BULK COOKING Large Family Style {June Edition}

Bulk Cooking is totally my style especially when summer takes over and we have so many activities pulling us in multiple directions.  Rarely are all nine of us sitting down to supper at once which makes having multiple meals in the fridge and freezer a godsend.

In this edition of BULK COOKING Large Family Style I make:

x5 Pancake Mix  Click here for this old-fashioned recipe
x3 BBQ  Click here for the cookbook

x4 Taco Meat  Click here for a video of my homemade seasoning mix

x2 Pepper Steak  Click here for the Stove top version

x2 Beef Short Rib Soup  Click here for the cookbook
x2 Ham, Bean & Potato Soup  Click here for this giant batch soup recipe

24 Hamburger Patties  Click here for the hamburger press I use & patty papers

10 pounds Twice Baked Potatoes  Click here for the recipe

All these recipes can be seen in video format, too.

Large Family BULK COOKING🌮🥔🥞🥩 Soup, BBQ, Taco Meat, Twice Baked Potato, Pepper Steak, Pancake Mix

A Country Life - My YouTube channel

Slow Cooker Ham, Bean & Potato Soup

Making food in large quantities makes me happy.  If it makes you happy grab a giant Nesco and let's make some soup. 

If you like smaller quantities then cut the recipe in half and it'll fit nicely in a 7 quart Crock-Pot.

Slow Cooker Ham, Bean & Potato Soup

2 pounds dry navy OR great northern beans, rinsed
2 large onions, diced
6 celery stalks, diced
8 potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
8 cloves garlic, minced OR 4 tsp. jarred minced garlic
4 large carrots, sliced
2 ham hocks OR 1 ham bone
4 bay leaves
2 T. oregano
16 cups chicken broth (I use water and Knorr seasoning powder)
4 cups chopped ham (I use Sugardale Diced Ham for ease)
Salt & Pepper to taste (usually doesn't need much salt)

Place ingredients except diced ham in Nesco.  Cook on medium high for 6 hours or until beans are soft.  Stir often.  Remove ham hock or bone.  Pick meat from bone.  Use immersion blender to cream the soup a bit leaving plenty of vegetable chunks.  Add all ham to soup, season with salt and pepper, serve warm.  This soup really holds its heat.

Serve this up on a cold and snowy evening or do what I do and annoy my family with soup in the summer.  Any time of year it tastes great.

Twice Baked Potato {Freeze Some For Later}

Potatoes, Spuds, Russets - whatever you call them they deserve to be baked, scooped, mixed with bacon and spooned back into their skins.

I'm talking about making up a pile of twice baked potato and here's how I make it happen.

Twice Baked Potatoes (large batch style)

10 pounds Russet or Baking Potatoes
1 pound bacon (save the grease)
1 stick butter
2 cups sour cream
1-2 cups milk
chopped onion to taste (1/2 - 1 cup)
2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Start by baking the potatoes in your usual fashion.  I baked mine at 350 for 1 hour + until they were tender.  Allow potatoes to cool just enough to handle them.  Slice in half the long ways and scoop out potato.  Don't worry about cleaning it out perfectly.  Leaving a little potato behind will keep the potato skin sturdy.

Fry up the bacon until it's fairly crisp.  Save the grease because you're going to use it later.  You're welcome.

Add butter, milk, and sour cream to potatoes and mash well.  Stir in chopped bacon, onion, cheese, salt, and pepper.

Now comes the fun part.  Pour in some of that bacon grease you've been saving.  Not all of it, just enough to add good flavor.

Spoon back into the potato skins.  Sprinkle with a little cheese.  Set on large cookie sheet and flash freeze.  Once solid place in zip top bags.

To use immediately: Bake at 350 until hot and slightly bubbly - about 20-30 minutes.

To use from frozen:  Thaw slightly and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Venison Pepper Steak {Stove Top Recipe}

I think the second time Warren cooked for me (way back in our dating days) he made Pepper Steak.  I really liked it, but if you know me, when it comes to food I can't leave well enough alone.  I'm always trying new twists on old recipes.

Somehow (Pinterest) I found this recipe.  The picture sucked me in and since I'm always on the lookout for new ways to use all the deer we put up each year, I just had to try this version of Pepper Steak using venison.   I also adapted the recipe slightly for my large sized family.

Original Recipe is credited to South Your Mouth blog.

Here's my adaptation.

Venison Pepper Steak  (serves 8-12)

3 lbs. venison steak, sliced very thin (1/4" or less)
5 T. soy sauce
2 t. black pepper
Lard
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
2 green peppers, thinly sliced
2 large onions, thinly sliced
1 t. minced jarred garlic

Sauce:
2 brown gravy packets
1/2 t. ginger paste
1 t. black pepper
2 cups cold water
4 T. soy sauce

Here's the process for those of you who like written details.  Remember the video explanation is on YouTube.

Slice meat into thin (1/4") pieces.  The length of strips doesn't really matter.  For the tenderest meat cut across the grain (opposite the muscle fibers) 🤔

Slice all the veggies, too.  Set aside until the end.  But don't wait until the end.  Once you start the cooking process this goes very quickly so everything needs to be ready.  If you have a helpful teen around they could cut the veggies while you slice the meat.  Just saying.

Make the sauce mixture.  Set aside, but stir it a couple of times while doing other things.

Here's the Ginger paste I use.  It really add fullness and richness to the overall flavor. (Similar item at Amazon) I bought mine at Walmart.

Heat very large cast iron skillet (link to mine) with a few T. lard.

Add all the meat at once.  It should sizzle fiercely.  Let meat cook for a couple of minutes, then stir around until done.  Transfer to warm bowl.  Foil.  Set aside.

Add veggies and garlic to skillet.  Stir fry for about 4 minutes.  

Add meat and sauce mix to veggies.  Cook until sauce thickens.  This happens in under 1 minute.  Turn heat off.  Serve over hot rice, which I should tell you to start cooking right away so you're not messing with it while you're stirring, transferring, and focusing on the pepper steak.

This is so incredible.  The venison stays so moist and is ultra tender.  Enjoy!!!😋

For the full video click here.

Mock Chop Suey {Large Family Food}

I love old time favorites when it comes to recipes. This one's been in the family for 60+ years.

Mock Chop Suey

1 1/2 pound ground beef (I use venison)
2 onions, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup water
4 T. chop suey sauce (soy sauce)
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of chicken
1/2 cup uncooked regular rice
salt and pepper
1 bag chow mein noodles

Brown meat, onions and celery in bacon grease (or lard).  Place in large casserole.  Add remaining ingredients except noodles; mix well.  Bake, covered, at 325 degrees for 1 hour, 20 minutes.  Remove cover; top with chow mein noodles.  Bake for 10 minutes longer until noodles have crisped.

I like to save on dishes by browning the meat and baking the casserole in the same pot.  I use Lodge Enameled Cast Iron all the time.

I have the YouTube version of this recipe available, too.

Share your favorite frugal family casserole in the comments below.  I'd love to try out a new recipe or two.  

Large Family Laundry Routine

I've talked before about how I use my laundry routine as part of our homeschool, especially with my little ones.

We don't just learn in the laundry room, sometimes I actually DO laundry.  

No matter the size of your family, LAUNDRY HAPPENS!!

I've tried many methods over the years from scheduling laundry days to delegating it to older children.  Schedules - aarrgh - don't get me started.  They're so restricting and what if Monday is laundry day and you're invited to a homeschool get together.  Then what?  Do you transfer laundry to Tuesday?  But that just screws up Tuesday's schedule.  Do you wait for the next Monday to do laundry again?  Of course not - the laundry room would explode.

How about delegating?  That worked OK until Downy was used as laundry soap.  After all my t-shirts lost their shape, I delegated myself back to the laundry room.  And besides, I love washing clothes and I actually missed doing laundry.

NOW, I've settled into a laundry routine.  My routine keeps me moving on auto pilot.  

Morning - Wake up, collect laundry, sort, start load, coffee, get dressed.

Noon - Laundry switch, 2nd load if needed, lunch.

Afternoon - Fold and stack on dryer.

After supper - Put away.

Next day - Repeat.

If you like watching other people do laundry and want all the details of my large family laundry routine, I have a video on my YouTube channel, A Country Life.  I yak on and on about washing only dirty clothes, my favorite bleach and folding immediately.

What's your favorite household chore?  I want to hear from all the other laundry lovers out there -  I can't be the only one.

Crazy Huge Muffin Baking Day.....100+

I got it in my head that I wanted to bake 100 muffins.  Why?  So I could feed them to my hungry family plus the extra crew that's around for cranberry harvest.  Emily was standing idle at the moment I had my muffin baking epiphany so I grabbed her and put her to work mixing and filling and baking.  Of course, I was instrumental in the process.  I didn't make her do all the work.

We had fun over filling muffin cups, balancing hot muffin pans on surfaces not meant for hot muffin pans, and creating a huge pile of dishes for Amber to wash.  It was a good day.  And in the end (which is a different end than in the video) we counted 105 muffins.  

Three of these recipes are old standbys.  The recipes are already on the blog.  Only one is new(er).

Blueberry Power Muffins from Finger Prickin' Good

Power Muffins was the newbie recipe.  Both times I made them I had to make substitutions for some of the Greek yogurt.  I used plain Greek + honey, then I used plain Greek + honey + sour cream + vanilla yogurt.  Both batches turned out great so it seems to be a forgiving recipe.  No fussy cooking for this mama.

Are you crazy for muffins?  What's your favorite flavor?  I'd love to know.

Watch Emily and I make 100+ muffins.

New Vlog | Day in the Life | Cooking & Swimming

On today's vlog I shared my plan to make chicken salad, chicken fried rice, dirty rice, and taco meat.  I also had big plans of making a couple desserts, rhubarb dessert and chocolate torte.  Even though I never actually got to my big cooking day until the next day, I'm sharing all these family favorite recipes with you because they are all super simple and make for easy homeschool lunches or short on time suppers.  Large family life is unpredictable most days, but that doesn't mean I need to give up completely, but just postpone my plans for another day.

Click here for the recipe and to see how I make Chicken Salad.

Chicken Fried Rice

This recipe is so delicious, but a little bit putsy.  If the chicken is pre-cooked and all the vegetables diced then it goes much smoother.  Although, I always double this, I'll post the original recipe and you can decide how many "batches" will feed your family.  We can polish off a double batch in one sitting.

Mix together and let sit:
2 cups diced cooked chicken
2 T. soy sauce

Heat oil in skillet (I use an extra large electric fry skillet).
1/3 cup oil
1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
Add rice to hot oil and stir fry until rice has browned nicely.

Add broth and vegetables.
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 small onion, diced
1/4 c. chopped green pepper
1/4 c. thinly sliced celery (we like more)
Cover and cook until rice is tender (20-25 minutes)
Uncover and cook a little longer until moisture is absorbed.

Add chicken/soy sauce mixture.
Push everything to one side.
Whisk 2 eggs and pour into open side.  Let cook just until the bottom is set and top is still liquid.  Stir eggs.  Cook a little longer and then mix throughout rice/chicken.

Shred or thinly slice 2 cups lettuce.  Stir into chicken fried rice and cover just until lettuce is wilted.  Serve immediately with extra soy sauce if desired.  Yummy!!

Dirty Rice

This is simply a box mix I get from Aldi.  I always make two boxes and add 1 large onion to the meat as it cooks.

Taco Meat
Here's a video of how I make taco seasoning and taco meat.

1 lb. ground venison (or beef)
1 medium onion OR 1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 cup water

Fry meat, add spices and water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer for about 10 minutes or less if you're in a hurry.  Then I always add a can of re-fried beans and extra water to get desired consistency.

Questions regarding large family cooking?  Add them to the comments.

Favorite large family meals?  Add those to the comments, too.

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Weekly Meal Prep for the Large Family

Nine people.

Three meals a day.

Seven days a week.

189 individual meals a week.   Plus snacks.

Those numbers can be daunting to even the most experienced kitchen hand.  But they don't have to be.

Preparing meals for the large family begins with a plan.  It doesn't have to be on a fancy spreadsheet.  It doesn't have to be well balanced (kids don't care).  It just has to be written down.  Currently, I'm using this great little notebook (affiliate link) I won at a bridal shower.  I write LUNCH on the top of one page and SUPPER on the top of a second page.  I write the days of the week with a few lines in between and then just start filling it in.  Once all the days have meals, I tear out the sheets and clip them to the side of a magazine holder on my kitchen counter.

So let's go through this step by step.  Find a notebook or dry erase board or chalk board or blank calendar.....whatever it is you desire to write up your meal plan.

Label the pages.

Start adding meal ideas.  My best tips are to look at your calendar and pick meals that will work with your schedule for that day and have a mix of everyone's favorites.  I like to try new recipes, but I spread them out between family favorites, usually. 😉

Keep this part simple.  For lunch I might plan hot dogs and applesauce.  Then on the day of I'll throw in any other leftovers if I have them.  And if I don't have any extras to add, it's really no big deal because I have a basic plan and there's nothin' wrong with a basic lunch.  Same goes for supper.  If I'm planning Taco Tuesday, I'll write tacos and rice, then when I'm making supper I'll look around for some canned fruit or cottage cheese to add to it.  And again, if I don't have anything extra to add, no biggie, tacos and rice is plenty.

Sometimes I mix up the meals because a day turns out differently than expected.  In that case, I just cross off the meals I use so I always know what's still available.

Of course, now you make a shopping list and shop.

The fun part is having a cooking day.  I really like cooking everything for the entire week on one day.  I also prep veggies, cheese, muffins and desserts, and fruits.  It simply makes the rest of the week go so much smoother having all the meals prepped.  This summer it's been Monday.  The four teens all work and I'm left with just the three youngest and they can usually keep themselves busy playing/destroying the house for quite a while.  I shared a little of my last cooking day here.  I had another cooking day today.

I focused on ground venison recipes:  2 pounds taco meat, 2 pounds tater tot casserole, 4 pounds BBQ.  I also shredded cheese, chopped veggies for tacos and made 2 dozen cranberry blueberry muffins and cranberry cake.  I planned, but didn't get to, boiling and mashing 5 pounds potatoes and making Cole slaw.  Tomorrow's another day with one dental appointment and BMX practice with a lot of hours in between so hopefully I'll get to it then.

Make the most of your cooking day.

Thaw meat the day before.

Start with a clean kitchen.  Didn't happen today.  Yesterday the pump (we think) went out on our dishwasher.  I ran the same load with the same dishwasher pod three times.  I was in denial.  Then this morning I unloaded it all and washed it by hand; after an hour of kitchen cleanup I was ready to start cooking.

Put on comfy clothes and shoes.  Maybe I'm showing my age, but supportive shoes go a long way to a productive day.

Wear an apron.  I find that whenever I put on an apron I just feel more like getting it done.  Since I wipe my hands on my apron and even wipe up little spills with it, I don't have to waste time rinsing and wringing out washcloths.

Listen to a good podcast.  Homeschool Snapshots  The Homeschool Solutions Show

Think about all the fun you'll have with your family because your meals are ready to go.

Happy Summer!  I hope and pray you are all having a great summer and finding ways to renew and relax.  🌞

Fresh Berry Torte :: Super Easy Summer Dessert

It is summer!  Really and truly summer, the kind where temps soar into the 90's and thunderstorms make their way through in the evening.  And we're loving every minute of it, well not so much the storm destruction, but I do love watching a good thunderstorm move in.  The clouds rolling around the sky, the forceful sound of high winds, the darkening sky at 5 p.m.  It's hard to express just how much I love watching storms, not because I don't have the words for it, but we are cranberry farmers and weather impacts our crop immensely, and we only get one chance each year for a crop.

Hail = Destruction = Devastation

Anyway, I haven't posted a recipe since Black Bean Quesadillas back in May and I want to share this super easy summer dessert right now because it's strawberry season.

From instagram

Another #simplesummerpleasure - picking strawberries right out my back door.  Strawberries are not hard to grow.  My patch is in a raised bed about 3 feet x 16 feet.  I keep it weeded, watered, and throw on summer chicken manure in the fall and call it good.  I started this patch with bare root stock.  I would not recommend that.  Stop by @fleetfarm and pick up some nice lush plants, much easier to get started.  And there's nothing better than a ☀️ #sunwarmedstrawberry. 🍓  #strawberrypatch #homestead #homesteadingfun #homesteadingforbeginners #favoritesummeractivity #foodfromthefarm

A post shared by Jennifer Brockman (@camphomeschool) on Jun 12, 2017 at 6:18am PDT

This dessert is perfect for summer because the oven only needs to be on for 15 minutes and it's served cold so it's super refreshing and light.

Fresh Berry Torte

Crust:
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. butter
3/4 c. oatmeal

Place flour, sugar and butter in food processor and pulse until crumbly (or fork by hand).  Add oatmeal and pulse a few more times.  Press into ungreased jelly roll (10x15) pan.  Bake at 400 degrees F. for 10-15 minutes until edges are lightly browned.  Mine were in for 12 minutes yesterday.  Cool completely.

Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. powdered sugar
8 oz. Cool whip, thawed

Cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.  Fold in Cool Whip.  Spread over cooled crust.

Topping:
1 qt. berries, washed and stemmed

The berry choice is the fun part.  This time I only had strawberries (fresh from the front yard) and not many of them because the kids were snitching all day before I made the dessert.

Enjoy immediately or refrigerate.

I sliced my strawberries so they would stretch over the full pan, but halved would work nicely.  I've also mixed up the berries and used strawberries and blueberries.  Raspberries are yummy, too.  Sadly, I've never used cranberries because they are quite tart and, although Warren and I would like that, especially if they were mixed with blueberries and strawberries, the kids wouldn't go for that and would end up picking them off.

May :: A Month in Review :: Large Family Style

Aargh!  It's already time for a May month in review.  Finishing off the school year strong was my top priority along with preparing for Nick's graduation party along with getting the garden planted along with, along with.  Doesn't it seem like there are so many along withs?  Most days my head is just spinning with all the to do right nows.  My notebook system to do list wasn't working - the notebook was always getting buried in the paper mess that is my life and the to do list became a never do list.  I needed something more in my face than a notebook so I bought a magnetic white board for the fridge door similar to this:

And it's always in my face because #1 I like to eat and #2 My family likes to eat so I'm always reading the list and working at shrinking it.  It's been a good thing and I still use the notebook for shopping lists and menus.

In my April month in review I shared a picture from Nick's turkey season.  He's a huge protein nut and cooks plenty of his own food.  Well, the day he shot the turkey I was with Amber at the hospital while she recovered from her appendectomy.  He breasted out the turkey and baked it just as he would for chicken breast.  It was so tough, basically inedible for those of us with average jaw strength.  Hah!  I suggested he turn it into crockpot turkey and rice soup.  I walked him through the process, but he did all the work of chopping vegetables, etc.  The turkey tenderized pretty well in the crockpot and the soup was delicious.

The season changeover called for a great big shoe cabinet clean out.  With a family of 9 we have a ton of shoes, not because we believe in excess, but we all have a number of interests and many of those interests call for certain shoes.  And country life requires a good stash of junk shoes so we tend to keep shoes for gardening, lawn mowing, cranberry planting, and all sorts of outdoor activities until they fall apart.  I know, that's very green of us.  Below you can see what we took from the cabinet; we sent seven pair off to Goodwill, 10 pair went into the trash, and the rest were placed neatly back in the cabinet.

Maria and I baked a giant 2.5 pound of whole wheat bread in a very old pan found in my Grandma's basement.  I wish I knew the story of the pan - where she got it, if she used it, why it was in the basement and not in her kitchen cupboard.  I suppose I'll never know; even though, using it still brings out stories.  Stories I share with my littles who never knew their Great-Grandma.

Mother's Day flowers - we spied three huge Bumblebees pollinating this day.

One of Joseph's favorite games is jumping on the trampoline with toys.  This day he grabbed his horse, but he's also jumped with balls and sand pile trucks (that one I put a stop to, I don't want him to fall on a metal truck - that'd probably hurt).

Amber loves finding paintings on Pinterest for inspiration and painting them with her own style.  She uses this fold-able easel and a variety of supplies to create some really fun paintings.

It is rhubarb season; I've been baking with rhubarb and juicing it.  This weekend I put up 15 quarts of rhubarb juice.  I'll share a post on how I do that soon.  This little number, though, is so good.  I doubled the recipe and reduced the sugar.  That way there was enough to go around and it still tasted like rhubarb should - sour and puckery.

The virtual homeschool program end of year field trip took us to Circus World Museum.  See Maria clinging to Dad; she was nearly scared to death of all the newness.  She warmed up a bit for a carousel ride.

107 year old carousel

Circus snacks:  popcorn and ice cream

 Apparently we raised a little lady.

Fishing....always fishing around here and an endless supply of cheesy smiles.

He's not riding yet.  Matter of fact, a couple weeks back he actually punched me when I lifted his foot onto the pedal.  I'll give it some time before I try again.  Until then, though, he walks the bike around the yard every chance he gets.  And in the background was my Memorial Day treat, a tilled garden ready to plant.

That's a wrap for May.  Another blink of an eye and it'll be the end of June; all our much anticipated events of early summer will be over.  Enjoy every day, each is indeed a gift from God.