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Fresh-Frozen Lemonade Concentrate
Makes 40 ounces
There's nothing like a freshly squeezed glass of slightly
tart lemonade on a hot summer afternoon. Get together with a friend to make
this fresh lemon concentrate and you'll see how easy it will be to serve some
fresh-squeezed lemonade to your picnic guests. It's sure to become a summertime
staple for picnics, barbeques and even Lemonade stands for the kids.
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2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (About 16 lemons)
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
In a medium sized saucepan, bring 2 cups of water and 1 ½
cups of sugar to a boil. Turn heat down to low and stir for a minute or two
until the sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool. Wash and then slice
16 lemons in half and, using a lemon press or electric hand juicer, squeeze
lemons until you have 2 cups of lemon juice. Mix the lemon juice together with
the simple syrup and transfer to freezer safe containers.
Tupperware makes a
set of tumblers called a "Tumbler Bouquet" with lids that work perfectly. Tupperware.com |
To Make Lemonade from Concentrate
Serves 10-12
Defrost lemonade concentrate and mix with 8-10 cups of cold
water. Stir together well and serve over ice. |
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Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 3 ½ dozen biscuits
 These buttery biscuits can be made ahead of time, frozen individually and baked on demand. The mild flavor of Romano cheese adds a subtle finishing touch.
- 3 cups white flour
- 1 cup finely ground whole wheat flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup finely grated Romano cheese
- 2 sticks cold butter
- 1 ½ cups low fat buttermilk
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt and cheese. Cut butter into chunks and use a pastry cutter to blend butter into the flour mixture until coarse. Make a small well in the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Mix together until dough begins to form. If dough is still too crumbly, add a bit more buttermilk. Transfer the dough to a work space that has been dusted generously with flour, and knead the dough well. To make the biscuits, you can break the dough into small pieces and flatten them, or, for more perfectly round biscuits, roll the dough ½ inch thick and use a 2-inch round cookie cutter. Either way, divide the dough into approximately 42 pieces, place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and "fresh freeze".
If baking the biscuits right away, pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees, brush with melted butter and bake for approximately 12 minutes until golden.
To bake the frozen biscuits, first pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Place desired number of frozen biscuits on baking sheet (spacing them well), brush with a bit of melted butter and bake until golden for approximately 12- 15 minutes. |
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Quick Dill Pickles
Makes 80 spears
These zesty refrigerator spears will taste like pickles in less than four hours and get continuously stronger over the next twenty-four hours. If you seal them in a glass jar or Pyrex, they will keep in your refrigerator for about two weeks. But, they are so tasty that they'll probably get gobbled up sooner.
- 10 Kirby Cucumbers (a smaller cucumber variety)
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup kosher salt
- 6 garlic cloves, smashed and roughly chopped
- 2 medium sized onions, washed, peeled and chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons yellow mustard seed
- ¾ cup fresh dill, washed and stems removed
- 1 cup white distilled vinegar
- 1 cup water
Wash cucumbers well and cut about 1/4 inch off each end. Cut each of the cucumbers into 6 to 8 spears. Place in a large glass bowl or Pyrex dish.
In a non-stick pot, bring water, vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic and onions to a boil. Turn heat down and stir until salt and sugar are dissolved. Add mustard seeds. Turn heat off and add a handful of ice cubes to cool the liquid. Once cooled, add the dill.
Pour the liquid over the cucumbers and add cold water to cover. Cover the pickles with something heavy (like a plate) that pushes the pickles into the liquid, and refrigerate. Let the pickles sit in the liquid for about 24 hours, remove garlic cloves, and then transfer to a container or mason jars with tight fitting lids.
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Dear Friends,
Picnics
are one of the many pleasures of summer. Whether you're listening to opera under
the stars or sitting on a blanket under a tree, casual al fresco dining is real
bliss. We think the key to a successful picnic is having things ready-to-go in
your pantries, refrigerators and freezers. That's why we suggest getting
together during the week to make spontaneity easy on the weekend with picnic-perfect
foods.
Please e-mail us at info@cookingwithfriendsclub.com and check out our web site, featuring our blogs and lots of great tips at www.cookingwithfriendsclub.com.
Alison and Shannon
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Tips on a Throwing a "Picnic of Envy" without Spending a Fortune
- Use Your Freezer. Many people are afraid of freezing food and have a misconception that foods will lose their fresh taste. That's not true if the food is frozen properly.
- Resist Buying Prepared Foods. When you cook with a friend, you'll find you can make gourmet food that's more delicious and less expensive than take-out.
- Think Ahead. Have a picnic basket pre-packed with some key items, including plates, napkins, utensils, a cheese board, and even a blanket.
- Focus on the Little Touches. Spend your energy on the extras to add a special touch. If you want to buy something prepared, choose a rotisserie chicken that you can build your picnic around.
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Knowing How to "Fresh Freeze" Foods
We're big fans of the freezer. It's such a crucial tool for
meeting the hungry demands of our growing families. Truthfully, when Cooking
With Friends in bulk, it's something we can't live without! If you're hesitant about freezing food, you
have every right to be. Food that hasn't been frozen properly is an utter
disaster. Follow these simple steps to ease your freezer fears. Trust us. If
our food tasted like freezer burn, it would defeat the purpose of cooking in
advance and our families wouldn't be nearly as happy.
Seven No-Fail Steps to "Fresh Freezing" Food
- Cool-After cooking your food, drain excess fats and cool.
- Quick Freeze -Place in the freezer uncovered for a short
period of time (about 30 minutes) until food has completely cooled and has
begun to harden.
- Transfer-Once your food is cooled, you will need to
transfer it to freezer-safe containers and/or storage bags.
- Seal Out Air-Working quickly so that food does not begin
to thaw or does not get exposed to excess air, remove containers and cover
tightly with lids-make sure no air can get into food.
- Protect-Wrap container a few times with plastic wrap for
extra protection. If using zip-loc bags, squeeze out any extra air before sealing.
Although it's not necessary, you can place one zip-loc bag into another zip-loc
bag.
- Label-Clearly write the name of the food, the date frozen,
and any reheating instructions on the container with a dark permanent marker.
- Reheat-To reheat food, make sure that food does not defrost
first and cook it frozen, straight from your freezer.
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Organizational Tip of the Month - Make the Most of Your Freezer
Space
When Cooking With Friends in bulk, it can get somewhat
tricky to squeeze so much food into the freezer at once. That's why we turned
to our organizational expert and fellow CWFC member, Kathe Roberts from Top to
Bottom Organization, for advice on how to make the most of our freezer space.
Here is her clever recommendation for stacking cookie sheets during the
"fresh freeze" process:
 Double Cabinet Shelves - These double stacked shelves are
fairly deep and will provide you with three levels of freezing space. They will
work in upright freezers that have at least 9 inches of free space from top to
bottom. They are available, among other places, at Target and The Container
Store.
 Kids' Blocks - This ingenious tip came from a discussion
about freezer space on the Cooking With Friends Club Yahoo group. One member
told us that she uses her children's old alphabet building blocks to stack
cookie sheets -- she knew she saved them for a reason. We tested the tip and it
worked!
To learn more about simplifying your life, visit Kathe at:
www.toptobottomorganization.com
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Fantastic Make-Ahead Picnic Foods
A small amount of effort in advance will go a long way to
make your picnic a fun and relaxing event. Invite a friend to help and you'll enjoy
the time spent preparing foods. Here are some dishes that will most certainly add
that special touch.
Fresh-Frozen Lemonade Concentrate
Cheese Buttermilk Biscuits
Quick Dill Pickles
Plan a Picnic with a Friend
You don't always have to Cook With Friends and then take
your food separate ways. We like to socialize with our cooking friends too! So
why not schedule a picnic date that includes both of you and even your
families? Get together in advance, once or even twice, and make foods that can
be savored together. You may even find yourselves together, the morning of your
picnic, making a fresh batch of Fried Chicken or some Potato Salad. |
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Alison Bermack and Shannon Henry
Visit our web site at www.cookingwithfriendsclub.com.
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