Uses for massive amounts of potatoes and celery and...

[Tai]

I have a love hate relationship with Aldi.  I love love love their prices, and I hate that I can't pass up some of the deals!

As a result, I currently have 20 lbs of potatoes that I paid $3 for.  2 full celery bunches for 58c.   12 lbs of onions for $2.  8lbs of carrots for $2.  And there's still a solid 8 lbs of sweet potatoes lurking after the sale I hit last week...

And, I just made my turkey yesterday, so I've got a day of cooking, assembling, and freezing tomorrow (turkey legs are already frozen, then I'm doing a batch of turkey soup (freezing without noodles to avoid soggilicious noodles!) and some straight up turkey in broth for future creativity (and to use up some of the 2 gallons of stock I've produced). 

So, any ideas?  I know I'll make a double batch of onion soup, since I've got so many onions it seems necessary! 

Potatoes?  can I freeze a batch of twice baked or will they come out yucky?  I know these will keep in a cool, dark area well, but I'd still love some ideas. 
 
The celery- I have no idea.  it was a bogo deal, and I didn't realize DH had already bought a bunch.  Worst case scenario I can thrown them on the dehydrator. 

Help please? 

[Nibsey]

Well with those ingredients I usually make the fillings for fish pie which I freeze.
I parboil celery and carrots and saute onions and garlics in a pan and leave to cool. At the same time I cook salmon and usually a white fish like cod or whiting in milk with seasoning for 10 mins. Sieve the milk from the fish(leave fish to cool aswell), and then use it to make a white sauce by melting butter in a pan stirring in flour and white wine. Then I slowly add the milk while whisking. Finally I mix all the veg, fish and sauce together in a big bowl and separate into different portions to freeze. Then all I have to do is to defrost the mixture, put it in a oven dish, put mashed potatoes ontop with maybe either cheddar or goatscheese ontop and bake in the oven.

[O'Dell]

I've wondered the same thing. I googled it and supposedly you can freeze it for use in cooking. I haven't tried it but I do something similar with onions and peppers when they are in season. I chop it as I would for cooking, then spread it out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze it. Then store it in freezer bags. Freezing the veggies in a single layer keeps them from forming a big block, so you can just use what you need and reseal. Like what you'd do for berries. It's fine if they are going into soups or casseroles where they will be thoroughly cooked anyway.

One bonus of doing this...some basic soup ingredients are ready to go when you are short on time or energy. They can be used straight from the freezer.

[Miriam]

Wow I had just made a beef tip stew in the slow cooker with all the ingredients you had mentioned.

I love celery, it works great with stews and snacks with peanut butter or hummus. I usually sautee some sliced bits for etoufee.

[EmmaJ.]

You can freeze twice-baked potatoes very successfully.  I bake three or four large potatoes then scoop out middles leaving about a 1/3-inch shell of potato and skin behind.  Mash with butter, milk, and cheese and stuff back into shells.  Sprinkle with paprika because it looks so pretty.

I put mine on a plate loosely covered with plastic wrap, put in freezer until solid, and then use my Food Saver to shrink wrap each half separately.  If you use the Food Saver before freezing them, it flattens and mooshes the potato into a very unappealing mass.   

[Outdoor Girl]

Potato soup?  With the celery, onions and carrots?  Or add in some of your turkey and broth and make turkey pot pie filling?  Let it cool, fill your raw pastry shells and put the pies, unbaked, into the freezer.  Then pull it out and bake when you want a pie.

The double baked potatoes won't freeze well, at least in my experience.  The only way potatoes come out OK is mashed.  And they take a long time to heat up in the microwave, about twice as long as anything else on the plate.

If you have space, the carrots can be cut into sticks and blanched, then frozen to be brought out to cook for a meal when you want them.

Edited to add:  Apparently Nins experience is different.  Give it a shot!

[Aggiesque]

potatoe soup and pot pies.

This one http://allrecipes.com/recipe/delicious-ham-and-potato-soup/detail.aspx

[kitty-cat]

Slow cooker pot roast.

Get a hunk of stew meat (cheaper is better I think-slow cooking makes it very tender), slather with horseradish and cook in a slowcooker on low for about 8 hours. Add in the veggies in order of hardness- Potatoes and carrots then later onions and celery. (turn to high for a bit if the veggies aren't cooked enough)

[wx4caster]

Herbed Lamb Stew?

http://www.kountrylife.com/content/rec61.htm  (identical to the one in my 90's version of the Better Homes and Garden cookbook)

[mechtilde]

Mashed potato will freeze well, and you can always bake it from frozen to make Duchesse potatoes. I used to make mashed potato, pipe it into pretty shapes, freeze them, put them in a container when solid and keep them in the freezer until required. Then I'd put them (still frozen) straight onto a greased baking tray and bake them.

[Outdoor Girl]

mechtilde made me think...  What about Sheppard's Pie for the freezer?

[KatPsych]

I agree with the pot roast idea.  I usually put the potatoes in the bottom and then put carrots and onions on top of that and then the meat.

Stew is another good one.  My beef stew uses potatoes, carrots, onions and celery (although I don't think it freezes really well because of the cooked potatoes).

Jambalaya also uses onions and celery.  I've just cut up celery and onions before and frozen them and they've worked fine for me.