A couple weeks ago, back during the "Baking Season" Aldi's had 10-pound bags of white potatoes on sale for $1.79. Not $1.79 a pound, but $1.79 total. No way I could pass that kind of price up and not stock upon some taters. I bought 5 bags, or 50lbs.
Since I don't have a root cellar and I haven't really gotten into trying burying potatoes in a dirt pile or any other way to keep them fresh for months and months, I have to be able to preserve them.
My Mom has a friend that cans them, and I plan to try that sometime - because canned jars of food can be stored on shelves so I don't have to worry about it if the electric goes out or my freezer breaks down - but for now I'm just sticking with my tried and true method of flash freezing.
Also, with freezing I can just take out as much as I want and leave the rest for later. With canned stuff, once you open the can you have to use the contents.
The majority of things I cook use cubed potatoes - tater salad, mashed potatoes, vegetable soup and J makes home fries, so cubed potatoes it is.
Sometimes I also make french fries, and you can also bake/grate potatoes for hashbrowns, but I haven't tried those yet.
So I peel, cube, and partially boil the potatoes. Then I drain them, spread them on a pan, and put them in the freezer uncovered for a couple of hours.
After flash freezing, put the potatoes in a freezer baggie and into the freezer.
I usually bang the pan on the counter to loosen the potatoes from the pan, and use a spatula to pry the rest off.
Last year I had gotten a great price on some potatoes that turned out to be ginormous sized potatoes. Like, as long as my size 6.5 (US) foot and some even longer than that.
We liked baked potatoes sometimes, too, and I was lamenting having to cut all the perfect baked-potato sized potatoes into fries and cubes. So I went online to see if I could freeze baked potatoes.
I found recipes for Twice Baked or Loaded potatoes that you can freeze.
I made them, flash froze them, and tossed them into a freezer bag. Because they are frozen solid, the mushy stuff isn't messed up by them all being tossed in together.
I can cook one or two for lunch, or four or five for all us for supper.
Cupcakes are another thing you can flash freeze and toss into a freezer bag for later.
Sadly, I don't have a lot of knowledge (or common sense) when it comes to kitchen stuff/cooking. Unless I'm told certain things, I don't have a clue. Freezing is one of those things.
I used to want a bite of cake every so often, but I'd hate making cakes or cupcakes because we never would eat it all before they went bad and I'd end up having to throw a good bit of it out.
I eventually learned you could freeze cake layers (and other breads), so I'd make a one-layer cake and freeze the other.
It was later on, when I first learned about flash freezing that I learned you could actually frost your cupcake, flash freeze them, and toss them into a freezer baggie all willy-nilly and keep them frozen.
When you want one, or four, for a snack or after-dinner dessert, just sit it out to thaw to room temperature for awhile.
I put a couple of cupcakes into a rubbermaid container and send to work with J or Ryan, and they are thawed and just like fresh by the time they're ready to eat them.
One time instead of making the usual one-layer cake, to be funny I decided to make a half of a cake. And it was funny. Hilarious that I was actually asked, "How did you do that?"
Another thing I learned you could flash freeze is biscuits (sorry, no photos).
J had come home from work, and someone had brought a bag of the frozen biscuits you can buy at the grocery store, and he wanted to get some because making them was too much trouble. The bag of frozen biscuits were awfully expensive, and I thought, "I think I can make those myself". So I mixed up a batch of Grannie's biscuits and instead of baking them, put the pan in the freezer. Couple hours later, frozen biscuits, ready to pop into the oven.
The moral of this post is, you can use your freezer to save you money by stocking up on items when you find them cheap, or DIY'ing your own convenience foods.
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