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by Tammy Davis
In
This Issue:
NOTES FROM
TAMMY
BONUS
RECIPES
WEBSITE NEWS
MESSAGE BOARD UPDATES
CONTESTS
GOURMET Q&A
COOKIN' AT THE
KEYBOARD WITH SHELLEY
FINAL THOUGHTS
NOTES
FROM TAMMY
Happy Thanksgiving! Can't
believe the holiday is just around the corner already! We are staying
home for Thanksgiving, which means I'm cooking. More about that later.
Do you need some activities to keep the kids entertained on
Thanksgiving? My kids don't have school on Wednesday, so I will put them
to work on some of these ideas. They will really enjoy the change of
pace, and it will keep them busy and out of my way as I prepare for
company. They can make centerpieces, place cards for the table, a
"Gratitude Garland" and lots more! Check out the website for
Family Fun Magazine
for lots of great ideas! Crafts, recipes, activities and games galore!
"Spoons" is our game of choice for a group... it's easy, and a riot of
fun! We take it seriously at my house... players must remove jewelry
from their hands so they will be less likely to injure other players as
they fight for spoons. We have actually drawn blood while playing this
card game! Watch the competitiveness come out in your family! You can
find the directions at the Family Fun website listed above.
This issue of “Chewin’ the News” brings you three sample recipes from
our
Holiday eBook, as well as ideas of holiday-appropriate recipes.
Read more about it below, in the Bonus Recipes section.
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BONUS RECIPES
Instead of talking about specific
recipes for the holidays, let's talk about planning to feed a
larger-than-normal group. If you're having company for the holidays and
don't know where to start, this is just for you!
My parents are coming for a few days over Thanksgiving. I also invited
my neighbors family of four over for Thanksgiving dinner, since they
don't have any family nearby. So I need to plan meals for 8 and 12,
instead of my normal 6.
First thing I do is grab a piece of paper and my calendar. Mom and Pops
will be here late Wednesday night, or mid-morning Thursday, depending on
when Pops gets home from work on Wednesday. So the first meal I could
have company for would be breakfast Thursday. Thursday lunch I need to
plan for 12, Thursday dinner is for 8, maybe 12, depending how long the
neighbors stay. Friday breakfast, lunch and dinner will be for 8.
Saturday breakfast will be for 8, and then Mom and Pops are heading for
home. That takes care of who I need to feed, now for what to feed them!
My family really enjoys our traditional holiday meal, and no one wants a
big breakfast, so cereal is fine for Thursday morning. I will have
Party Cheese Ball and fresh veggies and
Dip for those who get hungry before the turkey is done. Our
Thanksgiving menu will be turkey, bread stuffing,
Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes, gravy,
Sweet Potato Soufflé, sweet corn, and
Best Ever Freezer Crescent Rolls. For dessert, Grammy's Carrot
Cake with Cream Cheese frosting, and Mom's Pumpkin Pie. (Both recipes
can be found in my ebook, Freezer Dessert to Die For!) If anyone is
hungry at dinner time, leftovers is the name of the game!
Friday, I'll have
Pepperidge Farm French Toast Casserole ready for breakfast. Then
whoever isn't crazy enough to go shopping early that morning can put it
in the oven for them and the kids. (Count my husband Rob and I in on the
crazy ones!) Turkey sandwiches and Thanksgiving leftovers will take care
of lunch. For dinner,
Taco Chili is a family favorite, and I can put it in the slow
cooker and forget about it. Saturday, we love homemade waffles for
breakfast, so I think I'll ask mom to bring her waffle iron along, and
we can get both of them going to feed everyone quicker. And that takes
care of my menu planning. That wasn't so bad, was it?
I'm not making my turkey ahead of time, but if you want help with that,
check out the
Holiday eBook. If you've never done a turkey before, or haven't
been happy with the results of previous attempts, I highly recommend
finding a cookbook by Rick Rodgers where he explains in detail how to
cook a turkey. I got his directions from a newspaper article years ago,
and have made perfect turkey ever since! Unfortunately, I don't know the
name of the cookbook the directions are from. He is a very popular
author at
www.amazon.com, and has a book about turkey, and one about
Thanksgiving. Those would be the ones I would check first. And I would
definitely check my local library to see if they had either one in
stock. In my opinion, the price of the book would be more than worth it,
just to learn how to make great turkey year after year!
If you need more recipe ideas, be sure to check out the "Recipes"
button on our website. Choose the kind of recipe you're looking for
(Side and Salad, Bread and Breakfast, etc.) and scroll through the list
to see what sounds good to you. The recipes below are from the
Holiday eBook, which is also a great resource to get you cookin'
for company!
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Sweet Potato Soufflé
I don't like sweet potatoes, but love this recipe!! What a great side
dish! Goes great with ham or turkey.
Click here to
view/print
this recipe!
This salad will add some color to
your table! The cranberries make it a perfect compliment to turkey.
Click here to
view/print
this recipe!
This festive chocolate pie will
give you a dessert option for those who don't like the traditional
pumpkin desserts.
Click here to
view/print
this recipe!
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WEBSITE NEWS FROM NANCI
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Happy Thanksgiving to
everyone!
We will be making a quick trip to Michigan this year to spend the day
with my in-laws. It’s been several years since we have gone “home” for
Thanksgiving so they have been going out to eat instead. Dad is looking
forward to having the big meal “at home” this year, complete with
homemade foods and plenty of leftovers. With the help of our
Holiday Freezer Cooking ebook and my trusty cooler, I will
contribute foods from my freezer. Must have’s are: Sweet Potato Soufflé,
Stuffing, Celebration Salad and Pumpkin Pie. Yum! If you don’t have time
to freeze foods for Thanksgiving, try it for Christmas! You won’t
believe how much it helps your holiday schedule.
New Ebooks!
It seems like we just released our
Co-op Cuisine Ebook and we've got another one coming out
already. These are both great ebooks! If you don't have them yet, you
need to order one. Each ebook has 25 recipes and the cost is only $6.95
for the download version. Our new
Vegetarian Freezer Cooking Ebook would make a great gift for a
vegetarian friend. Christmas is just around the corner!
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MESSAGE BOARD UPDATES
The message boards continue to be popular!
Have you seen the
Silicone Bakeware in your store and wondered if it really works?
It's usually brightly colored and is flimsy, but "test results" from our
cooks found it was a great product!
Have you thought about making your own
baby food to freeze, but weren't sure about the best way to go
about it? We've got some great tips here!
The Holiday eBook has instructions for roasting your holiday turkey
ahead of time, but does it really work?
Read this post from experienced cooks who say they'll always
cook their holiday turkey this way!
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
Recipe of
the Month... Favorite Chili
Our winner this month is Laurie from
---- with her recipe for Favorite Chili. My family likes chili, but I've
always made it the easy way, by following the directions on the back of
an envelope of chili spice mix. This recipe is a little different,
including the addition of Velveeta cheese, so I decided to give it a
try.
It was unanimous that this recipe was much better than my usual chili. I
froze some, to make sure it froze ok. When I served it the next week,
Gabe wanted to know if it was the "new" chili recipe, or the kind I
always make. Coz the "new" recipe was better than the other, and he
hoped it was the "new" one. We eat chili in a bowl, as well as on top of
French fries, for Chili Cheese Fries. (That was the only way I could get
my kids to eat chili when they were younger!) We had chili that someone
else made, and Gabe made a point of telling me my "new" chili recipe was
better. So it's definitely "Favorite Chili" at my house!
It's easy to make, goes together quickly in the slow cooker, has great
flavor, and freezes well too! What more could you ask for? Freeze it in
single servings for lunch, or in a large family-size container for
dinner.
I was unable to
reach Laurie as of yet, so we'll have to meet her next month. Laurie, if
you read this, please contact me at
tammy@30daygourmet.com
to claim your prize!
Click here to view/print the
November Recipe of the Month.
You too can
get in on the winning! Just post your favorite freeze-able recipe on the
message boards. Congratulations, Laurie!
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FREEZER COOK OF THE MONTH CONTEST
WINNER
Our winner this month is
Megan, with a new cooking method for us. She posted on the message
boards about cooking a whole chicken in the slow cooker, and everyone
who tried it just raved about the results. So I had to try it too! I was
more than pleased with the way it turned out! Especially considering my
whole chicken had been in my freezer for 2 years, still wrapped how I
bought it from the store. I cooked it for 6 hours on High, starting with
a frozen chicken. It was falling off the bone, and was moist and tender.
My husband said next time I should make some foil "pockets" of stuffing
to put in the crock around the chicken, and baste the stuffing with the
juices from the chicken. Good idea!! We had the fresh chicken for
dinner, and then I de-boned the rest and put it in the freezer to use
for future meals.
Read Megan's post and find out how to make the best chicken
ever!
So, how do
you make 30 Day Gourmet work for you? How do you use it to help you
deal with a challenge in your life? How do you use it to help others?
Do you have a funny story that happened on your cooking day? Email me
at
tammy@30daygourmet.com to
be entered in our contest.
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GOURMET Q&A
| Q. |
I was unable to retrieve the bonus recipes from
Brandel Falk in the October email digest. The links given
didn't work. Did anyone else have this problem? Would it be possible
to have them sent again? Thanks for 30 Day Gourmet!
Sincerely, Nancy M. |
| A. |
Hi Nancy! Thanks for letting me know you had a
problem. For some reason when you get your emails from Yahoo in
digest form, the links don't always work. Your options are to change
your Yahoo groups to come individually, instead of in digest form.
Or, at the top of our News, under the logo and my name, there is a
line that says "To read this Newsletter online, click here." If you
click that link, it will take you to the Newsletter on our web site,
and all the links will work there. Or, if that link doesn't work, go
to our web site at
www.30daygourmet.com and click on the link on the left side
that says "Free eNewsletters"... click "Current Issue" to read it
now. That should take care of the problem for you! |
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COOKIN' AT THE KEYBOARD
WITH SHELLEY
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One of my defense tactics for the holiday season is
to restock the freezer. Scanning the list of recipes in my Advantage
Cooking database last month, I found myself growing bored, and then
impatient. Apparently my freezer cooking habit had become routine, and
the available recipe selection was all too familiar.
Fortunately, my problem was easily solved. I hopped on the internet and
effortlessly imported several recipes from the 30 Day Gourmet website.
Several other recipes that friends had shared with me were sitting in an
email folder, also waiting to be imported. It wasn’t long until my
cooking plan was revitalized and I was anxious to get started.
The hard part came when I printed the Grocery Report. The newly imported
recipes contained ingredients that weren’t defined (or were entered
differently) in my database. This produced some humorous or, depending
on my mood, irritating results (like the report telling me to buy 192
teaspoons of tomato sauce). If your database has been similarly impacted
by imports, here are a few suggestions to help you “clean up” your
grocery report.
-
After the report is displayed on the screen, reduce
the Print Preview window and tile it next to the main Advantage window.
This will allow you to page through the report in one window while
changing the ingredient information in the other window. Note: any
changes made will not be reflected in the Grocery Report window until a
new report is generated.
-
Anytime an ingredient shows
up in a base measure like teaspoons, it means that there is no packaging
defined for that ingredient. Advantage needs to be told how to buy the
ingredient in the grocery store. For milk, packaging could be “Gallon”.
Sugar packaging could be “Bag (10 pound)” or “Bag (25 pound)”. Packaging
for spaghetti sauce could be “Cup” or “Jar (30 ounce)”. Locate the
Ingredient and add a Packaging entry in the lower window.
-
If an ingredient is listed twice on the Grocery
Report it is because the ingredient has both a weight and a volume
measure, which cannot be combined into one measure. Change one of the
measures, or add a conversion (see the manual or the help file – I’ll
talk more about this next month).
-
If an ingredient is listed
under multiple names (e.g. “egg”, “eggs”, “egg/s”), use the Ingredient
Merge button to combine the references into a single ingredient.
-
If the Total Needed for any ingredient on the
Grocery Report looks suspicious, there are two checks to make: 1)
compare the ingredient total on the Grocery Report to the amount on the
Ingredient Report, checking the amount per recipe and the recipe
quantity, and 2) check the conversions of any related ingredient
converted to this ingredient.
Now that your grocery list is both accurate and
streamlined, be sure to detour through the kitchen on your way to the
store. Eliminate the items on the list that are already in your pantry,
or adjust the quantity to be purchased. Happy shopping!
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FINAL
THOUGHTS
I hope you've enjoyed
another edition of our Newsletter. We enjoy putting it together for you!
My ebook, Freezer Desserts to Die For will be featured in the December
issue. Look for a new recipe or two as well! Email me at
tammy@30daygourmet.com
with any questions, ideas, suggestions or
problems. I enjoy hearing from those of you who take time to drop me a
note. Happy Fall!
Tammy
30 Day Gourmet
P.O. Box 272
Brownsburg, IN 46112
www.30DayGourmet.com
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