Road Tripping Part III - Those that are left behind

There they are. The onions. On the counter. Staring you in the face. Telling you "I'll sprout if you leave me, see if I don't!" Those guilt inducing bulbs. Oh, and the garlic! Don't get me started with the garlic. It'll sprout on you even if you DON'T leave. You know you will have to do something with them so they can be useful once you get home.

So chop those babies up. Onions are easy. Chop them as you would for any recipe and store in quart sized freezer bags. After they have frozen, break them apart a bit by squeezing the bag so you don't have just one big brick of onions but a lovely, shakable bag of individual ones that you can measure out easily.

The garlic is tougher. The best way I have found is to mince the garlic and mix it with a bit of olive oil then freeze in those small plastic ware containers. After your trip when you are ready to use some, let it sit on the counter a bit and then you can spoon out what you need then pop the rest back in the freezer. Of course you can always call their bluff, leave them on the counter, let them sprout and plant them when they get back. That'll show 'em. Then, hey, free garlic! Don't try this with the onions though. They will just rot out of spite.

Carrots and celery. The first thing I would suggest would be that you cut a bunch up into little sticks, soak for 1/2 hour in cold salted water, drain and bring them on the road for healthy snacks. But if you have a bunch (pardon the pun) here's what you do: Handle the celery much like you would the onion. Slice, freeze, break apart in their little baggies so they rattle around in there. Done.

Carrots are more complicated. The easiest thing to do is to give them to a carrot loving friend. Or you could blanch them and freeze them in a little bit of blanching water to use later in soups.

Eggs. If you like egg salad. Make that and take it on your trip, knowing it will only last a day or so. If you don't like egg salad. Boil them and either take them with you or leave in the fridge. If your trip isn't very long they will still be good when you get back. If you are in for a long road trip, don't boil them but separate them and freeze the yolks and eggs separately. Use a cheap ice cube tray, spray with cooking spray and freeze one egg white or one egg yolk per section.

Potatoes. Oh, those wretched potatoes. If you leave them they will sprout. If you try to freeze them in any partially cooked form they will be yucky. Either make a nice potato soup and then  freeze it (using up a little of your onions and celery BTW) or give them away.

As far as fruit is concerned your best bet with anything other than citrus is to take it with you to use as snacks on the road. Grapes, apples, mangos, berries - make a lovely fruit salad and you'll have a nice dessert along the way. Bananas need to be left out of the salad. They do very bad things to a fruit salad. It isn't pretty.

Now your citrus is easy. Zest the peel of all your citrus, store in leftover spice jars, little plastic containers or freezer bags and freeze for use in recipes later.(see previous post, Lemons on Sale). In addition to slicing the lemons and freezing, you can also juice all of your citrus and freeze the juice (just be sure to label them so you aren't left with mystery juice),.

Happy trails.