Well, it’s not entirely new…I did this a few times with my mom and siblings, long ago when I was a kid. “It” is a baking day, where you devote the grand portion of the day to baking. The idea is that you freeze what you produce, thereby avoiding the need to bake for a little while.
I’m not at all opposed to baking everyday from an enjoyment standpoint, but when the weather is warm, such kitchen activity makes the house less than pleasant. The heat from the oven, a welcome thing in the winter, is a misery-producing thing in the summertime. The oven is insulated, of course, but some heat definitely manages to escape, and its effect on the temperature of the house is not insignificant.
Yesterday was a miserably warm and humid day, but when I looked at the forecast, I saw that today’s high was predicted to be only 63. That, I decided, was a forecast for a perfect baking day…I could keep the oven on for hours with nary an ill effect on the kitchen climate.
I made a dreadful mess in my kitchen!
and this was after I had done a batch of dishes already. Yikes.
However, I have some good stuff to show for it.
A loaf of zucchini bread (had to use up some zucchini):
Two loaves of French bread(which overrose a bit, because I got distracted by writing about my Thrifty Threads appearance!). These will be the basis for some chicken sandwiches later in the week:
Two loaves of sandwich bread (these are also slated to be used in some dinner sandwiches):
A batch of granola (this is to help us avoid eating cereal for breakfast):
Four quarts of yogurt, which is something I make almost every week:
And some Rice Krispy bars, which I made just for fun:
I still want to make a few other things (some granola bars, some loaves of whole wheat bread, and maybe some cookies. Plus I need to make some applesauce), and fortunately for me, tomorrow is supposed to be just as unseasonably cool as today was! Excellent.
If all goes well, I shouldn’t need to turn my oven on at all for a week, which will make it much easier for me to resist the lure of the AC.
My kitchen is all clean now,
and I’m off to bake some pizza for dinner. (and since the weather is so cool today, the uber-hot oven temperatures required for pizza are not going to make us miserable!).
If I find that this baking day thing works out well, I may continue the habit sporadically throughout the summer. Have any of you had a positive experience with doing a baking day?
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Yes! Actually, I have a cooking and baking day, usually Sunday. It’s the only way I can manage to have homemade meals 6 days/week (we get a take-and-bake pizza from Papa Murphy’s on Fridays because it’s almost the same cost as homemade with our “frequent customer” deals, and with both of us working on Fridays now, it’s easier for an exhausted couple!).
Last Sunday’s haul:
2 loaves whole wheat bread – used for toast for breakfast and sometimes sandwiches for lunches
1 quart of yogurt’s worth of tzatsiki – tasty yogurty-cucumbury-cilantroy goodness
16 mini Greek burgers, grilled (4 per person for 2 evenings’ meals)
1 lb Greek chicken breasts, grilled and sliced (1/4 per person for 2 evenings’ meals)
2 Grilled chicken breasts (Sunday’s dinner)
Grilled corn (Sunday’s dinner)
Whole wheat-oatmeal-walnut-mini-chocolate-chip cookies (I accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda, so they turned out to be the world’s thinnest cookies!)
We get pizza from Papa Murphy’s on Friday nights, so this took care of dinner for the week for us.
Work to prepare dinner on a weeknight:
Heat meat in covered nonstick skillet with a splash of water
Cut up some fresh lettuce
Cut up a fresh tomato
Get tzatsiki out of fridge
Cut two pitas in half and warm halves in toaster oven
Serve!
Total time on a weeknight: 10 minutes
This week’s meals were a bit too similar. Usually I do meals with a bit more variety (one Greek, one Italian, one Chinese, etc.), but I was really in a Greek mood last weekend!
I finished reading your entire blog. You are now the lucky recipent of new comments scattered throughout your blogging history. (Said with tongue firmly in cheek.)
Another idea for leftover zukes is to grate them, wrap them in a towel to squeeze out the liquid, then add to … um … stuff. Some ideas are sauteed veggies, meatloaf, omlet (although you don’t seem to eat either very often), salad topping, soup.
Often I’ll do a lot of cooking on a weekend. Fri or Sat I may survey the fridge and see what needs to be used or what I’ve planned on but not gotten to. Sunday is usually shopping day: the coupons have arrived, the good farmers’ market is on, and more people shop on Sat so the crowds are a bit less. Then I have a lot of food to wash, chop, prep, bag, put away. Cooking it is the natural next step. I get some weekday meals or meal inputs, and dishes that need to sit for optimum flavor have time to sit.
EngineerMom, would you share your tzatsiki recipe?
From time to time I will set out to do a baking day…but I usually get bored, distracted or tired halfway through, so I have never managed to make as many wonderful things as you have produced today! most impressive!
Wow- that’s a great idea. I love baking but I generally don’t do it much in the summer because of the heat.
May I ask what yogurt recipe you use? I tried making my own for the first time a couple of days ago and I don’t like it. Maybe it was because I used low-fat milk, but it’s also a little sticky or gluey. Not a good consistency. I’d like to try another recipe.
Enjoy all those baked goods!
HOW do you find time to do all this?? You are amazing. I want to come over for dinner!
I think this is wonderful, great time management strategy
I’d love to see the recipes you used for your breads & granola. Baking days are great….my freezer stash is running low but it might be too hot for a while here in NC for me to do a day of cooking anytime soon.
Hi. Your sandwich bread looks great! Do you already have the recipe posted here? If not, would you share it? Thanks.
I am also wondering how you make your yogurt. I have been experimenting for about 6 months and am still not happy with the results.
@WilliamB – sure!
2 c. plain yogurt (any mix of whole-milk and skim will work, but make sure you have at least 1/4 c. of whole-milk in there for texture)
1 med/lg cucumber
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 tsp plus 1/4 tsp kosher or other coarse salt
1/2+ c. fresh cilantro leaves (more is better than not enough!)
Note: If you don’t like cilantro, try substituting about half as much fresh mint.
Place the yogurt in a cheesecloth (or papertowel draped over a strainer) and let drain for a few hours, no more than overnight. This is not a critical step, but will help the texture be nice and creamy.
Wash the cucumber, cut off the stem end, and grate the whole thing, skin, seeds, and all. Place grated pulp in a strainer, sprinkle with 1/4 tsp kosher salt, and let stand about 10 minutes.
Finely chop the cilantro and smash or mince the garlic. Alternatively, place 1/4 c. yogurt, the cilantro, garlic, and 1/4 tsp salt in a small food processor and pulse until cilantro and garlic are pureed into the yogurt. This will make the 1/4 c. yogurt very watery, like milk, but don’t worry – it thickens back up when you mix it into the rest of the yogurt.
Put all the yogurt into a 4c. or larger bowl. Add any remaining ingredients except the cucumber. Taking a small handful, squeeze the cucumber to “wring out” most of the water. This usually takes me 3-4 handfulls to wring out the total amount of pulp. Add all the wrung out pulp to the yogurt. Mix everything together and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Note: tzatsiki is much tastier if allowed to rest in the fridge at least overnight. Use it to top various meats served in pitas, as a salad dressing, or as a dip for veggies, bread, pita, and others!
A note to anyone looking for bread/granola recipes – I think most of them are on this site, try the Recipes or Wednesday Baking links!
Once a week in the summer I’ll have cooking night. I make casseroles, bread, cakes, fry chicken,cook beans, boil pasta, etc and we simply heat things up all week for meals. The kitchen gets stifflingly hot in the summer when the oven or stove is on, so I really try to limit cooking, as we’re trying to not use the ancient and inefficient central air in this 60 year old house!
Kristen your photos are always SO wonderful.
This is probably a really silly question but how do you slice your sandwich bread so that it doesn’t get all crumby? I’ve tried making sandwich bread a number of times but slicing becomes a huge mess. Maybe there is something wrong with the bread itself?
Sounds fun. Today I have off of work and plan on making lots of stuff to take on my picnic tomorrow. (I’m taking my gf out for a picnic and I’m preparing most everything for it)
Kristen#14 – I think there’s a reason sliced bread was so popular.
Thanks EngineerMom. I’ve started making my own yogurt so I’m all for recipes that use it.
Now what am I supposed to do with the whey I filter out? I can only eat so much bread and my first attempt at ricotta was a failure. Is it good for plants or veggies?
Whenever someone gives me one of those friendship bread starter thingies, I dutifully add the flour, milk, etc. as instructed, then on the 10th day I divide it up…. and make 10 loaves (or some combo of loaves and muffins) for myself in one marathon session. Most of it goes in the freezer. –Mary
I had the same thing happen. I had thawed a turkey (I bought a bunch of them on sale last fall and two still remain) planning to cook it late at night when the sun went down. Since it was so cool out, I got it cooked and the pot of soup made from it without running up the A/C.
I do this a lot actually, because if I don’t, I’ll never get everything done for the week! There are some breads (like pita) that are better consumed the same day, but sandwich bread is fine in advance. One thing I do to save time is to make a double batch of pie dough and save the extra for another day. It stays good for at least a week. I also make up big batches of almond milk to use in smoothies every week.
Did you ever answer Kristin’s questions:
June 5th, 2009 at 09:25 | #14
This is probably a really silly question but how do you slice your sandwich bread so that it doesn’t get all crumby? I’ve tried making sandwich bread a number of times but slicing becomes a huge mess. Maybe there is something wrong with the bread itself?