I usually drain the whey that's accumulated each day - and I give it to the dog. He's happy with it, and any calcium or other nutrients in it certainly can' hurt him, either.

The boy does love his "yogurt juice."

I planted fennel a couple of years ago for the first time, and I didn't really have very good luck with it. I ended up with virtually no bulbs. Though maybe I shouldn't have let it go to seed? Last year, I had little volunteer fennel plants all over the yard.

No help, I know.

I do the same with chicken - I frequently buy breasts for $.99/# and sometimes I can get leg quarters for $.49/lb. I usually buy about 10 pounds at a time, spend half an hour trimming and boning them, then stash them in the freezer until I get around to making stock.

Beef bones, I get at our public market - there's a butcher there who sells bags of "dog bones" - the regular ones are $2/bag - about 4-5 pounds, and the big, heavy-duty bones (the ones my guy DOESN'T chew into shards) are $4, and the last bag I bought weighed 6#. The great thing about this guy is that he doesn't meticulously trim the bones - they're nice and meaty.

Last time I made beef stock, I used a $2 bag of bones, plus a couple of hunks of beef shank that I got at another butcher (about $3.50 total, as I recall), and I ended up with some decent stock.

We do the same - a whole loin, usually cut into a couple of small roasts, and the rest little boneless chops. I usually roast the roasts - my husband likes to brine it first. There's virtually no fat, and braising or slow cooking seems to turn it to sawdust.

Marinating the chops and grilling works nicely.

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that, after simmering all day, I just use the meat (primarily from the drumsticks) for dog-training treats for the next several days. Along with the carrots. Amazing how quickly the pup will come, or sit, or down (or probably jump through a flaming hoop) if he thinks there's a chance of chicken.

Oh, and Kitty gets her share, too.

I always thin-slice leftover steak (esp. ribeye) and put it on pizza - cheesesteak pizza is a special treat. :) (steak, provolone cheese, caramelized onions - and maybe some herbs if I feel in the mood)

I second the stick blender method - I let it blend long enough that I can hear the motor of the blender just start to strain - then it's thick enough. :)

If it's fresh cranberries you've got, Cooking Light's sugared cranberries are very good:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sugar...

Also, I always buy a couple of extra bags and stash them in the freezer for smoothies throughout the year - 1/2 c. each OJ, plain yogurt, frozen cranberries and some other fruit (a banana, maybe some peaches or strawberries, and I've even used pumpkin puree) and honey or maple syrup or brown sugar to taste.

Plus, as was mentioned, they make a nice treat for the dog. Mine will jump up and catch them in his mouth. . . . :)

Also, I season the steak about an hour before cooking - let it sit out at room temperature. I leave the plate in the micro to keep it away from prying kitty noses or dogs who can reach the counter but wouldn't dream of touching anything (unless I'm not looking).

My mother made green tomato mincemeat just about every year - I've always loved it - I used to eat it right out of the jar! The best was when there was some left from canning, and I'd spoon it, still warm, over homemade ice cream. :)

Oh my gosh! My mother used to make American Chop Suey all the time when we were kids - I'd always wondered why no one else had ever heard for it - I was raised in Wisconsin and now live in New York. But my mother's from Massachusetts. THAT explains it! :)

It seems to me that, especially if you're new to canning, it may not be wise to jump right in trying to "adapt" a fresh recipe and "make it work," you know? It might be okay, it might just make someone a little queasy, and it could possibly end up worse.

Perhaps freezing your fresh salsa is the way to go?

Or maybe giving a recipe that's approved for canning a try?

since my son has been home (again!), I've been keeping homemade burritos in the freezer - he eats them for breakfast or after-work snacks.

I can usually pick up packages of flour tortillas at the public market, and I use a pound of beans (soaked, cooked and refried), about half a pound of leftover meat of some sort, and half a pound of cheese, shredded. That will make 16 burritos, which keep him happy for a couple of weeks, anyway.

I like to add chopped watermelon pickles when I have them, which has been years. I need to make watermelon rind pickles this year, I think.

I had a similar problem last week, though, I think, not as severe!

I was cleaning a mess of jalapenos, and when I was done, I didn't even think and blew my nose. I must have gotten the stuff on the tissue, because my whole face tingled, and the longer I did NOT touch it, the more it started to sting.

And honestly, I finally went to the kitchen and smeared some sour cream on my face.

My husband laughed at me (just a little, and I deserved it) and the dog kept trying to lick me, but it did help. :)

I freeze them - when I've collected a dozen, then I make angel food cake, which has already been suggested.

Also, several bread/roll recipes use an egg white beaten with water for an eggwash - by the time I need it, it's had time to defrost.

Of course, I have a bunch of small containers with numbers on them in the freezer. . .

We just finished some grilled fish - mahi mahi - with a ginger-lime vinaigrette type sauce (from Cook's Illustrated several years ago), along with plain rice and fresh steamed green beans that I'd just picked - the first ones from the garden this year. (I've got a tomato starting to turn, too - yay!)

In a little bit, we'll probably have either some vanilla ice cream or sour cherry sorbet - or maybe we'll get crazy and have a bit of each. :)

Loren, I agree - we do occasionally feed our dog "people" food - either in his dish as part of a meal, or as part of training. Our boy has severe hip dysplasia, and we have to be so careful with his weight because of it - when he was at 120, he didn't look at all "heavy," and he's dropped 20 pounds and is so much more comfortable. The last thing he needs is ice cream and chips! That, and honestly, the last thing *I* want is a dog that size begging - it's not cute! :)

Years ago, I had a cat that would not touch any poultry - no way no how. No poultry kibble, no bones, no chunks of chicken, not even skin.

Now, though, whenever I make chicken stock, I throw a few drumsticks in, too - and I pick the meat off when the stock is done, and the cat and the dog share them - not out of the same dish (wouldn't THAT be a nice trick), but they each get chunks o' chicken as morning treats.

Excellent - thanks. I may have to give that a try. I try to keep his treats reasonably healthy and non-fattening (I try to do that for me, too, but it doesn't always work out so well. sigh), and he does like most vegetables - and fruits. Peanut butter and cheese are extra-special treats. :)

My puppy baby is a little bigger than yours, I think. I was cooking for him a while back, when he was having tummy troubles, but I gave it up because I wasn't spending that much time (or money!) cooking for us!

What I was did then was take a package of ground beef, a bunch of grain (rice, oatmeal, barley), a bunch more vegetables (carrots, sweet potatoes, greens, etc.) - and the whole mess went in the crockpot for the day, then it got divided up into quart yogurt containers (he's a BIG boy!) - he was getting a quart twice a day. It took up SO much refrigerator space, and I had to do it every couple of days, and it was getting awfully pricey, but BOY did he like it!

Nowadays, I make him cookies, and there's his morning yogurt (I drain the whey into his dish, and add a quarter cup or so of plain, nonfat, and he just goes nuts for it), but his favorite thing, by far, is pizza crust. We have homemade pizza every Friday night, and we save all the crusts for him. Oh, that, and his Kong toy - that gets stuffed with a little kibble, some oatmeal, and peanut butter, then frozen. That USUALLY keeps him busy while we're having our pizza.

The yams sound interesting, though - do you just thin-slice them and roast them with actual liver? Or use liver treats?

Although I don't follow this recipe specifically, I do add the splash of ouzo - not enough to taste it, just a little glug - it really does made a difference.

http://kalofagas.blogspot.com/2007/06...

I've used them in stir fry, and that's good. I've got to get mine cut this week - my husband wants them (or some of them) in mashed potatoes.

I'd definitely freeze and and mail them - packaged properly, they should make it. Several years ago, I picked cherries, froze them, and shipped them overnight to my mother-in-law in NJ.

Unfortunately, even though I marked the "leave package with no signature" box on the shipping label, the mailman felt he knew better than I did and did not leave the package. When I found out her cherries weren't waiting for her when she got home, I called the post office and pitched a fit - and the delivered them the following day. by the time she did get them, she said they were still frozen - and that was in July.

My husband (who's taken over most of the bread-baking in the house) rises bread on parchment, then slides it, paper and all, onto the stone here at home all the time. He usually does baguettes (very hot oven) 4 times or so with the same sheet of parchment before it starts to disintegrate on him.

He still slides it into the oven with a peel, though.

that's how I pit cherries, too - and you're right, it's so much faster and easier than anything else.

I always buy sour cherries in bulk (these days, it's a just peck basket, rather than picking them myself and coming home with 20 pounds like I used to) and freeze most of them for pies, muffins or jams, but some I like to flash-freeze on a sheet pan and stash them for smoothies - sour cherry-pineapple fruit smoothies make a great breakfast.

I just slice it and freeze it, too. I'm the only one the house who will eat it, and mostly I use it for smoothies, and it's fairly easy to separate it while it's still frozen so I can just use what I need.

I puree the peppers and sauce and portion it into an ice cube tray in 1-tablespoons, freeze, and transfer the cubes to a baggie.

An update on the baby backs (finally!) - we'd shoved them in the freezer until the weather was suitable for grilling, smoking, barbecuing, whatever. My husband and I tentatively agreed that, assuming we could separate the package, he'd have free reign on half the box, and I would on the other half.

Well, we had a nice day last week (I'm in upstate NY), and we'd defrosted half the box, so . . .

My husband simply rubbed and smoked them (about 5 pounds) - and they were fine. Tender enough, and none the worse for wear, really, especially given that they were $1.50 a pound AND domestic.

There was actually plenty of meat on them - one 3-rib portion was plenty enough for me (more than), and perfect for my husband and my (still a growing boy) son - which meant plenty of leftovers. (Heh, growing boy. He's 22 years old and 6'3" - he's probably grown quite enough, actually!)

The ribs were still moist, even after they were cold (which, given the fact that they were injected with some sort of saline, is no surprise), and, after a couple of days of the guys' nibbling at them, we trimmed the rest of the bones and added the meat to some red beans and rice - again quite nice.

My half, I think I'll go more of an Asian route with them.

All in all, though, I'd buy them again.

I'd treat it the way you'd treat a turkey rack after Thanksgiving.

I frequently use leftover pork in soup - we just finished up a black bean soup with some leftover BBQ'ed pork, and seasoned with plenty of cumin and, um, some other stuff (we made it a while ago and stashed some in the freezer. . . )

I also have started occasionally tossing random pork shoulder bones in with my chicken stock.