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I share @blue_dolphin's question, but will reply reserving the right to revise upon more information: I would just make whatever regular sauce, leave it on the runniest side (or add water back in if you've boiled it down); and then freeze it in ice cube trays (or, whatever!). A sauce that is constituted primarily of pureed green vegetables is to turn an unappetizing color. It is, however, going to taste great. You might want to boil off any excess water on the reheating side, if it doesn't occur naturally . **[you guys. I am Not a Chef. This is how we do things up in here in this home. I think Those of Us Who Are Chefs may feel differently -- specifically maybe are horrified -- at the notion of adding back in water to be boiled out later, repeated boiling, etc.] I had hoped that the Vivian Howard recipe was actually more like a sautee, particularly since she calls for spring-roll wrappers which are quite thin. But, alas no. She's talking 2 quarts of oil, so you are correct that the intention is to deep fry. I'm taking the Fifth, I mean the rosary, on my intake of the fat in fried food . . . .

Do you have a favorite recipe for the Pavlova base? I've always wanted to try it

I know you didn’t ask me, but I’m curious. Can you give us some examples of casseroles that use a separate sauce? I don’t think I’ve had one with a separate sauce, let alone two sauces.

@SLB, do you do anything special about sauces which go in the freezer? With a casserole, I think there ought to be a sauce. Or maybe two, to add some variety to the batch.

Very gracious (blush). Your post is full of most helpful information, and thanks to the pointer to rutabaga recipe. Sadly, I'm afraid of deep frying – what if I liked it? I suppose the people who deep fry regularly know how to minimize the volume of fat in finished coating . . .

I bought a new pump and motor assembly, as I was unable to get a pump for mine. My machine was made in 2015, at some point between then and now, vacmaster revised the machine, to make it cheaper to produce. Mine had a rather large induction motor coupled to a rotary vane vacuum pump, pretty clearly purpose built. the exhaust from the pump went through tubes, through a couple filters (to capture the oil that's in the exhaust) and out the bottom of the machine. The new pump and motor are a lightly modified HVAC service vacuum pump, which doesn't mount the same way as the old one, I had to drill holes in the base plate to mount it. Also means the oil level sight glass isn't really visible from the outside. It's substantially smaller, much louder, and has a fair bit of vibration. Exhaust is through a pump mounted filter, and into the inside the machine. If new machines are like that, I'd be looking at alternatives. Claimed power is lower, but it seems to be sucking at least as well as it used to. We'll see if I have to adjust cycle times.

Thanks for your generous wishes! No, no diet restrictions. Edited to add: But I do have a tendency to do some sameness. Right now I'm filling individual tin pie plates with a casseroley concoction: cooked meat, starch, garlic, onion, some veg. Sigh.

I also was thinking about dinner x 2. Once upon a time DH was the main dinner cook, but not for some time. Breakfast for me is toast. Lunch is easy if I have homemade bread (machine). 😃

Baked oatmeal feezes well and can be very nutritious. There are tons of recipes out there but I made this recipe when I was on WW but you could certainly use whole milk and 2 whole eggs and even add nuts for extra protein. https://emilybites.com/2013/09/apple-cinnamon-baked-oatmeal-singles.html. Great grab and go breakast or lunch. I used to take them to work and have one with a serving of cottage cheese and some fruit. They are quite filling.

Charred sweet potatoes with garlic & herb labne and Calabrian chile crisp. From Samin Nosrat’s Good Things. I used the purple-skin, white-flesh Japanese sweet potatoes. They’re charred after cooking (I steamed them) by placing them directly on a gas burner for 5-7 min. Not the same as being cooked buried in the coals but the skin is crispy and the flesh underneath has some of that same delicious roasted flavor.

I looked back through the Dutch Oven Cookbook for Two (hadn't looked at it in a while, so I wasn't sure what all is in there). Here are the best candidates, I'd say: Any of the three chili recipes Short rib soup West African chicken peanut soup Chicken and dumplings Chicken and sausage gumbo Beef daube Hoisin braised beef (you can do this with pork shoulder too, which is less expensive) Lamb shanks and chickpeas I'll post later on the other books.

Bourbon Barrel Aged Zinfandel. One of best I've tried here in Tucson

I had a container of soup lingering in our office freezer for a really long time. Probably a year. Finally defrosted/heated it today, I had sort of forgotten what it actually was. I had made soup (chicken broth) with some leftover Greek salad and grilled veg, greens (likely romaine), grape tomatoes, chickpeas, grilled zucchini and red pepper and a little feta (which had disintegrated, but added good flavor to the broth). Thank goodness for the little tomatoes and red pepper strips, it was sort of olive greenish, but it was actually very tasty!

I confess that there is basically nothing that I won't put into the freezer. Of your dairy-ingredient list, I've routinely frozen everything on their except for the condensed/evaporated milk (I certainly would, I just don't ever have any of that leftover). Actually, I can't recall freezing cream, either -- I only ever get the ultrapasteurized stuff and it lasts a VERY LONG TIME in the fridge. I've certainly frozen foods made with substantial amounts of cream, for what that's worth. The sour cream/yoghurt don't thaw into something soft and spreadable, but you can cook with them fine. The buttermilk comes back grainy but no issues is cooking with it. Also -- I honestly don't know anything at all about oat/nut milk. I can't imagine not freezing it, though. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single cooked dish that I wouldn't put right into the freezer. It doesn't always come back the same, but to blue_dolphin's point upthread -- the taste is usually fine. The only thing to remember, in my experience, is that the freezer is going to dry out stuff (at least stuff in regular zip-locs and containers, this may be less likely in vac-sealed items); so in anticipation of this I usually add in some more liquid to the thing, where doing so isn't ruinous (like with breads or whatever). My point is -- I have thrown basically everything into the freezer, and managed to restore it to reasonably edible on the other side. In fairness, the truth is I'll eat almost anything, so I'm not the best judge of what's intolerable on reheat. But I guess I want to encourage you -- I mean if you don't find something satisfying in terms of a dedicated book or thread -- I want to encourage you to make whatever food you have historically found to be palatable when you don't feel like eating, and just stick it in the freezer in serving portions. Meanwhile, in a totally random manner, I was looking at the rutabaga section in "Deep Run Roots", and in the recipe for rutabaga and black-eyed-pea samosas, Howard states that you can make a large batch to freeze, and fry them right out of the freezer. I thought the recipe sounded good and one always needs some tasty fiber when mobility is limited. It's at p. 474. **I do realize that frying food is not always an option for folks who are convalescing or otherwise dealing with limited mobility -- but maybe you can get a friend to do the frying. I am one of these people who can sink into a pit of despair when stuck in the bed, and I am also one of these people for whom fried food fixes almost everything . . . . Anyway, I'm sorry that you're having to deal with what seems like could be a major health intervention. I wish you luck with everything, look forward to being on the cheer team over here, and like JeanneCake I wish I lived closer and could bring over some not-frozen food, and also some flowers. xoSLB

@RWood, I love the idea of the mixed olives. Beautiful loaves.

Scrambled eggs and ham, with crumbled feta and sauteed white onion and Fresno chiles. Using up leftover ham from the recent holiday meal.

LOL He sounds like my GF, in that respect. She prefers her cheese sauce, gravy, chowder, etc to be thick and stodgy. ...I do not.

A simple carrot salad from Good Things. Kind of a riff on the classic carrot-raisin salad. This one tosses the carrots with dates, fresh ginger, garlic, ground cumin, cilantro and pickled Thai chiles, then adds a quick dressing of olive oil, lime juice, chile vinegar (from the Thai chiles) and salt. I piled the salad on a bed of baby kale that I dressed with the same dressing. This wasn’t a meal salad, I had it alongside a salmon burger for lunch.

Salad (sigh) and SV'd lamb chops Italian stuffed peppers and cooked to death green beans SO tired of making the same things so I did Drunken Noodles with shrimp (noodles were shirataki) and a cucumber carrot salad with a lime juice/honey/rice vinegar/sesame oil/chili pepper dressing. Had to go out to eat for lunch and took home some uneaten fried mushrooms--reheated them in the air fryer and I was really impressed. Ronnie liked them better than the first go around because they were nice a crisp. Air fryer is probably getting a permanent place on my ever dwindling counter space. Deviled eggs, shrimp scampi and SV'd steaks also

Tuscan rice pudding tarts... They weren't remarkably different from any other rice pudding tart I've made. The filling is a 50:50 mix of rice pudding and pastry cream, which I thought might lighten things, but I can't say it was a revelation. Still, they were pleasant little bites. Recipe here.

You're right. I do eat leftover cooked vegetables straight from the fridge cold with no sauce or anything...but Ed would never do this. In fact, he constantly complains...and it's one of the few things he actually complains about...that the cheese sauce which I make and which he slathers all over whatever vegetable it is..is too thin. (It has enough flour and cornstarch and cheese to sink the proverbial ship. )

I'd do the beans, too. They're easy and when you doctor them up like you do they're excellent.

Maybe I am not as sensitive to taste changes, but I eat vegetable leftovers from the fridge all the time and don’t seem to detect enough of a change in taste to stop me from enjoying. Cheesy broccoli and cauliflower are still great a couple of days later. Air fryer roasted green beans, broccoli, and cauliflower aren’t especially good as leftovers, but I never have that problem because I air fry my serving size and eat them all! Are you worried that green beans won’t hold up well for the CFM? I don’t plan on cooking them two days ahead.

What cooked vegetable with what sauce or trimming will keep its taste and texture and general deliciousness after sitting for a day or two in a fridge?

Please thank Ed for his choice! Not sure what you mean in the second statement?