Snail Spirals

Quick post, because my dad is here visiting again. It seems to be going a bit better this time than when he was here last October and December. We all seem to be a bit less tense.

For me, I think this was helped in great part by a stategy suggested by a couple posts in Kris's blog, which I implemented in the two weeks before he arrived. When you do cook, cook big and put the extras in the freezer, or take an afternoon and just make things to put in the freezer, ready to cook or reheat.

I love it. It's fabulous. In three 2-hour sessions over the course of two weeks, I put four quiche fillings, six meals worth of Alfredo sauce, three meals worth of cheese and sausage stuffed manicotti, three meals worth of citrus-marinated pork chops, a pork stir-fry, four meals worth of Sesame Chicken, a lime-ginger marinated pork loin, and two lemon-ginger marinated steaks in my freezer. Since I was making meals with lots of citrus, I bought the big bags of lemons, limes, and oranges at Costco because they are much cheaper that way, and now have a nice big stash of lemon, lime, and orange zest and lemon and lime juice in the freezer. I didn't juice the leftover oranges- we're eating them fresh. I also bought the cheeses (mozzarella, cheddar, and parmesan) at Costco in the (cheaper) big blocks and they, too, are shredded and ready in the freezer. There is little I hate more than shredding cheese by hand with a box grater, and doing a big block in the food processor is great.

So what that meant for when my dad arrived is that the stress of planning meals is GONE. I've already done the work, I just have to pull a meal out of the freezer in the morning, thaw it in the fridge, and it's ready to cook in the evening. Make a salad, cook some rice or noodles, and there you go!

This kind of planning ahead is not something I've been particularly good at over the course of my life, but I think freezer cooking is great, and I'm feeling very smug...........