Food – Page 2 – Don's House of Fine Patisseries

December 19, 2022December 19, 2022

Freezer Cooking and Lunches

In mid-2006, my employer at the time was acquired by another company, and my new employers required me – rightfully so – to take some basic training that I should have taken several years earlier. The training was after work hours, two evenings a week, for a few weeks.

Normally, my eating habits were (and still are) such that a given day’s lunch was composed of leftovers from the previous evening’s supper; in fact, normally supper meal plans at the time and still to this day usually intentionally include cooking for one more serving than the meal would call for, so that I would have a lunch the following day.

The training course, however, had the effect of not only requiring me to improvise for my supper plans, such as eating fast food, but also required me to improvise for the following day’s lunch too. My memory of this period is that there was a snowball effect on much of the week’s meals, although it probably was not quite as dramatic as what my mind has woven into my memory.

One of the solutions I came up with — but never quite fully implemented at the time — was the idea of a cooking weekend, targeted at being done at the cottage. My ambition at that point was to stock the freezer with a variety, as well as a large stock, of dishes and prepared meals, including lunches, so that the above situation wouldn’t be a problem moving forward. I had notions that were fairly ambitious, both in terms of the variety of meals to be made during the weekend, as well as the sheer amount of food that I suppose I expected to make over such a hypothetical weekend.

I developed the following planning table:

The table I created with basic plans for such a cooking weekend

As can be seen, one of the goals was to make a number of dishes based on a common ingredient, my spaghetti sauce, which I had begun making in the early 1990’s.

As also can be seen, although there were a few numbers of dishes to produce, overall the list is rather vague in what I would end up with in terms of numbers. Among other things, while I did have rough ideas of how much of most of the items I would make (or at least envisioned making), for instance, I didn’t start planning out the required amounts of each of the ingredients and sub-ingredients needed to make the dishes and components.

Overall, it seemed — and still seems to this day — rather vague and all over the place, and overly ambitious to the point of being daunting. Critically, although I knew that I would be making about seven to eight quarts of my spaghetti sauce, I didn’t plan out its ingredients, determine just how many of each of the other dishes for which it would be used would be produced from the seven to eight quarts, or whether some of the “larger” dishes were to be prepared for their own sake and the freezer, or to be ultimately cooked and divided up into lunch containers. Except as an afterthought, I just about didn’t even insert the making of the spaghetti sauce into the weekend’s already ambitious cooking plans!

Before coming to this last realization, I realized that my plan would only produce two or three servings’ or meals’ worth of each, which might all be eaten in short order.

Unsurprisingly, the planned weekend was never executed, and after a few weeks, my evenings freed up, and my regular lunches returned.

Years later, I realized despite the usefulness of the intentions behind my plans for the cooking weekend, at least for me, it suffered from not only being too ambitious in its own right, but from being even more ambitious than I thought. At the same time, the overall plan suffered from being a bit too wide in its intended scope given what would be a limited amount of base (the spaghetti sauce). As such, the plan was likely to produce — should I accomplish it all in such a weekend — merely an amount of food, especially the lunches, that would be consumed far more quickly than I had hoped.

My spaghetti sauce — and what I do now for tomato sauce based dishes

My spaghetti sauce was a bit of a marathon sauce to make. Based on canned tomatoes, it also included an inordinate variety and amount of chopped vegetables for a spaghetti sauce, and — especially the end product — was not unlike my current vegetable soup recipe, which I have been making since about 2013. I had a prideful joy in making it, partly as a result of it being so chock-full of vegetables, but, to a degree than I didn’t care to admit at the time, also borne of a stubborn pride resulting from it being a showcase of all the vegetables it contained and a desire to show off a certain (naïve) cooking acumen.

My chili recipe recipe from the early 1990’s, which is essentially my spaghetti sauce with the addition of the red kidney beans and the chili powder (image scanned from my church’s cookbook, published in 1996)

However, one of the things I realized in looking at my big cooking weekend, both early on without realizing it, as well as more formally just recently, was that I just wanted to make, say, lasagna, chilli, beef rolls, pasta dishes, or my eggplant dish (as well as a few lunches not involving my sauce). The “without realizing it” part (early on) was overshadowed by the prideful notion that it made sense at the time to want to use my spaghetti sauce to then make all these other dishes.

Except … I have come to realize that the effort to make the sauce to begin with, as well as my pride in wanting to use it, was perhaps core to the difficulty in implementing the cooking weekend. While the dishes were meant to be a showcase to myself for my spaghetti sauce and as well as my cooking in general, I realized that all these dishes were about showcasing the whole dishes, and not so much meant to showcase my spaghetti sauce.

As such, for a long time now, many of the tomato sauce dishes I make call for commercially prepared tomato / spaghetti sauces, as opposed to, specifically, my home-made sauce.

(As a side thought, were to I make spaghetti sauce again, I have a few vague notions about simplifying it somewhat, as well as chopping the vegetables much more finely, to the point of grinding them, instead of the coarse chopping I favoured for the “sauce” in the 1990’s.)

How things have evolved to today:

Despite the fact that the above weekend plan never materialized, I soon took to often planning cooking weekends when I went to the cottage, especially during the off-season (it’s a family cottage, so there always have been occasional scheduling issues which haven’t always allowed me to do what I would like, when I would like. 🙂 )

However, the first thing that should be mentioned, since this post is at least partly predicated on a period of time in which having ready-made lunches handily available in the freezer was essential, but was not the case, is that … I haven’t since planned out cooking weekends dedicated to cooking ready-made lunches for the freezer, or form a cooking club with a few friends in which we fastidiously make a week’s worth (or more) of lunches and other meals every Saturday, or otherwise come up with a systematic method of stocking the freezer with ready-made lunches.

In the intervening years, the principal approach I have taken to rectify unforeseen needs for prepared lunches is to hoard lunches and leftovers in the freezer; in addition to routinely making extra food for the following day’s lunch, I would occasionally also, at random opportunities, zealously make an extra lunch to place in the freezer. As such, my supply of extra lunches at any given time ebbs and swells according to how many lunches I have managed to hoard at that point in time, versus how many I have needed to eat recently. Fortunately, some of my recipes somewhat ease mounting full lunches in the freezer by being pair-able with odds-and-ends leftovers, such as bacon wrapped chicken, meatballs, and stuffed potato skins.

What I do do is plan “big” cooking weekends many times while I am up at the cottage, including quite often during the off season in winter, incidentally without running water. This is done in conjunction with weekend afternoons in the city with similar objectives (including a cook-through-my-collection-of-recipes project I did mostly in 2021, accessible off my home page at https://www.malak.ca ). Depending on my desires and ambitions, I usually concentrate on single projects, per day anyway; during a week over Christmas to New Year’s, for instance, I usually plan for almost as many large cooking projects as there are days – to cook various large cooking projects to fill the freezer.

I had begun large, more focused, cooking weekends not too long after my above planned weekend should have taken place, continuing a certain tradition I had started years earlier of occasionally making large quantities of my recipes, from a then-limited recipe répertoire, typically focusing on large freezer quantities of one, or perhaps two, recipes from my collection.

Therefore, early on — at this point, exactly “when” being lost to the sands of time and the multiple computer upgrades over the years, during which dates of creation, or at least the last edit, have been lost several times over — I had put the following list together. I tried to write down what my aims and guidelines had become. Note that the text of the list has been slightly edited to fit the current narrative:

A dish needs to be just as easy to make several units of the recipe as one unit – if not easier, and as such not more difficult to make because it’s in quantity (barring the extra time and labour merely due to extra quantity – taking advantage of economies of scale);
A dish needs to be easy to make in large quantities, using a repetitive production line process;
A dish must be appropriate for freezing – for instance, my zucchini dish is not appropriate for freezing, although its sauce is appropriate for freezing!
A dish should be something that just needs to be defrosted and reheated / cooked in toaster oven or regular oven;
A dish should be “convenience food” — the operative notion being “convenient because it’s made in advance and ready to eat” (or brown and serve), not as in “junk food” or like industrially produced, store bought frozen lunches;
A dish should not be something at its core easy enough to make any day of the week fresh (looking back, I suppose that this is barring a notion to make multiple units of otherwise easy to make lunches to stock the freezer, were that have been a priority at the time);
A cooking project should not just be components for other dishes – ie. projects should be to make full meals, not just cooked hamburgers or burger meat, nor just cooked chicken pieces, etc.

Given that over the years, my objectives have evolved, changed, and widened, I have long since abandoned at least a part of the guideline regarding making meal components or single items, because I now regularly cook large quantities of breakfast sausages for freezing, have in the past cooked whole packages or more of bacon for my mom, and I regularly make bacon wrapped chicken, meatloaf, meatballs, stuffed potato skins, as well as cooked ground beef frozen in ice cube trays to keep in the freezer for other times calling for small amounts of cooked ground beef.

Of course, it would only be appropriate to show a recent planning table for a week’s stay at the cottage over Christmas , 2021 (regular meal planning blocked out):

Yes, there are still a lot of details missing here from this list, such as specific numbers, arguably allowing for somebody besides myself to look at both lists and wonder, beyond the more relaxed pace and the specific list of foods and ingredients to bring, what the difference between this 2021 table and the 2006 table are. However, each entry is based on, normally, the standard amounts in my various recipes, plus often slight excesses. And, according to my notes, I also made stuffed potato skins, bran muffins for my mom twice instead of once, and the chocolate buttercrunch twice, as well as, as intimated in the “bring” list, a container of cheese sliced off of the block for my mom to consume the following week.

These days, my freezers are usually full of many tasty dishes from my collection of recipes, individual servings of many foods both from and beyond my collection of recipes, and various lunches made up of leftovers, some consisting of components from multiple meals and cooking sessions. This is actually served by a certain hoarding instinct; I often fill containers with bits of leftovers from a given meal to freeze, and as possible I add to them with other little bits already in the freezer as they are produced.

And … do I run out of lunches? Usually not! However … managing the freezer is a work in progress and a continuous project, sometimes a daily project beyond simply preparing tomorrows lunch; I sometimes grab opportunities to make a second lunch or portion thereof!

September 15, 2022

Making My Mom’s Rhubarb Chutney — Photos

My mom has been making a rhubarb chutney (of the British variety, not the Indian variety) since I was young, and she has loved it as long as I remember. Every year, she would harvest the rhubarb growing in her garden and make at least one batch per season, or two, or even three, depending on the yield.

I have been saying for years that I should learn how to make the chutney for her, although it has taken until this year before I finally consulted her recipe card and notes. The recipe I present here is adapted from (and very closely tracks) the recipe on my mom’s recipe card with several years’ worth of notes. The recipe on the card, if my recollection of her stories is accurate, is apparently derived from a recipe developed by her church ladies’ group in the early 1980’s, and which was possibly assigned to her after one of their canning sessions with a request to make some at home for an upcoming fall bazaar’s preserves’ table. It also incidentally is identical in ingredients and comparable in amounts to a recipe found on the internet for a barbecue sauce … so go figure.

Mom eats it as a condiment to various dishes, such as roast pork, chicken pot pies, shepherd’s pies, and many other dishes … basically, despite its sweet nature, it is also savoury, and pairs well with a number of savoury dishes.

Making the rhubarb chutney:

First, I took out two groupings of commercially grown rhubarb, in this case, about nine stalks each:

Two groupings of nine stalks each of rhubarb

The individual stalks of rhubarb were washed:

The rhubarb stalks were trimmed of their ends, leaves, and as the case may be, torn or damaged parts:

A non-reactive stainless steel pot (yes, there are some cheap stainless steel pots which will react with acid contents!) was taken out, and put to the ready beside the cutting board:

The rhubarb was sliced into 1/4″ to 1/2″ slices:

The chopped rhubarb was transferred to the stainless steel pot as sufficient amounts accumulated on the chopping board:

Once all the rhubarb was chopped and transferred to the pot, to be sure of the amount of rhubarb I had chopped was enough for the recipe, I measured it out …

… and placed it in a bowl:

Once measured out, the rhubarb was placed back in the stainless steel pot.

Next, packed brown sugar was measured out:

The brown sugar was added to the chopped rhubarb:

All brown sugar added to chopped rhubarb

The chopped rhubarb and brown sugar were mixed with a wooden spoon:

Wooden spoon used to mix chopped rhubarb and brown sugar

Brown sugar and chopped rhubarb mixed with wooden spoon

The chopped rhubarb and brown sugar mix was covered with the stainless steel pot lid:

The stainless steel pot with the rhubarb and brown sugar mix was placed in the refrigerator overnight:

Pot of rhubarb and brown sugar in fridge

Onions were taken out:

The onions were trimmed:

The onions were sliced into half-coins:

The onions were coarsely chopped:

The onions were transferred to a measuring cup to keep track of how much onions I had:

The chopped onions were transferred to a sealable container:

Chopped onions transferred to sealable container

The container of onions was covered and placed in the fridge until the next day.

The next day, the first thing done was to fill a pot with water, for use later as a boiling water bath for the mason jars used to bottle the chutney:

A burner on the stove was turned on:

The pot of water was placed on the stove to bring it to a boil:

The pot of rhubarb and brown sugar was taken out of the fridge:

Pot of rhubarb and brown sugar taken out of fridge

Another burner on the stove was turned on:

The pot of rhubarb and brown sugar was placed on the stove:

Pot of rhubarb and brown sugar placed on stove

As the mix began heating up, it was mixed to loosen some brown sugar at the bottom of the pot:

Throughout the following process, the mix was constantly stirred in order to avoid burning at the bottom of the pot.

The chopped onions were added to the pot:

The ingredients were mixed together:

Vinegar was measured out:

The vinegar was added to the pot:

The ingredients were yet again mixed together:

Raisins were measured out:

The raisins were placed in a small blender, to coarsely chop them:

Raisins placed in small blender for chopping

The raisins were chopped:

The chopped raisins were added to the pot:

The raisins were mixed in with the rest of the ingredients.

Ground cloves were measured out:

The ground cloves were added to the pot:

Ground cinnamon was measured out:

The ground cinnamon was added to the pot; as evidenced by the rising steam, the ingredients were heating up nicely:

Ground allspice was measured out:

The ground allspice was added to the pot:

At this point, the chutney was starting to boil, and, for reference, two hours was set on the stove timer (because the original recipe called for two hours of simmering):

The stove burner was turned down to a low setting:

The ingredients were constantly stirred in order to avoid burning and sticking on the bottom of the pot:

After about half an hour of simmering …

… this is what the chutney looked like:

At this point, the pot of water for sanitizing the jars came to a boil and its burner turned off:

After about an hour of simmering …

… this is what the chutney looked like, and was at the point of being syrupy:

As such, I knew I wasn’t going to need to continue simmering the chutney for another hour.

Canning tools were taken out: a ladle, a jar funnel, tongs, a large spoon, and a jar wrench:

Mason jars, rings, and lids were taken out — and yes, I used good condition used lids for this batch, since I had no intention of giving away any of the jars:

The water for the water bath was brought back to a boil, and mason jars were placed in the boiling water:

Water brought back to a boil and mason jars placed in boiling water

The canning funnel was quickly dipped in the boiling water to sanitize it:

Unfortunately, at this point, I could not take as many photos, in order to quickly fill the jars while the chutney and jars were still hot, and create a proper seal with the lids.

The chutney was taken off the stove; a mason jar was taken out of the boiling water, and the jar was filled with chutney:

A mason jar lid and ring were dipped in the boiling water:

The lid and ring were placed on the mason jar and the ring tightened.

The process was repeated until all the chutney was bottled, in this case, filling seven jars:

The jars were placed in the fridge to cool down a little more quickly:

Jars of chutney placed in fridge to cool them down

Afterwards, labels were placed on the jars, and the jars were placed in the cupboard.

And … Mom loves it, and has even whispered “it’s better than when I make it!” … no doubt (at least) a mild exaggeration. 🙂

March 18, 2022March 18, 2022

Making Roast Potatoes — Photos

One of my mom’s perennial holiday dinner treats was her roast potatoes, something I figured it was time to learn how to make. As such, I asked her how to do it — it is fairly easy — and adjusted the basic recipe to two generous servings, which can be multiplied and adjusted according to the number of people to be served.

Note that the recipe as presented can be easily made in a countertop convection oven — as was the case in the following series of photos at the cottage — but there may be some minor variations when scaling up to larger amounts cooked in a conventional oven.

Making the roast potatoes:

First, the oven was pre-heated to 400F:

Water was poured into a pot:

Potatoes were taken out, in this case, about 400g or 3/4lb to 1lb of potatoes:

The potatoes were peeled:

Peeled potatoes were placed in the water:

Potato peels were collected, and in this case burned in the fireplace, since it was heating season:

Potato peels collected to place in the fireplace

Peeled potatoes were taken out one by one to slice:

Potatoes were sliced in half lengthwise:

… and then sliced into pieces:

The potato pieces were placed back into the water:

The rest of the potatoes were similarly cut up:

The water was drained from the potatoes:

… and fresh water was poured in the pot to rinse the potatoes:

A clean, dry towel was laid out on a cutting board:

The drained potatoes were placed on the clean dry towel:

The towel was folded over in order to pat dry the potatoes:

Towel folded over to pat dry the potatoes

Parchment paper was taken out:

An oven tray was taken out:

The parchment paper was placed on the oven tray:

Margarine was taken out:

The kitchen scale was set to zero with an empty spoon on it, and then margarine was weighed out:

A bit of margarine was picked up with my fingers:

Pat dried potato pieces were picked up one at a time and slathered with margarine and placed on the oven tray:

Potato pieces picked up and slathered with margarine

Potato pieces slathered with margarine and placed on baking tray

And as can be seen, the roughly 75g / 3oz of margarine were used up:

Onion salt was taken out:

Onion salt was shaken somewhat liberally over the margarine covered potatoes:

The timer on the oven was set to about 45 minutes:

The tray of potatoes was placed in the oven:

Here is a shot of the roasting potatoes after about 25 minutes:

The potatoes were turned over at this point:

The potatoes were taken out just before 45 minutes, ready to eat:

(Note that because of the excessive amount of parchment paper used, yes, I did have to deal with some burning parchment paper!)

Supper is served!

Yummy!

January 18, 2022

Making my mom’s stuffed butternut squash — photos

My version of my mom’s stuffed butternut squash is a new addition to my collection of recipes, although it is a dish that my dear mom has been making for years. Yummilly, it very closely tracks my mom’s version.

It is actually a fairly easy recipe, and is fairly easy to scale up to feed a larger crowd than the two to four servings to which this recipe is tailored.

Beyond being a tasty dish, Mom used to make it as a way to use up rice she’d already made earlier in a larger, more conveniently sized batch, or as a way to have rice in the fridge to use later in the week; for this post, I show the photos making rice, to have more rice for later. Conversely, I do not show the cooking of the ground beef, already having some previously cooked and frozen ground beef on hand.

Also with regard to the rice used in the photos below, I used a commercial flavoured rice I like; however, the point of the recipe lies in using any rice that suits your tastes.

Note: This post uses photos from two separate cooking sessions, as I was working out some of the required specific amounts of each ingredient and techniques. As such, in some cases, one may notice slight discrepancies between two or more photos showing the progression of steps the narrative identifies as sequential, when in fact in some cases the photos may switch between two separate sessions which may have inadvertently involved slight differences.

Making the stuffed butternut squash:

I began by taking out a commercial packet of a flavoured rice I like:

The flavouring packet was taken out of the package:

The rice in the packet was measured out, and a matching amount was measured out from a bag of plain rice, since I find the amount of flavouring in the packet too strong when the rice is made with the amount of rice as packaged:

The rice was added to a pot:

Water was measured out:

The water was added to the rice:

The contents of the flavour packet was added to the rice:

The rice, flavouring, and water were mixed with a fork:

Rice, water, and flavouring mixed with fork

Margarine was taken out:

Margarine was spooned out of the tub …

… and transferred to the pot with the rice:

The stove burner was turned on …

… and the rice was brought to a boil …

… at which point the stove was turned down to a low setting …

… and a timer set to twenty minutes:

The rice was simmered for 20 minutes:

Rice simmering for 20 minutes, partway through

While the rice was still simmering, a butternut squash of approximately 2lbs was taken out:

The squash was cut in half along its length:

The seeds were removed from the squash:

The squash halves were peeled and trimmed:

The squash halves were cut in two:

The halves without a natural hollow were hollowed out, and the extra kept:

About an inch’s worth of water was added to the microwave-safe cooking vessel:

The squash pieces, including those cut out from the solid pieces of squash, were placed in the cooking vessel:

The squash was covered and placed in the microwave oven:

The microwave oven (1200 watts) was set to 10 minutes:

The cooked squash was taken out of the microwave oven:

Cooked squash taken out of the microwave oven

The water was drained from the cooking vessel, and the pieces cut out to hollow out two of the pieces were transferred to a bowl (while the rest was put aside for the moment) …

… and the squash pieces were mashed with a fork:

The mashed squash was put aside for a few moments.

Normally, I cook ground beef and onions in advance, and freeze it in ice cube trays, which conveniently hold roughly an ounce in each well. Earlier, two and a half cubes, about two and half ounces, were taken out of the freezer, and allowed to defrost on the counter:

Cooked ground beef and onions taken out of freezer

The ground beef cubes were broken up with a fork:

The mashed squash was added to the beef:

Mashed squash added to cooked ground beef

At this point, the rice was cooked:

A cup of rice was measured out, while the rest was placed in a container to freeze and eat later:

The cooked rice was added to the cooked beef and mashed squash:

Rice added to cooked ground beef and mashed squash

The cooked ground beef, mashed squash, and rice were mixed together with a fork:

Cooked ground beef, mashed squash, and rice mixed together

The rice mixture was put aside, and a can of condensed tomato soup was taken out:

The can of condensed tomato soup was opened:

The cooked hollowed out squash pieces were taken out again:

A small amount of the condensed tomato soup was placed in the bases of each hollowed-out piece of squash:

Condensed tomato soup spooned into hollowed-out squash

The rice, cooked ground beef, and mashed squash mix was spooned into the squash:

Rice, cooked ground beef, and squash mix added to squash

The rest of the condensed tomato soup was spooned onto the top of the rice, beef, and squash mix:

Condensed tomato soup spooned onto the rice, cooked ground beef, and squash mix

The cooking vessel was covered …

… and the dish was placed in the microwave oven again:

The microwave oven (1200 watts) was set to seven minutes:

After seven minutes of cooking, the stuffed squash was ready to eat:

… and the stuffed squash was served:

It was, of course, yummy, and of course, Mom approved.

(… and, at the risk of sounding like I’m bragging, putting aside that, well, I *had* cooked it, I couldn’t tell whether I’d cooked it, or whether Mom had cooked it!)

December 26, 2021December 26, 2021

Making my mom’s turkey stuffing — Photos

This week, leading up to Christmas, and generally taking advantage of a week of holidays, I delved into my collection of recipes, and made plain white bread, as well as raisin bread (twice), lemon squares (twice), blondies, bran muffins (twice) for my mom, shortbread cookies, corned beef hash, my pepperoni pizza, and, the subject of this post, my mom’s turkey stuffing — of course, to use for family Christmas dinner, which I also made this year!

The various steps were performed over several sessions during the week (mostly cubing and drying bread), however, for the sake of narrative, the photos are listed, largely, as though it could have been done in two sessions. And, despite stating in the recipe that its cooking in a turkey is beyond the scope of the recipe, I do indeed show at the end of this post the cooking of the stuffing with the Christmas turkey, in response to a conversation with, and comment from, my brother: “If you get a trailer, you want to see it hooked up to a truck.“

Making the turkey stuffing:

Although the following picture was taken this past week as part of preparing for making the stuffing, normally, throughout the year I collect bread bits and bread crusts …

… and as I collect them I cube them and dry them, to add to a container of dried bread cubes:

This week, bread I’d just made was taken out:

The loaf of bread was sliced for freezing, and some slices were put aside:

Bread slices were sliced into spears:

The bread spears were cut into cubes and placed on a tray to dry:

Once dried, the bread cubes were placed in a container I fill over time with dried bread cubes:

Fresh bread cubes were also put aside in a freezer bag and frozen, to be used later in the week when I made the turkey stuffing:

Fresh bread cubes in a freezer bag put aside for later in the week when I made the stuffing

On the day I made the turkey stuffing, onions were taken out:

The onions were cleaned and trimmed:

The onions were cut in half:

The onion halves were sliced into half coins:

The onions were somewhat finely chopped:

The chopped onions were transferred to a microwave oven safe cooking vessel, and put aside for a few moments:

Chopped onions transferred to microwave oven safe cooking vessel

Bulk sausage meat was taken out:

… and removed from its packaging:

Bulk sausage meat removed from its packaging

The sausage meat was broken up by hand and placed in the microwave oven safe cooking vessel along with the chopped onions:

Bulk sausage meat broken up by hand and placed in microwave oven safe cooking vessel along with chopped onions

The sausage meat and onions were mixed together by hand:

Sausage meat and chopped onions mixed together

Time was set on my microwave oven:

The microwave oven safe cooking vessel was placed in the microwave oven:

Microwave oven safe cooking vessel placed in microwave oven

Microwave oven safe cooking vessel in microwave oven

Part way through cooking the sausage meat and onions, they were taken out and large pieces were broken up with a large spoon:

Sausage meat and onions broken up with large spoon

Mostly cooked sausage and onions:

The fresh and dried bread cubes were taken out:

Fresh bread cubes were measured out:

Fresh bread cubes were transferred to a large mixing vessel, in this case, my 16 litre soup pot:

Fresh bread cubes transferred to large mixing vessel

Fresh bread cubes in large mixing vessel

The cooked sausage meat and onions were added to the bread cubes

Cooked sausage meat and onions added to bread cubes

The bread cubes and the cooked sausage meat and onions were mixed with a large mixing spoon:

Ingredients mixed with large mixing spoon

Chicken soup base was taken out:

Chicken soup base was measured out:

The chicken soup base was added to a measuring cup:

Chicken soup base added to measuring cup

Water was added to an electric kettle:

The kettle was turned on:

Once boiled, boiling water was added to the measuring cup with the chicken soup base:

Boiling water added to measuring cup with chicken soup base

The chicken soup base and the boiling water were mixed together:

Chicken soup base and boiling water mixed together

The chicken soup was added to the rest of the ingredients:

Chicken soup added to rest of ingredients

The ingredients were mixed together again with the large spoon:

Savoury (spice) was taken out:

The savoury was sprinkled over the ingredients, and the ingredients were mixed again:

Dry bread cubes were measured out:

The dry bread cubes were added to the rest of the ingredients:

Dry bread cubes added to rest of ingredients

The ingredients were yet again mixed together with the large spoon:

Gauze poultry stuffing bags were taken out:

A gauze bag was filled with the stuffing:

The gauze bag was tied off:

The gauze bag was placed in a sealable freezer bag and placed in a fridge for use later, on Christmas day:

Stuffing placed in a plastic bag for later use

And in the spirit of seeing the “trailer hooked up to a truck”, here are photos from Christmas day, cooking the turkey and stuffing:

On Christmas day, the gauze bag with the stuffing was taken out of the freezer bag, and placed on a baking rack in a roasting pan:

Bacon was taken out:

Slices of bacon were placed on top of the stuffing:

Two turkey breasts, tied together with butcher’s string, were placed on top of the stuffing:

Bacon was liberally wrapped over and around the turkey and stuffing:

The Christmas turkey was placed in the oven:

After some cooking, basting, and browning, aluminum foil was placed on top of the turkey partway through cooking the turkey in order to avoid burning on the outside and drying out of the turkey, while the inside of the turkey and stuffing continued to cook (a meat thermometer was critical):

The fully cooked turkey and stuffing were taken out of the oven:

The turkey stuffing was taken out of the gauze bag and transferred to a serving vessel, ready for Christmas dinner:

Stuffing transferred to serving vessel ready for Christmas dinner

Yummy!

(And — mom loved it!)

December 10, 2021December 10, 2021

Making Eggplant au Gratin — Photos

It has been several months since I’ve done an entry on a recipe from my collection of recipes, mostly just because last winter and spring, I’d run through most of the recipes that I regularly make and which at the time I had considered to be of “sufficient” note to highlight here, save for the recipe which is the subject of this post (but yes, there is a small number more which may eventually be featured!) As such, many of my recipes from my collection of recipes have since been made at least once, and in many cases, several times, over the past few months.

Over the past couple of weeks alone, I did a lot of cooking at the cottage while on holidays, making:

my mom’s raisin bran muffins (photo post);
stuffed potato skins (photo post);
bacon wrapped chicken pieces (photo post);
bread (photo post);
my breakfast sandwiches, thrice (photo post);
my mom’s corned beef hash (photo post);
two batches of bran muffins (photo post);
two batches of chocolate buttercrunch (photo post);
blondies (photo post);
lemon squares (photo post);
13 dozen pickled eggs (photo post);
meatballs (photo post);
chicken soup (photo post);
a half batch of shepherd’s pies (photo post);
a three quarter batch of chicken pot pies (photo post);
manicotti (photo post);
and, the subject of this post, a half batch of my eggplant au gratin.

Yes, that’s a lot of potatoes, ground beef, chicken, onions, carrots, eggs, flour, cheese, olive oil, and other secondary ingredients prepared, as well as beer consumed, during the multiple cooking sessions! And, yes, this is how I like to spend winter holidays at the cottage!

Note that this recipe is vegetarian of the lacto-vegetarian variety (basically, meatless) if the tomato sauce used does not contain meat.

Making the Eggplant au gratin:

First, a nice beer was taken out — Brune d’Achouffe, a Belgian brown ale 8,5% alc/vol in a 750mL bottle, brewed under licence from the Brasserie d’Achouffe by Brasseurs RJ in Montréal, Québec.

Next, the beer was poured into a glass:

… and of course, right away I had to do a bit of quality control on the beer:

Now to the cooking of the eggplant au gratin, really, this time:

Ramekins were set out — as it turns out, another ramekin was needed to be added later on:

An electric skillet was taken out and plugged in:

Olive oil was added to the skillet:

The olive oil was spread out in the skillet with a plastic spatula / egg flipper:

A couple of eggplants were taken out:

An eggplant was rinsed with water:

The eggplant was trimmed:

Coins were sliced off the eggplant:

Slices of eggplant were placed in the hot skillet:

After a few minutes of frying, the slices of eggplant were turned over:

The fried slices of eggplant were placed in ramekins:

The rest of the first eggplant was sliced, the resulting eggplant slices fried, and the fried eggplant slices were placed in the rest of the ramekins, such that the fried eggplant slices were roughly equally distributed amongst the ramekins:

Eggplant equally distributed amongst the ramekins

Half of the zucchinis were taken out:

The zucchinis were rinsed with water:

The zucchinis were trimmed:

In order to quickly slice the zucchinis, a food processor with the slicing blade attachment was taken out:

Food processor with slicing blade taken out

The zucchinis were fed into the running food processor in order to slice them:

Zucchini slices were placed in the electric skillet with more olive oil:

The zucchini slices were turned over:

Fried zucchini slices were placed in ramekins:

The rest of the first half of the zucchini slices were fried:

The rest of the fried zucchini slices were placed in the rest of the ramekins, such that the zucchini slices were roughly equally distributed amongst the ramekins:

Onions were taken out:

The onions were cleaned and trimmed:

The onions were sliced in half:

The onions were sliced into thick half coins:

The onions were roughly chopped:

The chopped onions were placed in a bowl:

About half the chopped onions were placed in the electric skillet with more olive oil, and salt was added:

Chopped onions in skillet with more olive oil and salt

The chopped onions were fried:

The fried chopped onions were roughly equally distributed amongst the ramekins:

At this point, my beer chalice was empty and needed refiling:

It was time to repeat the process, and the second eggplant was sliced and fried the same way. When the eggplant slices were placed in the ramekins, the contents were patted down with a fork, in order to get rid of deadspace in the ramekin:

Ramekin contents patted down with a fork

The rest of the steps were repeated with the zucchinis, and the chopped onions, and both were placed in the ramekins in the same order as above, after the second layer of fried eggplant. Note that at this point, another ramekin was added to accommodate what proved to be more ingredients than I originally estimated that I’d had:

Ramekins filled with all fried ingredients

A jar of commercial (meatless) tomato sauce was taken out:

The tomato sauce was spread over the ingredients in the ramekins:

Tomato sauce spread over ingredients in the ramekins

A block of mozzarella cheese was taken out:

Mozzarella cheese was sliced off the block of cheese:

Cheese slices were placed on top of the ingredients in the ramekins:

Mozzarella cheese slices placed on top of ingredients in the ramekins

Zipper bags were taken out and identified:

Filled ramekins were individually placed in bags for freezing:

Filled ramekins placed in identified zipper bags

The bags were placed in a freezer (in this case the freezer door) for future eating:

Bagged eggplant au gratin in the freezer

A few days later, an eggplant au gratin was taken out, defrosted, baked, and eaten; of course it was yummy!

July 6, 2021August 5, 2021

Making My Mom’s Corned Beef Hash — Photos

This week’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included bran muffins for mom using her recipe, some more bread in my bread machine, chocolate buttercrunch, cooked ground beef and onions frozen in ice cube trays, my breakfast sandwiches, and the subject of this post, my version of a favourite dish my mom has made for me almost all my life, a corned beef hash using a commercial, canned, corned beef luncheon meat.

The principal differences between this version and mom’s version is that she has always used, and continues to use, commercial frozen hash brown potatoes purchased at the supermarket frozen goods section, instead of making and cooking them from fresh potatoes, and, she uses margarine instead of olive oil. She also noted the importance of not using cheap quality onion salt; my personal experiences so far in making the dish have indicated the value that onion salt itself brings to the dish. All this being said, though, my efforts have largely replicated mom’s dish to the point that my version is rather close to mom’s.

It should be noted that in this post, there is a very small number of photos which were taken either later in the evening after cooking, or the following morning, either as retakes, or to outright take some photos which I forgot to take the evening before during the cooking of the dish. Also, I made the dish at the cottage.

Making the corned beef hash:

First, a nice beer was taken out — Mons Dubbel, a Belgian-style Dubbel 8% alc/vol in a 750mL bottle, from the Belgh Brasse Brewery, in Amos, Québec:

Next, the beer was poured into a glass:

… and of course, right away I had to do a bit of quality control on the beer:

Now to the cooking of the corned beef hash, really, this time:

A bowl was placed on a kitchen scale, and the scale was set to zero:

Bowl placed on kitchen scale, and scale set to zero

About 900 grams, or about two pounds, of potatoes were measured out in the bowl:

Water was placed in a pot:

The potatoes were peeled:

The peeled potatoes were placed in the pot of water:

A French-fry cutter was taken out:

Potatoes were placed in the French-fry cutter:

The potatoes were sliced with the French-fry cutter:

Potatoes sliced with the French-fry cutter

If you don’t have a French-fry cutter, you can slice the potatoes lengthwise with a kitchen knife:

Potatoes sliced lengthwise with a kitchen knife

… and then slice the potatoes again lengthwise to make French fries:

Potatoes sliced lengthwise again to make French fries

The French fries were cut into cubes, about half an inch in all dimensions:

The potato cubes were placed back in the pot of water:

Potato cubes placed back in pot of water

The water was drained from the potato cubes:

The potato cubes were again covered with fresh water, for rinsing the potatoes:

The water was again drained from the potato cubes, and the potato cubes were put aside:

Onions were taken out:

The onions were cleaned and trimmed:

The onions were sliced into halves:

The onion halves were sliced into half-coins …

… and then the onions were coarsely chopped:

The onions were added to the potatoes:

The onions and potatoes were transferred to an electric skillet:

Onions and potatoes transferred to electric skillet

Water was measured out:

The water was transferred to the skillet with the onions and potatoes:

Water transferred to skillet with onions and potatoes

Onion salt was added to the ingredients:

Olive oil was added to the ingredients:

The electric griddle had been turned on by this point:

The water was brought to boiling:

The electric skillet was covered:

A timer was set to five minutes:

The potato and onion mix was boiled for five minutes:

Potatoes and onions boiled for five minutes

After five minutes, the cover was removed:

At this point, my beer glass was empty, so I refilled it with the rest of the yummy beer from the double bottle:

While the water fraction was boiling off in the electric skillet, a can of corned beef luncheon meat was taken out:

The can of corned beef was opened:

After a few minutes, the water fraction had begun to boil off, and the potatoes and onions began to fry:

The corned beef was added to the frying potatoes and onions:

Corned beef added to frying potatoes and onions

The corned beef was broken up with a spatula / egg flipper:

Corned beef broken up with a spatula / egg flipper

The corned beef, potatoes, and onions were mixed together:

Corned beef broken up and mixed with the potatoes and onions

The corned beef hash continued to be fried and mixed:

Corned beef hash continuing to be fried and mixed

The corned beef hash was just about ready:

Once the potatoes began browning, a yummy supper was served on a plate, while the rest was placed in a container to freeze and have a lunch:

Yummy!

June 27, 2021August 13, 2023

Cooking Breakfast Sausages — Photos

This past week was again a busy week with no cooking projects from my collection of recipes; however, I took advantage of this past weekend to both develop my version of a favourite dish my mom continues to this day to make for me, a corned beef hash, but for which, strictly speaking, she doesn’t have a formal recipe, and, prepare a future post on firestarters. 🙂

I am therefore posting the photos I’d taken of cooking sausages a few weeks ago at the cottage and which I’d kept in reserve. The subject of cooking sausages would normally not qualify for a post in this cooking series, since I am “only” highlighting the cooking of (admittedly somewhat large quantities of) commercially prepared breakfast sausages — for which I of course do not have a recipe — as opposed to highlighting a non-existent hypothetical recipe for making sausage from scratch. However, I am including this post since several of my recipes call for cooked breakfast sausages, such as my stuffed potato skins, my breakfast sandwiches, and my english muffin breakfast sandwiches.

Note that these photos were taken in the month of May 2021, at the cottage, not this past weekend.

Cooking the sausages:

First, an electric skillet was taken out:

The electric skillet was turned on:

A frozen, two kilogram store-bought flat of breakfast sausages was taken out:

Package of commercial breakfast sausages taken out

The package of sausages was unsealed:

Sausages were taken out and placed in the electric skillet — in this case, half of the package, or the top layer of two layers of sausages:

I turned over the sausages after a few minutes:

Sometimes, a flipper is needed to loosen the sausages in order to turn them over:

Using a flipper to lift and turn over sausages

The sausages were turned again and were beginning to brown:

Sausages turned again after a few minutes

The sausages were turned yet again and continued to brown:

Sausages turned yet again after a few minutes

At this point, a cookie baking tray was taken out:

As the sausages began to be cooked, they were taken out of the electric skillet and placed on the cookie baking tray …

Cooked sausages placed on cookie baking tray

… while the rest of the sausages were kept in the skillet to continue cooking …

Finishing cooking the rest of the sausages

… and once all of the sausages were cooked, they were all placed on the cookie baking tray:

First half of the cooked sausages on the cookie baking sheet

The cookie baking tray of sausages were placed in the freezer:

Cookie tray of cooked sausages placed in freezer

The grease was drained from the electric skillet:

The process was repeated and the rest of the package of sausages was also cooked in the skillet the same way.

The grease was allowed to cool, and when it had solidified, it was wrapped up with the other kitchen wastes from the weekend’s other cooking projects, and brought home to place in the curbside kitchen waste brown box for municipal composting:

A plastic container was taken out:

The first round of cooked sausages, now partly frozen, were placed in the plastic container, and placed back in the freezer:

Cooked sausages placed in plastic container

When the second half of the sausages were all cooked and frozen, they too were placed in the plastic container, and placed back in the freezer:

I now have several months’ worth of yummy, cooked sausages in the freezer, and I have indeed already eaten some!

June 20, 2021June 20, 2021

Making my Mom’s Raisin Bran Muffins

My cooking projects over the past couple of weeks — I took last weekend off after the double-length feature post I did a couple of weeks ago — included bran muffins for my mom (using a different recipe from this post), crisped rice treats, three to five ingredient biscuits, plain cake with a lemon sauce, and the subject of this post, my mom’s recipe for raisin bran muffins; the other day, I had a sudden hankering for my mom’s molasses-based recipe for raisin bran muffins.

The recipe I’ve been using to make bran muffins for mom for the past couple of years is different from her recipe, since following a bake-off a couple of years ago, she chose the recipe I’d found on the internet over her recipe. However, after baking these muffins, mom sampled one, and asked me to make a batch of double-sized muffins for her using her recipe!

Making the raisin bran muffins:

First, a muffin baking tin was taken out, and each well was lined with a standard paper muffin cup:

Muffin baking tin lined with paper muffin cups

The baking tin filled with muffin paper cups was put aside.

The oven was preheated to 450F:

Brown sugar was measured out:

The brown sugar was transferred to a mixing bowl:

Vegetable oil was measured out:

The vegetable oil was poured into the mixing bowl with the brown sugar:

The vegetable oil and the brown sugar were mixed together with a fork:

Vegetable oil and brown sugar mixed with a fork

Molasses was measured out:

The molasses was poured into the mixing bowl with the vegetable oil and brown sugar:

Molasses poured into mixing bowl with vegetable oil and brown sugar

The molasses, vegetable oil, and brown sugar were mixed with a fork:

Molasses, vegetable oil, and brown sugar mixed with fork

In order to blend the molasses better with the other ingredients, the mixing bowl was warmed a bit in a microwave oven:

… and the microwave oven set to 15 seconds:

The mix was lightly warmed, mixed again with a fork, and the process repeated.

Eggs were taken out:

The eggs were cracked into the mixing bowl with the other ingredients:

The ingredients were mixed again with a fork:

Milk was measured out:

The milk was poured into the mixing bowl:

The ingredients in the mixing bowl were mixed again with a fork:

Bran was measured out:

The bran was added to the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients:

The bran was mixed into the wet ingredients with a fork:

Bran and wet ingredients mixed with fork

Flour was measured out:

Baking powder was measured out:

The baking powder was transferred to the flour:

Baking soda was measured out:

The baking soda was transferred to the flour and baking powder:

Baking soda transferred to flour and baking powder

Salt was measured out:

The salt was transferred to the flour, baking powder, and baking soda:

Salt transferred to the flour, baking powder, and baking soda

The flour, baking powder, and baking soda were mixed together with a fork:

Flour, baking powder, and baking soda mixed with a fork

The flour mix was transferred to the wet ingredients:

Flour mix transferred to wet ingredients

The flour mix was mixed with the wet ingredients (oops I forgot to take a photo).

Raisins were measured out:

The raisins were added to the wet ingredients (oops I again forgot to take a photo) and everything was again mixed with a fork:

The muffin baking tin with the paper muffin cups prepared earlier was taken out, ready to transfer the muffin batter:

Muffin baking tin with paper muffin cups taken out

The muffin batter was transferred to the paper muffin cups:

Muffin batter transferred to paper muffin cups

The muffin baking tin filled with muffin batter was placed in the preheated oven:

Muffin baking tin placed in preheated oven

A timer was set to 18 minutes:

When the muffins were baked, they were taken out of the oven …

Baked muffins in oven about to be taken out

… and placed on a cooling rack:

Hot baked muffins placed on a cooling rack

The muffins were taken out of the baking tin and placed on the cooling rack:

When the muffins were cooled, they were placed in a cleaned reused freezer bag:

The bag of cooled muffins were placed in the freezer:

… and the next morning, breakfast was delicious!

Of course they are yummy!

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021

Making Barbecups AND Chicken Cups — Photos (Double-Length Feature)

This week’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included lemon squares, yet more pickled eggs — friends have been asking me for them — more chocolate buttercrunch (mom said “it’s about time!), and, the subject of this post, both barbecups and chicken cups.

This post is a double length feature because both recipes are very similar to the point of just having different fillings. As such, the narrative shows the concurrent preparation of both recipes, just as they were actually prepared.

Making the barbecup and chicken cup fillings:

First, a cast iron skillet was taken out, and placed on the stove:

Cast iron skillet taken out and placed on stove

A bit of olive oil was poured in the cast iron skillet:

Salt was added to the cast iron skillet:

The olive oil and the salt were spread around the cast iron skillet:

Olive oil and the salt spread around the cast iron skillet

The stove was turned on:

A chicken breast — this one in the 200g to 225g range — was taken out:

The chicken was placed in the cast iron skillet:

A bit more salt was added to the top of the chicken:

Ground beef was taken out — in this case, about two pounds of ground beef instead of only one pound of ground beef, as specified in the recipe, because in addition to making barbecups, I wanted to freeze some cooked ground beef and onions in an ice cube tray (see later):

An electric skillet was taken out:

The electric skillet was turned on:

The ground beef was placed in the electric skillet:

An onion was taken out:

The onion was trimmed — yes, I know that this onion is definitely on the older side:

The onion was quartered:

The onion was coarsely chopped:

The chopped onion was added to the electric skillet with the ground beef:

Chopped onion added to electric skillet with ground beef

The ground beef was broken up:

Salt was added to the ground beef and chopped onions:

Salt added to ground beef and chopped onions

The ground beef was broken up some more as it was cooking, mixing in the chopped onions and salt:

It was time to pay attention to the frying chicken, which was picked up with an egg flipper:

… and was turned over in the cast iron skillet:

Chicken turned over in cast iron skillet

At this point, an oven rack transferred to the top slot in the oven, and the oven was preheated to 425F:

Frozen mixed vegetables were measured out:

The mixed vegetables were transferred to a mixing bowl:

Mixed vegetables transferred to mixing bowl

A can of condensed cream of chicken soup was taken out:

Can of condensed cream of chicken soup taken out

The can of condensed cream of chicken soup was opened:

Can of condensed cream of chicken soup opened

The condensed cream of chicken soup was added to the mixing bowl with the frozen mixed vegetables:

Condensed cream of chicken soup added to mixing bowl with frozen mixed vegetables

The condensed cream of chicken soup and mixed vegetables were mixed together with a fork:

Condensed cream of chicken soup and mixed vegetables mixed together with a fork

The condensed chicken soup and mixed vegetables were put aside.

The ground beef was broken up well and well mixed with the onions, and was coming along to being fully cooked:

Ground beef and onions well mixed, and almost cooked

Once cooked, the ground beef and onions were covered and put aside.

At this point, the chicken was cooked and taken out of the cast iron skillet, and placed on a cutting board:

The chicken was sliced:

The cooked chicken was then chopped coarsely:

The chopped chicken was added to the mixture of condensed cream of chicken soup and mixed vegetables:

Chopped chicken added to mixture of condensed cream of chicken soup and mixed vegetables

The chopped cooked chicken and mixture of condensed cream of chicken soup and mixed vegetables were all mixed together again with a fork:

Chopped cooked chicken and mixture of condensed cream of chicken soup and mixed vegetables all mixed together with fork

The chicken cup filling was put aside.

Making the biscuit dough cup part:

I was taught that the base recipe I use for the biscuit dough does not double well, so I started off making the dough for one of the recipe’s worth, and then repeated the process afterwards for the second recipe’s worth.

The flour was measured out:

The flour was transferred to a mixing bowl:

Shortening was measured out:

The shortening was added to the flour in the mixing bowl:

Shortening added to flour in mixing bowl

Baking powder was measured out:

The baking powder was added to the mixing bowl with the flour and the shortening:

Baking powder added to mixing bowl with flour and shortening

Salt was measured out

The salt was added to the mixing bowl with the flour, shortening, and baking powder:

Salt added to mixing bowl with flour, shortening, and baking powder

The shortening was broken up with a fork, roughly to the size of peas:

Shortening broken up with a fork to the size of peas

Milk was measured out:

An egg was taken out:

The egg was cracked into the measuring cup with the milk:

Egg cracked into measuring cup with milk

The egg and milk were mixed together with a fork:

About a third of the egg and milk mixture was added to the mixture of dry ingredients:

A third of egg and milk mixture added to mixture of dry ingredients

The ingredients were mixed with a fork, well at this point two forks:

The rest of the egg and milk mixture was added to the dough and the ingredients mixed.

A couple of muffin baking tins were taken out:

Balls of dough were placed in the wells, and formed into cups around the form of the wells:

Balls of dough transferred to muffin tin wells and formed into cups

The rest of the dough was transferred to the muffin baking tin and a dough cup was formed in each well:

Dough cups formed in each well of a muffin baking tin

A second batch of dough was prepared for the second muffin baking tin, this picture showing the shortening just having been added to the flour (see above for the whole process):

Second batch of biscuit dough, shortening added to flour step

… and the dough from the second batch was used to form more cups in the second muffin baking tin’s wells:

The chicken filling mixture was taken out:

The chicken filling mixture was spooned into the dough cups of one of the muffin baking tins:

Spooning chicken filling mixture into dough cups

The chicken filling-filled dough cups were put aside for a few moments.

The cooked ground beef and onion mix was taken out:

Cooked ground beef and onion mix taken out

The cooked ground beef and onion mixture was spooned into the dough cups of one of the muffin baking tins:

Spooning cooked ground beef and onion mixture into dough cups

Cooked ground beef and onion mix in the dough cups

And here is what all the filled dough cups looked like:

24 dough cups filled with cooked ground beef and chicken mixture

Commercial barbecue sauce in a squeeze bottle was taken out, and barbecue sauce was squeezed onto the cooked ground beef and onion mix:

Barbecue sauce squeezed onto cooked ground beef and onion mix

The filled cups of both varieties were put aside for a moment.

Mozzarella cheese was taken out:

Mozzarella cheese was sliced off the block:

Slices of mozzarella cheese were placed on top of the filled dough cups:

Slices of mozzarella cheese placed on top of filled dough cups

The mozzarella cheese was sliced until there was enough to cover all the filled dough cups:

The barbecups and chicken cups were placed in the preheated oven on the top rack:

Barbecups and chicken cups placed in preheated oven on top rack

The oven timer was set to fifteen minutes:

While the barbecups and the chicken cups were baking, the remaining cooked ground beef and onion mixture was transferred with a spoon to an ice cube tray:

Remaining cooked ground beef and onion mixture transferred with spoon to ice cube tray

The ice cube tray with the cooked ground beef and onion mixture was placed in the freezer. When the ground beef and onion mixture was frozen, the individual cubes were placed in a freezer bag and placed back in the freezer, ready for future meal cooking.

At this point, the barbecups and chicken cups were cooked, the broil cycle was turned on for a couple of minutes to brown the cheese on top:

Broil cycle turned on to brown the cheese

When the barbecups and chicken cups were fully baked, they were taken out of the oven and placed on cooling racks:

Barbecups (on left) and chicken cups (on right) taken out of oven and placed on cooling racks

The chicken cups were loosened with a plastic knife:

Chicken cups loosened with plastic knife

The chicken cups were removed from the muffin baking tin, and placed on cooling racks:

Chicken cups removed from muffin baking tin

The barbecups (on the left, photo above as well as photo below) were then removed from the muffin baking tin, and placed on a cooling rack alongside the chicken cups:

Barbecups and chicken cups placed on cooling racks

The chicken cups (now on the left in the photo below) and the barbecups (now on the right in the photo below) were placed on a cookie baking tray:

Chicken cups (on left) and barbecups (on right) placed on a cookie baking tray

The tray of chicken cups and barbecups was placed in the freezer:

Tray of chicken cups and barbecups placed in freezer

Once the barbecups and the chicken cups were frozen, they were placed in freezer bags, including one that still had some from the last time I cooked these recipes:

Frozen barbecups and chicken cups placed in freezer bags

A barbecup (left) and a chicken cup (right) were kept aside for supper, and reheated in a countertop toaster oven:

Yummy!