| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Mollie |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 08:24:38 AM
I am seriously thinking of purchasing a separate freezer next week. Take me for a walk through your freezer, what do you have on the shelves?? |
| 23 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| LadyCrystal |
Posted - Jul 12 2006 : 4:33:23 PM
We have two chest freezers amd two fridges. In the 24cubic ft on we have a 525 lbs of beef. 4 turkeys(cut up) ice cream, a couple of loaves of bread, 3 or 4 cornish game hens, some homemade spagetti sauce, soup stock, a couple of pounds of moose burger and a few black bear steaks. In the 5 cubic ft chest freezer we have it full of chicken( all cut up) and 5 or 6 whole ones( ranging about 6 to 8 lbs ech). In the fridges we stock up on veggies and fruits.
Alicia
http://fromcitytocountrygirl.blogspot.com/
follow your dreams |
| Nancy Gartenman |
Posted - Jul 12 2006 : 3:00:27 PM
Boy, my freezer is standing in the conner in shame, for its boring contents, beef, chicken, bread and a few fruits and vegs. I either have to get a gun or get to the market more.
NANCY JO |
| akcowgirl |
Posted - Jul 12 2006 : 1:59:57 PM
I have a chest freeze that i like better then our old stand up, i can get more stuff in it. It has Moose meat from last years moose mostly burger now and salmon fillets and maybe a couple fillets of halibut. In the house freezer there is some frozen veggies, rasberry jam, tater tots, jucie, a couple store bought burritoes and i think that is all. i like to cook more than needed to freeze some but we have been working around the house and putting a big dent in that stock.
Valerie
Yes, I live in my own little world. But that's ok they know me here.
Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.
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| santa_gertrudis_gal |
Posted - Jul 12 2006 : 1:35:11 PM
I have a chest freezer and I greatly dislike that it isn't frost free. A gift from MIL about five years ago. I do love it, but like Ann I have mystery stuff. I emptied most of it last year so I have cut down on that. Next one will be an upright, as I loved my grandmother's when I used to fetch items from it for her. Much easier to find. Freezers work better when full and I also keep 2 liter soda bottles of water frozen. The two liter soda bottles serve a duel purpose, we use them for the rabbits in the summer.
In my freezers (including refrigerator) I have the following
turkey - stock up at Thanksgiving sale prices usually buy 4
chicken
shrimp - cooking tonight for dinner (tricky to freeze)
butter
chicken stock - homemade
beef stock - homemade
tomato sauce - homemade my receipe
various fruits and berries
cajun link sausage
tasso - a mild cajun ham for soups, stews and veggies
venison
quail
pheasant
chukkar
ice cream
various vegtables
dry soup mixes
Thank you Tina on the "once a month cooking" search on google. I'm going to give that a try after my new bed arrives tomorrow.
For anyone interested in the cajun sausage and tasso, send me an email and I will be delighted to send you the address in Louisiana where I get it. I buy five pound boxes at a time.
Kim
Heaven is a day at the ranch with my Santa Gertrudis! |
| Annab |
Posted - Jul 12 2006 : 12:11:13 PM
We also have a big chest freezer. Towards the end of winter, you could almost see the bottom. Now you can't hardly get to the bottom at all!
We have bags and bags of strawberries, blackberries our 1/4 cow for the year beans corn a few frozen pizzas and of course....ice cream!!!
I am an ice cream junkie, and will buy 8-10 1/2 gallons at a time. So we MUST have ample room for the ice creams  The regular stores sell it now for 5.00/half gallon!! OUCH! But good 'ole Wallyworld still has the good stuff for 3.00 or so. |
| BStein |
Posted - Jul 12 2006 : 06:42:40 AM
I plan my meals for the month and buy my meat from the butcher shop once a month, so my freezer is full of meat (well, not full, but you know). I just have the freezer side of a second refrigerator in the basement.
I don't do once a month cooking, but recently discovered "Don't Panic: Dinner's in the Freezer" a cookbook which basically tells you quantities for multiple batches of freezer-friendly recipes so when you make it, you make more than one batch to freeze. She also has great tips for freezing foods the best way. I have a couple extra meals in the freezer too. My kids have loved every recipe from that book (no easy feat in my house!).
And some homemade ice cream. Yum
Barbara in Ohio |
| brightmeadow |
Posted - Jul 11 2006 : 3:02:04 PM
I can't tell you what's in my freezer (besides the 29 pints of black raspberries I just put in there) but I can tell you what's NOT in there - my husband just put my 20 quarts of shredded zucchini from 2002 in the compost!
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
| witchysprig |
Posted - Jul 11 2006 : 1:59:19 PM
Our chest freezer has:
3 deers we processed into Hamburger, Blade Steaks, Loin Steaks, Ribs, Roasts,Cube Steak, strips to be made into summer sausage & brats.
Bages of Catfish, bluegill,orange and whitefish
Bages of Turtle Meat (Husband missed this season)
3 Rabbits skinned and whole
4 squirles skinned and whole
some pies
Chicken all kinds of cuts
Pork : ribs, chops, roast
My prize mint, choc mint, spearmint bags for tea in winter.
Lets not forget good old Indiana Corn on the Cob
Things towards the bottom I am not sure what is there.
I am lucky for once there are No Racoons under my baskets. I made him get another freezer to hold them in this year.
Yes I got hungry reading this thread for the berries I don't have or the pies everyone has.
Our little freezer holds quick meals for him to take to work and kids breakfast things they like.
A little love on any project can make things happen. |
| Whimsy_girl |
Posted - Jul 11 2006 : 09:18:21 AM
My chest freezer is in storage so nothing is in that one, but my little one in the apartment has: a back stock of bread from my last trip to the Hudderite Colony, chicken breasts, steaks, burger/sausage meats, a huge assortment of berries, a bunch of frozen hot peppers, various nuts and chocolate for baking.
you can be oh so smart, or you can be oh so positive. I wasted a lot of time being smart I prefer being positive. |
| Hideaway Farmgirl |
Posted - Jul 11 2006 : 08:29:45 AM
I have an upright freezer, a wedding gift from the parents 25 years ago...still going strong. It is not frost free, but I empty the contents into coolers about once a year and let it defrost, then I can clean, restock and organize it. This takes about 4 hours, not nonstop but enough time to let the frost drain away while I am off doing something else in the house, just checking it every 20 minutes or so to wipe up spills. I much prefer the upright, I think you can put more in it and yes, you can see what's there. I sort shelves for seafood, beef/pork, chicken, bread, roasts and whole chickens on bottom bin. I do a lot of bulk shopping and repackaging meats to fit our household's daily meal amounts. This lets me use the top freeze on my fridge in the kitchen for little leftovers (nothing gets tossed if I can help it) and ice cream, breafast stuff, stuff we use often, and meat for the week's meals for handy access after work. I also use flat boxes or trays to hold items in the freezer, cardboard trays from warehouses (Costco) or see-through plastic bins to hold small or awkward-shaped items. I also freeze hamburger in flat Ziploks, frozen garden veggies, tomato sauce, etc. in flat Ziploks which stack flat or upright in a tray container. If I think about it, I will take a picture of the full freezer. And yes, a full freezer is the most efficient.
Jo
P.S. Is anyone else getting hungry while reading this thread? |
| KellyA |
Posted - Jul 10 2006 : 1:16:04 PM
I have a new upright freezer (frost free, thank goodness!!)...
It has 2 rows of frozen butter on the door, bags of frozen veggies, half a beef cow from my father in law, venison from the fall, ice cream, pizzas, mozzarella sticks, chicken tenders (I have a 16 year old son!), an ice cream insert to make homemade ice cream, limoncello and vodka, chicken legs, thighs and breasts, 2 containers of homemade ham and bean soup, peirogies, rolls, bread dough...I think that about covers it!!
Kelly
When a cookbook is in hand, life is good! |
| ali2583 |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 8:08:55 PM
I have a chest freezer, and this is what's in it...
*chicken breasts and chicken legs
*pork chops and steak
*ground beef and ground pork
*perogies
*frozen pizza
*bread
*frozen veggies
*frozen fish
*bacon
*homemade meatballs (I always have a batch ready)
Don't worry, the freezer will fill up faster than you think!
"God's gift to you is life. What you choose to do with that life is your gift to God" |
| Phils Ann |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 5:04:07 PM
Mollie, my upright freezer is always full. Because it's upright I know what's there, whereas our old chest freezer always had mystery items... and while the newer one is frost-free, I rarely defrosted the chest one. Okay, I agree I am not well organized and also put off big jobs... but I do love the newer one. :)
I have two refrigerators with full freezers as well. I buy meats, chicken, and fish on sale and try to keep lots of variety around. I buy butter on sale, too. Also, I have a lot of fruit frozen and keep bags of co-op dried fruit, nuts, flour, seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, etc.), yeast, and all baking needs other than sugar. I have vegetables, of course, and homemade as well as bread from a bakery far from here, and the regular ol hamburg rolls. I make soup on average twice a week for about nine months of the year, and always make enough for 1-2 extra meals which I freeze. I freeze casseroles, too. And, ice cream, puff pastry... and of course, bags of ice to re-use for the coolers.
Ann
There is a Redeemer. |
| summerbreeze |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 3:53:50 PM
HI Mollie,
I found the freezer to be an amazing. I save a ton of money by always having something in the freezer for dinner. It is especially nice when I have people coming over at the last minute and don't have time to go to the store.
I learned the hard way that it needs at least a day to be plugged in before you start filling it. I bought a side a beef only to find that my new freezer was not working correctly. Another thing I learned from my Grandmother was a full freeze is much more energy efficient. I use old milk jugs, gallon and half gallon and freeze then as ice. Make sure not to fill them all the way to the top, you need to leave some head room. I always have ice for the cooler (I especially like half gallon for this). The power goes out a lot in the winter and then The frozen milk jugs turn it into an instant ice box and helps me to keep stuff from defrosting.
I love once a month cooking. I have done it several times and it is a great time saver. I am planning on trying the co-op cooking talked about in the last MJF.
There are several places that have opened in my area. Dream dinners and dinners ready, they have everything chopped up and all you have to do is assemble everything. They have the recipes you put right on the top and you take home 12 dinners you make in about two hours.
Hope this helps.
Laura
You only live once,if you do it right once is enough. |
| cmandle |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 3:29:58 PM
Tina - we don't do a whole month's worth, but I like to make extra casseroles or vegetable pies (always make two!) to freeze for later. We make a lot of homemade pizzas and freeze them too.
Right now we have bags and bags of blueberries, some rhubarb, homemade bread, corn fresh from the cob, peas, broccoli, homemade pesto, "fake" hamburger crumbles, and...BREASTMILK! Lots of breastmilk...white gold!!!
Catherine |
| LJRphoto |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 2:45:41 PM
I think ours is a frost free... I didn't know they still made non-frost-free options. I know I've heard people say that the frost free ones tend to dry out the food.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." -E. B. White
http://www.betweenthecities.com/blog/ljr/
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| Mollie |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 1:56:29 PM
Do you have frost-free or non-frost free freezers? I am debating which to get. |
| Tina Michelle |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 11:35:04 AM
does anyone do the once a month cooking and freezing bit? Back when I was pregnant with my 3rd child(she's now 23 mths old) I fixed up alot of casseroles and froze them to have on hand for when I got home from the hospital. boy was that a nice thing to have planned out..it saved me so much time.I usually taped instructions on them too for reheating and for how long.. and that way my husband was able to make dinner while I was in the hospital.I haven't done that since, but there are lots of websites online that have recipes for that sort of thing.Just do a google search for "Once a month cooking" It's basically where you do an entire months worth of meal prep in a day.
~Seize the Day! Live, Love, Laugh~ |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 11:26:02 AM
We have a big upright freezer that I have had for about 15 or so years. I love it. I mostly use it for meat..we buy 1/2 beef each fall and that does us for the year. I buy pork on sale, same with chicken on the years I don't raise our own (like this year) and my uncle and sons keep us in a little venison and like that. There is some frozen trout and salmon in there now too. Also 2 gallons of colostrum from when Mona calved and 2 gallons of goat milk left from last summer..hmm..I need to thaw that out and give to to the chickens.
I keep frozen veggies and berries and butter and ricotta cheese that I make..things like that in the freezer compartment of the milk fridge that is next to the freezer..in our garage. I keep leftovers that are frozen and anything I will probably use during the week in the house in the freezer section of that fridge.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
| LJRphoto |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 11:19:56 AM
Robin, how many people are in your family, how big is each of your chest freezers, and do you have a separate garden from the one that you sell from that provides your family their food for the year (or what size garden would you guess that you would have to have if you were only growing for your family)? I'm really new to putting up my family's food and would love to do it all. I just get overwhelmed when I try to figure out what all I should be producing and how much of it and what to do with it once it's all ripe! I may have asked similar questions before, I'm not sure. Sorry if you've answered this before. I like the idea of having three separate freezers for meats and vegetables.
We have a small, chest freezer and so far it has a few of the chickens we're raising (5-6, we haven't gotten very efficient at processing yet and I've been a real wimp about it and my poor husband has had to do all of it), two gallons of raspberries I've been picking from our property, some store bought veggies and two gallons of store bought ice cream. In the fall we'll have a hog that we'll probably have to buy another freezer for.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." -E. B. White
http://www.betweenthecities.com/blog/ljr/
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| Juliekay |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 10:27:14 AM
homemade chicken broth, italian veggie casseroles, kidney bean/tomato/casserole, bagged frozen veggies, pork steaks, miso, cooked chicken breast, cooked chicken salad meat, cooked drumsticks & wings. A round steak. puff pastry. That's all I can think of right now. |
| Nancy Gartenman |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 09:29:24 AM
Lets see, lots of bread, hamb rolls hot dog rolls, other sand rolls, reg. bread. frozen veg, chicken in all different forms, ground beef, steaks, no roasts right now, that is for winter. some frozen fruit, some frozen desserts, ice cream, frozen ice cream bars of different kinds. Will be going to the store tomorrow, so always look for what is on sale and stock up. My freezer has more in during the winter, because I don't like to be getting real big orders when it is so cold, so I stock up real good right before winter really sets in so I don't have so much to drag in the house when it is 2 degrees out.
NANCY JO |
| ThymeForEweFarm |
Posted - Jul 09 2006 : 09:25:54 AM
We have three chest freezers. One holds broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, pies and other plant harvests. The second has beef and pork. The third has chicken, duck and turkey.
Robin
www.thymeforewe.com
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