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This & That...
I was going to tell you about freezing ginger root; when you buy it, peel it or scrape it, put it into a plastic bag and freeze it. It stays for ever fresh and grates easily even when frozen. Even better. And then I came across an article about freezing things, which really tells us an awful lot which we already know! We all cook and freeze things; you know that I have a mania of not chucking food out, so I have all sorts of things, in every size, in my freezer! It all gets used, if not in a veggie, then in a soup! Nothing is ever thrown out. OH! By the way, I always forget to tell you how to "resuscitate" toast! When you have toast left over, you can freeze it, or not - depends when you want to use it again!... But what you do with it is wet it under running water, dry it on paper towels and re-toast it! Comes out a fresh toast!

Right, back to freezing things; the article tells us that the most important thing is to wrap up anything you freeze in proper bags or air tight containers. I have to label my stuff - even the smallest one - even though I have a small freezer and think that I will remember... We all forget. I defrosted chicken for dinner tonight; turns out to be turkey wings!... The label fell off... (Remember? We made them in Column 433)... I did something very good with them; I defrosted them. I had sliced tomatoes with onion, which I served three days running for lunch (and they just did not go)! I was also missing mayonnaise, so I made mayo. After I removed the mayo from the processor, I added the tomatoes to what was left over, crushed them to a pulp and into a hot pan they went, plus some salt-pepper and a tablespoon of Knorr's Chilli Sauce... I added the sauce from the wings, mixed it very well, added the wings, covered the pan and just left it there for an hour on a very small flame. I flipped them once after half an hour. Over wheat mixed with green peas - the L&M declared it a very special meal! Extraordinary sauce, said he...

Back to freezing stuff: I have never frozen fruit, but Jane Hornby says in that article, that you should put slices or whole berries over large lined sheets, freeze the fruit until solid, then bag it and label it. Elementary... I watched the other day somebody put mixed frozen berries into a bowl and cover them with a hot sauce made out of white chocolate and cream... She went into ecstasy tasting it... Turned me off completely! But hey! You may enjoy it. Did you ever run out of milk? It happened to us this past week; not a drop at home. I even used up the emergency "long shelf" one!... Milk freezes very well! Always keep a plastic bottle as a "back-up" in your freezer, advises Ms. Hornby. And more and more... Out of the dozens which she suggests and we know, she actually claims that everything can be frozen. Egg yolks and egg whites, though not together! Grated cheese freezes very well! Flavored butters, any juice or even just zest of lemons or oranges will be fine! But it must be done properly - in closed containers. She also advises that a freezer will work more efficiently if it is full. And this, she suggests, as a "special": "Potatoes, pre-boiled, tossed in oil and then frozen, make the best roasties"!

Remember our adventures with brussels-sprouts?... A reader send me her favorite recipe: "I roast (actually bake) them in the oven in a big pan on which I put a sheet of baking paper (parchment paper) coat the brussels sprouts with a mixture of balsamic vinegar, a little bit of olive oil, coarse salt, a pinch of sugar. After a while I add a few peeled and halved shallots, and a few garlic cloves sliced and thrown around (I don't put them in at the beginning of the baking, so as not to burn them). Comes out really good. I don't cook them at all; just take straight out of the freezer and bake them as above.".

I made something really great the other day; we both were dying for something sweet and there was nothing - absolutely nothing. The L&M has discovered all my hiding places and all the hidden chocolate and cookies were gone. We had half a "halla" left over, so I cut two very thick slices about 2 cm. thick. One quite large, the other a bit more lady-like... I smashed an egg in about half a cup of milk, put the two slices into a flat dish, poured the egg-mix over them, made sure that both sides were soaked and into the fridge they went for a couple of hours. Then I baked them! Yes. Did NOT fry them (as you usually do French Toast!...) but baked them until they turned golden brown. I took a yogurt and mixed it with 2 tabls. of peanut butter and 1 tabls. of honey; poured that over the toast... Ambrosia!

And, by the way, don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia !

Send your questions to The Wacky Cook: email: POOP_1@netvision.net.il      

Debbie Morgenstern is the author of "My Life in Israel" and other short stories.