[HPFGU-OTChatter] Cooking for One or Two Re: Crockpot (Was: Crackpot!)

[P. Alexis Nguyen]

Pippin:
> We've gone from four to two. Not so drastic, but I've had to adjust. There's
> a lot I can do on the stove at once:
> hard boil eggs, make 4 cups of oatmeal at a time to reheat in the microwave,
> poach chicken breasts, then freeze the meat and the stock, while I've got half
> a pot roast (freeze the other half) in the oven.
>
> Anyone got any other tips?

Cooking for one or two is not so exciting. It makes most of my friends
(most of us being recent college grads) not want to cook, especially
those of us coming from families where our mothers cooked a lot of
food at a time. For me, tips for cooking for one should always involve
easily freezing some leftovers and making things that naturally serve
1 or 2.

For example, I've taken to roasting cornish game hens - these,
especially the small rock ones, serve only 1 or 2 people at most, and
I didn't want to have to give up roast chicken just because I cook
solely for me.  Pies are now either foisted off onto friends or
divided up into small tarts that can be frozen after I've consumed a
few. Pancakes (my recipe makes 6 extremely fluffy ones) are packaged
into small individual servings that make it easy to have breakfast
during the week or frozen for when I want pancakes but don't want to
make them. Bacon is bought then separated out into usable portions
that get frozen until use.

For me, as someone who cooks often (not so much in that I love doing
it but I refuse to subsist on anything but good food), these are tips
that I've taken to heart.  Well, that and realizing that a normally
expensive ingredient for a family of 4 or more can be an everyday
ingredient for me - I can spend money on $25/lbs cheese because I need
no more than 1/4 lbs, at most; I can spend $18/lbs on a pheasant
because I don't need more than one of the things where you wouldn't
want to buy enough pheasant to feed a family - these things help
motivate me to cook. :)

~Ali