Cooking tip

Pie crust tip

You kids may remember that I have a friend (Larry Davenport) who teaches at Samford University, just over the hill from Nanni & grandad's house. Every few years we get together while we are in B'ham and catch up on grad school friends, what is happening in our lives, etc. Larry & I used to do field work together. Mom & I attended the christening of their son. Larry was along on the famous trip from hell (perhaps the subject of another post). When we got together this year, Larry had a list of things to tell me. among them was that Lori Wiersema had recently died. Apparently she was undergoing minor surgery and something went horribly wrong. Her husband, John, was a co-grad student of ours, though, as a botanist was closer to me than mom. Lori came to town as a grad student in nutrition but a close friend of another woman who was in the biology program. They started hanging out with the bio crowd, even playing on the softball team. Romance bloomed between Lori & John about the time when mom & I were realizing that we might be more than friends.

Lori was a good cook. I had made a pie for some grad student cookout party, but was complaining about struggling with the crust. She gave me a tip that I have used on every crust, pastry, or biscuit that I have made since. When I do this I always think of Lori. That's a lot of thoughts over the 30+ years that I have been using the tip, so I was shocked to hear that she is gone. In fact, the night before Larry told me, I had made a lemon meringue pie and thought of her.

I know that I have told all of you kids the tip and, probably, shown you. Here it is:

To make a crust, the first step is to "cut" the flour into the shortening. I usually start that process with a fork, but that only goes so far. To finish the process and get a really flaky crust, use your thumb and fingers on one hand to rub the flour and shortening together. Keep working it until the combination has the consistency of light snow.

Carry on the tradition and think of the tip that came from a one time friend.

Foods that freeze well

I've been cooking fresh a lot more often recently thanks to Fresh 20 meal planning. The only problem is, even with the gift of meals for one (or two when I'm feeding Jarrod) and meals that use the same ingredients over several recipes, I end up with fresh ingredients that if left in the fridge will go bad. So, I've been freezing a lot. Please note, I cook with all of my frozen veggies. MMV on thawing out and expecting a grocery store fresh result. This is going to sounds dumb, but, been there done that. Cut up your fruit/vegetable/food item BEFORE you freeze. I once froze a bunch of apples and was very disappointed that I had frozen rock apples that I couldn't do anything with.

Meat:

If you're a single lady like me, a great way to save money is to buy the family sized meat packs (think 5 lb. ground turkey) and cut into individual sized servings BEFORE you freeze. I like cut into commonly used portion sizes. For instance, a 5 lb. log of ground meat I'd cut up into 1 lb. serving sizes, package them in freezer bags and throw all the small freezer bags into a gallon size freezer bag.

Fruits:

Bananas - learned this from mom. Frozen bananas are great for use in breads and muffins. I imagine they'd also be good for smoothies, though I'm not really an at home smoothie girl.

Veggies:

Kale - cooked with some frozen kale the other day and it turned out awesome.

Carrots

Onions - I always buy the big bag and chop up as much as I can and freeze. It sure beats having to chop onion every night.

Garlic

Dairy:

All sorts of shredded cheeses

Add to the list! What do you like to freeze?