The negative is that you end up with a freezer full of plastic bags filled with lord-knows-what that you have long since forgotten about. Our neighbor told me one day that she once bought a freezer, but after a couple of years she got rid of it because she never could quite figure out what was in it, or why. The fact is, you do have to empty the freezer regularly to figure out what you're keeping.
Well, we did that last week and I found some treasures along with all the bags of frozen squash pulp and shrimp broth that we decided to throw out. One treasure, from my point of view, was a big zip-top bag of grits. I must have brought it back from the U.S. on a past trip. If you don't know what grits are, I'll tell you: they are what the Italians call polenta, but made from white corn (maize or maïs) rather than yellow corn.
Grits are mostly a breakfast food, while polenta is a lunch or dinner treat. Grits can be too. I cooked up a batch of the Southeastern Low Country specialty called "shrimp and grits" for lunch yesterday. For good measure, to go with the shrimp and grits I also cooked up some okra that was in the freezer. It made a good lunch.
A real Southern meal. I wish I was there!
ReplyDeleteThe meal sounds great!
ReplyDeleteWritten large on our freezer [an upright one with drawers*] is...
UFO=Unidentified Frozen Object
But we are now far more into bottling [canning to you, Ken] because we had a freezer fail... and the new one was duff from the start. One drawback was all of the stuff was home produced... the insurance wouldn't pay out because we couldn't send them the empty packaging!!! They would only pay out on shop bought produce... [for those interested it was Norwich Onion!]
*NB: with upright freezers you do get far less by way of UFOs...
because you are constantly moving stuff around to get the drawers closed properly!!
Chest freezers tend to have a level below which you do not dig... and in this establishment is just another flat surface for me to put "stuff" on [I've written that before Pauline does!!]
We have also been eating up the contents of our freezer. Yesterday's UFO's will be this evening's smoked haddock, prawn and spinach tart.
ReplyDeleteIt must be the time of year for it - clearing out to make way for this year's home grown veg.
Not that there will be so much this time. The runner beans didn't come up at all and the climbing french beans we replaced them with are just sulking due to lack of sun and warmth. Both our rows of peas were eaten by rabbits or pidgeons, so we replaced them only to find them nibbled down to the ground again.
Oooooh! Such yummy closeups!
ReplyDeleteBonjour, Ken. Tu devrais penser à changer le nom de ta belle maison de "Les Bouleaux" à "Picard".
ReplyDeleteDean France,
ReplyDeleteBy courtesy I'll say it in English: I'm really impressed by your perfect knowledge of the French language and its grammar.
Another great use for grits is a big splot alongside a fried egg and pepper bacon.
ReplyDeleteDean, do you think Picard would pay me a big stipend to put up a sign out front?
ReplyDeleteGrits, eggs, and bacon... oui oui oui.
When I'm at my most organized best (rarely) I keep a freezer inventory, by date, and do my meal planning with that. I hate UFO's! The other thing that helps is keeping Joel out of Costco.
ReplyDeleteLOL, Lynn. I wish I were more organized. And I'm glad we don't have Costco here.
ReplyDeleteOFG, has 3 big chest freezers and 2 in-fridge freezers. zoikes! ;-)
ReplyDelete"never could quite figure out what was in it" There's a great new discovery called pen and paper!
ReplyDelete