Chewin'

the News

May 2003

by Nanci Slagle & Tammy Davis

In This Issue:

NOTES FROM NANCI

BONUS RECIPES FROM TAMMY

• Lesa’s Steak Marinade
• Teriyaki Pork Chops
• Oniony Barbeque Glaze
• Texas Dry Rub
• Christi’s Chicken Marinade

WEBSITE NEWS

MESSAGE BOARD UPDATES FROM TAMMY

• 146 Posts in April!

CONTESTS

• Recipe of the Month Contest 
• Crazy Cook’s Story
• Do a Good Cooking Deed

GOURMET Q&A

• Where do I start?

CONSULTANT NEWS

• Six New Consultants join the 30 Day Gourmet team!

30 DAY GOURMET IN THE NEWS

WEBSITE OF THE MONTH

COMING UP IN JUNE

COOK’S CHUCKLE

FINAL THOUGHTS

NOTES FROM NANCI

Update on Bob (my hubby):
Thanks to all of you who thought of us and offered up prayers on Bob’s behalf during his recent brain tumor surgery. The surgery went miraculously well. He was in recovery within 6 hours. They removed the whole tumor and it is benign. Bob’s only post-op deficiency is some peripheral vision loss in his right eye but we hope that most of it will come back in time. He was released from the hospital 4 days after surgery and has felt wonderful ever since. If you want to read the “long version” of the story, it’s posted on our message boards. Curtis also put a little photo gallery together for you.

What would we do without friends and freezers? That’s what I’ve been thinking lately. Weird, huh? So many people have dropped by our house in the past few weeks with meals, desserts, meat, Dilly Bars and all sorts of great stuff. Instead of organizing meals and signing people up for certain “days”, I just said “hey, bring us whatever you want to whenever you want to bring it. If we don’t eat it right away, we’ll freeze it.” That plan has worked really well. Freezer cooking and knowing how and what to freeze just makes life easier. It allows you to be flexible. It works well for our fast-paced-everything-changes-on-a-dime society these days. My sister came the week before Bob’s surgery. She made dinner every day and froze an extra of everything she made. My friend, Susan, came over a few days before surgery and defrosted and organized my upright freezer. Then she went to WalMart and stocked up on pre-made freezer foods. Pizzas, waffles, veggies, hot pockets and ice cream. Wow – now that’s a friend, eh?

What’s my point? It’s simple. Use your freezer to your advantage to fit your own personality and your own lifestyle. Does it shock you that I don’t make and freeze my own pizzas? I know that some of you do that and that we have a great recipe for it but personally – I’d rather buy them. I save my cooking days for main entrees, quick desserts and money-saving sides. Just do whatever works best for you. And let us HELP YOU! That’s what we’re all about here at 30 Day Gourmet. We want to give you the best recipes and the best tools for making the freezer cooking thing work for you! And from the sound of your e-mails, it sounds like we are succeeding. Click here to read some of the mail that has come in recently.

So keep it up! Use our recipes, our organizational tools and our ideas. Make friends with other freezer cooks on our message boards. Tell all of your friends about us! And let us know what else we can do to help you be successful at this “freezing thing” we all do.
 

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BONUS RECIPES FROM TAMMY

This month, we’re focusing on grilling. There’s nothing like the smell of food cooking on the grill! When the weather started to warm up here, I would walk past an open window and be jealous, because one of my neighbors was grilling for dinner. It smelled so good!! It didn’t take long for me to get to the grocery store and stock up on meat for grilling!

We’ve got some great new recipes this month, as well as some tips and websites to help you get grilling with confidence!

Lesa’s Steak Marinade
I got this recipe from my friend Lesa. She said everyone she has ever fixed it for has loved it. And now I know why! It’s an awesome marinade that uses garlic pepper (not powder) for flavor. This recipe works best for steak or London Broil.

Teriyaki Pork Chops
This recipe is one of our 50 Free Recipes for Manual Owners. It’s easy to mix up, and a classic pork recipe.

Oniony Barbeque Glaze
This recipe is from www.recipegoldmine.com . It makes a glaze that you brush your food with as it cooks, instead of using it as a marinade. This recipe is very kid-friendly too! Use this glaze on chicken, steak, pork, burgers, hot dogs, kabobs or ribs.

Texas Dry Rub
Another recipe from www.recipegoldmine.com. I’ve never used a dry rub for grilling, but it worked great! You can freeze the rub alone, or put it on the meat and freeze the coated meat. This recipe works on any meat.

Christi’s Chicken Marinade
This recipe is from Christi’s Freezer Cooking on a Budget eBook. She calls it Tangy Chicken Sticks in her eBook, to make chicken on skewers. But it works great for marinating chicken pieces too.

Grilling Tips

• Have you ever made kabobs on the grill before? It’s a nice change of pace, and fun too! If you use the wooden skewers, soak them in water for 20-30 minutes before you thread your food on them. (That way they won’t burn up on the grill!) Cut your pieces of meat and veggies into similar size pieces, so they will cook evenly. You can use a wide variety of veggies, based on what your family likes. Carrot slices, whole black or green olives, whole cherry or grape tomatoes, onion pieces, celery pieces, etc. Potato chunks work well, but they need to be partially cooked before you put them on the skewers. Otherwise, they won’t get cooked in the same amount of time the meat will. We’ve tried broccoli, but it tends to burn to a crisp before everything else is done. You may have to pre-poke holes in carrot slices to get them on the skewer, since they are so crisp. Turn the kabobs while they’re on the grill, so they cook evenly. Baste with your favorite sauce or glaze for added flavor.

• If you don’t have any BBQ sauce or marinade ingredients handy, use your favorite Italian Salad Dressing as a marinade. Or brush it on chicken, fish or veggies while they’re grilling for extra flavor.

• The longer meat is left in a marinade, the stronger the marinade flavor will be when the meat is cooked. For best results, marinated meats should only be frozen for 3 to 4 months.

Click here to see some kabobs Tammy prepared on her grill.

Grilling Safety

• While grilling, you need to be careful of bacteria cross-contamination from the raw meat to the cooked meat. No one wants to end their day with a trip to the hospital for food poisoning!

• Use a different plate when you take the cooked meat off the grill than you used to take the raw meat to the grill.

• If you’re grilling a large amount of food, and are doing it in “shifts”, be careful with the grill utensils. If you have a grill full of food, don’t use the same tongs to take some cooked meat off the grill, put some raw meat on the grill, and then take some more cooked meat off the grill. You should use separate tongs for the raw and cooked meat.

• If you are brushing marinade or glaze on raw meat as you grill, be sure to pour the marinade/glaze into a small bowl and dip the brush into the bowl. Because the marinade/glaze in the bowl will have raw meat bacteria in it, discard any unused marinade/glaze from the bowl. This way, you don’t contaminate your whole container of marinade/glaze with raw meat bacteria.

• Most marinades are discarded when you cook the meat. If you want to use the marinade as a sauce for the cooked meat, you need to boil the marinade for at least 5 minutes to kill any bacteria from the raw meat before using it with the cooked meat.

What is your favorite grilling hint or tip? Post it on our message boards! Click here to go to the Newsletter Topic Chatter category and share your idea with us!
This list certainly isn’t complete! Check out the Website of the Month below for more ideas too.

Do you use your grill for making more than the standard chicken, steak, hot dogs or burgers? How about pizza? Or breakfast? I’d like to cover that in a future newsletter, so email me your recipes, hints and tips! I look forward to hearing from you! Email me at tammy@30daygourmet.com.
 

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WEBSITE NEWS

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Coupon Deal – $5 off your order of $20!
Our new shopping cart features includes the ability to offer coupons. Woo hoo!

 

So here ya go:
Until 7/30/03 we are offering $5 off any order over $20. You can only use it once during that time but you can tell ALL of your friends! Spread the word about 30 Day Gourmet. Just use this special code news0503!

E-books
Our next e-book will be the first of a “Best of the Boards” series. Tammy is choosing the best recipes from our message boards, multiplying them out and organizing them into e-books. Watch for Chicken Recipes for the Freezer – Best of the Boards series soon.

Don’t forget about our other e-books. Do you have them all? Each e-book gives you 25 more freezer recipes.

 

• Freezer Cooking for Daycare Providers and Busy Parents

• Freezer Desserts to Die For!

• Freezer Lunches to Go

• Freezer Cooking on a Budget

• Holiday Freezer Cooking
  
   

New Kitchen Calculators
If you need a great gift or if you find yourself always looking for a calculator while you cook, this is the gadget for you!! This calculator will multiply fractions, convert between teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, pints, etc. and adjusts portion sizes. It converts U.S. and foreign weights and measures and will work in fractions or decimals values. It has a built-in timer and will also function as a standard math calculator. We’re offering both a handheld version and a desktop version. Click here for more details. I love this thing!

Attention Software Owners – more recipes ready to import!
We now have the zip files for the 50 Free Recipes for Manual & Software Owners. Shoot me an e-mail and I will send them as an attachment.

The zip file is also ready for the Freezer Desserts to Die For! e-book. If you own the e-book, send me an e-mail and I’ll send you the zip file.

Have questions about using the software? There’s a section of our message boards devoted to the software. Check it out! Don’t have your own software yet? Click here for the details.

Attention e-Book Owners!
The e-books now include an import option for software owners. If you purchased your e-book(s) before we had the software and would like the zip file to import your e-book(s) into your software just e-mail me for the file and let me know your invoice number or approximate date of purchase of your e-book(s).

Recipes Galore!
If you are new to 30 Day Gourmet, be sure to take advantage of the many, many recipes that are available on our website. All of our recipes work great for freezer cooking and are multiplied out to save you bunches of time! Check out the “Recipes” tab at the top of the home page. You can sort them by “Source” or by “Type”. The message boards also contain tons of reader recipes (okay maybe not tons but you’ll never have time to try them all☺).
 

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MESSAGE BOARD UPDATES FROM TAMMY

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The boards continue to be a popular place! We had 146 new posts in April. Our “Where are you from?” thread continues to grow… we have over 90 posts there now! Click here to introduce yourself, and meet other 30 Day Gourmets.

I went looking for grilling tips on the message boards and found quite a few!

• You’ve heard of doing a cookie exchange with your friends? How about a marinade exchange? Click here to read about this idea from our message boards, and get some more marinade recipes.
• Do you have a George Foreman grill, and don’t use it as often as you thought you would because it’s a hassle to clean? Click here to read how our message board cooks clean their grills, hassle free!
• Click here to read about what can happen to your chicken if your marinade has red wine in it.
• Click here to read a great summer idea for making a chicken salad “kit”. Great way to use up that leftover chicken!
• Click here to read another great idea… freezing grilled chicken breasts.

 

Check out the rest of the message boards when you get a chance… they are a great source of ideas, recipes, tips, and encouragement! If you have any questions about the message boards, please email me! You can reach me at tammy@30daygourmet.com.

 

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CONTEST WINNERS

CRAZY COOK’S STORY APRON WINNERS – chosen by Nanci from entries posted on the message boards or sent by e-mail to nanci@30daygourmet.com

Crazy Cook’s Contest April Apron Winner – Emily K. from Baton Rouge, LA

I regularly cook with 2 girl friends. This time just happened to fall on April Fools Day. We are usually a very organized and highly agreeable group. Everything tends to go very well and we have a blast. However, this session was a last minute thing and that made for last minute shopping. SO, because Michelle couldn't shop, Christy and I ventured out for a quick go around Super "Wally World".(Walmart). Our cart was spilling over the top and we got many stares with so many groceries. I was JUST waiting for some stranger to ask what the deal was, because I was gonna make up some smart remark for April Fools. No one was ever brave enough to interrupt our expedition, so with no prank to pull I had to find a victim and that left Michelle.

I told Christy "let's hide some of the groceries, and act like we have enough" (Very unlike us). It was so funny to see her reaction. It started with only 1 jug of Prego instead of 3. "No problem, I have more" then I'd get a 1/2 opened one from my fridge, Michelle would just keep silent. then no white beans , but we had a small pk of red ones. She still was friendly and we trudged on to start something else. You get the general idea. Christie and I had so much fun seeing Michelle squirm, it was all we could do to keep straight faces. When we finally pulled the "April Fools" chorus Michelle was SOOOoo embarassed and we just laughed even more...

Got to love a juvenile prank like that....

(Note: We found Rebecca last month – or I should say, she found us. Here’s what she had to say: I can't believe I won the Crazy Cooks Contest for my 'dry white wine story'! My husband is going to get a kick out of this! I have three girls and a husband who love to cook, and help me cook, and we are always fussing over who gets to wear my 30 Day Gourmet apron (the one that came with my book and binder). We love the pockets and how it can be adjusted for even the smallest neck sizes! It will be nice to have another one in the house. :o) I am so tickled!)
 

"DO A GOOD COOKING DEED" $25 WINNERS
 

Our Cook of the Month contest is changing to the “Do a Good Cooking Deed” contest. Tell me how you use 30 Day Gourmet cooking to help others and if your story is chosen I’ll send you $25. Again, you can submit your story by e-mail or on the message boards. It’s okay to nominate someone else, too.
 

Do a Good Deed April $25 Contest Winner – Laurie S., RN from Illinois

My sister and I have done a few cooking days together and definitely enjoy the concept of Once A Month........... I have worked at the same hospital for over 20 years now. One of the nurses I worked with for years was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer. She is divorced and has a son who had a head injury as a child and is "limited".

I sent out a note to alot of the nurses we still keep in touch with or who still work at the hospital. I collected several hundred dollars, which we are using for filling her freezer.

One Saturday 9 nurses got together and prepared 20 meals, 10 sides and 2 desserts for June. I had pre-purchased all ingredients, precooked some of the chicken and beef required for the meals and then put all the individual ingredients with recipes in grocery bags. We made sure all was precooked so that all it had to be was rewarmed. I purchased as much "organic" food as I could using the great "Trader Joe's". She was overwhelmed and grateful since her son doesn’t' cook and she is going through chemo which makes her not want to cook. We had a great time putting it all together and sharing it with her.

We have another session planned for April to repeat the process and we had enough money to hire a cleaning lady for several months.

I am working on putting another group together for a session of filling a freezer for another friend who is in the end stages of cancer and feels so bad that she can't cook for her family............so we'll cook for her and fill it up.............

Thanks for all the great ideas and recipes!

RECIPE OF THE MONTH $25 WINNER – chosen by Tammy, our message board moderator.

Submit your recipe for the Recipe of the Month contest!
You too can submit a recipe for this contest! Just post it on our Cook’s Corner message boards under the appropriate recipe category. All submitted recipes are considered, as long as your profile contains your email address so we can reach you. The winner receives a check for $25.
 

Our May Recipe of the Month is for Cheesy Pizza Casserole, and was submitted by Leslie from Ontario, Canada. This recipe was an instant family favorite at my house, and is as quick and easy to assemble as it is to cook!

This recipe smells like homemade pizza as it’s baking. My family said “Ooohhhhh… we’re having pizza for dinner?!!” I said “Sort of!” Everyone really likes it. The kids even argue about who gets to eat the leftovers! How’s that for an endorsement?

You may be tempted to skip the first step in the recipe, which is to boil the sliced pepperoni. Don’t!! It removes a lot of the grease, as well as tenderizes the pepperoni. I usually buy the pre-sliced pepperoni instead of the stick pepperoni. I use about 35-40 pieces, and cut them in half with my kitchen shears, so they’re more bite-sized. If you like pizza, you won’t be disappointed in this recipe!

Let’s meet Leslie, our winning cook!

I am a Marketing Communications Coordinator for a high-tech firm in Ottawa, Ont., Canada and I have been with this company for the past 12 years. With my hectic schedule I really appreciate recipes that can be prepared well ahead of time so that I can spend more time with my husband (happily married for the past 9 years!) and pursue my other hobbies which include interior decorating, sketching and gardening.

One lunch hour about 4 years ago, I was walking through the local Chapters book store and came across the 30 Day Gourmet Cookbook. After reviewing the cookbook and seeing all the great recipes I of course purchased the book right away. I have always loved cooking and at one point in my life I even explored the possibility of opening my own restaurant.

We live in a rural area and having our meals made in advance has helped make breakfasts, lunches and dinners a snap! We also entertain quite a lot, so it is so handy to have marinated steaks and freezer mashed potatoes already prepared for all those last minute guests.

I am so grateful for the 30 Day Gourmet way of cooking as it makes my life so much easier at meal times and great for entertaining!

Congratulations, Leslie! Thanks for sharing your recipe with us! Your prize check is in the mail!
 

Click here to view this month's winner!
 

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GOURMET Q&A

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CONSULTANT NEWS

We have six new consultants! Please welcome:

• Shelley Elmblad from Sussex, WI

• Kimberly Glenny from Phoenix, AZ

• Cynthia Olsen from Wheaton, IL

• Sarah Brenny from Hastings, MN

• Catherine Lynch from Boise, ID

• Karen Nikolai from St. Clair Shores, MI

Click here to check out the whole list with contact info on the website. Many of our consultants now have their own web pages on the 30 Day Gourmet site. Their pages include contact info and scheduled seminars/classes. Please contact them if you’d like a 30 Day Gourmet speaker for your local group of frustrated cooks!

Interested in becoming a consultant? Looking for a way to make a little extra money. Our program is very “laid back”. No minimum party requirements, no paperwork to file and no pink Cadillac giveaways☺. But you can make good money talking about something that you love to do and something that a lot of other people haven’t figured out yet. What could be easier? Click here for more info.

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30 DAY GOURMET IN THE NEWS

Lots of our consultants and “regular” cooks are being featured in their local newspapers as word about their “unusual” cooking plan spreads. Please let us know if you one of them! We want to add links on the site to any 30 Day Gourmet related news media. Thanks!

Recent features:
Cindy Clark, ebook author of Freezer Cooking for Daycare Providers and Busy Parents was recently featured in an article in the Boone, Iowa newspaper.

Jane Ammeson, a reporter with the Herald-Palladium in Benton Harbor, Michigan wrote a great article in the April 28th issue about freezer cooking. Click here to read it.

Christi Gillentine, ebook author of Freezer Cooking on a Budget will be a guest on Tulsa’s KOTV Channel 6 Noon News again on June 9th. Oklahoma cooks tune in! Christi was last featured on April 28th. Click here to access the Chicken Parmesan recipe that she shared on the show.

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WEBSITE OF THE MONTH

This month, I’ve got 2 websites for you to check out for grilling help!
The first is from BusyCooks.com. If you don’t know how to use a grill, or would like to know more about using one, this site is for you! It is a multi-page Basics of Cooking lesson: How to Grill. It’s very informative, and I would think everyone could learn something new from it! Click here to get started!

The second website is for the more confident griller. (Or those who want to be more confident at the grill!) It’s sponsored by RecipeGoldmine.com, and is authored by Kevin Taylor, the BBQ Guru. He explains grilling in more detail than the previous site, and offers a ton of tips. He also explains the “secrets” involved in BBQ rib competitions, which I found very interesting! I really enjoyed this site because Kevin doesn’t just say “do this” or “do that”, but he explains the why’s behind what he tells you. So you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Click here to read more.
 
Also, I’d like to extend a special “Thank you!” to Linda at www.RecipeGoldmine.com for giving 30 Day Gourmet permission to use recipes from her site.
 

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COMING UP IN JUNE

Freezer cooking before summer comes!
 

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COOK'S CHUCKLE

The Male Definition of Outdoor Barbecuing:

http://www.planetgr.com/fd/jokes/2.shtml

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FINAL THOUGHTS

30 Day Gourmet

This page was last updated on Monday, August 04, 2008.

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