The Division of (Cooking) Labor at Our House
It's Sunday afternoon at Our Tiny Homestead and we're both cooking-
Bear and Theresa have their unique styles of cooking:
Theresa is trying to make enough food so that there will be healthy leftovers to eat during the week,
while Bear is hard at work grilling large amounts of juicy meat...
Theresa is trying to make enough food so that there will be healthy leftovers to eat during the week,
while Bear is hard at work grilling large amounts of juicy meat...
Theresa is cooking in the kitchen...
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1. She starts with brown rice boiled in coconut milk and water, with a couple bay leaves for flavor...
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2. ...and some steamed vegetables...
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3. She's also turning some leftover plain pasta into lunches...
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4... sauteing mushrooms with onions...
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6. ... then adding kale for a few minutes with a little oil until it turns emerald green...
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7. ... then adding the pasta and some grated Parmesan...
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8. ... and voila! a quick, yummy pasta.
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9. In the meantime, she has some chickpeas that she had soaked overnight and cooked in the crock pot yesterday, but then didn't put in their intended dish, so she decides to grind some spices...
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10, ... and try a new recipe: baked Indian chickpeas...
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11. ... which turn out to be a tasty & nutritious snack.
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Meanwhile... Bear is grilling outside:
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12. His hard work results in some yummy chicken flavored with orange zest...
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13. ... which Theresa tries to chop up fast before Bear eats it all.
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14. She's not entirely successful... (Note from Bear - Nor should she be...)
To recap: |
15. ... but manages to get some into the rice and steamed veggies, along with raisins, almonds, and spinach. This dish isn't so yummy, though, so she adds a little sour cream, which helps, and then considers adding butter or cheese, but remembers that Bear added orange zest to the chicken marinade and that she has some lemons. So instead she adds lemon zest and some fresh squeezed juice- a much less caloric way of adding flavor.
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16. Theresa has made two main dishes and a snack...
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17. ... which goes into little bowls for lunch and a big bowl for dinners. Now she doesn't have to cook for several days.
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Meanwhile, Bear defends his cooking style...
Hey... I did Sunday cookin' too. On Saturday I got to grill some chicken legs at a friend's house and it inspired me to do more grillin' today. The secret to my success is knowing to marinade the meat for a few hours before grilling it.
The marinade adds flavor and helps keep the meat moist... and technically I'm "cooking" for those hours while it's sitting in the fridge...
The marinade adds flavor and helps keep the meat moist... and technically I'm "cooking" for those hours while it's sitting in the fridge...
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1. Next, onto the grilling. Marinated meat, check! Soaked wood ready and coals hot, check!
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2. Cats keeping their eyes on me so I don't hurt myself, check!
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3. LET'S MAKE WITH THE MAGIC!
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4. Since I don't have a real smoker I rig up my grill. I use a big pile of coals for heat and another pile to which I add wet wood for more smoke and hopefully more smoke flavor.
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5. Then I put on the meat and keep an eye on the grill. Yes, watching the grill is an important part of grilling and BBQ... it really is!
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6. Then a few hours later...TASTY MAGIC HAPPENS!
This is smoked venison shoulder. |
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Afterward, Bear, the sexy beast, is so worn out from his hard labor,
Theresa hears snoring from the couch...
Later, though,
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Theresa does catch him doing some dishes...
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... while making some garlic mashed sunchokes to go with his smoked venison.
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Our children may take up the family tradition and learn to cook some day,
but for now, they nap,
secure in the knowledge that we will not let them starve.
In the end, regardless of who does what, we get fed for several days with some pretty tasty and healthy food.