What's New Wednesday...

Things have been a little scattered around here lately. We recently found out my mother-in-law had back surgery last week (she lives 4+ hours north of us, and is 79 years old, and her husband, Kevin's step dad, is 84 and in the late stages of Parkinson's disease). So we are heading to their house before we meet my parents to pick Eric up. Tomorrow after work I'm going to start cooking, and cooking, and cooking-so that I can freeze a bunch of meal for her and her husband so they won't have to worry about cooking for a few weeks.

Have you ever tried marathon cooking? Where you spend a whole weekend cooking for a month or longer and freezing it? I've been doing it for several years, ever since my friend and I took a community ed class sponsored by the 30 Day Gourmet. They gave us all kinds of tips on "freezer cooking", and offered up their cookbooks for sale. I didn't purchase the cookbook, but my friend did and we were going to share...but now she lives in Alabama, and that's a little too far to drive to share it. I've since found out that you can get a LOT of their recipes from their website.

The basic premise is to save time in the long run, not having to "cook" from beginning to end each day, less daily dishes, lower food costs, less shopping runs, etc. It works! We love it! I usually do 3 months at a time though and I usually do it in the early spring and late fall.That way it is cool enough outside to use the deck as a cooling/staging area.

My dilemma is going to be cooking for just 2 (for my mother-in-law and her husband), I am so used to cooking for the 4 of us-with 2 of the 4 being teenage boys! I also know that there are certain meals he won't eat (like lasagna & spaghetti), so I think as long as I stay away from tomato saucy things I should be fine. I plan to package the meals in separate, individual containers, so if one of them doesn't feel like eating, the other can heat up their own meal. I'll be heading out to shop for the ingredients and containers in a little bit. I might as well make a few meals for my family while I'm at it-if I'm making one meal it's just as easy to double or quadruple it and have a few more.

Not only did we find out about her surgery last week, but we also found out about some health issues my Dad is facing right now. His prognosis is good, but it is still scary.

The good news of the week is that Adam got his first job in the health care field!! He will be working the night shift at a local Alzheimer's facility-full time, while still keeping 2 days a week on the maintenance team at the church and going to school full time working toward his degree as a nurse anesthetist. Whew! He's going to be one busy 19 year old!!! The other good news is that Eric is FINALLY coming home!! He's had a fantastic time with my parents in the U.P., and he's made a ton of money being a summer nanny, and doing odd jobs around the lake-he's earned enough for a great down-payment for his first car!