Monday, February 27, 2017

Big Cook On A Monday

Clearly, I have gone mad. Insane, even.

Today is a Monday. Yet, I didn't do my weekly "Big Cook" on Saturday or Sunday as I normally do.  All I want to do on a Monday is sleep!

Tonight when I get home, in this particular order, this is what I need to tackle when I get home--a timeline of controlled chaos:

7:30 p.m.
Do up the batch of 2 minute HB eggs in the pressure cooker--do a quick release, as I need the cooker immediately after, in this sequence:

1. Retrieve eggs out of cooker. 
2. Pour cooking water into available pot for the pierogies. Turn on burner.
3. Pour a quart of milk into the cooker, and set it up on slow cook setting for 2.5 hours.
4. Once pierogi pot water is boiling, add salt and 1/2 the batch of frozen pierogies (see also: These are the pierogies I made a few weeks back--I'm stashing down my freezer!!) 


ETA: Note to self: I decided to set up the pressure cooker with 2 quarts of salted water and put the frozen pierogies in the water, then put the trivet in the pot, and a steamer basket and the eggs to be pressure cooked for 2 minutes at low pressure--the pierogies turned out beautiful!


Get wok and cooking oil preheated while I dice an onion. Toss onion into wok with a bit of water, to sweat the onion (for the pierogies).  

While the onions sweat and the pierogies boil, I'm going to do five minutes on my recumbent bike! 

Last night I already smeared honey-dijon and Shake and Bake coated two pork chops--and broiled them. So they just need to be reheated. And I got some roasted brussels sprouts at Whole Paycheck today, so that should round out our meal, I hope.  

Once I'm off the bike, I'm going to see if the pierogies are floating, and see how the onions are coming along. I'll then take the onions out and try to get a good pan sear on the pierogies. 


9:30 p.m.(thereabouts) 
I'll continue to build my pizza dough. I portioned out the "levain" aspect of the recipe last night, and figured I would follow MY OWN recipe AS I WROTE it, and wait until there's plenty of activity involved before building the dough.  

10:00 p.m. 
I'll turn the slow cooker off and let the milk cool a bit before continuing with the yogurt experiment. At this point, I'll add the milk powder and buzz it with my immersion blender to break up any lumps.

10:30 p.m. 
I'll punch down and divide my pizza dough into two equal portions (I love digital scales!); put 1/2 of it in an oiled container with a lid and put in the fridge to do a slow, cold bulk ferment for 4-5 days--so I'll make a pie perhaps this weekend; and then take the other 1/2 of the dough, and put it on a dish lined with semolina and pop in the freezer.

1 a.m. Before I go to bed:

1.   I will whisk in the 1/4 cup of yogurt (and some xanthan gum powder) into the cooled milk, then pour into prepared jars, and put back into my slow cooker, and surround the jars with a hot water bath, and put the lid back on the slow cooker (which will be turned off), and ignore it overnight to let the yogurt do its thing. 

2. Take partially frozen pizza dough and place in zip lock bag.

Then head to bed.

I'm getting tired just thinking about this! 

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