Fruit-filled cheese tarts

Here's my recipe for cheese tarts - well, OK, my whole family calls them "those little pie crust things." These little pastries can be baked right away, or flash-frozen to be popped in the oven another time.

3 oz. cold cream cheese
1 stick cold butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
Your choice jam - I use seedless raspberry or apricot preserves

Chop up the cream cheese and butter, and put it all in a food processor with the cup of flour. Process until it looks like fine crumbs - about the size of corn meal. Dump it into a bowl, squish it all together forming a dough, and shape it into a disk and chill for an hour.

Roll out the dough thinly (you'll need to work in sections, not the whole thing at once) on a floured board or mat, cut dough into 3" circles. In the center of each circle, place a 1/4" tsp of your favorite jam. Wet the edges of the circle, fold the circle in half over the jam, and seal with a fork like you would pie crust. Hence the name, little pie-crust things.

To bake immediately - place the tarts on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until they are slightly browned.

To freeze, place the tarts instead separately on a waxed-paper coated piece of cardboard and flash-freeze. When frozen, place them in a ziplock bag. When ready to bake, place the frozen tarts on an ungreased cookie sheet - and follow the same baking instructions as above - adding another few minutes to the baking time if needed.

Warning - do not keep these in the freezer for too long, or they will taste "sour" - I'm pretty sure that's because of the cream cheese. You should be fine for a few weeks, longer if you experiment with a few.

New Catagory - Do Not Freeze!

On every freezer cooking site there should be a section that serves as a warning - "Do Not Attempt To Freeze!" or something similar. So - I'm adding one. I've tried to freeze lots of strange things, all in the name of saving time and/or money, at times with less than stellar results.

I'm beginning to welcome contributions to all aspects of this site - so please share your successes, and your...um...not-so-successes. :) In today's economy, we can all use a little more time and money, and there simply is no excuse for wasting food if you have even a small freezer with which to work.

I'm also soliciting suggestions regarding what would make this site more user-friendly. What would you like to see here?

Remember my cheesecake experiment?

I posted how I was freezing a piece of homemade cheesecake, and I'd report back later? Guess what? It thawed in the fridge, and was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!! Tasted like I had just made it.

Now, I wouldn't recommend freezing it for any more than a month - but if you're feeling adventurous, you could try. I might next time around and see how long it might actually last.

I only wrapped it in a piece in plastic wrap, nothing fancy, and put it in my freezer that's on top of my fridge. Seriously, it was awesome!!

Finnish Pancake

This is not a freezer recipe - but it's a favorite in our house.

It seems there are dozens of recipes for these baked pancakes out there - and whether they're called "finnish" or "swedish" - they're all basically the same premise - a big puffy oven baked pancake! The ingredients are also very similar, and we tried 5 or 6 different ones before settling on this one, which is our current fav. I found it on Allrecipes.com - here's the direct link to the recipe. Note - I bake this at 425 instead of 450. I found that 450 in my oven browned the top and bottom too much for our taste.

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C)
In a medium bowl stir together sugar, flour, and salt. Add eggs and milk. Beat with an electric mixer until blended. Batter will be very thin. Melt butter in the baking pan. Turn the pan to be sure all of the sides are coated then stir the remaining butter into the batter.
Pour batter into the baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. It will puff up when baking, and flatten when cool. Cut into squares and serve. We serve ours with maple syrup, but you could also serve with jam or fruit.

Cheesecake experiment

So I'm going to try freezing one piece of my homemade cheesecake today and see how well it holds up. To be continued...

Mashed potatoes

Leftover mashed potatoes? Well - there are some great recipes out there that can be made from leftover mashed potatoes, but if you only have a serving or two, you can always freeze it in a ziplock bag. Later, just thaw them out and serve (they'll be a bit more watery than normal) or mix them in with a fresh batch of mashed potatoes. A couple times I've been so pressed for time with dinner and had several bags of leftover mashed in the freezer - I juat thawed them, mixed them all together, heated, and served. Why waste? Seriously! They are just as good!

Bread

Bread is wonderful homemade – but what about if you don’t have time to make it?

I have a bread machine, and it makes having homemade bread wicked easy, but it still takes almost 4 hours. Here’s what I’ve discovered: bread freezes really well. When you’ve got the time during the day, throw all the stuff in your bread machine and make a loaf of bread. After it cools, double wrap it in aluminum foil, label and date it with a Sharpie marker, and freeze it for later. You can thaw that baby out or pop it in the oven frozen and heat it through in less than an hour. Trust me, it tastes as if you just made it, no one will know it came out of the freezer. My freezer always has a few loaves of good bread in it. This is a much more cost effective and delicious option to simply running into the store and picking up a loaf of Italian bread.

Chicken tenders

Another homemade convenience food that you can adjust to your own taste. Here's the basic recipe:

Boneless skinless chicken breast halves cut into 8-10 pieces each.
Beaten eggs
Italian flavored breadcrumbs mixed with a little melted butter (2 tbsps butter to 1 cup breadcrumbs)

Dip the chicken pieces in egg, then coat in breadcrumb mixture. Place on sprayed cookie sheet, and bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink inside. Serve immediately - OR...

Undercook them ever-so-slightly, and then allow them to cool a bit, then place on waxed paper lined cardboard or cookie sheet and flash freeze. When frozen, store in gallon ziplock freezer bag. To reheat later, take out only as many pieces as you need, place frozen tenders on a sprayed cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for @13-15 minutes.

Chopped, cooked chicken

Every freezer should have this in it, in 2-cup portions! Many, many recipes call for chopped, cooked chicken. So what do most people do? They run to the store and buy a can of chopped, cooked chicken. That gets me to wondering...WHY???? Do you have any idea who expensive that stuff is? Not to mention dry and tasteless. No no no...here's what we're going to do. Make our own!

If you like dark meat, use legs and thighs. If you like white meat, use breast meat. Either way, it's SO much cheaper and tastier than that canned stuff.

Here's what I do - you make your own modifications - throw boneless skinless breasts into a large saucepan or skillet, cover with cold water, and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Rinse with cold water when done and cool. Then chop it up and freeze it in 2-cup increments - or more, or less, depending on the recipes you use it in and the size of your family. You will always have a quick dinner on hand!

Tonight I'm assembling all the ingredients for Chicken-a-la King so that Glen can prepare a hot meal for the kids after their soccer practices, since I'll be out. Why order out for pizza, when you have the main ingredients for a simple hot meal in the freezer?

Oh, yea, don't ask me for my Chicken-a-la-King recipe...it's Glen's. He loves to make it, and I let him. ;-)

Other recipes I use this in:
Quick Chicken Curry
Chicken Casserole (a nice substitute for tuna)
Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken Salad
Chicken Soup
Chicken Stew

I'll bet you can come up with dozens more! Why not leave me a comment and tell me what you do with chopped, cooked chicken?

Carmelized Pork Medallions

This recipe freezes and reheats amazingly well and so quickly - plus it's fancy enough to pull out when you have unexpected company and want to impress!

1 pound pork tenderloin cut into 1/2" slices.
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp. orange juice
1 Tbsp. molasses
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Spray skillet with oil, heat over medium heat. Cook pork slices 6-8 minutes turning occasionally until pork is light brown and no longer pink inside. Drain if necessary. Stir in remaining ingredients, cook until mixture thickens and coats pork. Serve.

This is how I prepared this recipe for the freezer...

I cook the pork slices, but undercook them slightly. I quadruple the sauce - mixing it together separately in a bowl. When the pork slices cool a bit, I throw them into a quart sized ziplock freezer bag and then pour in the sauce. Suck the air out, flatten out the bag (for easy stacking in the freezer and quicker thawing) and freeze. To reheat - thaw and simmer for a few minutes. You'll have enough sauce to spoon a bit over rice. Yum!

I made this for dinner the other night, and then put 3 more meals of it in the freezer - because pork tenderloin was at Sam's Club for 2.88 per pound - so I bought 4 pounds!

Freezer dinner for 9/15

BBQ'd pulled pork on baked potatoes with broccoli or a tossed salad.

BBQ pulled pork: I pulled 2 pounds of precooked pork shoulder (butt) out of the freezer that I had vacuum sealed 3 months ago, thawed it out, shredded it, and then heated it on the stove with some BBQ sauce.

Baked potatoes - not from the freezer! Make 'em fresh.

Jonathan prefers this as a sandwich, so I also grabbed a package of hamburger rolls that were in the freezer simply in the store packaging - they thawed great, then I simply popped them in the toaster.

Broccoli - I buy the frozen family size Bird's Eye broccoli crowns from Sam's, honestly - if you steam them properly, they taste just like fresh! I don't bother blanching and freezing my own right now, I just don't have the time.

This is one of the easiest and most economical dinners to make that they whole family likes, but it's also great for company! Next time pork shoulder goes on sale, buy 10-12 pounds, cook it, and freeze it in meal-sized portions! No one will know it came from the freezer.

Putting freezer cooking to the test

I've got a huge picnic I'm planning for Saturday, and it's crunch time for the freezer goddess. The menu is simple, but it will save fridge space and prep/cooking time. Here's what I'm making ahead of time in order for it to be made "fresh" the day of the picnic.

The first item is the all-important and ever-versatile flash-frozen convenience chicken. With all the people and small children around, I do not want to be dealing with raw chicken on picnic day - and now there's no need to. It only needs to be heated (not cooked) on a low grill. We'll season some of it with a bit of Lawry's and serve it with Crystal Hot Sauce, and then slather BBQ sauce on the rest. As for the leftovers, I may even try refreezing it - I'l let you know how that turns out.

Burgers - I handformed, individually wrapped and froze a couple dozen of them already.

Hotdogs - I buy them in bulk, and I routinely wrap pairs of them in plastic wrap and freeze the whole lot in a gallon ziplock bag. My freezer already is full of them - just thaw and grill.

Mac & Cheese - already assembled and frozen, just needs to be thawed and baked.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Balls of ready-to-bake dough have previously been flash frozen. To bake, they just go right onto the cookie cheet and into the oven.

Koolaid - believe it or not, I'm actually considering freezing gallon zip-lock bags of it so I'll be cold for the picnic, and not use up my precious ice cubes! Having that large freezer in my garage really helps.

The amount of time and hassle (not to mention fridge space!) that just these few steps will save me will be realized on picnic day.

If they can do it, so can you!

Just a quick freezing tip for the day...if you can find it in your grocery store's freezer, then you can do the same at home. Take a look next time you're there!

Freezer Dinner 7-13-08 - Almost Wicked Quick Spaghetti & Meatballs

I had no spaghetti sauce in the freezer, so I made a quick batch from scratch. Here's how easy it is:

2 - 15 oz. cans stewed tomatoes
1 - 15 oz can diced tomatoes

Puree these all together and dump in a 4-qt. saucepan. Sauce will be very thin! Add a 4 oz. can of tomato paste if you like thicker sauce. Add the following stir to blend (these amounts are approximate):

1 tbsp dried minced onion
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp dry red wine

Drop in 12 pre-cooked frozen 2" meatballs. Simmer for 30 minutes.

If I were making "Wicked Quick Spaghetti & Meatballs" - I would have pulled out my already prepared sauce from the freezer - but this really is almost as quick.

Even better - pull out a frozen loaf of italian or portugese bread and pop it in the oven at 325 degrees for 30 minutes while the sauce is simmering. Poof! Hot bread whenever you want it. Loaves of bread should always, ALWAYS be in your freezer! Wrap whole loaves (do NOT pre-slice them) tightly in foil, label them with a Sharpie, and you'll always be ready with a hot loaf of bread for any occasion.

Flash-frozen convenience chicken

Unexpected company (my sister, niece and nephew) for dinner the other night made me realize how something so simple can sometimes be invaluable. I'm talking flash-frozen convenience chicken.

Sam's Club has 6.5 lb. packages of chicken thighs and legs. Many times I've placed 9-10 pieces in a gallon ziplock bag, dumped in some BBQ sauce or marinade, and frozen it like that - and when it thaws, it's already marinated and ready for the grill. But if you're like my family, we like BBQ sauces & marinades with high sugar contents, and I noticed that the sauce will be black by the time the chicken's done cooking. You can't really baste it with the sauce in the bag...raw chicken bacteria, salmonella & all...ick.

Freezing just the plain pieces of chicken is OK - but when you thaw it out, you still have raw chicken to cook. I'm all about saving time as well as money.

So my solution is to pre-cook the chicken in the oven. I season it with a little salt, pepper and onion powder and bake it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. When it cools, I transfer it to a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper, and freeze the chicken pieces separately. When frozen, I store them in a ziplock bag, and then I can pull out only what I need to thaw and reheat later.

While reheating the chicken on my grill (on LOW!), I can baste it with bbq sauce whenever I want, and it won't burn. Reheating the chicken takes @ 30 minutes.

Note - my sister said there was no way they could tell it was previously frozen. In addition to the chicken, I threw some rice into the rice cooker, grilled some zucchini and summer squash, cut up a whole slew of raw veggies, and opened a can of baked beans, My nephew made sure he told me he had cleaned his plate. :-)

Unexpected company doesn't have to send you into a panic, or to the phone for take-out. Having food in the freezer for convenience means you can entertain AND enjoy your company at the same time.

Lasagna!

A freezer meal staple, to be sure. If you've never made it before - well, honestly, with those no-boil noodles they have now, you really have no excuse! Here's my recipe:

Sauce:
2 15 oz. cans stewed tomatoes
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp. dried minced onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. oregano
1 tbsp basil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp red wine

Puree the canned tomatoes in a blender, pour into saucepan, add the rest of the ingredients, and simmer for 10 minutes. Yes - you really need this much sauce with no-boil noodles!

Cheese Filling: (mix together the following)
2 eggs, beaten
15 oz. ricotta cheese
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated romano cheese
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Additional ingredients:
1 pound of cooked ground beef or sausage
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
1 box no-boil lasagna noodles, we prefer Barilla

Lightly spray a 9x13x2" pan with cooking spray.
Place 1/4 of the sauce in the bottom of pan
layer 4 no-boil lasagna noodles slightly overlapping (they will expand while cooking to cover the pan, trust me!)
Spoon on 1/2 the cheese filling
Sprinkle on 1/2 pound cooked ground beef or sausage
Place another 1/4 of the sauce on top
Layer 4 more noodles
Spoon on remaining cheese filling
Sprinkle on 1/2 pound cooked ground beef or sausage
Place another 1/4 of the sauce on top
Layer 4 more noodles
Place remaining sauce on top of noodles
Sprinkle 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese on top.

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

At this point, you can cool the lasagna, cover it tightly, and freeze it for reheating later. Gladware makes wonderful casserole containers with lids that work wonders - you can bake the lasagna right in them, then freeze it, then reheat it - all in the same pan.

Really, you have no excuse for not making lasagna. Everyone loves it. Use your own recipe - it'll freeze just as well!

Hint - if you use traditional noodles that you boil first - you can assemble the lasagna and then freeze it BEFORE baking, ensuring a much fresher meal later on. I've done both - it's your preference, really. Lasagna also works great for a meal ministry item.

Make the most of our short strawberry season

It's strawberry season in Connecticut, and pick-your-own farms are everywhere. Why spend $2.50 a pound for pesticide-laden, questionable-quality-by-the-time-they-hit-the-east-coast berries from California, or $8.00 for a 4 lb. bag of whole frozen strawberries at Sam's Club when you can pick them fresh for @ $1.00 per pound and freeze them yourself just hours later. I freeze my strawberries three ways:

1) I wash them, cut the stems off, and lay them in a single layer, not touching, on a waxed-paper coated piece of cardboard or cookie sheet - then I freeze them that way. Once they're frozen, you've got yourself a bunch of red marbles that you simply transfer to a gallon ziplock bag and store in the freezer.

2) I wash, stem, and slice them up, mix them with a little sugar (helps keep them freezer burn-free) and store them by the quart in quart-sized ziplock bags - lay the bags flat to freeze...but make sure there's a flat surface underneath them, or you'll be trying to pry frozen bags of strawberries from your wire freezer shelves. These I use for topping desserts such as shortcake, cheesecake, etc.

3) I make a bunch of no-cook strawberry freezer jam to last us a year until the next picking season - just pick up a box of Sure-Jell at the grocery store and follow the instructions - it's the easiest and best tasting strawberry jam you will ever have!

So go ahead - fill the freezer! You'll be reaping the rewards all year long!

I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...

Ribs freeze great - so go ahead and save money by buying 10-20 pounds at once. Just don't keep them in the freezer too long (1 month, tops) because the high fat content causes them to spoil much faster than other meats. You could probably keep them longer using a vacuum sealer - but don't expect them to last longer than 2 months.

Having them in the freezer is wonderful for last minute appetizers that help make your guests feel really special!

To cook a rack of baby back ribs - thaw them out, salt and pepper them, and grill them over indirect, medium heat (350-375) for an hour and 20 minutes. Baste with your favorite sauce during the last 20 minutes of cooking. Nothing could be easier!

Cheese, please!

Keeping cheese around can be tricky, especially if you want to save money by buying it in bulk. Cheddar and mozzarella are popular in my house, but sometimes they can mold before I use it all. Then I found out you can actually freeze shredded cheese, and it works just as well as fresh in recipes!

I pre-shred mine in my Black & Decker Shortcut food processor. Any shredder will work, though - just buy a big brick of cheese at the warehouse club and go to town! Freeze it in pre-measured portions, and label them accordingly. It thaws quickly, and you can stock up without worrying about it going bad. The trick, though, is to suck all the air out of the freezer bag if you're going to store it for any length of time. This is where a foodsaver comes in handy.

I find it very convenient to always have shredded cheese on hand whenever I need it. Running to the grocery store for last minute ingredients such as this is a total drag!

Awesome green smoothies!!

My kids beg for this. They call it "a green banana." Put these items in your Vita-mix (or regular blender, if it can hack it) in this order.

1/2 cup white grape or apple juice
2 medium ripe bananas
3 pitted dates OR 1 to 2 tsp. blue agave nectar (optional for extra sweetness)
1 good-sized grab of baby spinach leaves
1 cup of ice cubes

Blend until smooth, add extra ice or juice as needed to get the consistency you want.

This is a great way to get a healthy serving of both fruit and green veggies. Enjoy!

Freezing bananas

Frozen bananas are a staple in the fruit smoothie world. Simply peel ripe bananas, and place them whole on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet or piece of cardboard - then place them in the freezer. When they freeze, transfer them to a gallon ziplock back for storage in the freezer. Although frozen, they remain fairly easy to break into pieces.

I'm a pureeing goddess!

Yep - a Vita-Mix. You have no idea how thrilled I am. I can see my mom's reaction already - "You paid HOW MUCH for a BLENDER?"

We went to the Connecticut Home Show yesterday in Hartford. I made Glen swear we wouldn't enter to win any time share trips, or buy a mop or a super chamois. I felt confident to resist the allure of literature, business cards and candy being thrown in my direction. Then it happened. Dunkin' Donuts was giving out free mocha latte samples. I caved. I know it was all a ploy to soften me up for the all-natural jewelry cleaner. I don't even wear jewelry, but my engagement ring looked so beautiful afterwards, and no scrubbing! That one purchase broke down the last of my resistance, and I was drawn into the Vita-Mix demonstration. As soon as the rep made a fruit sorbet with cabbage and carrots in it, I was hooked. Then she made a southwestern tortilla soup that heated up during the prep time and was ready to serve in 4 minutes right from the blender. I began to search for my checkbook.

Being the level-headed one, Glen pulled me away by asking if I wanted another latte sample. We walked around for a bit more while I cooled off, and then he asked if I wanted the Vita-Mix. "YES!!!!" I pleaded for him to put me out of my misery. "Will you use it?" What a silly question, I use my regular blender to make fruit smoothies every day, but I can't put ice in it, and the motor will most likely burn out soon, and cleaning it is a pain..."YES, I'll use it every day! I promise you'll be eating vegetables you can't even pronounce and you won't even know they're there!" Done. It'll be on my doorstep in a week.

For the next 6 months, I'm sure I'll be torturing all my blog readers with my latest Vita-Mix creations.

Dumb blonde

Chocolate cakes do not taste good if made without sugar. Ask me how I know. *rolling my eyes* I have a feeling Glen will be bringing this one up at family gatherings for YEARS to come.

I'm back!

Two weeks in Disney, and now my house is completely torn apart as we paint the livingroom, hall, entry way - and we're also refinishing the floors in those areas PLUS the diningroom. Meals have been relegated to the under-construction family room downstairs. I was really getting very tired of eating out every night. FINALLY tonight I actually cooked a meal in my kitchen.

I found a great sausage & peppers recipe on Allrecipes.com that I like even better than my sausage skillet (as does my husband) - so I think that recipe will be retired soon.

This is a great time to do a plug for Allrecipes.com - the site is wonderfully useful. If you're tired of the daily grind of preparing meals, it helps break things up, and there is simply so much there, you're bound to find something you and your family like. This is my go to recipe site when it's 4:00pm and I just want something different for a change. Check it out!

Pre-prepping onions

Even though I cook a lot, sometimes onions will go bad in my pantry before I can use them. Did you know you can freeze them? Pre-chop them, and freeze them in little pre-measured bags - 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup - that way when you pull out a recipe, you've got the onions already measured and chopped - big time saver! The money saver comes in by being able to buy larger quantities of onions, and not having them go bad in your pantry.

Regarding the bags? I use cheap little sandwich bags and a twistie tie - and then put all the little bags in a gallon ziplock bag.

Flash-frozen bell peppers

Why pay for Birdseye to do this? The next time bell peppers go on sale (green, red, yellow, any color) purchase a bunch, and then slice them into strips ready to add to recipes such as my Italian Sausage Skillet. Lay them separately on a waxed-paper coated piace of cardboard or cookie sheet and freeze. When frozen, transfer them to a gallon ziplock bag - this way they won't stick together, and you can pull out only as many as you want for any given recipe.

Italian Sausage Skillet

1 lb. italian sausage links
1 can italian stewed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1 tsp chicken bouillon
2 good handfuls bell pepper strips - fresh or frozen
1 lb pasta shells, rotini, or other favorite shapes.

Cook pasta according to package directions and drain. While waiting for pasta to cook, cut sausage links into 3/4" pieces. Saute in a little oil until browned and cooked most of the way through - @ 10 minutes. Add stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, water, and bouillon to the skillet - stir to combine. Add pepper strips, and simmer for 10 minutes. To serve, mix with as much pasta as you'd like and serve with grated cheese.

To freeze for a future meal - add all the ingredients (except pasta) after the sausage cooks, and don't simmer - let it all cool down, put it all in a gallon ziplock bag, and lay flat to freeze. When ready to serve, thaw, simmer for 10 minutes, and then add cooked pasta.

Freezer roast pork

I had purchased a 10 lb. pork butt and cooked it up in the crock pot a month or so ago. To see how well it would hold up for future dinners, I placed a meal-sized portion of pork in a ziplock bag, covered it with unthickened gravy from the crockpot, and froze it like that. Last night, I thawed it out most of the way in the microwave, and brought it all to a simmer on the stove to reheat. I seasoned and thickened the gravy, and we had a feast of roast pork, mashed potatoes, homemade applesauce I thawed from the freezer, and even a few leftover green beans I had frozen in a ziplock from a previous meal. Freezer cooking at its best!

This type of pork roast holds up so well to freezing in gravy. I tried freezing a portion NOT in gravy, we'll see how that holds up another time.

But this was wonderful, economical, and a real time saver!