I don't like to freeze cookies. I do, however, love to freeze cookie dough. Just mix up your favorite cookie recipe like normal. Use a medium-sized scoop and place drops of dough on a cookie sheet or other kind of pan. Place that cookie sheet in the freezer for a couple of hours. Once the dough is frozen, remove from the pan and place in a storage container. I use an old Otis Spunkmeyer tub that came from an over-priced fundraiser at the school. However, it is perfect for storing your own cookie dough, after you've used the good, yet over-priced stuff.

When you want to bake cookies, simply preheat your oven to 325 and place the frozen dough on the cookie sheet. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until done.

You can have fresh-baked cookies any time, in any amount. Want a whole dozen? No problem. Want just 3 or 4? No problem.

I once made 400 cookies for an open house for my husband's new office. My Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies garnered me a marriage proposal that evening. I was in the conference room and an older gentleman and his wife came in. The man asked if I was the one who'd made the cookies. I replied, "Yes." And he said, "This is the best cookie I've ever eaten. Will you marry me?" I laughed and said, "Thank you, but I'm already married to Dr. B." His wife slapped his shoulder and said, "You can't take her home too!" It was funny.

Other than having terrific recipes, I only have one cookie baking secret. It's my scoop. I use the Pampered Chef Medium Scoop. It's terrific. Every cookie is uniform and nice and thick. Every baker should have a medium-sized scoop for baking cookies.

I love making your own mixes. My friend, Marne, posted some great info about making your own mixes. Thanks Marne!

Check out these links. I can't wait to try some of them:

Recipe Gold Mine
Cyber Kitchen

One of my favorite things to do is freeze food: especially vegetables. I use celery in cooking, but a full bunch of celery will go bad in my fridge before it gets used. I bought celery on sale the other day at Albertsons: 10 for $10. I chopped up every bunch of celery, very fine, and put it in freezer bags. I flatten the bags as I lay them in my freezer. Once they are frozen, I can just go in and break off pieces of celery. You can thaw them for about 30 seconds in the microwave if you want, or they can be added to your dish as is.

I do the same thing for onions and carrots. Not having to chop something is a big time saver. And, if they are flat and thin, breaking off chunks is easy.

And, while I always have an onion or two on hand, I usually chop up an entire bag at one time. If I'm going to cry and smell like onion, I might as well do it all at once.

I use a mixture of celery, onion and carrots in several of my recipes. We call it the Holy Trinity of cooking. Having it all already chopped up saves so much time while cooking.

I also do this for bacon. I use bacon in my cooking, and so I'll buy 2 or 3 packages of bacon at once, while it's on sale. I chop it into pieces and then cook it all. After I drain it, I put it in freezer bags and freeze. When I need some bacon, I can just pull out what I need and put the rest back. Again, not having to fry up some bacon is a real time saver.

You can use a foodsaver, which I recommend for the bacon, but for the veggies, I've found that freezer bags work just as well. If a little ice develops on them, it hasn't affected the flavor.