Thursday, August 12, 2010

The BIG cook

Hey everyone I am back! I wanted to tell you about this cook book that I am trying out. I heard about it from a friend who's sister and a few or her friends got together to make the meals and they had a blast. I looked for it on the Internet ( The BIG cook) and found it but the cost was almost $25.00 for it and I was not sure if it would be a good book so I didn't get it. Not to mention the fact that I am a stay at home mom with a busy family and church life and it was not in the budget. So anyway here goes, on yet another night that we were running behind and we were scrambling to figure out what's for supper and my husband was breathing down my neck saying "it is to late for a proper meal" I thought "I wonder if they have this book at the library?" Unsatisfactory meal eaten, kids to bed, and dishes done I sat down and looked to see what I could find. They did have it at the library but it was not our home town one so that meant I would have to wait for it to come in. Well I got it the other day and as soon as I got a min I sat down and read it through. I scanned over the recipes and they all look easy and yummy (there are pictures of the finished product) with ingredients that are easy to find in our local grocery store. However I did come across one item that I could not for the life of me figure out where I would look in the store for and guess what! By the time I got to reading the end of the recipe it told me where I would look for this odd item in a store. That is a touch that is invaluable for those of us with little free time. Yesterday we had 2 little ones over at our house which always makes it alot busier and when I was thinking about what was going to be for supper I remembered the cook book I just got. I opened it up and picked out one of the recipes and started to cook. This cook book gives you the measurement of each item cooked or not cooked depending on how it is put into the pot (not always a pot used). As I was adding the barley I thought "man that is alot of barley for this soup" but when it was all cooked it was the perfect amount. My husband came in the house as supper was almost made and the first words out of his mouth were "wow it smells really good in here". Each recipe gives ideas of what to serve with the meal like salad, potatoes, rice, fresh bread, biscuits and more, so last night I made biscuits to go with our Hamburger soup (picture on pg 17 and recipe on pg 44 of the cook book). I doubled the recipe (risky for the first try but we love soup at our home) because I have 2 children and a husband who work and they all like left overs for lunches. We sat down for supper and everyone really enjoyed our meal. It was easy to make, nutritious and filling. This cook book gives a shopping list to take to the store with all of the items that you can copy and check off what you need, and a conversion chart for things like 2 lbs of raw hamburger = this much cooked hamburger and this many carrots = one cup of carrots. I know that this book is meant to get together with friends and cook you heart out then freeze, freeze, freeze but I am going to do it a little different. I am going to make the meals (they give you the measurements for 1 meal, 4 meals, 6 meals and 8 meals) one time then if we really like them then I will make them a second time a week or so later and follow the directions to freeze some. I am not in objection to getting together with friends but it is not always possible and I need a plan that will work without any friends. The other thing I would like to do is to try four new recipes a week (until I can no longer renew the book from the library). This will give me time to make any that we really enjoy and freeze them and to have some of our family favorites that there would be a revolt if I didn't make. I can not post any of the recipes on my blog because it is not allowed but after looking at this cook book I don't think you would regret buying it. I will however try to remember to take a picture of each meal and post it on here so you can see my creations. Tonight it is going to be chicken for supper and I already have the recipe chosen, now I can't wait to cook it and then taste it.