Cooking for a Crowd: Episode 2

Well this month's Crowd Meal didn't go as planned. I had everything all figured out, shopping done over a week ago, and turkey thawing in the refrigerator since Monday. I was going to make Turkey Noodle Soup with a turkey I had bought at .55/lb. the week of Thanksgiving. We're getting half a beef this month and I've been working on clearing out my deep freezer so we have plenty of room for it, so it worked out perfectly that I was in charge of the crowd meal in time to get the 20 lb. tom out of the way. I had the most brilliant idea to get a large one and use some of the meat for the crowd meal and still have a few pounds for Aaron's lunches. Cost for his lunches have been much higher than I prefer, so I was pretty excited to have meat for sandwiches at such a low price.

But plans changed.

As I said, I had pulled the turkey out of the freezer on Monday so it would be thawed in time to roast Friday. I figured that would be easier than trying to cook a turkey and take care of all the rest of the food prep as well on Saturday, leaving me no extra time to work with in case of something else coming up on Aaron's day home. So Friday morning I pulled out my electric roaster and got to work! I didn't even think of a turkey being too big for it for some reason. I knew the bird wouldn't fit in my in-oven roasting pan, so the electric one was my only option. Thankfully it was just the right size. After reading up on the directions (this was my first time cooking a turkey), I found great reviews on how the roaster makes the meat even more moist and takes less cooking time than an oven-cooked turkey. Schweet!

When the clock reached the "should be almost done" time, I checked on it, but the temperature wasn't up where it needed to be yet. I started getting hungry for moist turkey dipped in homemade barbecue sauce. Yum. But it needed more time. Later that afternoon, it still wasn't quite there! Everything looked good, juices were starting to run clear, but it still wasn't at 180*. We had plans to be out of town for the evening, so I figured I'd have just enough time to de-bone it before we had to leave. Fast forward a good hour, and I was ready to dig in! The meat had fallen off the legs by now and it was so nice and moist, so I pulled it out and started carving. It had been in there since 11am, making for a good 5 hours of cooking time, which was twice what directions said it should take. Once I cut into some of the darker meat on the back the juices weren't quite as pretty as I had been finding elsewhere. It still was barely done, so I put it back in and turned the temperature down so it wouldn't be way overdone when we got back later that evening. We were going to be gone a few hours, which would just about double the time it had already been cooking. When we got back, the first thing Aaron did when he got in the door was check on it. It wasn't hot. Sometime while we were gone the roaster had shut off! So, Tom still wasn't really done. After analyzing it (keeping in mind how fragile meat is), we decided it was still salvageable at this point. It was late though and I was tired and honestly didn't feel like shredding a turkey at that hour, so we turned the heat back up and went to bed. 

I checked it once in the middle of the night and things were looking good. But in the morning, Aaron was up and lifted the lid ... to find an almost cold turkey. It no longer smelled like Thanksgiving. It looked yucky. It was officially trash. (sigh) There goes my eleven and some dollar deal. There goes Aaron's lunch meat. And there goes my plan for the big meal. What a way to wake up in the morning! Now I had to come up with a plan B and I only had that day to do it! The only thing we could come up with was chili and cornbread, so that's what we ended up making. 

I already had the beef, and just needed a few extra ingredients to supplement what I already had in order to pull off a meal to feed 40. I bought more dry beans, cornmeal, and some sour cream. Here's what everything ended up costing:

$21.96 for the pot of chili. Tomatoes were canned from the garden, so besides some spices and salt, the only expense I had into it was 6 lbs. of beef ($11.88), 2 lbs. dry beans (3.50), and 48oz. sour cream for serving (6.58). It made for a nice meaty chili, and my husband raved about it all day. He couldn't stop telling me that my chili is his favorite. Lots of meat. Not too much hot spice. Not too many beans. So I guess it was just right. I trust his opinion.

$9.00 for the cornbread. I had planned on making two oblong pans full and made some mix for easy prep when I got there, since cornbread tastes so much better warm. 1/3 of the people didn't end up showing, so we really only needed half the cornbread mix I had prepared. So technically, the expense was more like $5.00, since I still have half of the mix leftover. This dollar amount covers the butter and maple syrup to go with it as well. I like serving maple syrup with cornbread especially when feeding others because it makes so much less mess than honey and is easier to transport. It does cost a bit less as well, and tastes at least as good! 

Leftovers included 1/2 container sour cream, which was something I had chopped from our personal grocery list this month in order to cut costs. I have enchiladas on the menu sometime in the next week so with the sour cream leftover, now we'll be able to have some with that meal! Also, we had a bit of soup left. Aaron took some this morning for his lunch, and we have enough still in the refrigerator for a supper and one more lunch. And there's the other half of the cornbread mix.

All in all, my expense was $30.96 (or $26.96 if I'm only counting what cornbread I actually made). I'm pretty happy with that number considering I didn't have time to plan for sales or any extra cost cutting. Generally I aim for a $30 budget when I'm doing a crowd meal, so I was hovering right around that line. (Let's just forget about that $11 turkey I had to throw out, okay?) 

Houseplant Successes and Failures - and the Birthday of a Poinsettia

I'm not a green thumb. Messing around in dirt just has never been my thing. But that doesn't mean I'll never try my hand at growing something new. You've heard about our ginormous garden and read about various canning we've done, but that was all from outdoor gardening, and it only somewhat thrived this year. I've attempted keeping plants around my house, too.

After Adam was born he was pretty stuffy for awhile and we couldn't seem to figure out why. We tried a humidifier and various other recommended ways to help him, but I'm not sure how much all our efforts played into his actual healing. When our neighbor, who has been a gardening expert all her life, heard about him, she suggested getting some houseplants to help clean up the air. She kindly donated a sage plant and another viney plant that I'm not sure the name of. The sage died within days of entering my home (which was a bummer because I was hoping to harvest some!), but I managed to keep the other plant alive, and it's still growing today, although I need to keep a closer eye on it as it seems to be drying up.

I've always liked the look of live indoor plants and would love to keep some around when I can. Aaron tells me of his mom and how she had loads of plants around their house growing up and he absolutely loved it. But she had a knack for growing things and was able to get some rare-blooming ones to flower for her. If nothing else though, I will attempt keeping green inside since it makes my husband happy and reminds him of his mother and the farm where he grew up.

Since those first two plants and my 50% success rate with them, I've tried a few others. Early this spring I planted a few basil seeds. I had potting soil, I had the seeds, and I had been gifted a cute mug from my sister-in-law and thought it looked perfect for a little plant pot. After starting the seeds and seeing nothing happen for days, I heard that basil was difficult to start. Oh well. Just my luck with herbs. The ones I tried growing the year before outdoors never amounted to anything either. But ... this basil did come up! I was rather excited to watch it grow. It made my kitchen so happy. Aaron would come home every day and exclaim at it too, which made me extra satisfied. I still have it sitting in that very spot and it has grown a good two feet tall, though now that the weather is cold and it's sitting in front of a very drafty window it's not looking as good. It is still sending out fresh sprigs, but I'm pretty sure it's root bound. I think I'm going to replant new seeds in there, or at least cut the current plant back so I can have a nice little fresh basil plant instead of a tall spindly one.

This summer I bought an ivy plant from a little greenhouse. I had always heard ivy will grow and grow anywhere, so I thought maybe this was my chance for another good piece of greenery! I had an old six-pane window frame atop my piano and figured it would be neat if I could get something to grow up the sides a little bit. Not sure what I did wrong, but that ivy didn't make it two weeks.

Knowing aloe is good for skin and burns, that was another plant on my wish list. I tried finding some at our local indoor plant store, but they didn't have any so that idea got shoved to the back burner. Then this fall we were out of town for a wedding and stayed at a family's place for the weekend, and the lady of the house asked if I needed any aloe plants, as she desperately needed to split hers. I told her I had been looking for some, and she gave me two to take home. I was rather excited because now I had not one, but two of them, and they didn't cost me any extra effort to find. Even following her advice on how to get them established, a week later they had shriveled down to nothing. That was during the time the air was so wet I'm sure you could've squeezed our house like a wet rag. Not sure if that has anything to do with the failure of my poor aloe, but I said goodbye to those plants.

But my favorite story of all I saved for last. My 2015 poinsettia. I was rather lazy in taking my Christmas decorations down last year, but I didn't feel like I had enjoyed them long enough. The season just seemed way too short! The poinsettia I had was still nice and red, so I figured I may as well not dump it just because Christmas had come and gone. The above picture was taken in April! It had dropped most of its green leaves, but the flower still looked decent. After hanging around that long, I figured I'd just see how long it would last.

Over the summer it still had a nice, almost full flower, but also really took off producing more green leaves. It started looking like a bush! By this time it was starting to look hopeful to make it to my goal of a year, so my new goal was to see it produce red leaves again, even though I didn't know how to care for it to get there. Every month that went by and it was still growing was an exciting milestone! This picture (above) was in September, after it had lived in my home nine months. 

The image on the left was a picture I took today. That's the same poinsettia. We made it to a year! The last two red leaves from last Christmas have dried up and are ready to fall off, BUT GUESS WHAT!? Just a couple days ago I noticed the first new red leaf! I certainly wasn't expecting it to happen this fast. I thought it needed a good dormant/dark season in order to bloom again. It looks like I might have a full, fresh looking poinsettia again this winter, as there are three places where new leaves are opening. I'm so excited; you have no idea. A poinsettia, in my house. I, the lady who can't seem to get things to grow indoors, has officially had a seasonal plant last a year. Wow. Oh, and the picture on the right is a fresh plant from this year for comparison. Think that one will hang around here, too? Either way, you can be sure I'll keep you posted on the growth of the original one. I can't wait to see more red leaves!