My house is freezing and I refuse on principle to turn the heat on for at least another week. Fortunately, I think our electric oven is actually more efficient at heating the house than our ancient, oil-burning furnace. I can’t decide on what to make, any suggestions from the teeming millions? What are some of your favorite house-warming dishes (as in, preparing them literally warms the house, not something you’d bring over to your new neighbors). Sweet or savory, oven or stovetop, any cuisine, I’m open to suggestions. What should I make?
Well, Canadian thanksgiving is today, but I cooked our turkey yesterday, which added a lot of warmth to the house.Today, although we have lots of leftovers, I’m cooking a prime rib roast: that way we have turkey and roast leftovers for the entire week.
Turkey, followed by prime rib, seems a likely way to add warmth. And no worries about lunch or supper for a few days!
My favorite thing to do is roast a turkey. Smells divine and the oven is on for hours.
Today I am making a pork stew, low and slow on the stove top. Not as warming as using the oven, but it will do.
I refuse to turn on the heat this early in the year. Luckily the house is well insulated and it’s only in the 50s out there. 60s in here.
We did ours in the opposite order, prime rib on Friday, Turkey today.
Roasting anything will warm the house so go for a full spread. Fresh bread, roast beef and pie or cookies for dessert. The oven will be on for hours!
Roast beast, roasted root vegetables, pot roast, cheesecake (takes surprisingly long to bake a real cheesecake!) quiche, bread…
Or you can go the stovetop route, especially if you need a little extra humidity in the air: stew, soup, chili, corned beef… I make most of my broths and stocks in the wintertime to take advantage of the heat. I simmer 'em down until they condense so that 1 ice cube’s worth of broth/stock (2 T) makes 1 cup of reconstituted broth/stock, and then I freeze 'em and use 'em year round.
Chili or beef stew. Hours of simmering.
Brewing up a batch of beer involves having a couple burners on the range going full-blast for at least an hour, but that’s only if you’re doing a full wort boil, which requires a fair amount of equipment if you don’t already have it. I’d go with beef jerky instead, with the heat turned on low and the oven door propped open slightly.
Bake a cheesecake. Some of the recipes I have say to leave the cake in the oven for an hour with the door propped open after it’s done baking. The water bath will add some humidity too.
Pot roast. Almost any sort of roast, really. If it’s a bone-in roast, simmer the bones for stock afterwards. I make a sort of chicken pot roast, and that takes at least a couple of hours.
I avoid making meatloaf or any baked pasta dishes during the warmer weather. I also avoid baking potatoes during the hot months. During cooler weather, though, meatloaf or baked pork chops and baked potatoes are frequently on the menu.
Roasted root vegetables are very good. Cut up potatoes and carrots and celery and onions, peeling if necessary, toss with chicken or beef broth, and stick in the oven. Bake until done, tossing in more broth once or twice if you happen to think of it. This is quite low in fat. You can add in more types of vegetables, such as turnips, but the potatoes and onions and celery and carrots are essential.
Hmm good suggestions. I ended up getting too hungry to cook and just had some boring spaghetti, but I bought a chicken and some veggies to roast tomorrow. I figure I can make soup out of the carcass when I’m done. Probably bake some bread as well. My birthday is coming up too, so perhaps I’ll make myself a cake…
Good idea with the beer, I actually haven’t made any since last winter for that very reason - it’s too hot in the summer to hover around a boiling pot of wort for an hour. Plus, cold winter tap water is much better to run through my wort chiller, and I don’t have a fermentation fridge so summer beers tend to ferment warmer than I’d like. Hopefully I’ll get a batch going soon.
Another vote for turkey. When I was a kid in the 50s, my mom roasted turkey in a paper bag. It filled the house with delicious smoke, all day.
I cooked a pork shoulder roast the other day, 8 hours at 200F. At the end, turned up the heat to brown it and roast some veggies to go with it. Yum. Warming, indeed.
Beans keep the house warm *after *the meal.
Ham, Standing Rib Roast, Collard Greens
I was going to say ham as well. Plus, if you glaze it, it makes the whole house smell really good.
Never heard of that. I roast mine in a plastic bag now. Phe-fucking-nomenal!
Why? Never mind…I finally got that one. Whoosh! LOLOLOLOLOLOL