Freezer

With the extra space in your freezer, fill it with food for those days that no one wants to cook. BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE-BOURBON POPS (Tested by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) 1/2 cup granulated sugar 3-1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70 percent to 72 percent), chopped 2 tablespoons Dutch processed cocoa powder 1/8 teaspoon table salt 2 tablespoons good-quality bourbon (such as Knob Creek) Put the sugar, chocolate, cocoa powder, salt and 2 cups water in a large saucepan.

Editor's note: Tim Rowland is on vacation, so we do not have a new column to run in this space. Instead, we are running a column that first ran on Monday, Jan. 15, 1996. This is getting monotonous. I am tired of seeing the snow, I am tired of reading about the snow, I am tired of writing about the snow, I am tired of hearing about the snow. Most important, I am tired of altering my eating patterns because of the snow. You have to understand, the concept of "stocking up" is foreign to me. My idea of meal planning is the Kellogg Variety Pak. So with 70,000 tons of snow between me and the nearest food outlet every day for the past week, things have been tough.

o If you like reading Tim Rowland, you'll love watching him. See what else Tim has to say When I was a kid, the chickens we raised for meat were not "slaughtered. " They were "dressed. " Or "processed. " The difference might have been lost on a chicken, but it made us feel better. Why say that you are going to scald, pluck, gut, eviscerate or disembowel a chicken when you can simply say that you are going to "put it in the freezer?" The terminology comes into play because we bought a run of 15 araucana chickens last summer, figuring on about half hens, half roosters.

From the perspective of your freezer, not all foods are created equal. Turkey and chicken prepared in casseroles are a gem for freezer-savvy cooks. But fried foods and some fresh veggies can be problematic and downright icky once they emerge from the deep freeze. For cooks who have learned how to use it, a freezer can be a handy tool. Many meals, dishes and recipe ingredients can be frozen and later prepared on short notice, so it works for people on the run. But freezer beware: some foods don't do so well in a frozen state and there tricks to proper freezing.

andrear@herald-mail.com Food that is properly handled and stored at zero degrees or colder will remain safe during a lengthy time in the freezer - but its quality will deteriorate as time passes. "People think you can freeze indefinitely. That's a fallacy," said Judy Stains, culinary arts instructor at the James Rumsey Technical Institute in Martinsburg, W.Va. Exceeding recommended guidelines for frozen food shelf life can affect tenderness, flavor, smell, juiciness and color, according to information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition at www.csfan.

Instead of baking to a frazzle this holiday season, try chilling out. Bake ahead and freeze foods to avoid last-minute hassles. If you're in doubt about whether a food will freeze well, it's always a good idea to give it a trial run. Try making and freezing a small batch earlier in the season and see if you're satisfied with the results. Or experiment with a small amount this year and apply what you learn next year. You must thoroughly cool baked goods before freezing or they'll become soggy.

Volunteer Courtney Swartwood pulls trays of ice cream from the freezer at the Hagerstown Community College Early Learning Center to serve during the Ice Cream Social Thursday to raise funds for Madisyn Wilson, a student at the center who has been diagnosed with cancer.

Leftovers can simplify meal preparation to a point where experienced cooks often cook more than needed so they can have several meals with minimal effort. Planning for leftovers can stretch meal and food dollars. When saving leftovers, consider packaging in single servings. These can be handy for lunch and snacks and also good when added to soups and stews. Combine several single-serving containers of leftovers such as spaghetti sauce to complete a family meal. Some tips to keep leftovers safe include: Cool food in the refrigerator and not on the kitchen counter.

Foods vary in the required temperature and moisture they need to retain quality in storage. To retain quality and nutritive value, stock only the kinds and amounts of food you can store properly. o Begin by purchasing food from reputable dealers, with a known record for safe handling. Select dated products only if the sell-by or use-by date has not expired. While these dates are helpful, they are reliable only if the food has been kept at the proper temperature during storage and handling.

The following food service establishments were inspected by the Washington County Health Department in May: Freddie's Subs. 18210 Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown. Light bulb must be replaced under range hood. Allegheny Energy. 10435 Downsville Pike, Hagerstown. No violations. Little Antietam Community Center. 40 Mt. Vernon Drive, Keedysville. Must obtain and display poster on how to treat someone who is choking. The Rhubarb House. 12 Public Square, Hagerstown.

How it works The Herald-Mail periodically publishes the findings of initial food establishment inspections by the Washington County Health Department. Food service facilities are inspected on a regular basis to make sure they are following the regulations that govern such establishments. Location of establishments is Hagerstown unless otherwise noted. Inspectors also conduct follow-up inspections and monitoring inspections, and investigate complaints and food-borne outbreaks.

Call it devine intervention. Electricity powering the freezers at Jules Frozen Custard stand at the edge of Apple Valley Shopping Plaza was out for eight hours after the violent June 29 wind storm, but the ice cream inside was saved from melting when it was taken to church. Doyle Collins, the stand's owner, took gallons of frozen mix and put it in the freezers at the Bunker Hill (W.Va.) Brethren in Christ Church, said Melissa Woodward, Collins' daughter-in-law, who was managing the stand Wednesday afternoon.

Twenty years ago, determining whether a firefighter might need food and drink while battling a blaze generating temperatures up to 1,000 degrees was usually an afterthought, fire officials said. Firefighters would sometimes get relief in the form of a coffee or food wagon, but the care for fire crews was not close to what it is today, fire officials said. When a so-called "working structure fire" is dispatched these days, so is Rehab 255, a unit that fills a variety of needs for firefighters, from periodic medical checkups at a fire scene to providing cooling chairs in stifling heat.

Editor's note: Tim Rowland is on vacation, so we do not have a new column to run in this space. Instead, we are running a column that first ran on Monday, Jan. 15, 1996. This is getting monotonous. I am tired of seeing the snow, I am tired of reading about the snow, I am tired of writing about the snow, I am tired of hearing about the snow. Most important, I am tired of altering my eating patterns because of the snow. You have to understand, the concept of "stocking up" is foreign to me. My idea of meal planning is the Kellogg Variety Pak. So with 70,000 tons of snow between me and the nearest food outlet every day for the past week, things have been tough.

o If you like reading Tim Rowland, you'll love watching him. See what else Tim has to say When I was a kid, the chickens we raised for meat were not "slaughtered. " They were "dressed. " Or "processed. " The difference might have been lost on a chicken, but it made us feel better. Why say that you are going to scald, pluck, gut, eviscerate or disembowel a chicken when you can simply say that you are going to "put it in the freezer?" The terminology comes into play because we bought a run of 15 araucana chickens last summer, figuring on about half hens, half roosters.

Dear Lynne: We are two crazed foodies who vowed a frozen vegetable never would cross our lips ... until now. The farmers market is practically paying us to buy big bags of produce, and this would save us a ton of dollars this winter. So my question is, how to freeze vegetables? -- Cheapskate Cook Dear Cheapskate Cook: It's hard to pass up what we can buy right now for half of what we'd pay later on. When food is frozen right, eating it isn't a sacrifice. Even if you live alone, it's worth putting your freezer compartment to work beyond making ice and keeping pizza.

With the extra space in your freezer, fill it with food for those days that no one wants to cook. BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE-BOURBON POPS (Tested by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) 1/2 cup granulated sugar 3-1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70 percent to 72 percent), chopped 2 tablespoons Dutch processed cocoa powder 1/8 teaspoon table salt 2 tablespoons good-quality bourbon (such as Knob Creek) Put the sugar, chocolate, cocoa powder, salt and 2 cups water in a large saucepan.

Many people have planted vegetable gardens this year. They'll enjoy eating fresh produce this summer. If you want to preserve garden vegetables for when the growing season is over, freezing is a viable option. The color, flavor and texture of the produce is maintained when it is frozen, and the freezing process is easy and less time-consuming than canning. Freezing cannot improve the flavor or texture of any food, but, when properly done, it can preserve most of the quality of the fresh product.

To freeze or not to freeze? The answer to that question could do more than save your food. It could save you money. Whether you are a single person just getting the swing of cooking for yourself, or a family with food by the freezerful, it's never too late, or too soon to go back to freezer basics - giving you the most bang for your buck. "Freezing is like suspending food in time," said Sandy McCurdy, a spokeswoman with the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), a trade group for food scientists.