2012 :: 1

I’ve got a new favorite kitchen tool. It’s often overlooked, and most people don’t even use it. But you should — you really should.

It is an ice cube tray. Really.

I’ve been using mine for pesto for many years — in fact, I even blogged about it. Then, this fall, our parsley plant just wouldn’t stop producing. We had more parsley growing int the garden than any one family could use. So, I did a bit of internet searching, and ended up whirring up huge handfuls of parsley with a bit of water and freezing it in cubes. The end product does look a bit “crispy” on the edges — so next time I might whir it up with oil. But so far it’s been nice to pop a cube or two into a soup or stew before serving.

Then just a few days ago, I had a bag of lemons in the refrigerator that I wasn’t using fast enough. You see, when I was growing up, one could buy bottles of frozen lemon juice (REAL lemon juice) at the store. It was ideal for cooking. But now all I can find are those plastic lemons filled with lemon-oil flavored fake-o stuff. Yuck. I absolutely refuse to cook with that. So whenever the Consort brings me a bag of lemons from the store (for whatever recipe I am following at the time), most of them end up in the compost — either dried out or moldy — because I couldn’t use them fast enough.

I don’t know what made me think of the ice cube tray, but I am glad I did! I squeezed the entire bag of lemons, made a batch of lemon juice cubes, and am now keeping them in the freezer in the kitchen. Good thing, too, because I am struggling with a scratchy throat the past two days, so I pop a cube in a mug, pour over some boiling water, add a nice dollop of honey and an unpleasant (but healthy) spoon of raw apple cider vinegar, and soothe my throat.

… I wonder what else I can freeze in my ice cube tray?