I just checked the roll I’ve got here; it’s indeed silicone treated paper. Come to think of it; my confusion about cookie sheets may explain some other strangeness (I’ve got a few English cook books). I should probably get a culinary Dutch-English dictionary anyway, since I just can’t remember how to translate all the species of fish. 
Pasta is actually rather easy to freeze - even without a microwave (which I also don’t have).
Of course, there are very few things as demoralizing as coming home to “lasagne, part 7 of 12.” Especially if it was only better-than-average lasagne in the first place.
So you just pop the whole meal into the oven or put in on the stove?
Yeah, but that’s why I was so curious about freezing it in the first place That way I could spread a lasagna out over a month instead of a couple of days.
Great idea. I’ve been meaning to start a thread like this for awhile. Even had a title in mind:
You can freeze/microwave THAT?
Rice. Works great in the freezer and then microwave for a few minutes. I usually do the defrost setting for about 2 minutes/serving and then full for about the same. I don’t know if this is necessary, but it’s what I do.
Lasagne: I freeze that fine, then cook in the microwave the same way.
Eggs: I find you can microwave whole eggs. They’re not as good as cooked in a pan, but I usually have one on an English muffin with a slice of ham. Tastes just fine. You can do scrambled the same way.
Stock. I cook a lot of Chinese food, and you usually need some stock for the sauce-- but not very much. I either make “ice cubes” and then store them in a container, or I just freeze little tupperware thingies with stock in them.
Any kind of stew can be frozen. I don’t usually freeze potatoes, though. Or vegetables. If you heat it up on the stove, you can add the vegetables for about 5 minutes, and they’ll be good. I’m not much into potatoes, so I don’t use them very often.
Sausage making tools and accessories are available from these guys.
Now I freeze the sausages, although I am eager to start smoking them, probably in the spring. As far as the seasoning goes, at various times I’ve used fennel, allspice, coriander, black pepper, crushed red peppers, sundried tomatoes, sage, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and a bunch of other stuff. That’s another tip that costs money at first. I buy whole spices in bulk from Penzey’s and grind them myself as I need them in a coffee grinder. The first order usually breaks the bank, but it’s about a tenth per ounce of those tiny little bottles of spices available at the supermarket, and a lot fresher.
The great part about sausage is that there’s hardly a culture on this earth that doesn’t have a version of it, it’s like dumplings that way. Ground meat and spices stuffed into hog intestines, or sheep if you prefer, or even synthetic if you lean that way. It’s so simple, and yet you have infinite possibilities.
I forgot to add that you need to be careful about the eggs sticking to whatever you nuke them in. I use these little pyrex dishes (I guess they’re custard dishes) and make sure that they are coated thoroughly with olive oil. If the eggs get baked on, it’s a bitch to get it off.
I have all of those ungrinded, except for sun dried tomatoes, all at about 50 cents to 2.50 euro per more-or-less an ounce box at my local chinese shop. Cheaper if I really need more, which I never do. If you get around to smoking, I’d love to hear of your experiences.
I do this as well. I’d love to have three hours to make a proper sauce on a regular basis, but the sad fact is that it’s a Sunday evening kind of thing.
It’s also nice when making lasagna, because then I’m not worrying about the time it takes to make the sauce and then assemble, and I find there’s a huuuge gulf between lasagna made with homemade vs. canned sauce.
My other usual suspects:
Chili: but ixnay on the ushrooms-may, because they get strangely waterlogged from freezing. (any unused chipotle peppers from the chili then get chopped up together with the adobo sauce from the can and a bit of water, then frozen up into individual cubes using an ice cube tray)
Beef Stew: ditto on the mushrooms and also potatoes, both of which I add after the fact when I reheat the stew.
Stocks: The Boy likes the canned stuff, but I’m just not sold - it’s not much work to make my own, and it’s nice to have a simmering pot on the stove for a couple of hours in winter anyways. I’ve usually got a couple of containers (at the moment, we’ve got about 4 litres of lobster stock as a result of the Christmas Day seafood extravaganza… so I think I’m set for about a year’s worth of chowders )
I keep meaning to freeze chipotles in ice cube trays, instead of in a can in the freezer.
The slow-cooked meat idea is best for either something like pot roast or meat you want in shreds.
When I do big batches of things, I find a two-person quantity in tupperware or equivalent defrosts by the following evening, if I take it out of the freezer the night before. We have thousands of one or two-person sized plastic containers. And when we got married I got a small (4 or 5 square foot?) chest freezer, even though we were living in a tiny apartment. I love it. I can’t imagine bulk-cooking and baking without it.
WhyNot, the pasta/sauce shards idea is great. I’m going to use that. And curse you, last week I spent some ungodly amount on ordering Better Than Bouillon and getting it shipped. I haven’t found any Canadian suppliers. 
I think they sell it at Trader Joe’s, so if I like it I’ll get friends to ship it up in greater quantity later.
I once helped my ex’s very large and very poor family make burritos for a year. Big pot of refrieds, a stack of tortillas, plenty of cheese, and an optional step of adding hot sauce. Since there were so many of us, it was trivial to set up a production line: slap beans into tortilla, add cheese, (optional hot sauce), fold burrito, wrap in plastic. The sauced burritos were wrapped in a square of butcher’s paper to keep the little ones from inadvertently grabbing a habanero surprise from the chest freezer.
When my school term gets crazy, I start making double batches of stuff and freezing half. Like lasagna, enchilada casserole also freezes great.
May I please have your recipe for that enchilada casserole? I made one recently, and my family was very “ho-hum, so-so” about it, and I admit, it was mediocre. It was my first attempt, so I’m not sure what to change.
I eat a diet that is lower than most in carbohydrates, and substitute turnips for potatoes in a lot of soups, including chowder. I don’t have trouble with freezing soups. It may be that I’m not that discriminating, or boiled turnips may freeze up better. In any case, you could give it a try.
I love turnips. That’s a great idea! I’ll try it.
Sure, I’ll do my best to tell you how I do it.
I take a top round roast and throw it in the crockpot with red enchilada sauce (Las Palmas is probably the best national brand, but I use some other stuff from the Mexican grocery and I can’t remember the name), a couple cloves of crushed garlic, diced onion (you can use dehydrated minced onion or even a packet of dry onion soup mix) and some salt (probably best to omit if using soup mix). Some Mexican oregano never hurts.
When I get home, I heat additional enchilada sauce up in a frying pan over medium high heat. Take a corn tortilla and soften it in the sauce (decent tongs are really essential for this!). Then lay it in a 9X13 glass pan (I use Pam on the pan before hand for easier cleanup). When you have a layer of corn tortillas, add a layer of the beef, which should be shred-tender by the time you’re assembling.Then some cheese (cheddar or cojack is fine, but I use queso fresco), and if for whatever reason the beef looks a little dry, some more sauce. Then just keep doing layers, finally ending with (sauced) tortillas and cheese. I top with a few small cans of sliced black olives and bake it at 350F until it looks bubbly and delicious.
Variations: add sour cream in the layers, use chicken with green sauce and Monterey Jack cheese, browned hamburger instead of the roast, or you can use a pork roast, or what have you. In casserole form, it’s really quite forgiving and has endless variations.
Thanks! That sounds far better than what I made.
Aother thing you can freeze:
Wine. In ice cube trays. For those times when you just need a splash of wine and don’t have an open bottle.
Depending on your freezer, they either freeze solid or turn into wine slushie. Either way, it keeps in a plastic container without spoiling.