A well-stocked freezer can spare a person a lot of late-night snack cravings or lazy days when you just don't feel like going to the store, and it's absolutely essential if you have friends who like to drop by for impromptu parties. (See our 8 staples for stress-free entertaining here, but be warned: the well-stocked freezer may cause this habit to develop in your friends.) But what constitutes "well-stocked" depends a lot on where we live, how we cook and entertain, and how big our freezers are. What are your essentials? Here are five of my own. More

There are nights when you have a couple hours to shop, cook and arrange a knock-out appetizer spread to greet your guests...but what about those nights when you don't? Even a last-minute gathering can be quick and stress-free if you keep your freezer stocked with the right supplies. More

We've been talking about Freezer Meals all week, which seemed the perfect excuse to go back into our archives and pull out some of our best freezer tips and recipe ideas from past months. If you missed these posts the first time around, you can catch up now! More

I daydream about having a giant deep freezer to fill with harvest-time bounty and made-ahead meals for babysitter nights. The reality is that my freezer is the size of an accordion and is carefully jammed full with a menagerie of odds and ends: just enough frozen fruit for smoothies, a couple of random meats (goat cubes! a rabbit!), no more than one container of homemade ice cream at a time, and two mini ice cube trays. The door holds some leaf lard for pies, a few bags of nuts, a few sacks of grains, and the occasional bag of peas for boo-boos.

This doesn't mean I'm a stranger to cooking for freezers; a person in my age-group knows all too well the midlife cycle of births, deaths, and moves. Having babies, moving house, and nursing aging parents and all prime-time opportunities for homemade frozen meals and a new book called The Foolproof Freezer Cookbook will help you think outside the chicken soup, pesto, and lasagna box. More

If you're one of the many folks experimenting with whole-grain flours, I'm sure you've encountered this question: because so many whole grains can go rancid relatively quickly, should you freeze your flour? More

Soups are one of the easiest and most reliable dishes to freeze. And by reliable, I mean that you can come home from work, warm up a bowl of frozen soup, and know without a doubt that it will be delicious. So make a double batch of the soups you love most and freeze some for later with these tips. More

A little tomato paste goes a long way in adding flavor to soups and sauces, especially when your pantry is looking a bit bare. But it's not exactly a showstopping ingredient. To really intensify the flavors and turn it into your own secret ingredient, try these tips from Bon Appétit. More

Nutty, nourishing brown rice is a great addition to rice bowls and the perfect accompaniment to stir-fries, but its long cooking time makes it a tough sell for busy weeknight dinners. Packaged, precooked brown rice from the frozen section of the supermarket makes preparation quick and foolproof enough for last-minute meals — but why pay extra when it is so simple to freeze your own portioned brown rice at home? More

At any given time I have several pounds of ground beef stockpiled in my freezer. It's easy to panic and make chili or tacos again, so here are 10 new recipes to tickle your tastebuds with this common freezer staple. Did I mention one of them looks like sushi? More

My stepdad brought Indian home cooking into my life. He and my mother had been high school sweethearts, American students at an international school in the foothills of the Himalayas where my stepdad had grown up, stuffing himself on dal and pappadums throughout childhood and cultivating a lifelong craving for fragrant vegetarian curries. Thanks to him and to recipes like this mixed bean masala, it's a craving I now share. Quick, healthy and economical, it's an easy recipe to double and freeze in preparation for chilly winter nights, when the scent of onion, ginger and spices bubbling on the stove will warm up the whole house. More