World Water Day and Many Still Thirst

Mashed Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes

March 29, 2012 by Grandma 4 Comments

April 7th, our family Easter dinner celebration is fast approaching! I'm still not sure how many family members will be in attendance, but I know one thing: We are having mashed potatoes!!! I wasn't sure how many potatoes to mash, so I did a little research on the matter. My research involved asking one of my older sisters how many potatoes to buy. We settled on fifteen pounds as the correct amount for the crowd that I could be feeding. If something happens, and our crowd of family members is small, I can use the extra potatoes at a later time. Here's my fifteen pound bag … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: freezer cooking, potatoes

Make Ahead Stuffing

March 27, 2012 by Grandma 2 Comments

Do you say stuffing, filling, or dressing? When I was a kid, we always had turkey and filling on Thanksgiving, but now it seems that everyone I know calls the turkey filling "stuffing". Whatever you call it, you can make it ahead of time and keep it in the freezer until you are ready to cook it. I made my Easter meal stuffing yesterday. I started with four loaves of white bread. Five loaves are pictured here, but I ended up using just four of those. I hope we have enough! When I was ready to make my stuffing, my white bread was soft and fresh. That's just the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Food, Organization, Recipes Tagged With: Easter dinner, freezer cooking, make ahead, stuffing

Turning Broth into Gravy

March 26, 2012 by Grandma 2 Comments

Remember that broth I made last week? Today I'm going to use it to make ham gravy for my Easter dinner. I showed you how to make broth for the freezer, but I have some broth that I just made a couple of days ago. Let's get started! Here's my container of ham broth. You can tell by the color of it that it is a rich broth. I'm going to start the gravy making process by spooning the broth into two saucepans. There it is! In just a matter of moments, the heat turns the gelatinous broth into a dark brown liquid. I used a clean spoon to taste … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Food, Frugality, My Grandma Knows, Recipes Tagged With: freezer cooking, gravy, ham

How to Make Your Own Broth

March 23, 2012 by Grandma 5 Comments

Whenever I bake a ham, I always use the bone to make broth. You can use this same technique with a chicken or turkey carcass, a pork roast bone, or beef bones. The richest broth is what you will find in the bottom of your roasting pan, so don't throw that away! I pour that rich, dark broth into my crockpot as soon as the roasting pan is cool enough to handle. After dinner, I remove as much meat as possible from the ham bone. Many people don't like getting their hands all greasy and icky to pick meat from bones, but I don't really mind this job. When the leftover meat is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Food, Frugality, My Grandma Knows, Recipes Tagged With: broth, crockpot, gravy, ham