Krista asked for suggestions regarding freezing foods. Something
that we've found to work very well is to make a large (double) batch
of basic spaghetti sauce and freeze the sauce in heavy duty plastic
zipper bags in amounts just right for two servings. The bags work
really well for several reasons: you can squeeze out all the air and
cut down on freezer burn and crystals, and you can fit the bags into
the nooks and crannies of tight freezer space. However, it helps to
have 2 people for the filling process - even though I can usually
manage to prop the bags up open on the counter, as you start filling
them they tend to sag and droop and spill. There are several defrost
options: wrap the frozen bag in a kitchen towel and put it in the fridge
24-12 hours before you want to use the sauce; or set the still zippered
bag in a bowl of really hot tap water for 1/2 an hour and squeeze the
bag about every 10 minutes and change the water when it gets too cold;
or unzip and peel or cut away the bag and pop the frozen sauce into a
pan then cover and put on really low heat and add a little water if it
doesn't melt fast enough. When reheating, if you've started with a basic
sauce, you can add different things to it each time you use a bag to
make it a little different. Like add hot sauce one time, veggie the next,
TVP the next, etc.
Kim Allen
Baltimore, Maryland
KimAllen@xxxxxxx
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