So, I'm up. Now what do I do? Drink more coffee!!! AND I'm awake so . . . . . . . . LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!!!!!
Tonight we're having a good old-fashioned country meal. Nothing special! I've got some cabbage in the bottom of my crockpot that I had frozen this summer and on top of that I layered fresh carrots and parsnips I had stashed in the basement frig and sprinkled some chopped onions that I had frozen from our garden. On top of that I put some boneless slices of pork loin drenched in my homemade pork blend with a dozen or so cloves of garlic. Put all that on a plate with a side of pearsauce and we'll be good to go.
I've made really good use of those frozen onions. We've tried and tried to grow onions and have attempted to keep them through the Winter with no luck at all. It's disappointing but we keep trying. Sooner or later we'll figure it out, but in the meantime, this year I pulled from our garden medium sized onions with the tops still green to help thin the rows out, chopped them up and put them in quart-sized freezer bags, green and all. You just cannot believe how useful these are. You really can't. I can't!! I am absolutely amazed! This has been one of the most useful things I've done in recent years. We eat a lot of onions and I'm constantly buying them at the store. Next year I'm freezing up a lot more!!!! The nice thing about these as well is that they are already chopped up. No onion mess! The only downside is they tend to stink up the freezer for a couple weeks and I haven't figured out how to handle that but everything in my freezer is bagged or in containers so I've had no problems with taste or smell carrying over to other foods.
I also go out and cut chives and freeze them in bundles. You roll them up long ways in plastic wrap or parchment paper and then I roll them again in foil. When I'm ready to use chives I pull them out and slice off what I need and the size I need. I've found this the best way to preserve chives for the best flavor. I also chop and dry them but the flavor seems to dissipate when dried so freezing them is my go-to method. Yes, I do freeze chopped chives in ice cubes with other herbs as well, but I actually find I use them more frequently with the method of freezing and slicing. I use chives when I desire a delicate onion flavor. Some people could possibly say why bother with chives? Just use onions and use less. I suppose you could but I like the delicate taste and for people who don't care for onions, most will eat chives and not realize they are eating something from the onion family. (If using fresh chives they are unsurpassed in flavor but for this particular post we're talking about dried or frozen.)