Matriarchy: I want figure out how to make "canned soup." For instance, to make a cooked concoction, pressure can it in pint jars, and then be able to add water, stock, or milk to have 3-4 cups of soup. Cream of cauliflower or broccoli, for instance, so I can take advantage of that season. I want to see if I can make up the recipe without the dairy, can it as "condensed" soup, and have shelf-stable homemade soup. Anyone doing that?

Matriarchy: We ate all the strawberry jam and apricot preserves I made. None left for winter! I'd better make the most of the peach season.

Matriarchy: Just made a long forum post about Pantry Building. Please add suggestions and resources!

Matriarchy: TIP: I am sure everyone else already knows this, but *I* just discovered it. If you freeze snack-size bags of chopped onion in half-cups, it's really easy to add it to what you are cooking, without getting all onion-y. Chop a couple onions all at once, and cook for weeks. I keep the baggies inside the frozen core of my ice cream maker in the back corner of the freezer, so I can find them.

Matriarchy: Accidentally left a huge turkey thigh in the crockpot when I went to bed! Woke up dreaming of Thanksgiving at 1am. But I might be onto something here. Made marinade out of whole-berry cranberry sauce, Dijon, cayenne, and onions. After about 6 hours on high, it's like pot roast. Have to work on the pan sauce tomorrow - needs salt, pepper, and the fat skimmed. Sage? I started with a recipe in my collection, but it's going someplace else right now. Sweet-n-Spicy Turkey Thighs

Matriarchy: My 13yo loves to make pizza, but will only use canned sauce. Drives me nuts. She doesn't even have a brand preference. Turns her nose up at homemade sauce that everyone else loves. I adapted this recipe from a recipe on the Tasty Kitchen blog. I liked the easy ingredients, but they used a few tablespoons of this and that. I want a recipe that lets me use standard can sizes. A 28-oz can of tomatoes and a small can of tomato paste. So, I multiplied and tweaked until it fit that standard. Testing starts tonight. Pizza Sauce #2

Matriarchy: Made a batch of hummus last night. Making a batch of pizza sauce tonight. Found California blackberries and local apricots on sale. Going to make some small batches of jam this weekend. Been eating Ranier cherries right out of the bag this week. And local corn is in. I barely need to "cook" anything. We only turn on the oven for 15 minutes to make pizza.

Matriarchy: Too hot to cook. Heat index going up over 100 today. I have been eating melon, yogurt, sandwiches, tortellini from frozen. Making hard-boiled eggs for tuna salad. Does anyone have go-to recipes for hot days? I just put this chicken recipe in the crockpot to try later tonight: Slow Cooker Island BBQ Chicken

Matriarchy: Been making jam! Got together a group of 8 at my church for a Strawberry Jam Session, and produced 27 pints. Today, I made a batch of Sunshine Jam with a very ripe pineapple. Cooking down some leftover strawberry mash to make some no-pectin preserves. Meadowlark's Sunshine Jam

Matriarchy: OK. so I can't find a brisket. I got two packs of country-style beef ribs. Since they are also intended to braise, I think they might work. And I am doing this in a crockpot, so I can go to a movie without worrying about leaving something on the stove. We will see how it works in 8-10 hours! Passover Brisket

Matriarchy: I have more than 500 recipe bookmarks that I have not yet cataloged on WGE. I am going to start spending 15-30 minutes each day adding recipes, to get through that backlog. As I actually cook them, I will add notes, rate them, and remove the ones I don't like.

Matriarchy: We recently got a Walmart superstore near us. Normally, I am not a Walmart fan. But they are getting better press about their produce lately (see Atlantic article below). But my favorite thing is this frozen pizza dough they get from a NY bakery. We but about 10 at at time, for $1.18 each. There is always dough thawing in our fridge, and we all make our own specialties. No one likes mine as much as I do. I make thick white sauce with Parmesan and a lump of frozen pesto, spread it on pizza dough, and topped it with cheddar and bacon bits - sometimes leftover chicken. But the weirdest was when I spread cold, thick, Ham-n-Bean soup on dough, and sprinkled it with cheddar. I though it was like a handy way to eat bread and soup. Everyone else thought it was gross. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/the-great-grocery-smackdown/7904/

Eunice : how are you, Matriarchy? just saw this article and thought of you. "Fresh ricotta in five minutes or less"

Matriarchy: YAY! The nice folks at WeGottaEat gave me a Pro membership for having a ridiculous amount of recipes. LOL... I am posting that on Facebook. Maybe I can introduce more people to the Joy of WGE.

Matriarchy: Time to get back to adding new recipes! I have been using WGE regularly to look up my favs, but not adding much. I starting a new cooking phase. I want to keep cooking real family food from scratch with the best quality ingredients, but I need to lose some weight. I will be going through my most-used recipes and calculating calorie content and portion size. Not giving up food, just dialing it down. Most weight loss plans are built around packaged food and chain restaurant menus, oddly enough. People need to learn to cook, not eat 100-calorie packs of bad cookies!

Eunice : Happy New Year to you, Matriarchy! hope things have quieted down for you a bit for you. it's freezing out here in Chicago!

Matriarchy: Things have been weird in my household, what with the demented mother and the long-distance parenting partner. But he is coming home tonight and we are all going to spend 5 days in a beach house in Delaware with his family. My kitchen is rocking to day - as I am sure many of yours are. Loud music. Stockpots and crockpots bubbling. Things roasting and baking. I wish I could bottle this smell.

Eunice : hope all is well in your household Matriarchy.

Matriarchy: My DH is home for the weekend - the first time I will see him in 2 months, and I won't see him again until Thanksgiving. He has been living on canned food, take-out, and cereal, so I am stuffing him full of home cooking! (Not my only plan for him, of course.) Steak, mashed, real gravy, broccoli, and brownies tonight - fundamental man-food. Breakfast is eggs, cheese grits, scrapple, and toast with homemade peach jam. Lunch is his fav broccoli-cheddar soups, and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Dinner might be homemade pizza. Sunday breakfast is waffles and bacon. Non-stop family favorite food, until he can barely fit back in the bus back to grad school. And some baked goods in his luggage.

Matriarchy: Just made a batch of something I am tentatively calling "All-Purpose Peach Topping. http://wegottaeat.com/matriarchy/recipes/allpurpose-peach-topping

Matriarchy: Birthday prep, today. My 12-yo turns 13 tomorrow. I was going to make her favorite, cheesecake, but their is a local outlet for a national restaurant-quality dessert manufacturer that has their plant in our town. I got a huge Ricotta cheesecake for $8. I can't even buy the ingredients for that. I bought pizza dough from a bakery, and got mozzarella to shred. She likes to make pizza with our homemade sauce. I also roasted squash to puree for pie this morning, and soaked beans to put in the crockpot tomorrow. Need to go stop at out freezer (temporarily living my brother's garage) to get bones to make stock - almost out of my frozen supply. OK - off to make rice crispy treats to take to soccer tonight.

Matriarchy: Oooo... I just put in a pan of Everyday Bread Pudding, with sliced peaches mixed in. I can hardy wait for it to bake. The peaches were so ripe that the skins just about slid off, and the juice dripped off my fingers.

Matriarchy: Interesting NYT article about "crowd-sourcing" recipes: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/dining/23recipes.html

Matriarchy: Made about 150 little cream puffs this morning, from a couple batches of Eunice's Choux Pastry recipe. Now I am waiting for the custard to cool, so I can fill them for a memorial service this afternoon. Out late friend apparently loved the puffs I made for a church event a few years ago, so her daughter asked me to make some for the reception after the service. RIP, Isabelle - bet they serve cream puffs every day, wherever you are.

Matriarchy: That vintage Vita-Mix blender of my Mom's DOES work. I just pureed a batch of Curried Split Pea Soup from overnight in the crockpot. Lovely velvety green with chunks of soft carrot and deep pink smoked ham. Teeniest bit of bite from curry and lots of black pepper. Mmmm.

Matriarchy: Oh ho! I have been invited to a family bake-off! My husband's family (who I have only recently begun to know) is renting a beach house in Delaware for Thanksgiving weekend. Us (me, hub, two teen girls), two of his aunts, and a couple that is friends with the aunts. His aunts are the younger sisters of his late mother - they are like having two mothers-in-law. Another uncle from California is also invited, but he has had a minor heart attack, and might not be able to travel. So, at least 8 people, at this point. And they want to try deep-frying a turkey! My mind reels with possibilities. I think my daughters and I can blow these aunts out of the water. But is that the best strategy? And let's not forget that hub makes a kick-ass Coconut Sweet Potato Pie. The baking skills of the other couple are not known to me. This weekend, I will be making about 200 hundred tiny cream puffs to take to a memorial service for an old friend. Good practice for my pate-chou skills. I think I will experiment with savory puffs - maybe fill them with eggs and cheese, or creamed chipped beef for breakfast.

Matriarchy: That pesto from a few days ago - still working! I found I had no pine nuts or any other nut close at hand. Today, I reaasembled all the ingredients, loading it into Mom's food processor, and pushed the button. Nothing. Nothing in a different electrical outlet. It's dead. So, I scrape the pest stuff into the vintage 14-speed chrome Waring "Super Robot Blendor." It starts up, but then screeches to a halt and starts producing copious amounts of black electrical smoke. Dead. I'm eyeing the vintage Vita-Mix blendor, but I don't have high expectations.

Matriarchy: Sorry for the long absence. We've moved in with my mother for year, to organize and renovate her house so she can stay in it. Cooking has been difficult this summer, and often performed in other people's kitchens. I didn't garden or can. Lots of sandwiches and too many prepared foods. But, I am starting to do things again. Making a big batch of pesto for the freezer today. Hoping to bake banana bread and cookies later tonight. I want to send care packages to a few people.

Matriarchy: Highlights of the week: 3Qt Broccoli Cheddar Soup, 2Qt yogurt, 2Qt applesauce, chicken Caesar salad with honey-mustard steamed carrots, lots of oatmeal breakfasts, roast turkey thigh for sandwiches. DD12 made chocolate chip cookies, and kept us supplied with stove-top popcorn for movie watching. DD16 made good burrito filling out of a package of freezer-burned meatloaf mix we found in the bottom of the freezer - way to reduce food waste!

Matriarchy: We've added my 82-year-old mother to our household, and are working on developing new cooking and eating habits that involve her in our kitchen life. She is an experienced low-fat eater and a great lover of fruit and vegetables. I think she will be good at helping to keep the fridge stocked with cut-up summer fruit and veg for snacking. She is already great at helping to keep the sink clear of dishes! The challenge will be adjusting our cooking habits, which are not particularly low-fat or low-salt, to her dietary needs. I made Broccoli-Cheddar Soup last night, with Kraft's new lower-fat 2% white cheddar. It was a success - but really, was that a big fat reduction? The recipe uses butter, half-and-half, and cheese. Perhaps the key will be moderate consumption for things like that - served with a big salad and a piece of whole-grain bread.

Eunice : ahem...just so you know, you're still queen, Matriarchy. you scored 146 hits on the last tallied full day and your highest on April 9th was 353 hits! pretty much blew everybody outta' the water.

Matriarchy: Hey! I will be back, but I have some work to do first. Unfortunately, my mom had a mini-stroke yesterday. She is recovering nicely, but we are scurrying to speed up our house-transition plans so we can keep a somewhat closer eye on her. It's gonna be a heck of a summer. I am still trying to at least get some strawberry jelly canned this month.

Eunice : hey Matriarchy! hope all is well with you and your family. can ya' dig it? Dave has enabled posting direct comments to members. so just sending a hey and hope to see you back at WGE, soon.