Investment Cooking on a Sunday

Today I chopped onions before I had my first cup of tea.

For several years, my sweetie and I had separate houses, so a lot of meals were made in my kitchen, and then re-heated/assembled and served in his.  I started devoting my Sundays to making big batches of soups and sauces and pre-cooking things for quick weeknight dinners.

So the first thing I did this morning was cook 2 small onions, 4 cloves of garlic, some dried oregano and a minced chipotle in a little olive oil.  Then I added water, and the black beans that had been soaking on the counter (drained and rinsed).  I brought that up to a boil, and tossed it on a back burner to simmer for awhile.

The hot front burner was turned down and a 10 inch skillet replaced the soup pot. When the skillet was warm, 4 links of hot Italian sausage and 1/2 a cup of water went in.  I covered the skillet and let the water simmer until the links were opaque on top, then flipped them and let them go a few minutes longer.  Those links are cooling on a plate while a second pound cooks.  I've learned to let them cool before butterflying them because you get a smoother, cleaner cut and that smooth surface crisps up nicely when you want to serve it.  2 lbs of sausage will become 14 brown & serve portions in the freezer, and 2 servings for breakfast.

I've sliced some small Yukon Gold potatoes, and those are sizzling in some good olive oil.  Fried potatoes are best cooked low and slow...and normally I don't have patience... but since I'm already puttering in and out of the kitchen this morning, it's a good time to start a batch.  When they're almost done I'll brown up 2 portions of the sausage, and scramble some eggs with spinach and a little bit of feta.

After breakfast is cleaned up, I plan to skin a package of chicken thighs, and nestle them into the simmering beans to cook.  Those will eventually get shredded into the bean soup when I add the rest of the vegetables. I also have a chuck roast thawing, which has a date with a smoking hot skillet, to brown it before it goes into a crock pot with some tomatoes and gets cooked until it shreds apart into a rich pasta sauce.

What do I get from spending half a day in the kitchen?  I get quick sausage dinners where the sausage is really brown and crispy.  I get long simmered pasta sauce in half an hour after work.  And I eat delicious soup for lunch that has 1/2 the sodium and tastes twice as good as anything from a can.