Ramblings-n-Writings

Archive for March 9th, 2009

Today was a fun day in our kitchen. Since we did our grocery shopping on Saturday, I had a couple of meals I wanted to cook up. With cooler weather, but not too cold, it was the perfect day to run the oven for a long time to keep the house comfortable without needing the heater.

The first meal we made was Pepperoni Lasagna from Chickens in the Road. (If you don’t read Suzanne’s blog, I highly recommend it along with her Grandmother Bread recipe!) I was a little skeptical about the whole lasagna thing because last time I made it, it was a total disaster. Then I remembered that was in the old house with the strange oven. (Some recipes would be done on time, some early, some way later, making for some interesting meals.)

One change from Suzanne’s recipe is I cooked my noodles. I’ve tried the no-bake noodles before without a lot of success. I cooked the noodles until they were almost al dente, and they turned out perfectly in the lasagna.

The Farmer helped me assemble the layers, and 35 minutes later we had a scrumptious lasagna. I know I should have taken a photo but I didn’t want to make you all hungry. Trust me, it tasted as good as it looked.

After the lasagna came out of the oven, I raised the temperature to 390 deg. I put two whole 5 lb. chickens in my large roasting pan.

I slid some butter slabs under the skin and heavily sprinkled rosemary, thyme, and sage on the outside. In the cavity, I stuffed some chunks of onion for added flavor.

All I can say is “yum!” The chickens turned out juicy, moist, and tasty. The Farmer raved about how awesome the meat was.

So, what will we do with the lasagna and two chickens? We had lasagna for dinner tonight, and there’s a small slab in the refrigerator for a snack tomorrow. I divided the remainder into two portions and froze for future dinners.

The chickens took a little more work. I broke off the legs, part of the thighs and wings. I saved 2 legs and 2 wings for dinner tomorrow night. I packaged the others for the freezer. I took 3 large pieces of breast meat and froze those. Then I divided the remaining breast meat for freezing. The dark meat went in a separate container. I also froze the chicken stock.

In about 4 hours of time and with about an hour of work today, we have 9 meals almost ready for the table. Instead of spending a lot of time each day, I can pull the meat out of the freezer, do a little quick prep, and have a tasty meal in minutes.

Do you prepare meals for your freezer?