Scratch Challenge: Day 3

By Daisy Luther

Saturday….ahhhhhh…

Rosie and I had a very lazy Saturday.  We didn’t get out of our jammies all day long!

For breakfast, we ate granola cookies and fruit with a glass of milk.

I’m learning the importance of leftovers with the scratch cooking. It makes life way easier not to have to start each meal from square one.  Although I’ve always been a “leftover” person, I have also kept “quick” things around like peanut butter and crackers.  Now, the only real “quick foods” are fruits and nuts unless there is something on hand that is prepared. Thus the cookies.

Since it was Saturday, I decided to make a bit of a lunch time feast in order that we might have some good leftovers. I had purchased whole chickens on sale this week (buy one, get one free – woohoo!!!) I truly don’t think there is better food than a delicious roasted chicken.

I stuffed the chicken with whole garlic cloves and whole onions, then seasoned the outside with an MSG-free seasoning salt.  There’s nothing easier than popping a chicken into the oven for an hour!

Meanwhile I cooked a huge pot of mashed potatoes (making enough for the basis of potato pancakes for another meal) and some green beans with butter. I topped it off with a garlicky gravy.

Later, for supper, I turned the leftover gravy into a Southern milk gravy and made a very quick batch of biscuits to go under the gravy.  This pic is not the prettiest but anyone who has ever had Southern biscuits and gravy knows how delicious it really is.

Back in the days before convenience foods and microwaves, from what I’ve read, breakfast and dinner were “hot” meals and lunch was often cold leftovers or ones that were quickly heated up while the cook of the family was doing other things. I’m getting the hang of it and gaining a new perspective on “quick”.  Previously I would not have considered making biscuits from scratch to be “fast” but I’ve learned I can get them in the oven in 7 minutes after a bit of practice.  That is nearly as fast as whacking one of those cans on the counter and baking up a chemical laden food-like substance.