When I cook it is nice to have someone else do all the tedious chopping, mincing and measuring the flavoring part of my dish. When I go it alone, as is usually the case, I have incorporated a few nifty ideas into my storage of herbs and other things most often used in my cooking. I try to calculate approximately how much of a fresh herb I would generally use throughout the winter. I would rather use fresh herbs as opposed to dry ones. Some such as hot chili peppers I prefer dry.
I make a list of herbs to grow in the garden. That usually consists of oregano, parsley, basil, sage, rosemary and thyme. When the herbs are ready to use I pick them, cut them up and freeze them. I use metal ice cube trays and put 2-tablespoons of chopped herb into each cubicle and fill the entire tray with water and place it in the freezer. When the tray is solidly frozen I take the herb filled cubes out and place them in freezer bags and label how much of what herb is in each cube.
I do the same thing with green, red, yellow and orange sweet bell peppers. It is real easy to just reach in the freezer and pick out what herb I need for my dish and toss it into the pot. Another thing I put into ice cube trays is flour and butter. I mix equal parts of flour and melted butter and fill trays. One ice cubicle holds enough butter mixture to thicken one cup of milk as for a white sauce. I just heat the milk up and let the frozen butter and flour slowly dissolve and the milk will thicken just right.
I freeze celery leaves and chives too. I make a colorful white sauce with the frozen peppers as for chicken a la king. There is a host of other things to freeze to make life in the kitchen easier. I have mentioned only a few of my favorites. You will come up with more of your own.
Everything I write about is from personal observation and life experiences. I love to cook and prepare foods in different ways. I like sharing my experiences about food and cooking. My website pothaven.com pothaven.com was created because of my interest in quality cookware and cooking.
