I wish I could find diastatic malt powder or liquid extract in the grocery store. I think I would prefer the liquid version because the powder does not store well unless it is kept with dessicants. I can order this on line or go to a beer brewing supply company in Culver City, but I think it should be in grocery stores. I like to use it in pizza dough and when I make flatbread.

One way you can make tomato sauce in jars last longer is to vacuum seal the jars. I find that it will last two to three weeks longer this way, but you need a Foodsaver with the jar attachment.

One of the stores I go to sells basil and dill in bulk, and I buy just what I want. You should be able to grow your own rosemary - it is very difficult to kill. I find that dried sage is an acceptable substitute for fresh sage - in fact fresh sage is almost too strong for me. I can't say the same for dried basil or dill - they are definitely not the same as fresh.

The other thing I would like is for eggnog to be available all year, but then I would probably drink too much of it, and so maybe that is not a good idea.

Lars

GWlolo: Whole foods carries some thngs you want, like spices in small packages. I think Trader Joes has Pesto in the small cubes in the freezer section -- at least they use to.

I sometimes appreciate it when I can get mirepoix ready-made in the grocery. And, I too would like to be able to buy smaller cans/bottles/packages of ingrediants; all groceries are seeming to go to the giant sizes of everything.

The little frozen cubes of garlic, cilantro, or basil, more, are by Dorot (have some in the freezer now), other chains will stock them too. Those little 4" square packages are easy to miss even when looking for them :)

Love the little trays - I save & refill them with my own when I've made it and pop back into the freezer.

Maybe you'd like the McCormick Recipe Inspirations line (see link). For me, it wouldn't be worth the cost, but you may appreciate the convenience.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: McCormick spices

I'd like celery loose too. There's not much I can't find that I want but I do wish those few elusive things were more common place and not so expensive. More shapes/sizes in Barilla pasta, for instance.
I feel like now that I have a TJ's and Whole Foods reasonably available (an hour away) the world is my oyster.

Trader Joes and Whole Foods have the cube herbs in a container and Costco has it in a large variety pack.

To solve the tomato sauce issue, order or pick up tomato powder from The Spice House. You make as much as you need. Or take a few minutes when you have them and pop open some cans and portion it out into either zip bags or ice cube trays. Also prep some butter and freeze.

I hate to chop just a little onion, so I tend to chop a whole one and freeze what I don't use. I do the same for garlic but put that in a small jar with olive oil.

I hope this helps. Sometimes the little things make cooking a lot easier and more fun.

We buy giant cans of tomato sauce from Costco and divvy up and freeze in cupcake papers in muffin tins. I also buy a big jar of pesto at Costco and freeze in ice cube trays for exactly the uses you stated. I chop a bag (about 3 lbs of onions at a time and freeze in 1 cup portions in zip-lock freezer bags. Same for celery. Sure, fresh is probably better, but on the days when you have one hour from arriving home, to make dinner, clean up and be out the door again - it helps!
Jane

A small stick of butter is half a cup, they even have the tablespoon marks on the stick if you need that. Those sticks are never on special though.

I once found a tube of tomato paste at W&S, that was an easy to use format.

Our Publix in Florida has a lot of pre grated/pre chopped items : I ended up buying some before xmas when I was having a big cooking day, as a timesaver. Otherwise, I chop as I need but I agree that there are days when you need a few shortcuts.

Why not just make a few of these things yourself and freeze it. I almost always have pasta sauce in the freezer.

Celery can be bought here in bulk. So you can buy one or two stalks. I always have celery on hand so a head gets used up before it goes bad.

I don't think that grated butter would freeze well. It would just stick together and need to be grated again before using.

I keep a tube of tomato paste on hand for when I just need a little squirt to enrich a sauce or gravy.

Fresh herbs like basil can be frozen in mini muffin tins or ice cube trays. Cover in water, or in oil or in broth. Once frozen just pop them out and into freezer bags. I call them basil pucks.

Herbs and spices can be bought at many stores in bulk, where you can buy small amounts. As little as a teaspoon if that is all you need.

~Ann

I wish I could find decent organic fruits and vegetables. The store closest to me, Tom Thumb, which happens to be about as expensive as Whole Foods, appears to shop for their organic produce out of Whole Foods' dumpster.

If I want good quality, I have to go to Central Market or Whole Foods, and even then, the quality is iffy. I know it's partially due to weather, drought, etc., but I feel that my local store could make the effort to present decent organic produce. If they can't find it, for whatever reason, or it doesn't sell fast enough, then take those rotten apples off the shelf, for Pete's sake. *sigh*

Sally

I agree with ann_t. Most of the items GWlolo mentions are ones that I keep in the freezer - pasta sauces, pesto, tomato paste, canned tomatoes which I buy in humongous cans from Costco. I have celery on hand but if I see it looking a bit wilted, I'll assemble the making of stock and use it in that. I keep stock ingredients - meaty bones, chicken backs and wing tips - in the freezer and when there's enough I make a batch so I always have stock in the freezer.

I don't keep grated butter, but when I know I'll need pastry, I make it in big amounts and keep it frozen. I currently have puff, sucree and brisee pastry already made and ready to use.

Cheryl

Most of the stores around here have salad bars so you could buy however much celery you want. You'll pay more per pound for it but if you only use a little bit, it'd be a convenience. I chop and freeze celery, onion and bell pepper because I've wasted so much in the past. You can buy pre-chopped onion, green onion, bell pepper and even tomatoes around here. I bought some and froze it when the kitchen was a mess. It was more expensive, but a convenience thing.

The tube tomato paste really irks me. I can't understand why that's so d@mn expensive. A tube is about equal to a small can as I recall and a can costs 40â-50â while a tube costs $4.00. That's crazy. If you get only 8-10 uses out of a tube, you could just as well buy the cans and toss what you don't use. It'd be the same cost. Or, to save some money, slide it out, cut it into portions you normally use, freeze it and pop it into a plastic bag. You're portioned out and saving a lot on it.

Smaller portions are often better and more convenient for the singles or couples. However, often the container costs more than the contents. It's like the small cans of vegetables. I'd like to buy the smaller ones since I abhor wasting food but there too, just like the tomato paste the small/convenient ones are more expensive than the others. A small can of corn for instance is about 10â *more* than a larger can. A quart of milk is often more than a 1/2 gallon and nearly the cost of a gallon! I don't like to waste the food or the resources but I also don't like to waste money. And I do understand it's a matter of economics to the producers too. It costs them more to produce the small cans and they don't sell as many so they have to charge more for them. Viscous circle as they say.

Like Cheryl, I have a "stock bag" in the freezer. I actually have three. One has chicken parts, carcasses, wing tips, etc. One has beef bones, trimmings and such. One has vegetables. I freeze all the carrot tips, the celery leaves, the "rubbery" outside onion layers, whatever bits and pieces that we don't use or eat. When I have a bag full I make chicken or beef stock.

I freeze herbs from my herb garden, grind them in the food processor, add enough olive oil to make a past and freeze them in "plops" on a sheet pan. I do the same thing with tomato paste. I have tomato/herb sauce canned in pints and I just buy a pound of butter in quarters/sticks and freeze them, take one out when I need it. I do the same with yeast, I open one package and keep it in the fridge for daily/regular use and the other goes into the freezer.

Somehow, I never seem to have celery or onions go stale or bad, I use them a LOT. It seems like nearly everything I make starts with onions and celery, sometimes garlic and carrots, saut�ed and then on to step two, whether it's a sauce, soup, chili, whatever.

I do have a problem with peppers going soft quickly, so I cut those into strips and freeze them in ziplock bags, when I want a stir fry I just take a bag out and toss it in the pan. It's going to get all soft and limp anyway when cooked, although they are not good for eating raw after freezer.

I also freeze cheese and eggs when I'm getting a lot of them. Just beat them up and freeze in two egg portions, they're fine for baking when the holidays roll around.

Cheese, though, you have to be careful how you thaw, it can get crumbly.

As cynic mentions, I have no intention of paying a premium so I can get a smaller amount if I can just divide it into portions and freeze it myself for future use.

What do I wish I could buy in smaller quantities? Specialty flours like whole wheat pastry flour or cake flour. I use them so seldom and when I need them I have to buy 5 pounds or a box, you'd think I could get a 1 pound bag without going on line and paying more in shipping than I would for the 5 pound bag in the first place.

Annie

I guess my take away from this very interesting thread is to find the most helpful hand at the end of my own arm and create pre-prep items myself. Sounds like a plan!

Where I live, I have trader joes, whole foods, costco, a couple of safeway/ lucky and a year round farmers market all in 15 min driving distance. I haven't found loose celery or bulk herbs. Maybe I need to look harder.

So how do you store frozen things? In freezer zip lock? Or some other container like glass.

The stock bag is a great idea. I am going to look up a veg.stock and start making my own.

The tomato paste in a tube annoys me too when a can of tomato paste is so cheap. I keep it for a few days then throw it out. If I froze it, I'd never find it again.

I freeze the "plops" of basil and tomato paste in Lock N Lock plastic boxes, those will stack well. I just put in a layer of "plops", a sheet of waxed paper, another layer, until the box is full. Then I can pull out one piece when I want it. A ziplock bag would work too, just freeze the "plops" on a baking sheet and remove them for storage after they are completely frozen.

Tomato sauces get stored in pint canning jars, they say "can and freeze" right on the package and I always have a bunch of them because I can so much. Things that are not suitable for canning get frozen, like the green tomatillo sauce for Ann T's stacked enchiladas.

Eggs are frozen in some little plastic lidded containers I got from the company that makes Ball canning jars, meant to hold one cup of freezer jam. I keep looking for a better way but haven't found it yet so I beat up six eggs per container and then measure them out when I need them. 1/4 cup is 2 large eggs and I can make scrambled eggs or use them for baking far before 6 would spoil.

I use gallon ziplock bags for the stock bags, easy to open and close and then when they are full, I just dump the contents into my 18 quart roaster, roast the for a bit, add liquid and simmer all day for stock. The pressure cooker works more quickly and a crockpot works too. Here stock gets canned to save freezer space but canning jars or ziplock bags, frozen flat on a sheet tray and then stacked would work fine too.

I do seal some things in a Foodsaver vacuum seal thing, but I have one that's a lemon and you cannot trust the seal on it, if you can manage to make it seal in the first place. I'll get a new one when we have room at the new house.

Annie

I love the tomato paste in a tube. Basically because I do not like tomato paste and very seldom ever use it in anything other than a tablespoon here and there in a gravy or sauce. Those little cans of tomato paste aren't cheap here. I think the last time I bought one it was $.79 which I think is expensive for one tablespoon. The rest gets tossed. I know that it can be frozen but I'm not going to do that. A tube is only $2.79 so it is cheaper in the long run and doesn't get wasted.

~Ann

To solve the celery issue, you can wrap it very tightly in foil and it will keep for 6 weeks easy. Or, break off a few stalks at the store, put it in your produce bag and head for the checkout. You might be doing another shopper a favor by creating a small amount.

Lots of things will keep in a zip bag, just be sure to roll it and squeeze out the air or invest in a FoodSaver. I love mine (Annie got the lemon).

But you are right, the best helper you have is the one at the end of your arm. An hour of prep goes a long way.

GWlolo, my Trader Joe's has slices of celery & carrots in a plastic container in the refrigerated vegetable/fruit section near the lettuces. I wonder if that would work for you?

I bought a tube of tomato paste at Trader Joe's in Chicagoland for about a dollar. It's in a skinny red, aqua, and brown cardboard box. Haven't used it yet.

I do have packets of tom paste in the freezer, but I'd never find them again.

I have five lifetimes of food stashed in my house. Sick.

I find I go without tomato paste just for the reasons listed above. I can't bring myself to pay the $4 plus for a tube, when the can costs less than a dollar, or not much more than. But, on the other hand, I've done the freeze and save method, and as Bumblebeez mentioned, I've lost it in the freezer, only to be found years later. I may try again some day, but I should clean out my freezer first. lol

I do keep veggie trimmings and such in the freezer for making vegetable stock. I keep them in quart size yogurt containers. I keep so many things in yogurt containers that it's sometimes interesting to try to find the container that actually does still have yogurt in it. lol

Sally

I keep small amounts of tomato paste in freezer cups, I think they're around 1/3 cup. They're stacked in the small shelves on the freezer door. If I need a really small amount, I can defrost a cup until the paste is just soft enough to scoop, then I put the rest back. I buy the giant cans of tomato paste from Costco so I'm paying cents for my little cups.

I use the same cups for egg whites or yolks when I'm using part of an egg. I hate to waste food, so I'll keep the white or yolk until I have a use for it.

I also keep herbs like Annie, pureed in oil, frozen in scoops. DH has worked out that he can freeze all kinds of foods on cookie sheets lined with parchment. He scoops the food onto the sheet. When they're frozen, the scoops go into ziplock bags. We have everything from pulled pork, to creamed spinach, to homemade cat food, all ready made in ziplocks.

We keep stock, cooked squash, salsa, guacamole, soups and stews plus lots more in yogurt containers in the freezer, but everything is labelled. DH goes through a quart of yogurt in about 2 days so we have lots of containers.

Our stock bags are plastic ziplock bags. I keep some veggies for stock - leek tops are great in stock. I also keep parmesan rinds for stock too.

We have an 18 cu ft freezer which is full all the time.

Cheryl