Batch Cooking: Another Day in the Freezer

HB and I cooked a ton of food today - great proportions of nutritious and delicious goodness (menu and recipes here). My saintly mother arrived last night from Kentucky and not only provided childcare for us today but also washed a mountain of dishes.  She was a HUGE help.

L to R: Brenda (Julie's mom), Julie, Gramm (HB's son) and HB

I will admit to telling HB that I thought we were biting off more than we could chew.  Her response?  "I will not admit defeat until I walk out of that kitchen."  She was raising the bar whether I was ready or not.

The biggest difference maker of the day was the fact that the Cruise Director came with a schedule in hand.  She wrote out what and when dishes would be made and by whom.  In the end we agreed that the schedule helped tremendously with our time management.

It must also be said that we could not have cooked this much food on our first cooking day.  This is our fourth time to cook together.  Each time we get to know each other better - our strengths and weaknesses (I don't always measure - she likes to follow recipes exactly.)  I feel like we're kind of in a rhythm now.  The next cooking day will go even smoother.  But I don't think it would be possible to make more food.

HB started immediately with sauteing onions and peppers for the burritos while I went to work on the curry.  Below is a picture of her burrito making station.  She was making burritos at 9:00 this morning.

After the above picture, the Cruise Director had me so busy that I couldn't didn't take any more pictures until the end of the day.

Below you'll see our packaging station - a card table and an ironing board.  Instead of rolling up the area rug, I put the orange table cloth on it (because the rug is a bear to get to lay flat if it's moved.)  Please note that we were running out of table space so I started laying packaged food on the floor.  The Cuties boxes were the perfect size for storing our burritos for the freezer.

Recap -
8:45 - HB arrives
8:46 - we start cooking
8:47 - our boys start fighting arguing.  My mother runs interference.
11:00 - Mom takes 3 kids to Chick-fil-A
11:30 - HB & I eat lunch standing up while cooking/cleaning
2:00 - drink pina coladas for a little pick-me-up.  A special drink is always planned for the day.
2:45 - HB leaves to pick up the twins from preschool (I washed dishes)
It's starting to get blurry now.  I can't remember if we were packaging before or after the twins.  Because once the 4 year old twins were in the kitchen...well, production screeched to a crawl.  My mother took them to the park.  We worked like mad to clean the kitchen and package remaining food.
4:30 - HB's swagger wagon pulls out of my driveway.
4:31 - I put burritos in the oven to warm for dinner.
4:32 - I collapse on the couch.

-Julie