Becky Rosenthal - Fast to the Table Freezer Cookbook: Freezer-Friendly Recipes and Frozen Food Shortcuts

To my husband, who eats and loves everything I create; and to Everett, our sweet son and budding foodie who, though he loves a good meal, would rather a quickly prepared meal, and thus has enjoyed my new practice of freezing.

Food is best when shared and even better when thoughtfully prepared in advance.

I have dreamed of a world in which I can bring dinner to a sick friend while simultaneously having a hot meal prepared for my family, fresh cookies in the oven, and the option of feeding anyone who happens to drop by at any time. Somehow this never seems to work. I have, however, discovered a secret to getting closer to making this dream a reality FREEZING MEALS AHEAD OF TIME AND USING FROZEN FOODS TO COOK!

Now, when I make a dish for my family, I double it so that half goes straight to the freezer for either a busy weeknight meal or to take to a friend. The same goes for when Im making muffins, quiche, soup, and pizza. If I have extra soup, Ill pour it into a pint jar and freeze that for a lunch or sick day. Play dates turn into cooking dates with friends so both our kids and the moms have some fun. And free afternoons are taken advantage of with bigger projects such as homemade gnocchi, salted caramel brownies, chicken or beef stock, or saucesall to make weeknight meals easier, all with which to stock the freezer, all because I do still love to cook.

I have also started freezing fresh foods, especially fruits and vegetables when they are at their peak ripeness. If youre a person who shops at a big box store or farmers markets, but finds yourself overwhelmed by the quantities in which the food is sold, you can break down nearly everything to freeze in more reasonable quantities. For example, beef or chicken. You can either cook the meat first and use it in a recipe for enchiladas or pastathis makes for the quickest cooking once youre readyor freeze the cooked meat for future recipes in smaller containers. I have also found making homemade stocks and sauces to be easy and helpful for assembling a quick meal. My recipes use these frozen components to make great dishes.

I used to think people who ate freezer meals were willing to sacrifice taste for convenience. But it can be quite the opposite. I love cooking and sharing food with friends so much that Ive discovered the freezer is the best way to help me accomplish both of these pleasures. Plus, when I use my freezer to store up different components of a recipe, my food ends up tasting even better. My friend Adam opened my eyes to this. He runs his own catering business all by himself and it thrives because he always utilizes his freezer in order to be efficient with his time and to not waste food. If he has extra-ripe bananas, he freezes them mashed up so theyre ready for banana bread pudding, and if he makes a large batch of soup or sauce he makes sure to pack some away for future gigs.

While writing this book, I actually did host several parties on the fly. Ive delivered countless meals to friends and even people I barely know. I now prep for the holidays in early November, making a big batch of Honey Nut Sticky Buns or quiche so that on the mornings of Thanksgiving and Christmas, all I have to do is bake the dishes for a special breakfast. Food, friends, and family are all enjoyed without having to sacrifice any of them.

Just so you know, I also have this obsession with fresh foods. I am a member of a local CSA, so we get farm-fresh produce weekly. We eat seasonally and believe that fresh is best. While in the past Ive enjoyed canning to preserve some of this fresh food, I have now found that freezing to preserve is just as effective and much easier. I now make freezer jam instead of canning it and I dont have to worry about pectin, sugar content, or proper sealing in a water bath. In the late summer, I freeze peach halves to enjoy when we need a little taste of sunshine midwinter, and we always block out an afternoon to make homemade tomato sauce that we can savor throughout the cold season.

Things werent always sunny at our house. Before making this book, I cooked almost every night and when we brought dinner to friends it usually (or almost always) took a toll on my entire family. Just a few months ago, my freezer was literally broken, leaking on one end, with questionable fruit and veggies in partially opened bags, unlabeled frozen meat, and a few unknown leftovers inside. It was constantly defrosting, giving my toddler a small puddle-jumping pond to splash in. The food inside went from frozen to melted and back to frozen again. There was only one good side to all of this perfectly melted ice cream, that point when the ice cream is at just the right cold and creamy temperature.

Well, when I took on this book, I knew I would have to find another way to get my ice cream the perfect consistency because this freezer had to work! Not only had I signed the contract for this book, we were approaching the best harvest of summer and I knew I wanted to save all of the best produce of the year such as that sweet yellow corn and those bright green peas I spotted filling a truck bed at the market.

Luckily, we fixed the freezer just in time to save summer.

In this book, youll find lots of fresh ideas to use for your freezernot just casseroles and bagged frozen foods from the grocery store, but foods that hold onto the flavors of a different season, saving time as you make dinner quicker and more efficiently. And yes, well cover ice cream tooreally, really good ice cream. You can start with stocks and sauces, building a base for future recipes in your freezer, or you can jump right into the recipes, choosing whichever ones sound good to you.

I will tell you that freezing foods, much like eating them, is best when done with others. Grab a few friends and lots of fresh corn and get to work shucking, or make several dishes of enchiladas to deliver to new parents. Youll have bags of corn and platters of enchiladas ready in no time, all done in good company.

A friend recently mailed me a couple of her grandmothers vintage cookbooks. One, titled The Enterprising Housekeeper and published in 1898, asked some surprisingly timely questions: The demand at the present time is not so much to do with new directions for old methods, as for the suggestions and recipes relating especially to the use of time saving left-overs. What to do with food left from the previous meal? How may I use this that my table may be set economically and well? How can I vary the recipes that these left-overs may appear in appetizing and tempting forms for several succeeding meals? For centuries, home cooks have been trying to not be wasteful, saving time and money in the kitchen. Its beautiful how these questions are as relevant today as they were in the late 19th century.