Review: Meals in a Jar

Nibbles

9781612431635.01

***This is a sponsored post. I was provided a copy of Meals in a Jar by Julie Languille for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed below are my own and no further compensation has been received. Now that we’ve got that out of the way…***

I’ve spent quite a lot of time contemplating this new book by Julie Languille over the last couple of months. What I thought was going to be a book of creative, giftable soup mixes and the like instead sent me down the rabbit hole of meal kits and disaster preparedness that’s blossomed into a bit of an obsession.

I quickly realized that I’d misjudged Meals in a Jar: while there are various dry mixes that would look lovely stacked in a Mason jar with a decorative tag, just like you see on the cover of the book, there is much more to be found in this slim volume. Created with an eye towards making nightly dinner preparation quick and easy, this is also–I think–a must-have book for anyone wanting to put together food storage preparations that is also on a restricted diet.

(Yes, I’m talking about FODMAPs, allergies, gluten-free, etc. The whole lot of them.)

While I do not consider myself part of the prepper movement, I do live in Florida and we spend half of each year figuratively dodging storms. While Tallahassee hasn’t faced a major storm in a couple of decades, as the hurricanes and super storms keep getting more and more violent, it behooves me and everyone else to give some thought to disaster preparedness–something I know I and a lot of others have grown complacent about. And thanks to the “popularity” of prepping, it’s become quite easy to order up enough food and water supplies for any given length of time that you think you might need–from an extended power outage due to a storm to a multi-year supply in case of the collapse of life as we know it.

Unless, of course, you have a restricted diet due to allergy, intolerance, or other health reasons. You can get “raw” materials (either freeze dried or dehydrated in most cases) but they come in such large containers that they aren’t practical for smaller time frames. The prepared meals (like MREs and such) almost always have ingredients that aren’t necessarily safe for people on special diets, which is where Meals in a Jar comes in.

In addition to the dry mixes that can be packaged in either quart jars or vacuum-sealed pouches and feed anywhere from 6-8 on average, Languille has also included recipes for canning prepared meals that just need a little finishing on the stove. This is where the rabit-hole came into play as I’ve never been one for canning of any sort, and this wasn’t just water-bath canning but pressure canning!

Yes, this is why I recently bought a pressure cooker. And a Food Saver. And retort pouches (like the pouches some tuna comes in these days, but approved for pressure canning) and a Jaw Clamp sealer to close them. It’s been a bit of a process, and not just so that I could test out her recipes–I really want to be able to put away safe emergency supplies for Todd and I.

Of course, I didn’t feel the need to make 16 batches of anything at this point, when I was still approaching the concept with caution, so I scaled down her recipes to just a couple of batches each and portioned them better for us–after all, if we’ve lost power and have no way to safely save leftovers, 8 servings of anything are going to be a waste! I decided to try, to start with, two dry preps [Chocolate Chip Pancakes (p 31) and Potato, Chive, and Cheddar Soup (p 56)] and one “wet” or cooked prep: Beef Burgundy (p 88) as well as canning some bacon to go along with the soup recipe.

Looks a little messy, but having everything handy made putting together the pancake kits that much easier.

Looks a little messy, but having everything handy made putting together the pancake kits that much easier.

I started with the Pancake mix, using my own flour blend for the all purpose in the recipe, and making small pouches with my Food Saver for the chocolate chips, the coconut oil, and the brown sugar (this was such a cool trick, using brown sugar with a little water and a pinch of salt to make your own syrup). It’s true that the vacuum-sealed versions aren’t as pretty to look at as the jars, but they also have less chance of breaking if they get jostled around and fall in my very crowded pantry.

Jars versus Pouches

Jars versus Pouches

Thankfully I already had a dehydrator, which made putting together the soup kits a bit easier (since I needed to sub turnips for onions for this one, and dry out some lactose-free sour cream). I did have to order the freeze-dried cheddar cheese and decided to get a big container of the potato flakes while I was at it.

This might not have been the best way to end up with lactose-free sour cream, but it worked well enough for me.

This might not have been the best way to end up with lactose-free sour cream, but it worked well enough for me.

Finally, after scaling down the Beef Burgundy recipe I prepared the beef and vegetables and let it cool completely. Since I opted to can in retort pouches instead of glass jars, I had to make sure the beef was cool before filling and sealing the bags. Then they and several pouches of bacon (laid out on parchment paper and folded into bundles) got put into the steamer basket (to keep them snug–too much room and the pouches could burst a side seam) and into the pressure canner for 90 minutes. (Pressure cooking is fast, pressure canning takes time.)

The prepared beef inside the retort pouch.

The prepared beef inside the retort pouch.

The silver pouches don’t look like much when they come out of the canner, but mine looked a little odd–like maybe one of the bacon pouches had leaked (I knew it wasn’t the Burgundy Beef as it would have been red or brown, not clear). I didn’t see any openings, but just to be safe I put the bacon pouches in the fridge and planned to use them within a couple of days (the alternative would have been to put them into new pouches and reprocess them within 24 hours–I wanted to do some more research, first).

The bacon, straight out of the canning pouches.

The bacon, straight out of the canning pouches.

Since we love breakfast for dinner, one Saturday evening I opened the pancake kit and mixed up some very tasty pancakes. Now, I don’t know if it was because of my flour substitutions or not, but I needed almost double the water her instructions called for to make any sort of pourable batter–as written it was more of a quick-bread consistency. Still, once adjusted it cooked up great, and Todd couldn’t tell that the syrup was any different. The bacon that I’d canned might have been fully cooked after processing, but it wasn’t crispy, so I popped it into the over for a bit to brown it up.

Chocolate chip pancakes with the crisped-up bacon.

Chocolate chip pancakes with the crisped-up bacon.

Everything tasted fantastic.

The same could be said for the Beef Burgundy that I served another night. For being cooked and then fully processed, it wasn’t tough, mealy, mushy, or otherwise overdone–something that is a viable concern when canning ready-to-eat meals.

The reheated beef burgundy--all it needed to be finished was a bit of flour and water to thicken the sauce.

The reheated beef burgundy–all it needed to be finished was a bit of flour and water to thicken the sauce.

One of the reasons the author likes to prepare these meals ahead is to make dinner preparation that much easier. And we tested this idea, too, when one night Todd’s plans didn’t work out and we needed something in a bit of a pinch. Well, I pulled out the jar of Potato, Chive, and Cheddar Soup, added the required 12 cups of water and let it cook 45 minutes. No fuss, no muss, and it saved us from needing take-out or cereal for dinner.

So while I still have some skill checks to pass on the pressure canning front, I have a feeling I’ll be making more of Languille’s kits to have on hand for real emergencies as well as the day-to-day ones that crop up.

If you’re interested in putting tactics like this to work, I strongly suggest teaming up with a few friends to make the work lighter. Either everyone makes a separate recipe and you swap or you all convene in whoever’s got the largest kitchen’s home and make up your kits in assembly line fashion. Either way you’ll get a better assortment than doing it all yourself. But even if you just put together a kit of 16 meals whenever something goes on sale, you’ll still be doing better than most!

More Soups Than You Can Shake a Ladle At

Nibbles
300 Sensational Soups by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds

image via amazon.com

Though why you’d want to shake a ladle at anything, much less soup, escapes me.

Soup is one of those feel-good dishes that can be a meal on its own, a side to a salad or sandwich, or the first course of a larger meal. Soups can be hot, cold, or room temperature. While often savory, they can also be sweet; or sometimes both! Soups are also easily portable with a good insulated container and a tight lid, which makes them great for packing lunches or dining al fresco. Soups are also a healing food. A way to show someone you care.

There’s little that can replace a favorite relative’s recipe for Chicken Noodle or Creamy Tomato, but sometimes we need a new idea or 20, don’t you agree?

In 300 Sensational Soups by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds, you’re bound to find some inspiration to easily fill any gaps in your menu.

Potato Tarragon Soup from 300 Sensation Soups

This is comfort food at its best.

Potato soup is one of the standbys for many cooks–it’s warm, filling, and has a great texture when pureed. We tried their twist on the original, a Potato Tarragon Soup (p.72), and were happily surprised by the addition of the bright-tasting herb. As filling as it can be on its own, we opted to serve this soup (which, even with the tarragon, can be a little on the sedate side) with roast beef sandwiches.

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup from 300 Sensational Soups

A glass of pinot grigio went quite nicely with this soup.

The next recipe we tried was the Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup (p.204) that starts you off by making the chicken broth before proceeding to the soup. Since wild rice takes just as long to cook as the stock, I opted to prepare the wild rice in plain water so that I could shorten the overall cooking time.

Spicy Sweet Potato Chowder from 300 Sensational Soups

Those flecks in the center are bacon–delicious!

Chowder is another one of those common soups, Snyder & Deeds propose a Spicy Sweet Potato Chowder (p.264) that sounded too intriguing to pass up. With bacon and chiles it reminded me of some of the other Spanish-influenced sweet potato dishes we’ve tried and was quite happy with the overall results. One thing I did that wasn’t in the recipe was to puree the soup–they intend the sweet potatoes to stay in cubes in the broth, I thought pureeing was the better option. It’s simply a texture preference.

Stracciatella from 300 Sensational Soups

Rich chicken stock makes this dish what it is.

When I don’t feel well, take-out egg drop soup is my feel-good food. Color me shocked when I came across what is, in essence, Italian egg drop soup: Stracciatella (p.316). Since it’s mostly stock, you want to make sure you’ve got good stock and the best way to ensure that is to make your own. I had the luxury of time, that day (it was a Saturday spent at home), so made the stock and then made the soup. I even made a little extra to use the following week. The leftover meat (unlike the Creamy Chicken soup, above, the meat was not used in this soup, only the broth) I shredded and combined with the leftover stock veggies and a little mayo to make a chicken salad to serve over spinach with the simple soup. Nothing goes to waste!

And don’t skip the croutons on this one, they really do make a difference.

Steak and Potato Soup from 300 Sensational Soups

Even without the cream this was a wonderful soup.

Another great fact about soups is that most can be made in a slow-cooker without much difference in the outcome. For the Steak and Potato Soup we put all the solid ingredients in the crock the night before, added the liquid elements that morning, and came home to dinner ready. When you have a soup that finishes with any sort of dairy (cream, milk, sour cream, yogurt, etc.) that you’ve converted for slow-cooking, you should hold off adding that until just before serving (which we forgot to add at all on this one, oops!), but otherwise no real changes need to be made.

As the temperature continues to drop I see many more soup-er suppers in our future.

——————–

I received a copy of 300 Sensational Soups for purpose of review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

A Summer Soup

Nibbles

Chowders are usually heavy soups perfect for cold, winter months to warm you up when the weather is frightful.

Corn ChowderThis chowder, though, is light, a little sweet, and full of summer vegetables. I served it as part of my book launch tasting menu this weekend and it was perfect for a rainy, summer day spent in a bookstore. The leftovers were also just as tasty the next day when our friends came over for gaming.

What makes this chowder different is the use of coconut milk for the dairy. And if you use vegetable stock (which we prefer to do, for this), the meal is totally vegan!

Corn Chowder

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced bell pepper
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup flour
5 cups stock
2 cans coconut milk
1 # corn kernels (frozen is easiest, canned also works)
1 cup diced potatoes
1/2 cup roasted red bell pepper, diced
1 tsp thyme

1. Heat olive oil on medium-high in a large pot.

2. Saute onions, cellery, and diced bell pepper until the onions are translucent and the other veggies are tender.

3. Add garlic and saute another 30 seconds.

4. Sprinkle on the flour and stir to mix evenly.

5. Reduce the heat to medium and cook and stir until the flour lightens in color a bit–about 5 minutes should do it but watch it doesn’t brown.

6. Stir in the stock a bit at a time until each addition is absorbed.

7. Stir in the coconut milk, corn, potatoes, and roasted red bell peppers.

8. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and cook 10 minutes or so–long enough that the potatoes are cooked through.

9. Season with thyme. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

Serves 8, from What to Feed Your Raiding Party

Calories: 383 per serving

This goes great with corn muffins or buttermilk biscuits.

The Art of Cooking

64 Arts

Oh, wow, how to break this down into a few blog posts? Well, let’s start with the source material, shall we, and go from there!

23 The Art of Cooking

Cooking is the art of transforming various vegetables into soups and dishes. Food is of four kinds: bitten, eaten, licked, or drunk*. The food is cooked with condiments to give it a pleasant flavor. Vegetables that are unpleasant to the taste without condiments often become acceptable thanks to the latter. Vegetables are of ten kinds: roots, leaves, seeds, buds, fruits, tubers, stalks, peels, flowers, bamboos….

Products that are pleasant to lick are made of powdered aphrodisiacs mixed with honey, which may be sweet, salty, sour, or bitter according to choice, which are chosen at the right moment to reinvigorate the body or stimulate amorous ardour. Food and drinks are thus prepared, either uncooked, or else cooked to improve their flavor. Although different, these processes all indicate ways of satisfying taste.

Medieval Borscht

Soup for all Seasons

Soups?! Oh, perfect! As I write this it’s grey and drizzly outside and pretty perfect soup weather. Which reminds me of the Fool-Proof Soup post I wrote for my food blog, Nibbles ‘n Bites, back in July. We love soup year-round and soup is one of those dinners that is tough to screw up no matter how little experience you have in the kitchen. And a slow-cooker makes it so much simpler on busy weekdays.

What are my rules for fool-proof soups?

  • Start with your primary ingredient: beans, lentils or dried peas, chicken pieces or stew meat are good places to start.
  • Add flavorings: an onion, a couple of garlic cloves (minced), salt, pepper and a bay leaf are my go-to flavor choices for almost all my soups.
  • Finish with enough stock to cover all the ingredients. When setting up your soup the night before and using anything that sucks up liquid (e.g. dried beans, pasta or grains), wait to add your broth or stock until just before starting  the soup.
See? Simple!

But that’s just the basics. You can add any number of additional ingredients that you have on hand. Toss in some diced tomatoes, carrots and green beans. Try hard squashes or potatoes added to your basic soup with a bit of nutmeg or garam masala. Maybe some kale or spinach towards the end of the cooking time, or barley or quinoa. Sliced-up sausage adds amazing flavor, as do some smoked chicken wings or ham hocks–perfect when you want the flavor without meat being the main course.

*The preparation of drinks is the 24th art so we’ll deal with those parts later!

~~~oOo~~~

What do you want to know about cooking?
And, while we’re out it, what’s your favorite type of soup?

Oh! And before we sign off for another week, the winner of the Satin Hands giveaway is Miranda from A Duck in Her Pond! I already have your address, Duckie, so I’ll be sending out your prize this week 🙂

Fool-Proof Soup

Nibbles
Medieval Borscht

Soup for a Seasons

Don’t relegate your soup suppers to late fall and winter, soups make excellent meals year-round, can be made with just about anything and are virtually fool-proof to boot!

Often when you hear someone reference soups in summer it’s cold soups they’re talking about: vichyssoise or fruit soups used as an appetizer light lunch with salad. Frankly, cold soups leave me… cold; they often have odd textures and incomplete flavors. Instead, we have hot soups once a week or so, paired with warm rolls, a salad or sandwiches depending on the soup.

One of the most common reasons for making soup is a what-are-we-going-to-do-with-this vegetable from the farmers’ market. Frequently it’s the quart of field peas or beans that seemed like a good idea until you get home and make your menu. But plenty of other vegetables–fresh, frozen or dried–make excellent soup starters.

I like to make my soups in the slow cooker whenever possible (which is most times)–it’s convenient and doesn’t heat up the kitchen very much, not to mention the great feeling of having dinner ready when you get home from work or wherever you’ve spent your day. Left on high for 8 hours or low for 4 is all it takes.

The other awesome thing about soups is that, really, you don’t need much of any sort of recipe. It’s pretty difficult to screw up a batch of soup, but having some pointers certainly won’t hurt:

  • Start with your primary ingredient: beans, lentils or dried peas, chicken pieces or stew meat are good places to start.
  • Add flavorings: an onion, a couple of garlic cloves (minced), salt, pepper and a bay leaf are my go-to flavor choices for almost all my soups.
  • Finish with enough stock to cover all the ingredients. When setting up your soup the night before and using anything that sucks up liquid (e.g. dried beans, pasta or grains), wait to add your broth or stock until just before starting  the soup.

Now that’s just the basics. You can add any number of additional ingredients that you have on hand. Toss in some diced tomatoes, carrots and green beans. Try hard squashes or potatoes added to your basic soup with a bit of nutmeg or garam masala. Maybe some kale or spinach towards the end of the cooking time, or barley or quinoa. Sliced-up sausage adds amazing flavor, as do some smoked chicken wings or ham hocks–perfect when you want the flavor without meat being the main course.

So go ahead and ignore the “conventional wisdom” of anti-soup summers and toss together a soup for an easy meal this week.