Since I’m taking this week off from my usual Freezer Cooking in an Hour session, I’m going to post my session from two weeks ago that I never got to post because I ran out of time since we were preparing for our trip to Texas.
4:30 p.m. — I stick the chicken in the oven and then promptly get distracted cleaning the kitchen up from the mess that was leftover from lunch and our school lessons for the day (yes, I know, I should have cleaned it up earlier, but you know how some days go!).
4:40 — I determine not to get sidetracked again and get online to look up the pumpkin pancake recipe. I start mixing up the pancake batter only to realize I forgot to set out the buttermilk earlier. And of course, our microwave is still incapacitated (it’s been out of order for almost two months and, most of the time, we’ve barely noticed it. But there are a few times–like today–when it would be really nice for it to be working!).
I stick the buttermilk in a hot water bath and finish mixing up the pancake batter.
5:00 — The pancake batter is finally ready to start cooking, so I pour the first pancake on the griddle and go downstairs to lug my KitchenAid up from the basement pantry in order to start making the Honey Rolls.
5:15 — Silas is up from his nap, Kaitlynn and Kathrynne are finished with their quiet time and craziness ensues. They “help” me put the roll ingredients into the mixer (and spill quite a bit of salt in the process–oops!).
Note to self: If there are 15 things going on in the kitchen at once, set the timer when cooking pancakes–if you want to be able to eat any of them, that is.
Gratefully, only a few of the pancakes end up rather burned. The rest can be salvaged.
5:20 — While the roll dough is mixing, I chop up the chicken and bag it for the freezer.
It’s so easy to bake and chop chicken for the freezer and it’s so nice to have on hand for making homemade pizza.
5:25 – I sit Kaitlynn and Silas down at the kitchen table to eat a pancake to tide them over until dinner. I get this “brilliant” idea to have them sprinkle powdered sugar on top instead of syrup. Um, you’d think I’d know better than to let them help put the powdered sugar on. Oh well, I scrape most of it off and they enjoy their pancakes while I hurriedly try to finish up the Honey Rolls.
5:35 — The roll dough is rising and I quickly clean up the kitchen and get dinner finished. After dinner is done, I bake the rolls–and they turn out really well. The recipe is definitely a keeper!
And just for fun, here’s a picture of my Bread Machine Pitas that I made the day before. I didn’t love them as much as we liked our non-bread-machine pitas, but they still turned out alright and were a piece of cake to me. Anyone have another bread machine pita recipe that you’d recommend?
Have you done any cooking or baking ahead recently? If so, I’d love to hear about it!
A great reminder to choose your priorities well.
photo credit
