What's in your fridge/freezer?

[Arete]

Rachel, I hear you loud and clear about the abyss between end of citrus and beginning of strawberries. Usually right in the middle of my prolonged vegan period, and I do so get tired of bananas. That is when I'm glad I'm not buying meat because I have to shift money over from meat to frozen fruit.

GG, have you thought about freeIng on a small scale before learning to can? You can take advantage of the summer sales of produce like peppers, corn, even zuxhinbi uf you shred it and wring out the moisture before freezing. The key is to freeze in freezer bags, not containers. The bags are laid flat and take up MUCH less room in the freezer, just make sure what you put in the bags is dry outside and you remove as much air as possible. I can get 5 ears if sweet corn right now for 1 dollar, and it makes me a hero when buttered corn makes an appearance Thanksgiving. :)

Keen., I bow before anyone who can keep ice cream and novelties stored in their freezer. If they are in my freezer, I can't seem to stop until they are gone. If I need them for guests I buy the day of or ask my guests to bring if they offer to make or bring something. I have a pretty embarrassing lack of self control around ice cream, which I am only able to address by not having it in premises. Lol, I do have 2 whole chickens, $ pounds of pork shoulder and 5 pounds of organic grass fed chopped meat, all from sales, in the freezer. LI buy the family size, cut them up and repackage in smaller sizes in the freezer. So I make 2 shoulder roasts, and don't worry that in going to host a Sunday dinner here or day after Christmas there, chopped meat gets split into one pound packages.

[Arete]

RachelB, when you are drying, are you using a dehydrator, or do you live in a low humidity area?

[RachelB]

RachelB, when you are drying, are you using a dehydrator, or do you live in a low humidity area?

I use a dehydrator. It's made by Mr. Coffee, and I got it as a gift from a friend years ago. There are better ones out there, but it works well enough for me and doesn't heat up the apartment as a low oven would.

Along with the apricots and tomatoes, I've also made a habit of dehydrating pomegranate seeds, citrus peel for tea, and kiwi slices. During her first pregnancy, my SIL found that tart foods helped her morning sickness, and also that she loved dried kiwi, which is pretty hard to find unless you do it yourself.

[Maggie Mae]

Keen., I bow before anyone who can keep ice cream and novelties stored in their freezer. If they are in my freezer, I can't seem to stop until they are gone. If I need them for guests I buy the day of or ask my guests to bring if they offer to make or bring something. I have a pretty embarrassing lack of self control around ice cream, which I am only able to address by not having it in premises.

Really? I buy one of those little containers every six months or so, eat two to three bites and then forget about it until it has freezer burn. I figure if I had kids it might get eaten, but I never really got into the whole ice cream thing.

My fridge had a box of mixed greens, some broccoli slaw, the SO's roasted chicken, eggs, and some condiments. Oh, and a drawer of expired salmon jerky and bacon grease. I pretend that drawer isn't there. I don't like warm jam, so I always refrigerate it. There are two jars of jam from 2012, raspberry and cherry. I stopped eating bread shortly after purchasing said jam. One bottle of tapatio, one bottle of sriachi, one bottle of Tabasco, two bottle of Dave's, one bottle of franks hot sauce, and one bottle of tiger sauce. Half a stick of butter that I opened a month ago. Part of an olive tray

Inside freezer has a freezer burned box of gelato(pistachio), a freezer burned Ben and Jerry's (americone dream, yuck!) with one bite removed, a bag of chicken breasts, two bottles of vodka, three ice packs, and some ice. Oh, and two bags of frozen vegetables, one lean cusine from 2010 when SO's ex girlfriend lived here, butter, some halibut, and a bag of coffee.

Porch freezer is about half full of frozen fish (halibut and salmon), a key that no one knows what lock it is for, some ground moose, a portion of reindeer sausage from 2012, a bag of chicken, and I think some ground pork, unless I already used that last week..

[Arete]

Aw Maggie Mae, the thought of pistachio gelato sitting uneaten, unloved, and developing freezer burn over months gives me the sadz. :cry: Yeah, I would be able to dispatch it in 2 days tops. Which is why I stay out of the ice cream aisle unless company is coming. And bacon fat...it just makes everything better. I never have that around as I really don't care for bacon in and of itself. If I'm frying bacon at all, it is strictly for the purpose of collecting the fat for a recipe I'm making that day.

It has got to be awesome to have access to the quality of salmon that you guys have. This is the time of year it goes on sale here on the East Coast, so I try to keep money set aside to get and freeze. Otherwise wild caught salmon of any variety is prohibitively expensive. Even frozen cod is ridiculously expensive here. A freezer full of salmon and halibut? Now that would be nice. :D

[RachelB]

Aw Maggie Mae, the thought of pistachio gelato sitting uneaten, unloved, and developing freezer burn over months gives me the sadz. :cry: Yeah, I would be able to dispatch it in 2 days tops. Which is why I stay out of the ice cream aisle unless company is coming. And bacon fat...it just makes everything better. I never have that around as I really don't care for bacon in and of itself. If I'm frying bacon at all, it is strictly for the purpose of collecting the fat for a recipe I'm making that day.

It has got to be awesome to have access to the quality of salmon that you guys have. This is the time of year it goes on sale here on the East Coast, so I try to keep money set aside to get and freeze. Otherwise wild caught salmon of any variety is prohibitively expensive. Even frozen cod is ridiculously expensive here. A freezer full of salmon and halibut? Now that would be nice. :D

My method of keeping ice cream around is somewhat different: I make a couple quarts at a time. Once it's down to the last half cup, it is gone, because my lizard brain thinks that there will never be ice cream again. Up until then, though, I'm pretty leisurely about it.

[Maggie Mae]

Aw Maggie Mae, the thought of pistachio gelato sitting uneaten, unloved, and developing freezer burn over months gives me the sadz. :cry: Yeah, I would be able to dispatch it in 2 days tops. Which is why I stay out of the ice cream aisle unless company is coming. And bacon fat...it just makes everything better. I never have that around as I really don't care for bacon in and of itself. If I'm frying bacon at all, it is strictly for the purpose of collecting the fat for a recipe I'm making that day.

It has got to be awesome to have access to the quality of salmon that you guys have. This is the time of year it goes on sale here on the East Coast, so I try to keep money set aside to get and freeze. Otherwise wild caught salmon of any variety is prohibitively expensive. Even frozen cod is ridiculously expensive here. A freezer full of salmon and halibut? Now that would be nice. :D

As I was typing up the list of food in my fridge/freezers, I realized that I'm a stereotype.

I was going to write about how the fish isn't really any less expensive when you count the time fishing and the gas to get to the river and the equipment and/or the charter, but then I remembered that half the fish was gifted and I remembered this article, which you may or may not enjoy.

http://community.adn.com/adn/node/157370

[Arete]

http://community.adn.com/adn/node/157370

And hell yes I would be thrilled to be eating salmon in April caught the previous summer. Being 3,000 miles away from the nearest salmon fishery will do that to you. ;)