Cooking Forward:  Cook Once, Eat Two, Three, Four or More Times!

Today I want to introduce you to one of my favorite “semi-make ahead” cooking techniques that we will be exploring in detail in many upcoming recipes here at Cheri On  Ice.  I call it “Cooking Forward” and it’s the ultimate culinary multi-tasking technique that will help you make the most out of your time in the kitchen.

Here’s how it works:  you make more food than what you need, then turn the leftovers (I prefer to call it “Forward … Read more

Preparing the Big Holiday Dinner?  Your Freezer Can Help!

Your freezer can take the stress out of preparing big formal holiday dinners.   With a little advance planning and preparation, the entire meal, save for entrée, can be prepared well ahead of the big event.  All busy holiday cooks need to do is pop the turkey, ham, or roast in the oven, toss a salad, and heat and serve the rest.  Dinner guests will marvel at how you did it all and still had time to mingle.

One of the … Read more

Imagine how impressed family and friends will be when you present a homemade pie that even has a delicious, flaky homemade crust!  You can do it with my easy food processor pie dough recipe and with your freezer’s help, all the work will be done ahead of time.

Pie crusts freeze exceptionally well in their unbaked state.  You can either roll out the dough and form it into a crust and freeze crust and pie pan together.  Alternately, freeze disks of dough you can thaw and roll out later.  Either … Read more

I’m so excited to be included in this month’s Sierra Magazine‘s “The Green Life” column.  The magazine called a few moths ago because they were doing an article on the best and most environmentally friendly mircowavable meals by polling various food “experts” for their recommendations.

Well no store bought frozen food is as good as homemade food you make yourself from scratch.  You can still enjoy heat and eat convenience  with better flavor, more healthful ingredients, and a far smaller carbon footprint than with commercially produced frozen foods.  Of … Read more

Freezing meats in marinades is an old camper’s trick – the frozen meat and marinade helps keep the cooler chest cool (in addition to other ice, never depend just on the frozen meat), and by the time it starts to thaw, all the campers need to do is throw it on the grill to cook.

Having meats frozen in marinades can be handy for home cooks as well.  Just thaw the package (either in the refrigerator, in the microwave, or using the cold water method*) and all you need to … Read more

The Blog By Lander Sea Food Tales recently did a very complimentary  review of my book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Easy Freezer Meals (2011 Alpha Books).

If you haven’t already discovered it, Debi Lander’s blog is a wonderful mix of creative recipes along with restaurant reviews and ramblings, frequently about all the wonderful places its travel writer editor visits.

This particular posts deals with my book and how Debi is using it to help her college age daughter, living on her own for the first time, get used to … Read more

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Easy Freezer Meals (2011 Alpha Books)  has been garnering some press attention from newspapers and food blogs.  The links below will let you check out what people are saying along with some of the recipes from the book.  Also look for Cheri’s microwavable meal tips and recipe in the September issue of Sierra Magazine.

Party in the Freezer — The St. Joseph Press did an interview with Cheri about the benefits of freezer cooking, especially when it comes to entertaining.  This article also includes … Read more

Why cook for the freezer?

Over the coming weeks, months, and years, we’ll explore the many reason why, but let’s start with the most common reason people indulge in this culinary activity:

It Saves Time!

Now I can already hear some folks in the crowd starting to whine about they don’t have time to do all that planning and shopping to cook for a week or a month at a time.  To which I reply: You don’t have to.

How to plan for freezer cooking is the most common question … Read more

Today’s recipe is kinda mine, but comes courtesy of my longtime internet friend Amanda Formaro of Amanda’s Cookin’.

Amanda just got my new book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Easy Freezer Meals (2011, Alpha Books) and decided to give the Breakfast Burrito recipe a try since breakfast is the meal most frequently skipped by her busy family.  She made some changes to my original sausage and green chile formula to suit her family’s tastes.  The results sound and look delicious.

Instead of posting the recipe here, I’m going to … Read more

NOTE: For anyone who missed the Tweetchat on freezer cooking, you can read a summary here!

Join Cheri, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Easy Freezer Meals, for a Tweetchat on Thursday,May 12, 2011 at 2:15 PM Central Time (3:15 East Coast Time, 12:15 Pacific Time).

This is your chance to get your freezer cooking questions answered. What foods freeze well, which do not, how long to keep frozen foods and anything else you want to know about freezer cooking!

Search #AskCIG on Twitter to participate.

See you … Read more