Notes from Tammy

Hi everybody! Can you believe it’s August already? I can’t! Summer is fading fast!

I made the trip to PA to cook for my parents as I mentioned in the July News. My mother-in-law, who lives with us, and my 11 year old daughter went along to help. Mom is feeling better and is SO thankful to have food in the freezer! She sat and watched in amazement as Grandma and I cranked out meal after meal. She kept saying “I can’t believe how much you guys are getting done!” Read my assembly day story, if you like.

My daughter helped Grampy with stuff outside Saturday while Grandma and I cooked. On Sunday, Grampy took Grandma to church with him. Grammy was resting, and Savannah wanted to help me cook. So I was cook and teacher on Sunday morning. She has always liked to help me in the kitchen, but doesn’t very often. Usually because I can do it faster myself. I came to the realization that that isn’t a good reason! I’m cheating both of us out of some enjoyable relationship-building memories!

While we were measuring and mixing cookie dough, Grammy joined us. She was amazed at how much help Savannah could be. Then she started talking about her memories of when I helped her in the kitchen when I was a pre-teen and teen. Not only with cooking, and baking, but with canning too. I am very fortunate to have a close relationship with my mom, and in thinking back about it, I’m sure it got its roots in all those hours we spent together in her kitchen. So, needless to say, I plan on spending more time with my own kids in our kitchen. I’m sure we will all benefit greatly from it!

This issue of “Chewin’ the News” brings you three new recipes from Jan Limiero, author of our newest ebook, Co-op Cuisine. Read more about it below, in the Bonus Recipes section, as well as in Updates from Nanci.

Bonus Recipes from Jan Limiero

Hi, my name is Jan. I have a wonderful husband and I am the mother of three wonderful kids ages 11,7 and 5. But I have a confession to make… I starve my family! Yes, it’s true. I hate to cook. Well, what I really hate is planning what to cook. If someone would just plan it and shop for me I would cook it. But better yet, just let me sit down to a table set with food on it. That’s my dream. But my dream hasn’t come true yet and meanwhile I am starving my family while waiting for it. Here’s how it goes…

Five o’clock comes prowling around every single day and sneaks up on me. All at once my three kid’s sugar levels bottom out and they are absolutely starving. This of course leads them to turn on each other, and even their dear mother. My husband is done working and is on the hunt for food as well. Shocked that I have allowed this monstrous moment to sneak up on me once again, I make my way quickly to the refrigerator to redeem myself. Here’s where the choose-your-own-adventure begins.

Scenario one: There’s a few half-filled Tupperwares; barely enough to make a meal. I can choose to ration it out between the five of us, or go with the stand-by tuna mac-n-cheese. Sigh.

Scenario two: Brilliant light gleams from the refrigerator as I open the door. There before me is a fully prepared Wild Rice Quiche ready to be heated and set on the table. I pop it into the microwave and hustle to set the table. I splurge and set knives, forks and spoons (as opposed to just forks) with napkins folded neatly under the forks. I open a pre-packaged salad and pop it into a pretty bowl just as the microwave buzzes. I toss a few croutons onto the salad as I set the steaming quiche on the table and call the family to the dinner table.

I love adventure. My favorite sport is rock climbing. But Scenario one is not an adventure I like to risk. Scenario two is the reason I not only started doing co-op cooking, but wrote it down in a book so that all of you can choose your own adventure too!

Ham Steaks

This recipe quickly became a favorite with our cooking group. It is so easy yet it’s always a hit with the kids. My youngest son is the pickiest eater ever and he can eat the rest of us under that table on this one (won’t touch the peas though). Whip up some mashed potatoes (instant of course, but the kind with sour cream and chives to make you look good), put some peas with it and you have a meal on the table in minutes. Hard to beat that! This is one of the “Super Easy” recipes that are good to assign to a new person.

Wild Rice Quiche

Wild Rice Quiche

Now if I can make a quiche, anybody can. This not only looks good and sounds good, it really is! This is a good “company’s coming” recipe. I try to reserve my “fancier” recipes for drop-in guests or for a spontaneous invite to a friend.

Carolyn’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

This was the recipe my mom always used for chocolate chip cookies. She got it from a distant relative that we visited on a large farm in Alberta, Canada. Once you are used to having these on hand in the freezer you won’t want to run out! This was the first recipe that our group doubled for each participant. You can impress drop-in guests with fresh hot cookies every time!

Website News from Nanci

Change in the Wind for the Slagles
No, I’m not pregnant at 46. Ha! But yes, there are big changes coming to my life. After a 21 year absence, I will be returning to the classroom next week. I’m so excited! Although I greatly enjoy the 30 Day Gourmet biz, my first love has always been teaching high school English. Now that the kids are older (11, 14, 16, 19) it seemed like a good time to consider a return. I’ll be teaching 11th grade American Lit. at Covenant Christian High School in Indianapolis. Our daugher, Becky, is a Junior there and my husband, Bob, works part-time on the maintenance staff.
What does this mean for 30 Day Gourmet? Just some shifting of responsibilities. Tammy and Carol will be taking on more of the work and my daughter, Becky, has already learned the order processing part of the business. I’ll be concentrating on the finance, marketing and consultant parts of the company. It does mean that I will be doing a lot of my work in the evenings so e-mail will be the best way to reach me.  Wish me luck! I’ll keep you posted!

New eBook!!! – Co-op Cuisine: Freezer Cooking with Friends
Author: Jan Limiero from Bakersfield, California
Do you love the idea of bulk cooking but are scared to death to tackle it by yourself? Try making it a team effort! You’ll find the challenges divided and the rewards multiplied. Co-op Cuisine will tell you how to get started cooking as a team. It gives practical tips to the leader of the group and features recipes multiplied by larger numbers so you don’t have to do the math yourself.
With Co-op Cuisine, each participant cooks just one recipe (or try more as you get the hang of it) but multiplies the ingredients by the number of people participating, for example, ten. Then, when everyone gets together on Swap Day to trade meals, each person will end up with ten different meals even though they only had to spend their energy shopping for and cooking one recipe (multiplied by ten). Participants cook their recipe in their own kitchen during the agreed upon time allotment. This give everyone the flexibility to work around their family’s busy schedule.

The book includes 51 pages and 25 recipes suitable for co-op cooking that are simpler to multiply by large quantities. It highlights Easy and Super Easy recipes that are good for the beginners in the group.

Check out Co-op Cuisine today. You can take a look at the recipe list and table of contents and download a free sampler with 3 recipes to try out. It’s available for $6.95 as a download. You will never go back to bulk cooking by yourself. And you’ll find new friends that share dinner with you every night.

Next Ebook: Vegetarian Freezer Cooking
Watch for it in a few months!
E-mails from our Fans!
We love hearing from all of you. Here’s a few e-mails that have come in recently.

I have been super impressed with your company and just finished my first cooking day. I love the freedom to just set something out for dinner and it is ready in under an hour on most things, most of that is just the cooking time!

Thanks again for working with me and being patient.
Mickey
I received my manual today and was totally impressed. I wish I would have had this info a few years back. I worked 4 12 hr shifts 7pm to 7am every week. So 5 days out of the week I was completely useless. (Had to one day of recovery!) I lived like a zombie for several years. I am a working at home mom nowadays and need this info just as much now.

Thanks so much for sharing this.
Petra 

Looking forward to using the software! I am giving it to the Haven House shelter for homeless families. I have been “Once a month” cooking for them with a group of homeschool moms for the past 2-1/2 years, but now I am moving out of the area and do not want to see the program end. Thank you for making it easy for us!!!
Pattie
I just wanted to thank you for such a wonderful site! I love your monthly newsletters and recipes. I have four children and try to cook extra every chance I get to freeze ahead. When my grandmother’s birthday was coming up (she turned 89!) I wanted to do something different for her. She cooks for my mom and step-dad every Monday, makes lunches and a few dinners for a church friend to come over, and her oldest daughter lives next door and she cooks and eats with her almost daily. So I made her 6 dinners with side dishes and 3 desserts for her birthday and she just loved it! There was enough servings so if someone, or all of them, were there for supper, she could feed everyone! She has told friends at church and people at the hair dressers about my dinners and they have just praised and raved about them, and it is all due to your website. I would just like to thank you again!
Loyal Reader,
Dawn 

Dear Friends @ 30-day Gourmet,
I’d been a freezer cook for years when my sister Ruth introduced me to your web site (and subsequently your book!). I became an instant fan of your work. As a person living with MS, I have good days and bad days, but my family never goes without a good meal. I freeze everything from soup to nuts.

Anonymous

You’re quite welcome! We enjoy helping all of you and hearing how 30 Day Gourmet is making life easier.
Attention Freelancers!
Thanks to all of you writers out there who contacted me. I’m putting together some information and will e-mail you soon!
Thanks Homelife Readers
Thanks to our readers who sent me info about the article that appeared in Homelife magazine. I got a copy from one of our consultants by mail too. Thanks again!

Freezer Cook of the Month Contest Winner

Our winner this month is Kristin from Franklin, IN, who is passing on the freezer cooking bug to her daughter.

Kristin says:

My daughter, Paige, who is 9 years old, is now following in mom’s freezer cooking footsteps.

She is in her first year of 4-H and had to make cookies for her Foods project. Of course, we made several batches of Snickerdoodles and froze many of them (when you make the same recipe about 10 times in 3 weeks, that makes a LOT of Snickedoodles). Anyhow, we found out last week that she could exhibit fresh cookies for her Foods I project and 6 frozen cookies for Food Preservation. Let me tell you, she not only got Division Champion on her cookies (they will be going to the Indiana State Fair next week) but she also got a first place on her Food Preservation!!!! I am so proud of her!

Anyhow, thanks guys for teaching ME more about freezer cooking so that I can pass it on to my daughters!!!!

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?

Gourmet Q&A from Tammy

Q. Hi, I have the Freezer Cooking Manual and enjoy it very much. I was wondering if I could have permission to copy one page of the manual to give to about 5 of my friends. The page that I would like to copy is the Month of Breakfast and Lunch Ideas, pg 138. I have three small children 5 and under, and have found that this list of ideas is so helpful. Please let me know if I could pass the list along to a few of my friends who also have small children. Thank you! Susan

A. Hi Susan!  Good question!  The page Susan is talking about was in the Third Edition of the Freezer Cooking Manual.  Since it isn’t in the new Fourth Edition, we decided to put it on the website for everyone.  It’s under the“Freezing Cooking Tips“ button at the top of the site.  Hope your friends find it as helpful as you do, Susan!

Cookin’ at the Keyboard with Shelley

One of the things I love most about being in the kitchen is cooking with my teenaged daughters. Of course, it hasn’t always been that way. I’ve done my share of fishing eggshells out of the batter, and my shoes wouldn’t stick to the floor if I baked the cookies by myself. We were surprised to discover how tasty basil can be when it’s mistaken for parsley and added to the vegetable soup. I’ve also learned that the chemical effect of baking powder is best demonstrated when eliminated from the muffins we were going to eat for breakfast.

Training my children in the kitchen consumes huge amounts of time and energy, but the results are worth the investment. Cooking with my daughters is better than cooking with a friend simply because they do everything the way I do it. I’m continually amazed at how much we can accomplish when we work together.

One thing that makes our cooking day flow more smoothly and efficiently is the Advantage Cooking software. When I announce that it’s time to chop the onions, I don’t have to answer the question, “How many do I chop?” Sarah checks the Action Report and completes the task without asking questions that disrupt my train of thought. When we’re assembling the meals and Lauren wonders what to do next, she uses the Recipe Report to select the recipe she likes the best. The reports give them the ability to think and act independently.

The software also gives the girls something fun and constructive to do at the computer. They can enter recipes and update any changes we make along the way. In the process, we’re building a database of family recipes that are easily shared when they have a kitchen of their own. Most importantly, I’m inspiring another generation to spend time together around the table. As a grandmother, I hope to stick to lots of kitchen floors!

If you haven’t tried our Advantage Cooking software, click here for a 30 day free trial or to order your own copy.

Final Thoughts

Hope you’ve enjoyed another edition of our Newsletter. I didn’t plan on it being so “cooking with your kids” oriented, but it all came together that way. Next month we’ll hear from Carol Santee, with info about packing lunches for our kids, as we get ready for that joyous time of year, “Back to School!” Click here to send me an email me with any questions, ideas, suggestions or problems. I enjoy hearing from you all!
Hope you have a great rest-of-the-month, and we’ll be talking again soon!

Tammy