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Monday, December 10, 2007

Staring down a 10 pound pork butt

Oh my, for $1.49 per pound, you cannot go wrong with this cut of meat! It's deboned, now in the crockpot (with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and my own secret broth) - and when it's done, I'll portion it out and shred a bunch of it for pulled pork sandwiches/meals. I'll then slice up the rest for a couple of roast pork meals and freeze those in the gravy.

Plus, I simmered up the bone for a couple of hours, and got enough meat off it for a tasty little lunch for myself. Yum!!!!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Freezing pre-baked cookies/pastries

Most cookie doughs can be made ahead of time and frozen - just thaw, form your cookies & bake normally. But this method takes it one step further - saving you the thawing time!

Here's my recipe for cheese tarts - well, OK, my whole family calls them "those little pie crust things" - LOL. Check out the freezing method here, because these holiday pastries are waaayyyy better warm from the oven.

3 oz. cold cream cheese
1 stick cold butter
1 cup all-purpose flour

Chop up the cream cheese and butter, and put it all in a food processor with the cup of flour. Process until it looks like fine crumbs - about the size of corn meal. Dump it into a bowl, squish it all together forming a dough, and shape it into a disk and chill for an hour.

Roll out the dough on a floured board or mat, cut dough into 3" circles. In the center of each circle, place a 1/4" tsp of your favorite jam (we like seedless raspberry or apricot). Wet the edges of the circle, fold the circle in half over the jam, and seal with a fork like you would pie crust. Hence the name, little pie-crust things.

To bake immediately - place the tarts on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until they are slightly browned.

To freeze, place the tarts instead separately on a waxed-paper coated piece of cardboard and flash-freeze. When frozen, place them in a ziplock bag. When ready to bake, place the frozen tarts on an ungreased cookie sheet - and follow the same baking instructions as above - adding another few minutes to the baking time if needed.