Keep cool this summer by stocking your freezer with make ahead ice cubes

Here is a recipe roundup for make-ahead ice cubes to keep your summer chill. Save time and refrigerator space by making flavored ice cubes to add to recipes, drinks and more.

Kerekes Bake Deco has Silicon Ice Cream Molds that are on sale for 20% off, which would make these DIY flavored ice cubes a fun project.

Green blocks of goodness

Make "Meatless Monday" even easier with Amanda Cohen’s Secret-Weapon Stir-Fry Sauce. This sauce is made with cilantro, parsley, Thai basil, garlic and ginger - or what ever is in your veggie drawer!

Kitchn's freezer friendly tips for making stock

Get cooking lessons from Kitchn - who shows you how to make basic chicken stock and vegetable stock; which you can keep in your freezer to use later.

Infused ice cube ideas

Martha Stewart infuses ice cubes with fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers to enhance your water and help keep you hydrated throughout the summer.  Here are recipes for Cucumber-Basil Puree, Orange-Lime Mix and Lemonade-Raspberry Cubes.

The Right Cup is a company that is selling flavored cups, really! This goal is to help people drink more water and stay hydrated. The Right Cup™ was founded in May 2015 by a small group of people who came together with one common goal: to create and distribute an innovative product that could truly make a difference in people’s lives throughout the world.  Interesting, check them out.

From freezer to table

Fine Cooking shows you how to make pesto ice cubes and offers ideas on how to use them from tossing with hot pasta to using as a topping for grilled meats.

Here is another tip from Martha

Most recipes use only a small portion of tomato paste and the rest goes to waste. Martha shows you how to freeze and then slice up the paste into smaller portions, brilliant!

Instant cocktail cubes (just add booze)

Supercall keeps making drinks easy! Here are great recipes to for make ahead flavored ice cubes to add to White Russians, Sazerac or Negroni for (almost) instant deconstructed cocktails.

Have fun this summer and stay cool.  Send me your ideas on how to make flavored ice cubes to save time and money.

Here is a fun site to check out:
Make something that means something at Craftsy.com

Thanksgiving Make Ahead Recipe: Roasted Acorn Squash Soup

Thanksgiving is coming! I am up early on the Sunday morning before Thanksgiving. My philosophy and strategy regarding Thanksgiving is that it is fun when done in small doses. I try and make as much as I can ahead of time.


This morning, I am making Roasted Acorn Squash Soup.  My plan is to freeze the soup and then defrost it the night before Thanksgiving. The day of, I will throw it in a crockpot, which will allow me to have one more easy vegan dish, to make my vegan and health-conscious guests happy.

Yesterday, my mixed doubles tennis partner said: "If you live in Seattle, you have to know how to cook for vegans."  Another great option in Seattle is to order a vegan take-out for Thanksgiving dinner; which is what he and his wife are doing this year.

Since pureed soup is vegan, it is good soup to freeze and I may save some for myself to bring to work for lunch.

I sliced the acorn squash in half, using a serrated knife.  Then I added olive oil, Kosher salt and pepper and roasted them in the oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

You can save the acorn squash seeds for a nutritious snack for your Thanksgiving guests. 

While the acorn squash was cooking, I rough chopped carrots, shallots, yellow and red onions and a granny smith apple. If you are in a rush, take the time to cut the carrots into smaller pieces.

I took all the scraps from the apples, carrots and onions and threw them into a stock pan to make basic vegetable broth. Since this is a Thanksgiving make ahead dish, I have time to make the broth while the acorns are roasting and cooling off.

Thanksgiving is a great time to make stock. I raided the refrigerator and gathered celery bottoms, leaves, more onion peels, and garlic peels.  I peeled extra carrots and prepped vegetables that have for other dishes I need to make this week.  I threw this "waste" in the stock pan to make vegetable broth.

For the soup, I sautéed the rough chopped items in dutch oven with some olive oil.  After everything was starting to look translucent, I added my spices and gave them extra time to toast.  It is starting to smell like Thanksgiving!

Since I don't have the broth ready yet, I added about a quarter cup of water to simmer on low for
about 5 mins and then covered the pan and turned off the heat.

After the squash has cooled and the broth was strained, I scooped out the flesh of the squash and added 3 1/2 cups broth to the dutch oven pot.

I let this cook for 20 minutes and then pureed the ingredients using my immersion blender. I skipped the step to add salt and pepper, because I will season this on Thanksgiving while this is being heated up in a crock pot.

Since the ingredients were mostly cool, I poured them in containers and put them in the freezer to be ready to go for Thanksgiving day.

Making this soup ahead of Thanksgiving is easy.  I modified this Roasted Acorn Squash Soup recipe from Lacey Baier's blog.

OMG! Take a breath! Ohm! Since writing this blog post on Sunday morning, my oven died - just 3 days before Thanksgiving.  At least the burners work!  I cannot bake or roast and we have guest coming.  The repair man is set to come out today.  I am so glad that I got one recipe done. Stay tuned and see how I adjust my plan for Thanksgiving to handle this - or if my oven can be repaired!

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My blog is about living in the Pacific Northwest.  Here is photo of my view this morning.