... I don't what the real thing tastes like, but it'll be tangy and crusty with a dense crumb.

Well, I made:

Hungarian goulash
Chicken stock (made from a whole chicken carcass that was baked with bbq sauce, should be interesting)
Base for mushroom-barley soup (going to the store tomorrow to get the mushrooms & the barley - promised myself I'd have one day - today- where I didn't have to go anywhere)
Breakfast strata with ham, mushrooms, spinach, red & green peppers & tomatoes & extra sharp cheddar. This is a great way to use up odds & ends of vegetables. I also used a frozen onion roll for the cubed bread - it added a very nice flavor.

I took pictures of everything - way more labor-intensive than it seemed like it would be - and if I figure out how to upload, I'll post them later or tomorrow (thx to the person who PM'd me w/instructions)

What a great day! Cooking, reading about cooking & watching cooking on tv. Oh that and listening to Amy Winehouse and various jazz standards while cooking. SO glad I moved the computer to the kitchen

Tonight's warm the bones meal in the Bananawich household:

Chicken stew (adapted from a Barefoot Contessa recipe)
Basically, dredge a whole cut up chicken in lightly seasoned flour, brown it quickly in a pan with a little oliver oil, simmer it in chicken stock til it falls off the bone (bout 45 mins or so). Take out the chicken, take it off the bone, throw away the skin and bones and icky parts, chop the chicken up into bite size pieces. Return the stock to the pot and add pearl onions and carrots, cook for a few minutes.

Then, barefoot contessa, she of the many calories, adds heavy cream. I, instead, added a can of 98% fat free cream of chicken soup. Thickens it up and adds a creamy note without the calories. Then, stir it around and add the chicken back into the pot, simmer it for another minute or so until everything comes together.

You can at this point throw in egg noodles or elbow macaroni or rice of any variety (cooked) but I chose instead to serve over mashed potatoes. Good choice for a freaking freezin day!

Changed up my menu for the weekend slightly.

Yesterday after making a dash to Polancics Meat market & then to the grocery store I started on my revised menu.

Lunch: Buffalo wings, fired up the deep fryer, and knocked out a large batch of hot wings. As sauces I used Texas Petes, Sriachi, and Crystal, a few wings in each.

Dinner: Chicken Parmesan garlic bread, and a green salad. I never order chicken parmesan when I go out, since I have not found a better one than I can make. I pounded out the chicken breasts, and then breaded them with a mixture of bread crumbs, and Reggiano parmesan. Sauteed, sauced, applied layers of mozzerella, and more Reggiano. Threw under the broiler until the cheese was melted, and browning. Excellent meal.

Today I purchases a couple of pounds of skirt steak which I had my fine butcher run through the tenderizer at his shop. I will marinate it for a couple of hours in garlic, cumin, salt, black pepper, and lime juice. Then throw it on the grill, or into the cast iron griddle pan to produce some top notch arrechera. I will serve it on corn tortillas with fresh cilantro, and diced onions, cheese, and sour cream. I also have some red beans and rice as well as some guacamole & chips.

For dinner: Baked ham. green salad, rice

Should be a fun day of cooking, eating, drinking beer, drinking tequilla, watching football(go packers), and staying in front of the fireplace.

Yesterday I made a dash out in the morning to the market because I needed some oxtails. My mom wanted me to make a big batch of my grandmothers beef and vegetable soup and she always used oxtails for her stock.

I also cooked a ham, and saved the bone, for some sort of soup later in the week, maybe, split pea or navy bean.

I'm making potato salad this morning, and I was going to make a layer salad from my aunts recipes, but I used up all my frozen peas in the vegetable soup.

Later this afternoon the kids and I are going to bake a couple batches of cookies.

With no forethought, the Dominick's near me (Dempster and Dodge) had huge pot roasts on sale. I bought a 13 dollar behemoth. I had to cut at least 4 lbs off it to get it in my big Le Creuset.

Browned it, added some broth, carrots, onions and mushrooms, and put it in a 300 degree oven for 6 hours. Plenty of time to make some bread to go with it.

Even after waiting that long, I couldn't stop for even a second to photograph it before stuffing myself into a stupor. Today it'll be some sort of sloppy joes with the forked up meat.

Our plan was to go out once this weekend to stock up on things to cook all weekend.

Yesterday had a mexican theme, with mexican rice, guajillo salsa and a pasilla/black bean/tortilla casserole from Bayless recipes. The casserole is lasagne like with layers of black beans mashed with sauteed onions, chihuaha cheese, mexican crema, corn tortillas and a simmered pasilla sauce.

Also made a tres leches cake from a Rosengarten recipe. Oddly enough the cake didn't absorb the liquid as much as I'd assume and was sort of leaden. Oh well, still good

We also made a giant batch of roasted vegetable stock to make some Lentil Minestrone with Kale soup today. Will roast some potatoes and toss them with the guajillo salasa I made yesterday as a side.

Also grabbed a small pork loin roast that I will roast.

I love cold weekends

Jamie