Cooking Marathon

This is the month I know as the cooking marathon.

It reminds me of when I was pregnant with my 3rd child, and, around 4 months along, I panicked. I thought perhaps I would end up on bed rest again, 1500 miles from family at the time, and with no good support system. I started this frantic cooking marathon. Every time I planned a meal, I doubled SOMETHING, and put it in the freezer, just in case. Because the 2nd pregnancy had not gone well. I found myself on bedrest at 11 weeks, before anyone knew I was pregnant. That was when we lived in Riverdale, and had no good friends there, evidenced by the fact no one ever called to find out why they never saw me anymore. Not one meal was offered, aside from a couple from family members, who did not live anywhere nearby. Can you say nightmare?

And when I gave birth at 30 weeks I still felt isolated and ignored. It was hard. It was lonely. It was traumatic. So I was determined to fix the problem and make sure I could take care of my family's needs, even if the worst were to happen again...

The cooking marathon intensified, and one weekend when my parents were visiting us in Texas from NY (state), I convinced my mother to stay up late with me and cook and cook until we either ran out of food or ran out of freezer space.

So this time of year reminds me of that. Only now my family is larger, and there is a teenage boy to feed. I feel like no matter how much I cook, I rarely get to stock the freezer! And with Yom Tov, Shabbat, Yom Tov, Shabbat, I can definitely call this a cooking marathon!

So how are you handling your cooking marathon?

I've been making big pots of soup, enough for 3 meals from each pot, and lots of steamed and roasted vegetables. Making enough challah is difficult, but every batch I've made lately was 5-6 challot, so I could stash some in the freezer. I made 4 chocolate cakes at one time, so we have desserts for chag (and used up all the cocoa in the house. oops)...

What are your cooking marathon strategies?