Re: freezing adventures

[Guest guest]

I have been experimenting more with freezing foods with great success-

we naturally have more of a rice menu than a bread menu at our house,

so it takes me a while to eat a whole loaf of bread. Anyway, I slice

loaves and put them in Ziploc gallon freezer bags, then just take

them out and pop them in the toaster. It works great- but what are

the advantages of vacuum sealing or just sealing the bags? Less ice

crystals? Do they " keep " longer? And what can you use vacuum sealing

for?

We've been freezing cookie dough for ages- since there is just two of

us, if we make a whole batch it is way too much. So, we put about

half or more of the dough in the freezer and it seems to keep for

quite a while. Good to pull out of the freezer on a bad or busy day.

I also tried freezing lasagna, which was ok, and I always freeze up

my pizzas (just microwave and you're good to go). I don't like the

texture of frozen tofu afterwards so much so I haven't really frozen

those kinds of dishes. Also, my Japanese friend often makes extra

rice and freezes it in little pouches in the freezer, which seems

like a good idea to me, although I usually save extra rice in my

refrigerator and make fried rice the next day with it. I do buy

Trader Joe's frozen rice- it's perfect for me and my husband on a

busy work/ school day.

Anyway, the freezer is my friend. Curious if the food saver things

would be a good purchase or not.

>

> I have an older Food Saver model that you can not stop the vacuum

> sealing. If I want to seal a crushable item like bread, I have to

use

> one of the canisters, or my jar sealer attachment. I ususally just

put

> my loaves of baked bread in freezer bags and stick them right in

the

> freezer. They do get cystals of ice on them (which doesn't happen

in

> vacuum sealed foods) but we don't notice them once we toast the

bread.

>

> Cheryl in Colorado

>