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by Nanci Slagle & Tammy Davis
In
This Issue:
NOTES FROM NANCI
BONUS
RECIPES FROM TAMMY
WEBSITE NEWS
MESSAGE BOARD UPDATES FROM TAMMY
CONTESTS
GOURMET Q&A
CONSULTANT NEWS
WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
COMING UP IN NOVEMBER & DECEMBER
COOK’S CHUCKLE
FINAL
THOUGHTS
NOTES
FROM NANCI
In our last issue we told you
that business was really hopping around here. Let’s just say that things
haven’t slowed down much. We quickly ran out of the last printing of our
books after the Family Fun article and the huge amount of interest that
it generated in 30 Day Gourmet. I had been planning to update and revise
the next edition of the book. I just thought that I would have a little
more time to plan for it. Alas, when does that ever happen eh?
New Manuals Are Here!
Our last manual update was in 1999 so the book was due for a “facelift”.
With a new cover, updated photos throughout and a VERY professional
typesetting job, I have to tell you that it looks great! But, of course,
looks aren’t everything☺ We also matched the recipe categories more
closely to the ones on the website and formatted all of the recipes in
the new book to look like those on the site. (Since the last edition, I
now need glasses and following those columns without boxes is a real
chore for me.) The recipes also include nutritional information and we
offer “lite” versions of 38 of the 65 recipes in the new edition also.
Many of you have been asking if the recipes and worksheets will be the
same. Worksheets, yes. Recipes, about 2/3. We are “retiring” 25 recipes
and adding 30 new ones for a total of 65 recipes. The “retired” recipes
will be available in the Members’ section of the site and the new
recipes are all ones that we have taken from the website. If you want to
check out the full recipe list, download a sampler of the new edition.
It will tell you everything you need to know.
Click here
to download a new sampler of the 4th Edition of the
Freezer
Cooking Manual.
We’re also excited to be teaming up with Amana freezers for a fall
promotion. Participating local dealers will be giving away copies of our
Freezer Cooking Manual with selected freezers. Pretty cool, eh? Might be
worth buying a freezer just to get a free copy of the book☺
If you haven’t met everyone who helps me with this enterprise please
take a minute to get acquainted. I couldn’t do it without them.
Click
here to meet the 30 Day Gourmet team: Tammy, Curtis, Beth Ann, Christi,
Carol, and Cindy.
We love hearing from all of you! Drop us an e-mail and let us know all
about your cooking adventures!
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BONUS
RECIPES FROM TAMMY
Fall is definitely here in
West Virginia! The trees are so colorful, the air is crisp, and the
apples are ready in the orchard! I love having orchards nearby to get
fresh apples! So I have a couple apple recipes for you. Also, my family
is into the swing of things with “back to school”, and it didn’t take
long for me to get tired of the PB&J and bologna sandwiches for them. So
I tried a couple of sandwich fillings to see how they would freeze. And
they worked great, much to my surprise! So I’ve got those to share as
well.
Let’s talk about apples first. Peeling, slicing and coring apples can be
tedious work. That’s when having some neat gadgets in your kitchen can
help. I love gadgets, especially when they work like they’re supposed to
and save me time! I have an apple slicer I use to cut and core apples
for the kids. It looks like a wheel with spokes, and handles on both
sides. The spokes are cutting blades. You center it over the core, and
use the handles to press down on it. It slices thru the apple, keeping
the core in one piece, and slices the apple into 10 wedges. I never
thought of using it for cooking, until I was faced with peeling and
coring 8 more pounds of apples for another batch of apple butter. I have
long fingers, and my hand cramps from holding the knife to do so many
apples. By comparison, using the apple slice and peeling the wedges is a
piece of cake! You can buy the apple slicers almost anywhere, and I’d
guess they start at about $5.
If you have one of those handy-dandy Apple Peeler-Corer-Slicers from
Pampered Chef, or a similar product from another company, it’s the
perfect thing to help you zip thru making apple crisp or apple pie
filling. If you aren’t familiar with it, it clamps on your tabletop; you
stick the stem part of the apple on a spike, and turn the handle. As the
apple turns around, one blade peels it, and another slices it and cores
it. You can do an apple in about 30 seconds!! Remove the sliced apple
from the core; use a knife to cut through the slices, and the apple’s
ready for pie! They seem to work best on firm apples, like Granny
Smith’s. Most eating apples are not firm enough to use. If you’re not
familiar with the different kinds of apples, and which are best for
eating or baking, check out the Website of the Month below. Lots of
helpful information there! Click here to see pictures of my apple
gadgets in use.
Caramel Apple Crisp
I have an apple crisp recipe that uses caramel ice cream topping and
chopped nuts. I modified the recipe so it’s freeze-able. When we were
eating it, Rob and I thought the frozen-and-then-cooked dessert was
better than the fresh one I made, if you can believe that! Rob said I
needed to get a lot more of them in the freezer. We were at the orchard
the next day, and I asked Rob how bad he wanted more apple crisp in the
freezer… would he help me do a peck of apples into apple crisp? He
grinned and said “No, but I’ll help you do a half-bushel of apples into
apple crisp!” (There are 2 pecks in a half-bushel.) So I have a
half-bushel of Granny Smith apples on my porch waiting to be turned into
Caramel Apple Crisp. One recipe makes an 8x8 pan, or use 2 recipes for a
9x13 pan. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!
Click here
to view/print this recipe!
Slow Cooker Apple Butter
Making apple butter is a fall tradition in a lot of areas. People haul
out a BIG copper kettle, put it over a fire and make apple butter in it.
I was looking for a scaled down, easier way to make apple butter. So I
tried my mom’s recipe in my slow cooker. Worked like a charm!! Most
apple butter recipes have cloves in them, but they can be too strong for
a lot of people, kids included. My mom modified her recipe so it doesn’t
use cloves, but is still very flavorful. Because the copper kettle gives
apple butter its rich, dark color, you won’t get that from your slow
cooker. But it will still taste wonderful!
Click here
to view/print this recipe!
We have a variety of other apple recipes on the web site, but here are two
of my favorites…
Crock Pot Applesauce and
Apple Bread.
Both of these recipes are regulars at my house. I’m sure if you try
them, they’ll become regulars at your house too!
My husband and kids take their lunch to work/school daily. None of them
has access to a microwave to heat their lunch, so they get cold
sandwiches every day. I wanted to find some variety for them. The
sandwich fillings I tried were for Egg Salad and Chicken Salad. I wasn’t
sure how they would freeze, because of the mayonnaise base. But they
worked great! The Chicken Salad seemed to absorb more of the dressing
during the freezing/thawing process, so it was drier. By contrast, the
Egg Salad was runnier after it thawed. So both recipes have been
adjusted to compensate for that. I didn’t include celery in the Chicken
Salad recipe, because it gets mushy after thawing. If you like the
crunch of fresh celery, add some after it thaws. You can freeze these
sandwich fillings in a freezer bag, rigid container, or as prepared
sandwiches. Make sandwiches and wrap them as you would for in lunches.
Put them in a rigid container or one- or two-gallon freezer bags. To
make sure they’re thawed in time for lunch, put them in the fridge the
night before.
You can freeze all kinds of sandwiches to make your lunch packing
easier. To freeze peanut butter and jelly, put the peanut butter on both
slices of bread, and then the jelly. If you put the jelly directly on
the bread, it will soak in and you’ll have a soggy sandwich. For
lunchmeat and cheese, make the sandwich without any spreads or
condiments, and freeze it. Put the spreads and condiments on in the
morning as you’re packing the lunch. To try your favorite sandwich
spread, freeze some in a rigid container for a few days, thaw it, and
see how it turns out. Adjust the dressing based on how dry or runny it
is, and you should be good to go!
Chicken Salad
Click here
to view/print this recipe!
Egg Salad
Click here
to view/print this recipe!
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WEBSITE NEWS FROM NANCI
Order your NEW
Freezer
Cooking Manual! Why not treat yourself to an early Christmas present and
order “the latest”. It’s been updated and revised. What’s new you ask?
-
new photos throughout the book – more food photos
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recipes are all formatted in tables – easier for the eye to follow the
columns☺
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recipes ALL include nutritional information
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”lite” version & nutritional information included for 38 recipes
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more information about cooking alone
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more information about various freezer methods (protein type,
mini-sessions, cooking BIG)
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professional formatting (Curtis’ fancy smanchy book program instead of
on my Word docs)
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multiplication chart for recipes
Download a free sampler of the new, updated
Freezer Cooking Manual. The
sampler includes:
-
cover
-
table of contents
-
letter from Nanci
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recipe list
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3 recipes
Healthy Meals Freezer Cooking
coming for the holidays!
You’ve been asking for this one for a LONG time. Lunches ebook author,
Carol Santee, is working on another winner. Great tips and information
and each of her 25 “tried and true” recipes will include nutritional
information. Watch for the free sampler and full eBook soon – they will
be released simultaneously.
Co-op Cuisine – Freezer Cooking for Groups coming in 2004!
If you’re ever thought “wouldn’t it be great to have a bunch of people
who freezer cook, give them each a recipe and then swap off the food”
you will LOVE this ebook. Jan has done all of the hard work – choosing
the best recipes, figuring out the “money part”, and setting the rules.
The 25 recipes are multiplied out by 10’s – perfect for group cooking!
Cookin’ at the Keyboard with
Shelley!
The best software for freezer cooking just got better! Check this spot
each month for software suggestions to make your freezer cooking more
efficient!
Meet Shelley Miller, our software designer, and contributor:
My
husband and I live in Oregon City with our five daughters, ages 15, 12,
7, 7 (identical twins), and 3. I started freezer cooking five years ago
when we began home schooling the girls. At first I cooked enough for two
weeks, then one month, then two months, and finally every four months,
cooking in February, June, and October. What a chore it was to compile a
grocery list for four months of meals! I turned to my computer for some
help, but found no recipe software that could understand freezer
cooking. After several years of struggling with a spreadsheet, my
husband agreed to write a software program with me. I designed Advantage
Cooking specifically for the freezer cook. I couldn’t live without it,
and honestly, if you’re freezer cooking, neither should you!
Are You Spending Time…or Investing Time?
Advantage Cooking has many features and reports that help me plan my
cooking day, but the Cooking Day history is by far my greatest asset. In
June 2002, I planned a summer’s worth of meals, primarily composed of
light entrees and marinades for the barbeque. It took a few hours to
collect the recipes and set up the cooking plan in the software, but
those hours proved to be time invested, not just time spent.
Imagine how easy it was to plan our summer menu this year! I started by
printing the recipe report from last summer’s cooking plan. There were a
few recipes that I wanted to eliminate and several new recipes to be
added, but the basic menu structure was already there!
At the computer, I copied the “June 2002 Cooking Day” to a new “June
2003 Cooking Day”, deleted the necessary recipes (from the cooking list,
not the recipe database), added the new recipes (which took minutes, not
hours), and I was ready to print reports, grocery shop, and cook! It
really can’t get any easier than that!
Note from Nanci: If you haven’t tried out our software yet, click here
to download a free trial version. You’ll love it!
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MESSAGE BOARD UPDATES FROM
TAMMY
As usual, the boards have been busy! We’ve had a lot of new people
join us…Welcome!! Besides being a great place for getting encouragement,
ideas and recipes, our message boards are a great place to meet new
friends. Through a series of posts, (about Hurricane Isabel, of all
things!) MizMolly and I discovered we graduated a few years apart from
“rival” high schools! Small world, huh? Our “Where is everybody from?”
thread continues to grow at 110 posts. One recent post from texasbebe
shows her addiction to our site… she had to check in on the message
boards while on vacation in Hawaii! If you haven’t done so already,
click here to introduce yourself.
Have you wondered how the Super Easy Best Ever Crescent Roll recipe
would work with whole-wheat flour?
Click here
for a thread about the recent Recipe of the Month, and making it
healthier. Do you have questions about your new 30 Day
Gourmet/Advantage Cooking software?
Click here to post your question on the message boards. Have you
had an Assembly Day recently that you haven’t told us about?
Click here to share your experience with us!
Hope to meet you on the boards someday soon!
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CONTEST
WINNERS
Recipe of the Month Winner
Our Recipe of the Month winner is Lisa Fenlaw from Gladewater, TX. Her
recipe is called Cheeseburger and Fries Delight. It’s a quick and easy
casserole, and is great to have in the freezer. It’s pre-cooked, and
only needs reheated, which is another plus. As long as you had the extra
baking dishes, it would be very easy to mass-produce this recipe. It’s a
“meat-and-potatoes-and-gravy” kind of meal, but kids like it too!
Because the raw hamburger bakes in the oven with the rest of the
casserole, you need to be sure to use burger with a low fat-content, or
your dinner could be pretty greasy. Vary the taste of the casserole by
using cream of celery soup instead of cream of mushroom. Lisa said she
hadn’t tried using the Cheddar Cheese soup, but I bet that would also
make a very tasty dish! Check out Cheeseburger and Fries Delight and see
for yourself!
Let’s meet Lisa!
My husband, Adam, and I live in Gladewater, Texas. We
have two (insanely cute) boys, Josey, who just turned
two October 5th, and Ben, who is 5 month old. Adam is
a machinist and I stay home with the boys. I like
doing crafts with Josey (especially those involving
his and Ben's foot and handprints) and scrapbooking
whenever I get a chance. I've been working on
teaching Josey his shapes and colors (he knows
triangle, square, circle, heart, star, and red so far)
and doing some lesson plan type thingies I made up
revolving around all his favorite Dr. Suess books. I
can't even imagine having the time to do any of that
and still cooking every day. I found 30 Day Gourmet
right before Ben was born and I love it. All the
recipes we've tried have been easy and tasty. Between
that and our dear friend the fly lady (which I never
heard of till I saw the link on here) I actually get
to be a stay-at-home mom rather then a
cook-and-clean-and-try-to-find-some-time-for-fun-with-the-boys mom! I
love 30 Day Gourmet! ☺
Lisa has chosen to spend her $25 prize by shopping in our on-line store.
You too can enter your favorite freezer-friendly recipe by posting it on
our website on the message boards. Post it under the appropriate
category (Beef, Poultry, Soups and Sandwiches, Desserts, etc.). All
posted freezeable recipes are eligible for the contest. Congratulations,
Lisa! Enjoy your 30 Day Gourmet products!
Click here
to view/print the October Recipe of the month.
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.
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CRAZY COOK’S STORY APRON WINNER – Ani
from Binghamton, New York
My first cooking day
experience went pretty well. I had an empty house, a good radio station,
and everything I needed to make 31 meals. I was very pleased with myself
by 4pm when my old frig/freezer in the basement was full and the family
was walking in the door.
The next morning I went to show my DH my accomplishment and there was a
tangled mess in the top corner of my freezer. The automatic ice maker
ate my Ham and Cheese Quiche in a bag! Munch, Tear, Chomp, it pulled 1/2
of the bag and its ingredients into itself and tried to make ice cubes!
??????? The ice maker is no longer with us.
Ani is a wife, mother of 2, and a full-time social studies teacher. She
loves to cook, entertain, read, walk, grow vegetables in her container
garden, work on an organic farm as part of a food cooperative, and
listen to the blues. She wants to maintain an organized and healthy home
that provides a happy environment for raising her family.
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"My Cooking Story Contest" $25 WINNER
This month's winner is Nicke Briscoe from Kansas City, Missouri.
(Note from Nanci: Get the Kleenex box.)
Just wanted to share a story of mine. I'm a 30 Day Gourmet-er from way
back. Tara and Nancy introduced me to the concept of once a month
cooking when they were on the Home and Family show waaaay back in '97
when I was a brand new SAHM.
Anyway, I now work part time as a certified childbirth and breastfeeding
educator. I also have a work at home job working as the hospital's
registrar for prenatal classes. Meals in the freezer are perfect for the
evenings that I am away from home teaching class. I even teach new moms
the concept of stocking up the freezer for the post-partum period.
This Spring, a woman called my line to tell me she needed to cancel
classes. When I returned her call, I asked if she needed to reschedule.
She said "I don't think I'm going to be able to attend classes at all. I
was diagnosed with breast cancer yesterday and they're going to take my
baby early so that I can go through treatments." As I stared at her
registration form on my computer screen, I noticed that this woman lived
in my neighborhood. We arranged to talk later in the week when she knew
more about her course of treatment. I arranged to meet with her and her
husband one on one to do some "crash courses" in childbirth. She ended
up having a mastectomy on 4/18 and giving birth to her daughter on 4/28.
A few weeks later, I called to check on her and offer to bring her
dinner. (My favorite thing to bring a new mom is a hot, home-cooked
meal! Anyone can bring over Baby Gap, but it sure doesn't taste as good!
LOL!) She said that would be wonderful because on the days she had
chemo, she was exhausted. When I asked what foods sounded good to her,
she said "Comfort foods!" We scheduled her next treatment day to bring
the meal over and I got off the phone. Then I couldn't decide what to
bring! So many comfort foods sounded wonderful...meatloaf and mashed
potatoes, homemade macaroni and cheese...hmmm...Maybe I should just make
her a whole month's worth of meals for "treatment days" and she could
just stick them in her freezer! So, I did! I made a lasagne and garlic
bread, chicken enchiladas, chicken and rice casserole, meatloaf and
mashed potatoes and homemade macaroni and cheese with broccoli florets.
I had everything labeled in aluminum pans with a "menu" to keep an
inventory with. When I dropped off the food (in a box!), she got tears
in her eyes. About a month later, I got a sweet thank-you note and a
picture of her precious daughter.
The best part is, I spent $60 for everything...even the pans and foil! I
figured it was $1 per serving...side dishes and main dishes. The
hospital heard about what I did and they even reimbursed me. They
couldn't believe what I had done. To me, it really was no big deal and a
way to bless someone with my "talents". I was blessed even more than my
neighbor was.
To enter our contests, please post your stories on our message boards or
e-mail them to me at nanci@30daygourmet.com.
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GOURMET Q&A FROM TAMMY
| Q. |
Q: Is there a place to order the freezer bags at a discount?
Thanks so much for all the great info in your wonderful book. Lynne |
| A. |
I generally just buy my freezer bags at
Walmart or if I’m really organized I save my coupons for one of
those triple deals and get all of my bags at once. I understand,
though, that lots of you would rather just order a whole case
online and be done with it. I’m also finding that the 2-gallon
bags seem to be harder to find. My theory is that it’s because
there are so many more brands, sizes and types of bags competing
for the same space. You can do a web search on freezer bags and
see what pulls up. There are several sites that offer various
freezer bags by the cases Here’s one that has some good deals.
www.foodservicedirect.com Put “freezer bags” in the search box at
the upper right.
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CONSULTANT NEWS
We have seven new consultants! Please welcome:
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Martha McGrew - New Castle, IN
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April Peterson - Frederic, WI
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Tammy Rose - McPherson, KS
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Sue Lane - Hillsboro, OR
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Maureen Dietlin - Fitchburg, WI
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Jenna Hodgins - Macon, GA
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Shauna Mudd - Farmington, MN
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
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30 DAY GOURMET SEMINARS/CLASSES COMING UP
Check the
“Consultant” section of our site to see if there is a 30 Day Gourmet
consultant who has an upcoming seminars or classes in your area. I’ll be
teaching once next month. If you’re nearby, come on over!
When: November 24, 2003
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Where: 1st Baptist Church Lebanon, Indiana
Who: sponsored by MOPS
Contact: Jennie Woods at - baskethappy@hotmail.com
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!
Consultant Mary Wegman from Knoxville, Tennessee was recently featured
on WBIR in Knoxville on their “Styles” show. Thanks for representing us
well Mary!
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COOK'S CHUCKLE
With gratitude and thanks to
our military personnel, I offer this piece of humor.
Subject: A matter of
perspective
A letter home ...
Dear Ma and Pa:
I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the
Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to
join up
quick before maybe all of the places are filled. I was restless at
first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m., but am
getting so I like to sleep late.
Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot
and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood
to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but it is
not
so bad, there's warm water.
Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs,
bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried
eggplant, pie and other regular food. But tell Walt and Elmer you can
always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus
yours holds
you till noon when you g et fed again. It's no wonder these city boys
can't walk much.
We go on "route" marches, which the Platoon Sergeant says are long
walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it is not my place to tell him
different. A "route march" is about as far as to our mailbox at home.
Then the
city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The country is
nice, but awful flat.
The Sergeant is like a schoolteacher. He nags some. The Capt. is like
the school board. Majors and Colonels just ride around and frown. They
don't bother you none. This next will kill Walt and Elmer with
laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The
bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move. And it
ain't shooting at you, like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do
is
lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own
cartridges. They come in boxes.
Then we have what they call hand- to-hand combat training. You get to
wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they
break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm
about
the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in
Silver Lake. He joined up the same time as me. But I'm only 5'6" and 130
pounds and he's 6'8" and weighs near 300 pounds dry.
Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers
get onto this setup and come stampeding in.
Your loving daughter,
Gail
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WEBSITE
OF THE MONTH
Do all the different apple varieties confuse you? How are you supposed
to know which ones are best for baking or eating or making applesauce?
Check out this page from my favorite orchard to help you figure it all
out!
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COMING UP IN NOVEMBER & DECEMBER
Ho-Ho-Ho! What are your plans
for all of that holiday food? Do you have a favorite recipe you make as
gifts for the holidays? We’d love for you to share your recipe with us!
Please post it under the appropriate category on the Message Boards, and
include your tips for wrapping and/or presentation.
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FINAL
THOUGHTS
See you
soon! Since we’re running so late with this issue,
you’ll have the next one “before you know it”.
Nanci & Tammy
30 Day Gourmet
P.O. Box 272
Brownsburg, IN 46112
www.30DayGourmet.com
This site developed and maintained by
Nexis Technical Services, Inc.
This
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Thursday, August 28, 2008.
Copyright 2008 - 30 Day Gourmet. All rights reserved.
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