The freezer challenged...

R

richard-in-cincy

Well-known member
I wrap up stuff and put in the freezer. I do not mark it. I will remember.

I never do.

I will apparently never learn this lesson.

I pulled out a meatloaf from the freezer tonight for dinner and put it in the oven with potatoes. Roast.bake.roast.

I pulled out the meatloaf to plate and discovered a fruitcake.

So I ate fruitcake and baked potato for dinner.

 
LOL! I'm glad I am not the only one.

Not that I have specifically eaten fruitcake for dinner, but other flubs were nuttier.

 
My mom keeps a zip lock in the freezer for food trimmings that would get smelly before trash day

I think she took that bag somewhere for lunch instead of what she intended and was meant to.

I don't mark and don't remember either, but what I really hate is everything cascading out of a top freezer. Never again.

 
OMG this is all too funny. Oh awful to think you are going to get meatloaf, and you get

FRUITCAKE! I learned my lesson long ago. I hated looking at unmarked packages, and wondering what was in them. I have a drawer under my counter on the way out to the laundry room where my second freezer is. In there are two Sharpies, one black, one red. I now mark everything with a date and the name of the contents.. Especially helpful with chicken, which many of my bags say something similar this; 2 legs, 1 thigh, 1/2 breast and 4 wings. This helps me to take out the right bags so I can only cook what I need for the recipe. All packages are marked, now and I can tell you it makes your life so much easier and a better organized freezer. I have one shelf for home made stuff, like applesauce, blackened Hatch Chilies, tomato sauces. One shelf for chicken and pork, and one for beef. Breads, misc. go on the bottom, pull out bins. I also keep those convenience items there too, such as frozen chicken enchiladas from our local neighborhood grocery who make them, Tamale Pie, Pot Pies from Schwans that we love in the winter for lunches all live in those bins. What prompted me to get this going was the fact that we are both getting older and I did not want my hubby to left alone with a freezer full of unknowns.

 
I've often wanted to ask how folks mark their stuff. My Sharpie markings don't stay

on the plastic baggies and the freezer tape that I started to write on falls off. So it's back to mystery broth...mystery meat...mystery lentils (I'm hoping) or all the various remains of a jar that I thought I would use up...like tomato sauce or green chilies or (fill in the blank with any canned item).

Fruitcake though...never had that one. I did find 3 different cookie doughs and so work got a delightful treat.

 
Marilyn, do you use "real" Zip Locks?

On the freezer bags there is an area to mark with a Sharpie- I have never had trouble with the markings on these bags.

 
I thought I was being really smart when I started using canning jars for things that were liquid.

Of course I took out the butternut squash soup for dinner and ended up with orange juice.

 
My poor old fridge is non-functional because everything that SHOULD be in the doir

Is on an interior shelf because a large cascading package of frozen "something" fell out of the top freezer and broke the door shelf bracket off on its way down. You lose a tremendous amount of storage space when all the condiments, pickles, etc. can't be kept where they belong anymore.

 
Been there, done similar...

But I do need to ask one question.

Why are you freezing fruitcake? Wrap it in layers of cheesecloth, keep it soaked in booze, and it keeps at room temperature for eternity...or until you eat it up, which ever comes first.

My in-laws finished the top layer of their wedding cake, which was a very traditional fruitcake, on their 40th wedding anniversary. It had been kept as described above, in an airtight tin the entire time. My MIL would sprinkle it every few months with a bit of booze.

 
Which is exactly what I do with "that" kind of fruitcake. I've made it to 7 years...

with a cherry whisky fruitcake that was like a nice cherry brandy after all those years of getting "fed."

This was a quickbread, banana, pineapple, apple, coconut, pecans, etc. Useful for pulling out for afternoon tea.

 
Ah, I see *cheap* is what's doing me in. I grab whatever is on sale and must say that I despise

Walmart's brand of ziplock bag. The design for the slide zipper takes up so much room that I can barely fit anything in the opening, and yet it's a "gallon" container.

On the other hand, I love their version of saran wrap because it has a slider knife like the big restaurant version of plastic wrap. Covering dishes is so much easier.

 
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