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What was the sauce? Cream with or without cheese, or tomato?

Hi @JAZ, I have Dutch Oven Dinners Dutch Oven Cookbook for two Instant Pot obsession The Ultimate Instant Pot Cookbook for two Super-Easy Instant Pot Cookbook Thanks for offering to recommend some freezable recipes.

There may be science behind it but not much in the way of reality. We are still eating frozen stuff that I froze almost two years just before my condition went south almost overnight. And they all seem fine. However, I'm not recommending the situation. It's a strange feeling, reading all these great posts about planning for surgery and steps to take to get ready for meals post surgery. I made no plans for post surgery and ensuing problems...I had no idea that I'd be sidelined so quickly and so completely...thus the eating of meals frozen two years ago. Since the children left home many years ago, this is pretty much the way we've always cooked. I guess that's why Ed is still finding the odd uneaten meal in our freezers...yes we have multiple freezers. I could add that my wonderful overworked husband, Ed, has pretty much done all the food prep and cooking all this time...although this week I did make a new dish, Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls, and three meals are now in the freezer.

Thanks for this topic, @Smithy. When selecting/preparing food to be frozen, what's the best suitability between milk evaporated or condensed milk dried milk butter cream sour cream or crème fraîche buttermilk yogurt cheese, various varieties thereof, including cream cheese ice cream and are there different freezing characteristics between dairy animals: cows, goats, sheep, buffaloes nut based milks I.e. How to adjust dairy components for the freezer.

I found this site that has some guidelines and a cheatsheet to show adaptations. I'm not sure how good the suggestions are, as I haven't used it. Freezer Meals 101 I know many people who do "meal planning" where they cook one day and pack up meals for freezing. You might try looking for some of those websites, as it is rather popular with many busy moms/caretakers.

I've been fortunate to have my sister come to take care of me and feed me the couple of times I've been in recovery. My Medicare Advantage insurance provided prepared meals for a week or two after both surgeries, but I don't think my new provider does this. Not that they were wonderful meals. After my hip replacement, for whatever reason, I simply lost my appetite and no matter what it was, it made me sick. My sister would force me to eat. She had surgery a couple of months ago and went through the same thing. I reminded her of her force-feeding me. She said, "Yes. And I'm so sorry I did that to you." Ha! At any rate, soups are always good. Easy on the stomach for the most part and easy to freeze in portions.

First thing I'd like to know is if anyone has any cookbooks, encyclopedia or references about preparing food whose destination is to be frozen. I'm looking for something which says use cornstarch in place of cream, or bread freezes better than if refrigerated, or potatoes will like/dislike being frozen. I want to know the "why" of it. With an encyclopedia , I want to look up a vegetable or food product and find out how it survives when frozen. If the result isn't happy, I want to read what to use as a replacement or alternative. Or, what change in procedure will help. In general, I haven't found any/many printed/online recipes which state destination is to be frozen. And I've not yet discovered one search term that will whittle query results. Some recipes have instructions about cooking part way (up to Step 6) and then refrigerating or freezing the dish. Others say dish can be frozen for 3 weeks. What is the science behind either of those statements?

@Duvel, I had not heard of baking cheese in the container like that. Fascinating! Last night was yet another bagged salad from a kit--I buy this kit when I see it for the little cheddar cheese pretzel balls. They are delicious and I can't seem to find them to buy anywhere. Plus another meatball. I froze the remaining 2 meatballs.

Dates won’t change - we had to cancel one due to Covid. How high up in the organization is this person in Toronto?

Got it! How likely is it that the dates would change or similar? Just thinking about potential personal financial loss here. That sounded way more serious than it is, but you get what I mean, flight tickets etc. 😅 Just remembered that I've met a person who works at Barry Callebaut in Canada. Maybe she works there? Would be fun to say "hello," totally random hah. Edit: nope, she works in Toronto

There was a bowl of things, shredded roast chicken, baby pak choy, vermicelli noodles, crushed peanuts in bone broth. Then, another bowl of things. Laksa with prawns, tofu puffs, rice noodles, more pak choy and toppings. Note a new bag of bean sprouts. Countdown is reset.

*bump* I'm sure I've done this before, but it's been a while. Tonight I cooked the Pimento Cheese Quiche. This is a VERY forgiving dish. It says to put the additions (cheese, pimentos, more cheese) into the baking dish, then pour the egg / cream / spice mixture atop it. Nope. I wasn't paying enough attention, and I reversed the order of the 2nd and 3rd layers. I admit that when I realized I should have poured the egg mixture onto the cheese, instead of the other way around, I spent some time trying to mash the cheese down into the egg mixture. I'm not sure it mattered. Will I bother trying it both ways? I dunno. This is pretty good without worrying about perfection. Mmm, good. Easy. Forgiving.

Yes, the classic came the next day.

A favorite of mine! Met him at a book release event here in Los Angeles, comes across as very modest and humble. The recipes are pretty precise and detail oriented, great book if you are a lover of savory pies!

Iceplant salad with chicken

Last night. Clams with bamboo shoot and Hunan pickled hot 🔥 peppers.

The NYT recently reposted these Salted Margarita Bars... Caveat: I'm not a tequila drinker, and I've never had a margarita, so take my comments with, errrrr, a pinch of salt. The flavours weren't particularly to my taste, but if you're a fan then maybe it'll push your buttons. I was mainly interested in the frozen cream angle, and that I did like. Straight from the freezer it was still soft-ish, kinda like ice cream (frozen custard) with a bit of density/chew. It was 3C/37F here today, so maybe not the best conditions to road test a frozen treat, but for a hot, sunny day, it could well hit the mark. YouTube (where somebody's stuck the recipe in the comments).

They were deep fried in avocado oil in small eight inch wok, I used a small scoop. They were practically grease free, take only 2/3 minutes to cook.

Attendees Chocolot Kerry Beal alleguede curls RanaMN Melani RobertM DianaD Lisa M citowolf - Celia D

Online order for dried morels at Costco, never saw this carried before. It's been a decade since I ordered morels. It's a splurge but 1 lb of dried morels is a lot of morels!

Wise, wise words. No way to say this any better. This is the way.

How did you get those fritters to be so spherical? They look lovely, but not easy to do.

football, any or all of the games today along with Pip's Cinnamon twists . I tried these through Misfit's and we were wowed by them. Out of stock at Misfit's (of course) when I wanted to reorder. I ordered thru website. I tried the Honey BBQ also, not wowed, not bad but eh. Cinnamon are the way to go. Their white cheddar cheese balls are good too but I don't think they're better than local available equivalents.

Woe is me, I've tried to make them last as long as possible, but this is the last pear from a Christmas gift of Harry & David Royal Riviera pears. Juicy, sweet, delicious. The pinnacle of pearness. It nearly melts in my mouth, but it hasn't gone mealy yet. I wish I could have these all the time, but I suppose the ephemeral nature of this wonderful fruit makes it all the more precious.

My advice isn’t specifically about cooking but if I were having surgery, I would be setting up accounts with the grocery delivery and errand running services in my area and trying them out with simple orders. I’ve learned that being already sick or in recovery is not the time to set that stuff up. No amount of advance planning can prepare for all eventualities so it’s wise to have some delivery options in your back pocket. Particularly pharmacy pickup or delivery options. For yourself, make sure you’re set up with easily digestible options that might not be otherwise appealing but can get you through. I keep some of these on hand at all times. I donate and rotate them out periodically. Soft fruits: bananas, applesauce, avocado, pumpkin, canned fruit (packed in water not heavy syrup), and melons Steamed or boiled vegetables: carrots, green beans, potatoes, and squash Low-fiber starches: white bread, white rice, saltine crackers, cream of wheat, instant oatmeal, and noodles Unseasoned skinless baked chicken or turkey, scrambled eggs, yogurt and kefir Drinks: bone broth, apple juice, coconut water, Pedialyte, weak tea If you have friends or neighbors who want to help out with something like a meal train for you or your family, give some thought to how you’d like that to work from your end. People like to help and the more you can guide them, the better. Setting up a clear drop off spot, including a cooler can be a big help.