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The Cold, Hard Facts Of Freezing Dinner Leftovers

Photo by LYNN KESSEL

This basic waffle recipe will leave you with a plate full of light, tasty and crispy waffles. To simplify your morning, make the batter the night before. These waffles freeze beautifully, too, making it easy to have a special breakfast during the week.

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By LYNN KESSEL

Tribune correspondent

Published: February 4, 2009

Lately, the nasty economy has my freezer bulging at the seams. Once an icy burial ground for storing mysterious foil-wrapped chunks and lots of frozen yogurt, it was a no-man's land of leftovers.

Now the pendulum has swung the other way. My freezer's logging more miles than a traveling salesman.

I fess up to having been kind of a knucklehead when it came to freezer management. I always had good intentions of removing and consuming all those unidentified objects - eventually.

These days, I'm hunkering down to old-fashioned home economics - the habits used by my parents and grandparents.

Before I toss out leftovers, cake wrecks, vegetable peels or extra tomato sauce, I consider what role they might play for a future meal, event or emergency.

Recently, I tinkered with several recipes for red velvet cake, two of which turned out good but not great. Toss them? No.

I put the cakes into a large bowl and then using a fork, I transformed them into crumbs, which I dropped into freezer bags. My leftover cake scraps now may be used at a later date for truffles or a trifle, or perhaps sprinkled over a frosted cake.

Attached to the side of my fridge is a handy tool for freezer storage - a $2 Sharpie. Instead of throwing anonymous packages into deep storage, I jot the date and contents on freezer bags, giving each a positive ID.

I've done some research and found items you may not realize can be frozen safely - for example, dairy products. When you find milk, butter or cheese at a good price at the supermarket, you CAN stock up. Freeze milk in the carton, and when you're ready to use it, thaw in the refrigerator. Be sure to stir or shake before serving.

You might want to pack cheese in a zipper-topped freezer bag before freezing. Shredded cheese can be added to recipes without thawing.

On a recent Saturday morning, I was getting ready to pour my favorite waffle recipe and the electricity cut off. My first thought, other than it was a darn good thing my coffee was heated, was that I might need to rethink my grandiose freezing habits. There's not much use for a freezer when the power's out!

QUICK AND EASY WAFFLES

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

11/2 cups milk

2 eggs

4 tablespoons (a half stick) butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

Canola or other neutral oil for brushing waffle iron

Brush the waffle iron lightly with oil and preheat it. Combine dry ingredients. Mix together the milk and eggs, and then stir in the butter and vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. If the mixture seems too thick to pour, add a little more milk.

Depending on the size of your waffle iron, spread a half-cup or so of batter onto the waffle iron and bake until the waffle is done, usually 3 to 5 minutes. Serve immediately or keep warm for a few minutes in a low oven.

Source: Adapted from "How to Cook Everything," by Mark Bittman (MacMillan).

Lynn Kessel can be reached at lkessel@mac.com or P.O. Box 913, Ruskin FL 33575-0913. For more of her recipes, visit southshore .tbo.com and enter the search words: Lynn Kessel. Readers are encouraged to send in their favorite recipes, comments and suggest

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