What's in your freezer?

[cjsmith]

Serious question.

If I am ever going to cook, I'm going to cook for one, which is pessimal from a purchasing and storage point of view. My freezer is perennially full.

Friends ask "Full of WHAT?" They have a point. Food! But it's not that simple.

What have I got in there? Seven servings of bean soup (and that's after I've eaten three), one serving of lentil soup, some meatballs, two servings of beef stew, four servings of meatloaf, one ancient serving of Dijon chicken I should really pitch, a couple of pounds of lean ground turkey, two frozen chicken breasts, a big honkin' pile of chopped onion, some chopped bell peppers, a bowl of walnuts, lots of frozen veggies of the Bird's Eye sort of genre, a handful of frozen taquitos, several ice packs, and a tiny Godiva chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream container I'd forgotten about.

I had to look in there to write that paragraph, and truth to tell, I'm surprised by some of it. I didn't remember the meatloaf, the Dijon chicken, or the ice cream. Some of these things were seriously buried, of course.

What would I like to put in there? Multiple kinds of flour. The half a lemon I didn't squeeze into a recipe or the half a can of tomato paste I didn't use. Most importantly, a large variety of finished products, so that I have a big choice of what to pull out of there.

So there's my question. What's in your freezer?

More later.

Comments

[ame-chan.livejournal.com]

Chicken soup, bean soup, and fish sticks. Vegan sausage patties and vegan sausage links. Two bags of frozen teriyaki chicken from TJ's. Chicken breasts and thighs. Frozen corn. Two bags of edamame. A loaf of whole grain bread. A tri tip. Half a package of bacon. Ice cubes. Basic cubes. Cilantro cubes. Filo dough. Pastry puff dough left over from the holidays. An ice pack for my back. Some unidentified relics I should pitch. :-)

Oh, and two ziploc bags of chipotle peppers and one of mild green chiles from when I opened a can and only used one pepper and then forgot I had some frozen so opened a second can of chipotles. ;-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I am amused that you also found things you should pitch. :-) Maybe I'll go clean out that one Dijon tupperware!

What are basic cubes and cilantro cubes?

Ziploc bags are a great idea. I put way too much stuff in tupperware-ish containers, which are not squishable.

[ame-chan.livejournal.com]

Oh I meant basil cubes! They're from TJ's. Little mini cubes of basil and cilantro, easy for throwing in to something real fast.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It's frozen into a little block, somehow? I have never seen those! I'll have to keep an eye out next time I'm at TJ's. Those sound fabulous! nosredayduj's proto-pesto sounds wonderful too, along similar lines. That's the kind of thing I'd love to have more room for.

[nosrednayduj]

Proto pesto cubes are stored in ziploc bags once they're frozen, too, which makes them very easy to store. Wonder if TJ's basil cubes are secretly just like mine? Only you don't have to wish for someone to plant 20 basil plants and give you the leaves in the fall. Cally used to, but her community garden got turned into an apartment complex.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh bummer. How well does basil do in windowsill pots?

[nosrednayduj]

[take 2: lj crapped out when I tried before]

It shrivels up and turns black, if I have anything to do with it. I don't farm, I just cook.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can grow -- you'll probably laugh -- is violets. They're supposed to be hard. I ignore them and they do fine.

(Oh, and spider plants and golden pothos. Those are unkillable.)

I live in effing California. There's no excuse for me not to grow something yummy. *sigh*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_opus_/]

I live in effing California. There's no excuse for me not to grow something yummy. *sigh*

bearly_here grows most of our stuff in window boxes, so when winter hits, it comes indoors. We still have cherry tomatoes on the vine, though the basil died in December. We've got enough fresh sage to save $2.00 on a package when we make garlic chicken.

On the other hand, we can't keep rosemary growing for love or money.

What I can't figure out is how those tomatoes are even growing. The plants are supposed to have roots that go several feet in the ground, yet they're happily growing in 6" of soil in a window box. The neat part is that it stunts their growth; they're only about 2' tall, and easily supported by sticks.

She says to just water them every other day, don't get the soil too soggy or bone dry. Apparently, it works. Just not for the rosemary.

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

Scuze me for butting in, but I am floored that you can't grow rosemary. It has been one of the most carefree plants for me, always, and I have a HUGE amount -- like small bushes or a a small hedge. I want to know HOW it can be that you can't grow it -- but, um, of course you don't know. But this will nag at me! This is a real stumper!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, it does grow wild in our climate. _opus_ lives in the frozen wasteland of New Hampshire.

(Now I'm grinning, thinking how he'll respond to the phrase "frozen wasteland".)

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

ooohhhhh..... yeah, I've never grown anything in NJ or equivalent..... still, what with bringing the plants indoors for the winter??.... which seems to work for tomoatoes... but not for the reosemary.

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

A lemon tree, CJ! It's super easy. Really. But be sure your tree is a MEYER lemon tree. You'll have lemons for years and years....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I have a teeny little orange tree in a pot. (Thank you, layer!) It'll be a while before it bears fruit, of course.

I wonder if there are potted dwarf Meyer lemon trees.

Oh gosh, how will I ever move? *sigh*

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

Well, there ARE dwarf meyer lemon trees (I think mine is a dwarf, but it so many years ago that I bought it.....it all fades....) So, um, you COULD put it in a pot. But I wouldn't. Not if there's any ground available. I haven't tried it but I just can't imagine that it could really get big enough and happy enough in a pot to make the HUGE numbers of lemons that I'm used to. Which, um, has sort of come to seem "normal". Although for my own purposes, a much smaller number would do. Strange, I've come to see giving fruit away as an expected task. Like, um, not hauling bags or fruit around to foist on people might be okay too. (Novel idea.) So, um, okay, maybe in a pot would work. (sheepish grin).

How to move? Yeah, that can be a BIG issue for gardeners. Especially if you are moving someplace cold. (Actually potted trees are hard to move too)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, potted trees are heavy and unwieldy. If I had any number of them I don't know what I'd do -- foist them off on green-thumbed friends? On the other hand, in-ground trees are even less portable; we simply give them to the next owner of the house and hope that person doesn't chop 'em down to put in a rose garden. :-/

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

I was at summerwinds nursery yesterday (San Antonio and Middlefield in
Palo Alto). They have dwarf meyer lemon trees for $30, several of them.
Just mentioning it cuz I saw them.

Does it bother you to give the tree away in terms of $? Or is it more the
possibility that the new owners may chop it down?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, that the new owners might chop it down (or if it's in a pot, the thought that they might just pitch it). They're not THAT expensive, but I'd kind of like to know they'll keep producing and being appreciated by somebody.