Michigan State College, in cooperation with the International Harvester Company, presents Dinner from the Home Freezer, a visit with Carol Basinger, International Harvester Home Economist, as she prepares a meal from the home freezer. Hello. You know, today I have a problem that's going to be a problem that I know that you've had or that you will be having. And I have two people who are coming for dinner, and I haven't planned on having guests for dinner, and so I had planned to have the stuffed green peppers which I only have two of and so I'm going to have to change my menu in a hurry, so I'm going to be using a dinner out of the freezer which I prepared about a month ago and put into the freezer. But before we start on our dinner, let's wrap our green peppers and get them into the freezer. Are you surprised to know that you can put stuffed green peppers into the freezer? You know, there's always that time of the year when you have lots and lots of green peppers into your garden, and you find all kinds of people to give them away to and you think, "oh, if I just had something to do with them I wouldn't have to throw them away," because there comes the time when they're very expensive to buy at the market and you appreciate having them on hand. So, from now on, just fix them up and put them right into your freezer. So, of course the packaging material that you're going to be selecting to wrap your green peppers in is very important. You want to select a packaging material that is a moisture vapor proof packaging material, and the Irma Harding packaging material that I have here has been tested at our laboratory in Evansville and you can feel perfectly safe packaging your food for the freezer in an Irma Harding packaging material because you know it's going to be as good when it comes out of the freezer as when you put it in. So, bring the ends of your paper directly together, right here, and you roll them down. Just give them a couple turns, so you're going to make sure that you're going to keep all the air out of your package, because that's very important, and turn your edges over, and instead of just folding them up once, roll them up as you go. To peel them, you'll take your freezer paper and put your freezer paper on your package. You know it's going to hold firmly while it's in the freezer. Now, there's a lot of tape on the market that looks like the freezer tape, but it won't hold after it's been in the freezer and it gets very cold, so check and make sure that you have your freezer tape. Now, everything that goes into your freezer has— should be labeled and on this package we're going to put "two green peppers" and the date, and you will be able to tell the clients just exactly what you have in your freezer. And by putting the date on your package, you will know how long it's been in and won't be storing it longer than the recommended length of time. Right here in one big solid plastic bag we have our chicken dinner. You notice you can use rubber bands to close your plastic bags or you can use freezer paper, which either you'd happen to have on hand or whatever you'd prefer to use. Here we have our frozen jam, and by the way it's uncooked frozen jam, it's had no cooking whatsoever. Our biscuits, our potatoes, our chicken, our whipped cream, our strawberries, green peppers, and cottage cheese. Did you know that you could freeze cottage cheese? I bet many times that you've had cottage cheese in your refrigerator and you've gotten ready to use it and you thought it was a little bit old, so you tossed it out and bought it fresh. And all the time you could have had it stored in your freezer and it had been just as fresh as the day that you put it in. So from now on, no more tossing of stale cottage cheese. Get it to the freezer beforehand. And here we have our Parker House Roll. Now, of course our whipped cream and our whipped cream and our green peppers thaw very quickly, so we want to put them back into the freezer until we are ready to use them. We need very little thawing time at all and we'll take them out of the freezer, just as you're ready to serve them, they will thaw just to the right degree. And the frozen, our uncooked frozen jam, also will thaw quickly because of the high sugar content, so we'll place it in the refrigerator until we're ready to place it on the table. According to our time we'll ...  having an hour to prepare our dinner, will be to get our chicken started. Now your chicken, a very neat, nifty trick to use when you're packaging chicken to fry, if you'll separate the pieces with two pieces of cellophane, so that you'll be able to lift them apart and then you can start to cooking them without any thawing at all. And of course to flour your chicken just isn't any trick at all if you'll take a plastic bag and add your flour and your seasoning right to the plastic bag and put your pieces of frozen chicken down inside. You'll notice that when you cut your fryers for the freezer, you'll cut them just in the regular pieces, the usual pieces that you always cut them in, if you were serving them freshly dressed. First, if you don't have your own chickens at home you can always buy them when the prices are down on the market and save a few pennies for the new half that you'd like to have. Now, after you have your chicken in your bag just take it and give it a shake. That's all there is to it. And the flour will stick right to your frozen pieces, no problem at all. Not only that, it'll help you keep from getting flour all over your range to the floor or your table. Now, to brown your chicken you'll have your skillet with hot melted fats, and place your pieces of chicken right in— frozen chicken right in. You'll give them a little shake just before you take them out of the sack, you won't be dropping flour. Something that's very nice to remember, not just when you're packaging meals for company or company that you're not expecting exactly, so whenever you put anything into the freezer, put it in the size packages so that you think that you'll have just what you'll be using at one time, so that you won't be having any leftovers. There's one thing we must remember we never refreeze. Now, as soon as your chicken brown, brown it on both sides and you can turn it over. As soon as it browns, then if you will put a cover on, cover your skillet, and reduce your heat. Now reduce it to a very low heat. You'll want it to cook very slowly and remember that you're going to want to cook your frozen chicken one half a stand as long as if you were cooking freshly dressed chicken. Now most meat that you can take out of the freezer and put directly into them and start to cooking them, but you must remember to increase your cooking time because you're— not only cooking them but you're thawing them also. We must put our cottage cheese and our strawberries and start it to thaw. Now a very very quick method to thaw them, since we're in a hurry tonight, is if we place them in a bowl and turn the faucet on and let running cold water over the top of our packages. Now I— you'll notice I said cold running water not hot running water. Run it into the bowl, and by the time our chicken is ready, we'll ... our cottage cheese will be gone and our strawberries will be just right to serve. Now, the strawberries you want some so they have just a few ice crystals left in them. You don't want them to thaw completely, they're much better and much tastier. They have just those few ice crystals left right in. Now for our stuffed baked potatoes. Unwrap your baked potatoes and place them right on your baking tin. Now you never let baked— stuffed baked potatoes thaw. You always take them directly from the freezer and put them right into your oven. And when you're preparing your baked potatoes to freeze, if you will take them out and mash them and add your milk and your butter and then put them right back into their stuffings and cool them and put them into the freezer, they'll be much, much better than if you take them directly out of the oven and don't bother to mash the centers of them. And also, just as a point of saving, which we all as homemakers are trying to do, if you'll remember to keep your aluminum foil, just wash it out in your dish water, and use it over again and you can use it as long as it will hold together. It's perfectly all right, and it's perfectly all right to use it over again in your freezer. Your oven for your frozen stuffed baked potatoes should be at around 325. And let them thaw until they become piping hot. Get our salad plates ready for our cottage cheese salad, to place the lettuce right on the plate. Now our next concern will be our Parker House rolls and our shortcake. Now, the Parker House rolls and shortcake can be stored in freezer for a year, so there really is never any excuse for not having them on hand. So, if you'll take your shortcake and your rolls directly from the freezer, or they're still frozen, and put them directly into your oven. Now, don't unwrap them in advance, because it if you do, you might have moisture condensing on the top of your shortcake or your roll, and the crust that should be nice and crisp and firm will become soggy and then you don't have as desirable of a product. So don't bother to unwrap them, just take them and place them directly into the oven. Now they'll take approximately one half hour for your rolls and about 15 minutes for your shortcake. And you're probably wondering, "they're just so similar, shortcakes and rolls why is there a difference in the length of time that you're going to thaw them?" Well, depends on the sugar content, and since your shortcake has more sugar than your Parker House rolls it'll take a shorter time to thaw them. The last thing that we have to get ready for our meal today is our vegetable. And we're serving our succotash. And if you'll take your lid off, your vegetable while still frozen, and you'll have about one half cup of water and one-fourth teaspoon of salt, and place your vegetable directly into your hot water. Now, as soon as your water comes back to a boil, you'll take a fork and separate the ice block. So, to ensure, make sure that the vegetable is going to cook uniformly, and that part of it cooks in the other part. Now, just take a fork and break it up and let it cook. Now, cook all your frozen vegetables in a tightly covered pan. You're probably wondering, "do I take all my vegetables out of the freezer and put them right in the stove?" No, there are a few exceptions, you know, we never make a rule without an exception, and you don't want to... you always want to make sure and thaw your corn on the cob, because if you don't, you're going to have a tendency to overcook it. And your fresh green vegetables, like spinach, you want to make sure and thaw it partially, too. Now, after you thaw your cottage cheese, you'll take your cottage cheese and add your cream at that point and your seasoning. And place it on your plate, and take your green pepper out of the freezer, and you'll have it all ready to garnish your salad. Now, your shortcake is right here, and if you'll notice you can package your shortcake... you can package your strawberries whole, if you like, with dry sugar. If you crush a few berries and add sugar. Your whipped cream is from the freezer right on the top. Now, you're probably wondering just what your meal is going to look like when it's all finished. And, after all, it's not how the food looks when it comes out of the freezer, it's how it tastes. And you get ready to eat it, and I think you can all see it's just like having a caterer in your home to have your own .... own ... to have your own home freezer. This program was produced and recorded by Michigan State College Television.