Mega Cooking Session- Reasons Why and Considerations

Last week I had planned a massive cooking session, in part to pay dinner back to a friend who had made us dinner when we were sick, in part to give dinner to ourselves, and in part to test some altered recipes on a brave and willing client and friend. We were also able to bring dinner to a relative who's been sick and hasn't been able to cook lately, which made us happy.

On the menu? Greek! Shown above: Lamb and Chicken Souvlaki and my version of Moussaka. Below: Lamb and Beef stuffed peppers.

I first tried Greek cuisine 19 years ago while on a holiday of discovery in Southern California. It was love at first bite. The flavours made me happy, and every year since then I'd go to my favorite local restaurant on each birthday. One year we missed it, and the next year when we tried to go back discovered it had closed. Since then I've been on the hunt for authentic flavours. Victorian Epicure makes excellent Greek and Souvlaki seasonings, but I wanted to learn how to create Greek meals from scratch as well.

Providentially, along came a cooking course one night. The instructor was very excited about cooking, and her food was very good. My husband and I greatly enjoyed the course. We have continued to use her recipes over the last year, but never again so many dishes all at once. I've since remembered why. I was cooking for 5 hours that morning!

I'm altering the recipes to make them more my own, and another day I will post them as I cook the meals again. In the meantime, here are some reasons for mega-cooking sessions of your own.

• Cook once, eat many times. You can sort meals into your own "freezer meals" (if you have a deep freeze) to keep for when you don't know what to cook, or for when you're sick, or need to take a meal to a friend. The convenience of pre-made, without the added cost and processing of store bought. A major added bonus is the fact that YOU control the ingredients, so you know exactly what you're eating. I am certain a homemade meal is healthier than one you pick out of the freezer section of the grocery store.
• If you routinely cook large amounts of food, traditional big family meals, such as Christmas, birthday, backyard bbq parties and so on, won't feel so overwhelming. You get used to the rhythm of planning ahead, learn how to cook more efficiently, and figure out the "how to cook what, and when" in relation to the meal as a whole. As with everything else, cooking takes practice. No one is born with that knowledge.

When you're planning your next big-batch cooking session, there are some definite considerations to think about before starting. 

• Read the recipes over. If there is prep work to be done, such as marinading meat, or soaking skewers, you need to do that- ideally the night before cooking.
• Figure out which appliance will sit where in your kitchen as it's all being used. Counter space, being a premium commodity in our home, dictates what I can cook and when. Same goes for stove top space and oven racks.
• Start the day with a good breakfast. There is nothing worse than starving when you're cooking and the food can't be sampled for hours.
• Relax. Take your recipes one step at a time. If you can combine recipes to cut down on the work load, you might save some time and space, but there is no rushing this process. I forgot how long moussaka takes to make, for example, and there was nothing I could do about it but allow it the time it needed.

As with any cooking, there's the inevitable cleanup. Unfortunately, the cleanup involved with big-batch cooking takes that much longer. I'm happy we have a dishwasher! But there were still a lot of dishes to wash by hand.