One of the things I love about early fall is that it is an excellent time to take on big kitchen projects. The months of September and October are the perfect time to do this, when the weather has cooled some but the produce, at least where I live, is still rolling in strong. The kids are in school and the holidays haven't hit yet, so there's a little extra time to devote an afternoon (or an entire day) to the kitchen.
Yesterday I took a few hours to can up a small batch of applesauce just to get the ball rolling. I had a bowl of apples from the tree in my yard which yielded three pints of sauce in the end. It was fun but not quite enough to satisfy my itch. Local farms in my area are still offering U-Pick days for their San Marzano-style tomatoes, so now I'm starting to dream about canning up my own passata (inspired by Rohan of Whole Larder Love). And more applesauce, too, or perhaps even apple cider or perry (pear cider). I finally have a kitchen big enough for such tasks and with every spare minute, I'm antsy to get it messy.
And that's the other thing about big projects. They take over the whole kitchen and we have permission to make a big, crazy mess, all in the service of that final moment when the kitchen is clean again and a neat line of jars fills a shelf, or every cranny of the freezer is packed with freezer bags. Big mess, big payoff.
But my most favorite thing about big kitchen projects is that they usually cannot be done alone. Well, they can but they shouldn't be, if at all possible. Many hands make light work and the camaraderie of making that big mess together is only matched by sharing in the satisfaction of the final product. Not to mention the cleanup goes so much faster.
I hope you'll consider taking on a big project this fall. I mentioned passata and cider but there are other things as well, such as sausage making or one of those big vats of kraut (or both, since they go together so well). Just go ahead and roll up your sleeves and give up any notions of neatness. Let the tomato sauce splatter your walls and the compost bin teeter under the weight of scraps. Dirty every bowl and knife and stain all ten of your fingers the color of late season plums. Break a sweat if you have to. You (and your kitchen) will clean up just fine.
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I use to have a neighbor who every year would have a "tamale-making party". Just before Christmas. It was the highlight of my year. Usually end up taking home a couple of dozen homemade tamales and eating 3 or 4 that got cooked during the party. Such a great time to visit with friends old and new and do some serious cooking.
JOY!
Went apple picking with my kids yesterday so today we will be making crock pot applesauce. Not sure if that counts as a big project, but can't wait to taste the fruits of our labor. Get it? Fruits! Lol!
Thanks doll,
The Glamorous Housewife
cmcinnyc, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
While I don't agree with @cmcinnyc's tone, I do agree with the frustration - tomorrow will be my first whole day off to be in the kitchen in a long time. I'm hoping to can applesauce, render some lard (if my impulse buy pork fat sitting in the fridge the past week hasn't gone bad), make a big pot of beans, and maybe even bake some bread. I've been feeling in a rut after many late nights and stressful days at work. But fall weather is finally here and as always it inspires me to cook again!
Alas, I don't have a big kitchen either nor friends to cook with (my would-be cooking buddies don't work weekends like me and thus don't have Mondays and Tuesdays off). I'll just have to make do. But sometimes, making do is the fun part.
I'm expecting my first baby in december, so this is indeed the perfect time for cooking projects...the weather in the northeast is already is making me feel like hunkering down, & i'd like to get as much in the freezer before my little one arrives as possible!
Good Information. Thanks for sharing this...
@dana velden Please share your applesauce, apple cider, and pear cider recipes!!!
I do apologize for the tone, but I seem to be continually reading about how I'll have "so much extra time" in the lazy days of summer (?) or when the kids go back to school. Next it will be cozy winter days, and then it's almost time for those lazy days of summer again. How about just "here are some great projects to dig into and worth making the time?"
Hey, all,
Just enjoy the recipes and do what you can when you can. Let each day and each task at home and away become a meditiation.Peace.
I feel ya! Seems like all the fun seasonal things require you to be a full-time housewife/husband (without kids is even better). It's hard to make modern life revolve around the seasons like 19th century full-time farmers could. Worthwhile, but hard.
cmcinnyc - I understand your reaction. I get snarky when I hear or read "the weekend's here! time for projects! (or fun and frolic or lazying around or or or) As a nurse, my "weekends" are the glorious, miraculous surprse two days off in a row that are rare as hen's teeth.
Also, I work night shift, so when my shift is cancelled, that's usually the time I take on big cooking projects.
Just picture me stirring cauldrons of soup or mounds of muffins as the world sleeps
The response that said, "its hard to make modern life revolve around the seasons..." almost got it right. But its not just hard, it's impossible. Ever wonder if just maybe, the way we live modern life isn't quite right? Maybe we aren't supposed to be going ALL the time... maybe stopping to rest is actually part of the work... Here's a lovely quote to consider, "If you don't have time to rest from your labors to enjoy life, its not life you're living."
@ Neecia: well said
I'm going to spend a day making duck confit (when the kids are at school).
I've been meaning to go apple-picking for the last couple of weeks but something always comes up! I'm jealous!!! I want to make fresh applesauce for my son and I've also been craving it-I'm 30 weeks pregnant!
@Neecia - YES! Exactly. Although the more research I do about 19th and early 20th century farm wives, the more I appreciate my modern life! Those ladies worked HARD and rarely had time "off." However, their daily work included things like baking bread, gardening, feeding chickens, churning butter, sewing, knitting, and cooking. Things that today many of us do for "fun." Although maybe it's not quite so fun if you HAVE to do it, and do it all day everyday.
But yes, working outdoors and doing things with your hands are seriously underrated in modern society. I like hard labor in small doses. I just wish there was more of a balance between office-type work and hard labor like chopping wood, planting things, etc.
You mean big projects like learning to render lard (unintentionally--I just wanted to buy a container of it already rendered but couldn't justify throwing it out!), then making 5 mini-batches of pie dough to test which combination of fats (butter, lard, shortening) I liked best and which was the easiest to work with. For true testing purposes, this of course also necessitated making a giant apple turnover from each batch of dough--that means 5 giant apple turnovers.
In between all this, I was transferring photos to canvas using this new method I read about last week to make some new art to hang around my apartment, and finally hanging some art that's been sitting on the floor for 6 months.
I love project weekends!
Oh, have I ever been "storing up" things that I want to get to when I have the time. (This site is a place that I've trolled for a while, bookmarking recipes and ideas.) I've warned The Man that he's about to turn into a semi-professional guinea pig. I'm lucky enough to be able to say that I'll retire in 59 days from tomorrow and all the projects and ideas that I've had on the back burner will finally get a chance to be tried.
Also, some "big projects" can be broken down into smaller bites. Since I was a little girl with my mother I've baked Christmas cookies for people as gifts. I've learned how to whip out several dozen cookies after work without feeling whipped. (Of course, dinner comes out of the freezer — I'm not a miracle worker!)