But I also had a somewhat evil thought - the nine days are also the perfect time to cook a bunch of meat dishes for the freezer. It's kind of like baking on a fast day. Normally, when I cook to fill the freezer, I wind up losing a good percentage of whatever I make because I live with a family of grazers, who eat a meatball or seven, every time they pass through the kitchen.
Except! If I did a lot of cooking one day this week, no one would be able to taste it (insert evil laugh here).
So we (my meat-loving child helped me cook and looked into the pots, teary-eyed, every few minutes) cooked a bunch of different things:
1. meatballs
2. meat-egg-vegetable muffins
3. grilled chicken cutlets
4. hamburgers
5. mini turkey meatballs
6. chicken soup
7. meatloaf
In one day, the boy learned to:
1. mix and form two different kinds of meatballs - one kind cooked in tomato sauce, and the other baked in the oven, plus plain 'ole hamburgers
2. marinate and grill chicken breasts
3. peel carrots and put a chicken soup together
4. mix and form multiple schwarma meatloaves
5. chop onions and saute it with peppers for meat muffins
It was a big, delicious smelling day for the 11-year-old boy. He's proud of himself, we hung out together for hours, and my freezer is stocked. And he has all these new skills.
I love days like these.
:)
jen