ALUMINUM FOIL COOKIE SHEETS RECIPES

Steps:

• PEAS & BUTTERBEANS: No blanching and do not add salt...just wash vegetables and place into ziplock bags. ***See tomatoes, okra & corn in step 6.
• Fill with water to barely cover veggies. Zip shut, burp out as much air as possible and place flat in freezer.
• ***THAWING: Be sure to let them thaw in fridge or on countertop and never thaw in the microwave, boil or steam. Simply place the frozen bag into a bowl first and place either in fridge or on countertop.
• COOKING: Once thawed, pour in strainer then use fresh water in pot you'll be cooking them in. Proceed to cook as usual. ***Also read step 6.
• ***TOMATOES***: Peel and core. Place into ziplock bags either whole or cut up to your liking. Do NOT add water; just get the air out and zip up. Also read step #8. OKRA: Wash, slice and bag. Do NOT add water. Also read step #8. CORN ON THE COB: Shuck and remove silks. Wash then place ears of corn onto clean kitchen towel(s) and let them dry. Finish drying them with a paper towel and wrap each individual ear in plastic wrap. Now you can store several ears in either gallon ziplock bags or plastic grocery bags and place in freezer. CORN ON THE COB...GRILL READY: Shuck and remove silks. Wash then place ears of corn onto clean kitchen towel(s) and let them dry. Finish drying them with a paper towel. Salt & pepper then rub with butter each ear of corn. Tightly wrap in aluminum foil. Place in either gallon ziplock or plastic grocery bags. Before grilling, let them thaw for a bit and place them on your hot grill. Once done, be careful removing the foil. CORN "OFF" THE COB: Shuck, silk and wash ears of corn. In a large bowl, hold ear of corn at an angle and using a really sharp knife cut kernels only in half all the way down. Now use the back on knife blade and scrape the cob. This will allow you to get the corn milk. Spoon into ziplock bags and do NOT add water. Place into freezer.(You don't have to use the 'milking' technique if you rather have the kernels whole.) SWEET POTATOES: Wash and tightly wrap each individual potato in foil. Bake as many as you possible can in a 450 degree oven until tender. Cool completely. Do not unwrap and store in a plastic grocery bag in freezer. When ready to use, take out ever how many you need and thaw either in the fridge overnight or on countertop. Once thawed, heat up (still in the same original foil) in oven (or toaster oven) until heated through. Remove foil and prepare as if you freshly baked them. They are good for eating as a baked sweet potato, in pies, fritters or caseroles, etc at this point.
• * According to Susie: When you're planning on freezing peas, butterbeans, corn, squash and zucchini you don't need to blanch them first. She said that you pour out all the goodness when you drain them. She also said that she doesn't thaw hers when she's ready to cook them. She just puts them in the pot on medium-low and once they've thawed some she adds more water if needed and seasons them and cooks until done. I personally like thawing mine and using fresh water to cook them in.
• NOTE: Sometimes I slice up my squash, zucchini and okra and batter them then place them in single layers on cookie sheets lined with waxed paper and put them in the freezer. Once they are frozen solid I then bag them up in a ziplock bag & place back into freezer. Now they're ready for the fryer with only 5 to 10 minutes of thawing.
• TIP: Here's a tip from another JAP member, Jewel Hall: Hello Bea, this "Flash Freezing" and I have been doing it several years. My tomatoes I just wipe off with a paper towel, line a cookie sheet with paper towels & do not peel. I lay them single file on the cookie sheet and freeze three hours, then bag in a gallon freezer bag. They don't stick together; you take out what you need and run tap water over them the peeling will slide off. I like to keep a bowl under them when peeling to catch the juice. I DO NOT wash okra; okra out of my garden is not dirty, so I wipe it with paper towels, coat with corn meal, flash freeze on cookie sheets then place in bags, they do not stick together. We could have some fun Bea !! Didn't know how to do the corn. Thanks SWEET LADY, you are a DEAR !

Steps:

• Do NOT boil ribs, but cut away any large amounts of silver skin or some of the fat. Generously season both sides of the ribs with salt, pepper and Season-All.
• Line a cookie sheet (with a lip on all sides) with heavy duty foil. Spray foil with cooking spray lightly.
• Put ribs in 350 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes, until meat starts to brown on both sides, flipping as needed.
• Brush on your favorite BBQ sauce (both sides of ribs) and put back in the 350 degree oven until BBQ sauce starts to caramelize but not burn, approximately 20 minutes. Flip them half way through.
• Once sauce is caramelized and cooked into the meat add another good amount of sauce to the tops of the ribs. Try not to let too much sauce fall to the foil, but it's okay if some gets on it.
• With top of ribs facing up, cover with a low-tented aluminum foil (tented just enough to not let it touch the tops of the ribs) and seal ALL sides TIGHTLY by curling foil under the lip or under the cookie sheet itself. The goal is to not let the steam out as it cooks.
• TURN OVEN DOWN TO 250 DEGREES! VERY IMPORTANT OR THE SAUCE WILL BURN! (As you can tell, I've made this mistake before.).
• Put ribs back in at 250 degrees and set a timer for approx 2 hours. Take cookie sheet out and pull back one corner of the foil (careful of the steam!). Poke a fork at one of the ribs -- the meat should easily come off the bone. If it doesn't, put back in the 250 degree oven and check every 20 minutes or so to see if the steam worked its magic.
• I've done two full sheets of ribs for a total of 4 long slabs of baby back ribs (two slabs per cookie sheet) in around 4 hours total cooking time (time includes browning and steaming).
• You will not believe how easy and tasty these are! Once the browning part is over you basically forget about them. There's really no wrong way to season them or sauce them.
• Serve with your favorite sides and enjoy!
• *** Special note: I have done the browning part (with seasoning, then the first part of the sauce caramelizing) on the grill for a smokey flavor, but prefer just doing everything in the oven. If you grill them, make sure you only put them in the oven for 250 degrees with foil tent on the ribs.