Freezer Sessions 2018...

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Minta

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We are having an early Thanksgiving dinner with my dad and his wife this Saturday so I am planning on making stock from the turkey bones Sunday. I want to freeze half to use for Thanksgiving and use the other half to make turkey vegetable soup for our lunches next week. I currently have the bones from a turkey breast in the freezer now so I will make stock with that Friday night to use Saturday. I am really thinking about picking up another chest freezer for the garage. We have a 7 cubic ft one now but I would like to get another one the same size or a bit smaller so I can make meals to freeze. Will have to see if there are any deals on Black Friday if not I will get one come spring.
 

Miss JoDee

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So big question are you baking what you are making before you freeze? I have egg sausage casseroles, I not sure if I should bake ahead or not. It is a 6 hour drive to the location of the wedding. I am thinking of just preparing the components and completing it there or baking ahead of time. I have monkey bread too. Any suggestions?
 
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Cindylouwho

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DS is starving due to mom spending too much time decluttering. He would like me to refocus on this particular thread! ;)
 

Holiday_Mom

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Thanks Holiday Mom, maybe this weekend I can give it a try.

Pecan turtles have been on my mind. I could make them closer to christmas. They would make nice gifts. Something to consider because neither one of us needs them and I know we would be in them all the time

You're welcome! LOL about going after the pecan turtles. There is always so kind of dessert/snack that just should not be in the house or it will be completely consumed before the guests get to it.
 

Holiday_Mom

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So big question are you baking what you are making before you freeze? I have egg sausage casseroles, I not sure if I should bake ahead or not. It is a 6 hour drive to the location of the wedding. I am thinking of just preparing the components and completing it there or baking ahead of time. I have monkey bread too. Any suggestions?

Hmmm... I have made an egg casserole, baked it and then cut it up into individual servings and froze it. We defrosted just enough pieces to microwave before heading out on a 12 hour drive. We were fine with that.

If you baked it ahead of time, then would you be able to reheat it? How much time between your arrival and the serving of the casserole?

If you prepared the components individually, then made it there, would you have a place to make it, bake it and would you have enough time? Do you have a way of keep the ingredients cold while traveling?

Hopefully, someone else can chime in on this!
 
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Holiday_Mom

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I am really thinking about picking up another chest freezer for the garage. We have a 7 cubic ft one now but I would like to get another one the same size or a bit smaller so I can make meals to freeze. Will have to see if there are any deals on Black Friday if not I will get one come spring.

I'm trying to find the balance with having meals in the freezer that I can use for the quick dinner nights and then making dishes/cookies up head for the holidays. It's been harder this fall versus other years. My deep freezer is currently stuffed. I have to eat out of it before I can do any more baking or make ahead dinner. Days like this, I would like an extra freezer.
 
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Minta

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I'm trying to find the balance with having meals in the freezer that I can use for the quick dinner nights and then making dishes/cookies up head for the holidays. It's been harder this fall versus other years. My deep freezer is currently stuffed. I have to eat out of it before I can do any more baking or make ahead dinner. Days like this, I would like an extra freezer.

Yeah My chest freezer 3/4 fill right now too. I stock up on meats when I find a great deal as we go through a lot of meats in our house. I got to make more room soon to store 2 turkeys as our local grocery store runs a promotion in Nov where you can get a free turkey when you spend more then $100 in one shopping trip, and they run this for 3 weeks. There is no limit so during those 3 weeks my mother I combine our shopping trips so we can get 3 free turkeys, one for thanksgiving, one for Christmas and an extra one just to have. Every year I never have enough room to do a lot of big freezer meals or cookie dough that's why I am thinking about a 2nd freezer .. just for freezer meals and cookie dough :)
 
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Miss JoDee

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Hmmm... I have made an egg casserole, baked it and then cut it up into individual servings and froze it. We defrosted just enough pieces to microwave before heading out on a 12 hour drive. We were fine with that.

If you baked it ahead of time, then would you be able to reheat it? How much time between your arrival and the serving of the casserole?

If you prepared the components individually, then made it there, would you have a place to make it, bake it and would you have enough time? Do you have a way of keep the ingredients cold while traveling?

Hopefully, someone else can chime in on this!
We have rented a house (VRBO) so I will have access to a kitchen. It is for brunch the next day I prefer it hot and bubbly from the oven rather than reheated.
 

Myron's Mom

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You have been doing awesome, Myron's Mom!!! I'm going to be grinding up pecans, myself, for kieffles that I'll be baking and freezing. I really will have to eat one too - just to make sure they are ok.

Made cheesecake crust last night and have it chilling. Will make the cheesecake tonight and then get that in the freezer! :D

Thanks! I finished my grandma Muich's Christmas cookies (Seeses cookies) and they are safe in the freezer. My husband had several just to make sure they were ok!
We make kieffles ( or kifli as my grandma would say). I know there are tons of variations of them. We use ground walnuts but pecans sounds even better. And our dough has yeast in it.
Cheesecake!! That sounds like a terrific idea :)
 

sweetpumkinpye

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Made 8 batches of soup over the weekend and have placed in the freezer. I will use these as quick meals over the next few months for days when I am a bit busy doing other things. I will just need to remember to pull it out the morning of.
 

Holiday_Mom

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We have rented a house (VRBO) so I will have access to a kitchen. It is for brunch the next day I prefer it hot and bubbly from the oven rather than reheated.

I think I would bring the individual prepared components in a cooler and put it all together at the rental house and bake it at the rental house. If you have one of those insulated casserole carriers, I would use that. Otherwise, I think you'd do fine with putting bath towels in a large cooler and then putting the Pyrex casserole dishes, layered on top of each other with a cookie sheet. (The towels protect the bottom and sides of the cooler from the heat.) It should transport okay. I've done this with Pyrex casserole dishes when I transport meals to youth group.

If you do this, I'd try all this out a few days before hand to make sure the casserole dishes would fit in your cooler. It'll give you time to make necessary adjustments and rethink options on how things would get transported that day.
 
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AuntJamelle

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Got a Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake baked and frozen this weekend!

Also baked and froze another batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies! We ate some - ok several - but there are still plenty left for camping this week!
 

Minta

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Got a big batch of turkey stock in the frig. Need to grab some containers tonight so I can get the stock into the freezer.
 
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Holiday_Mom

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I've taken some of the food from the deep freezer and brought it upstairs to the kitchen freezer. I made two trays of Baked Ziti, 10 lbs of mashed potatoes, 2.5 lbs of creamed spinach, and 4 lbs of mashed sweet potatoes. They are safely tucked into the deep freezer with little room to spare. We'll be eating out of the upstairs freezer for the rest of the week so I can make more space there.
 

Myron's Mom

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Christmas soup is done and in the freezer. I have one more chicken in the freezer for soup. I have plenty of parsley root, but ran out of celery and carrots. (My husband got into them.) I need to pick up sausage for potato soup anyways.
 
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luludou

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Holiday mom never tried frozen mashed potatoes.

Myron's mom what is in your Christmas soup?
 

horsemama

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You all sound like great cooks! I haven't put up too much this year, but I did freeze some green beans. I want to freeze some chili for busy day meals. I like to mix cookie dough ahead and I'm going to try freezing it. And I want to freeze some Oreo truffles. Love those. And I have some potatoes to put up. I prefer to can those, but my sister says she cut up potatoes and put in freezer bags to freeze. When I tried to freeze uncooked potatoes in the past they turned black. I've frozen cooked mashed potatoes and they were fine. Anybody ever tried to freeze uncooked potatoes? I think I should take the time to can them.
 

sweetpumkinpye

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horsemama, have never frozen uncooked potato. I wonder if you google it what the directions might be. I would be interested in finding out.
 

Myron's Mom

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Holiday mom never tried frozen mashed potatoes.

Myron's mom what is in your Christmas soup?
Our Christmas soup is just a plain old fashion chicken noodle. My grandma always made for the holidays with very fine homemade noodles. The soup is just a fatty chicken, celery, carrots, onion, doll, and parsley root.

I have never froze raw potato. I wonder how they would be vaccum sealed or froze in some water? Or maybe blanched? Good question.
 
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horsemama

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When I google freezing potatoes, it says to blanche, rinse in ice water, let dry, then pack and freeze. I'm seeing my sister tonight...I'm going to ask her what she did. I'll let you know. :)
 
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