FOAS, no I haven't eaten it. I can't, as the ranch dressing has garlic in it. My DS & DS have had it tho and like it. I don't like hot foods, so I probably wouldn't have tried it anyway. The anniv party is a big back yard open house type party, so it will go great. Thank you for thinking about making sure it was a tasty recipe. She has made this for over a year that I know of, and it is always a hit. Tami

Let's see, what can be made ahead and frozen? Chicken pot pie, or even better since you're at the ocean, Lobster Pot Pie, I saw Ina Garten make one and couldn't figure out why I'd never thought of it. She used puff pastry dough, making it fast, instead of homemade dough. Cabbage rolls do well made ahead and frozen, then baked with the sauce when needed, or just cooked all day in a crockpot. Macaroni and cheese is easy and fast to put together and nearly everyone likes it. A "taco bar" has been discussed here many times, and it's something that people can put together as they like, you can use ground meat, marinated chicken, pulled pork or beef, or all or any combination, and some tortilla chips along with the toppings could yield nachos and taco salad for those who like that. LindaC's idea of meatloaf is a good one, and a couple of roasted chickens can yield hot chicken sandwiches, that above mentioned pot pie, chicken tetrazzini, chicken salad sandwiches, chicken enchiladas. You can't go wrong with a couple of roasted chickens. Your leftover roast can yield a shepherd's pie too, my girls loved it, along with Spanish Rice made with ground beef to make it a full meal. As well as dinners, how about breakfast? Lots of breakfast casseroles are quick and easy, and I make Woodie's Creme Brulee French Toast the night before and just bake it in the morning. The smell alone got my kids out of bed! Biscuits and gravy are pretty fast, if you bake biscuits the night before for supper and then heat them in the morning. BreaKfast burritos are easy to make ahead and freeze, as are "McMuffins", which then only need thawing and heating. Oatmeal cooks overnight with fruit in the crockpot really well too. I'm sure you have cookies, brownies, desserts covered. LOL Cookies and brownies freeze well, but the dough can also be made ahead and refrigerated for a day or two, and baked off as needed. Oh, and I have a cinnamon roll recipe that calls for making the dough the night before, letting it rise in the refrigerator and baking them the next day for hot, fresh cinnamon rolls, if you're interested in that. Annie

I did that sort of thing June 2011. It's a new recipe review. Here are my comments about that and the link below gives an idea of how the skillet cake turn out. It looks much better with sweet potatoes (I just couldn't take a good picture of it, and finally quit, and I only used one potato since it was a trial. You should probably stack more layers, much like Alex did). If you want Ann's sweet potato fry recipe, it's at home. I can get it if you want. _____________________________________________________ "Last, it's a shout out to Ann T. I saw Alex Guarnaschelli make a potato and parmesan cake, but I wanted it to be healthier. Too many starches these days. I wanted to make it with sweet potatoes. And I used the ingredients from Ann T's sweet potato fries she supplied ... Other makers of this cake complained it didn't come out of the pan intact, so I put it in a springfrom plan. Worked wonders. The picture of my cake doesn't do it justice. Layers of goodness. The sweet tasty potatoes, parmesan melted, and the crispy edges. All good stuff. The recipe below is what inspired it, but I wouldn't doubt it's good too. I just used the recipe for tecnique. The rest is all Ann. Thanks!" Here is a link that might be useful: skillet potato cake-Alex Guarnaschelli

I think the spinach dish will be fine if frozen - the potato dish not so much. If it were pureed potatoes, it would be a different story, but potato gratin is not quite the same after having been frozen. If you make a broccoli dish, freeze it before you cook it or only partially cook it. Lars