Today I...

[conuly]

cleaned the freezer.

Woo-hoo!

This is our big deep freezer that's wedged under the stairs and thus only opens halfway. Now, I already knew we had a lot of meat and burritos in there from god knows when (I threw out anything older than six months - nobody ever seems to bother to DO anything to this food, so it's all incredibly freezerburned - but there was stuff in there four years old), but I was shocked to see that this, THIS was my mother's solution to the tiny fridge.

Tiny fridge, big freezer? No problem, just put your extra stuff in the freezer! *headdesk*

Two boxes of butter, and several loose sticks. A carton of milk. Bags and bags of leftovers - for crying out loud, woman, either eat them or toss them already! Sometimes the leftovers were just dumped in there in the pot or on the plate. Several boxes of blintzes. Cheese. More cheese. Grated cheese. Deli meat. A turkey, which I had to toss because I have no idea how old it was and if it'd ever been thawed out. A bottle of water - ice, really. Lots of plastic shopping bags, because when you're just dumping your groceries in the freezer, why take them out? A bag full of Chinese food. Seriously, it wasn't removed from the cartons or anything, it was just dumped in there.

And, god knows why, an entire bag of corn syrup and food coloring "popsicles" which I think must actually be Lizziey's from the last time she was here, like, five years ago. I thought about this for a minute, gave a blue one to each niece, and bagged up the rest of them to hand to the first child I saw on the street. God knows *I* don't want this in my house, and unlike the steaks I'm pretty sure sugar water doesn't go bad.

Three garbage bags worth of food later, and I still have to clear out the downstairs fridge, and my fridge needs cleaning - scrubbing, actually, so I might save that for Monday - and I have to deal with Jenn's fridge to put the CSA away.

Ah, the CSA. My sister and I need to work out a system. At the moment, she comes home enthused, so I'm reluctant to use much of what she gets (the greens) because she says she wants them for her salads. But then she doesn't use them for her salads, maybe because I tell HER I want to use them. This cannot continue. I'll try writing my menu on Thursdays instead of Mondays, and let her only take dibs up until midweek, at which point whatever she hasn't taken is fair game.

Comments

[steorra]

I use my freezer as a place to stow things that either have gone bad or are going to go bad soon when I'm not ready to deal with them. I do, however, get around to removing them from the freezer and throwing them out and washing the containers. It's mostly a strategy to avoid leaving things in the fridge and letting them get even ickier when I know I'm not going to deal with them properly at the moment. And things that are icky are often less icky when you can just tip a frozen chunk into the garbage and take the garbage out, rather than having to deal with gooey or runny ickiness which may be smelly.

[conuly]

Well, yeah, sometimes I put my compost in the freezer before taking it out for just that reason. But I take it out again, eventually.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Your freezer sounds like it was a very interesting place...

[conuly]

Wild rice roamed amongst the burritos.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

For future reference, freezerburned meat isn't ruined, just dry. ;)

Cook it in a soup, stew, braise or gravy and it'll be fine.

[conuly]

I didn't know you could save it in that way. Thanks!

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Freezing cheese affects the texture more than the flavor, so unless you're picky or a connoisseur, it shouldn't matter for most cheeses.

It makes it crumbly and hard to slice or spread. Grated cheese should be fine to use after it's been frozen.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Popsicles were certainly NOT mine.

Turkey may have been though, since I left right around Thanksgiving.