Shutting down our freezer has led to some pretty interesting meals and decisions this week.
My husband brought up a tub of his favorite rocky road ice cream from the basement freezer and was getting ready to enjoy a late night treat. I opened up the tub (maybe if I put it in a bowl and added some whipped cream he might not notice if I took a scoop for myself as well). The ice cream, although still frozen was pretty soft. Uh oh.
Over the next few days, we kept checking on the freezer. While everything stayed frozen, some things, such as the ice cream weren’t quite as solid as we expected, and we spotted some bagged food with lots of ice crystals, a sure sign that things were not as they should be. Added to this was the fact that every time we went to check, it seemed that it was constantly running.
The is nothing left to do but to empty it out, shut it off and see if we can locate the problem. So, for the last week we have been pulling frozen food out and trying to use it up or fit it into the kitchen freezer, leading to a lot of smorgasbord “adventure” dinners, in which the offerings might include two boxes of appetizers bought for emergency entertaining, along with chicken nuggets and bags of peas. Call it finger food night. The thought of eating peas with their fingers was hysterical to the kids.
This morning, I am down to pretty much grains–bulk oatmeal and flour kept in the freezer to preserve it. In the high humidity that we have been having, I hope it keeps well.
We did give away one ancient chicken and one ancient turkey dated May 2010. The USDA states that frozen poultry can keep forever, although the taste might degrade after one year. Normally, this wouldn’t bother us, but there is no way we could consume it all within the next couple of days. A Freecycle family was thrilled to have the extra meat.
The freezer shut down is a blessing in disguise. It is helping cut down the budget this week, since there is no more buying frozen food until we have the space (although I did catch my husband desperately trying to fit two gallons of ice cream into the already packed kitchen freezer), and it gives us insight into our eating and shopping habits (despite trying to disguise it five different ways, my family just won’t eat dark meat).
I may just have to stage a fake freezer shut down every year.
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