Washtub Woes and Acorn Collecting

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Yes, that's right, laundry... never ending laundry! I'm still finishing up from our trip and am starting to feel a lot like the woman above despite my snazzy high-tech machines in the basement! So far, no clear answer on how to avoid this task without spending an astronomical amount of money. 

So, to distract myself in between folding...

Kuchemaistrey, Nuremberg, 1485

Every year around this time, I begin a serious cooking and baking spree and hoard away dinners and snacks for November and December when life seems to be too busy for anything but a frozen dinner. This year, I'm also trying to make up some baby food for the months to come. 

So far, I've got apple sauce, pear sauce, sweet potato puree and beet puree put away for Baby. Chicken soup and hamburger patties are done and in the freezer and two shepherd's pies are under construction. I'm hoping to make a big pot of chili tomorrow as well as chicken pot pies and some pizza dough. Typically, I also put away some butternut squash soup, lasagna, a few loaves of bread and some muffins and cookie dough. Apple pie filling is another winner - you just throw it from frozen into a couple of frozen pie shells from the store, bake and wow your guests with an authentic "home-faked" creation!

We love having home-made food on a busy night when take-out would normally be the solution. However, I question whether trying to put this much stuff away is actually a sane move. Am I some kind of squirrel? The key here is to keep the recipes simple, to freeze them in tin foil pans so that you can just bake out of the freezer and then recycle the pans with no washing up and perhaps to limit the cooking to one thing a day (unlike my strategy of cooking 20 things at once!). Ziploc containers are my other magic tool to keep the freezer organized.

DIY Rating: 5

Great to have some food stored for the winter, but beware 

becoming a crazy person (like me) by trying to cook it all in a day!

We are not pioneers, there is no need to do it all ourselves!