Challenge: Cook your way through your freezer (part 1)

[Anna N]

@ninagluck

 

"Like" simply will not cut it.  What a beautiful plate.   I do not believe I have ever had Cedro lemon nor salicornes ( which I am translating perhaps wrongly as sea beans) but I would be more than willing to try them if you presented me with this plate.

[Anna N]

 The last of the little pork roast along with some Danish cucumber pickles and some roasted sweet potatoes done according to my understanding of @shain's instructions discussed in the sous vide topic..

 

[ninagluck]

@Anna N, yes, they are sea beans, they are slightly salty, so they don't need much, just a little garlic and a squeeze of a lemon. this cedro lemons have such a beautiful taste and the season is right now, keep your eyes open, it's worth it!

[Anna N]

I am staring at my freezer inventory and not a damn thing is calling out to me to cook for dinner this evening.  Proof absolute that I am incredibly spoiled.  Sigh. 

[Dejah]

@Anna N: I hear ya!
I pulled out a single-rib roast thawed for today, but I wish I knew what to do with it besides throwing it into the oven...

[Kerry Beal]

Pulled out what I thought was 2 chicken breasts to sous vide to add to the chicken rice soup I'd made. Turned out to be half a turkey breast. Didn't have anything to illiterate with it except perhaps Turkey with temperature.

[Tri2Cook]

I pulled a container out of the freezer that turned out to contain meatballs. Not in any sort of sauce or anything, just extras from a previous use. The seasoning in them is Italian in nature so that was the direction I started thinking. Then, in a fit of what I thought was creativity while listening to the cold winter wind blowing outside, spaghetti and meatball soup popped into my head. And, as usual, a quick google check later showed that 10 billion people had already had that idea before me. That didn't stop me from doing it anyway. I made my usual spaghetti sauce but went heavier on the seasoning, thinned it with chicken broth, added the meatballs and let it cook for a bit. While it was cooking, I pre-hydrated some spaghetti noodles that I'd broken into ~1/3's in a bowl of cold water for about an hour and a half. Those went in the pot to cook and it was done. In the bowl with a little olive oil, parmesan and basil and it was pretty tasty. The only problem is I added too much pasta so it's a bit on the thick side for a soup but, fortunately, not to the point where I might as well have just made regular old spaghetti and meatballs. So I paired meatballs with mistake via the pasta overload.

[ElsieD]

We finished off the last of the Christmas Capon Breast tonight which we had with green Beans, squash,  Cranberry sauce, gravy and stuffing balls.  Items from the freezer were capon, squash, cranberry sauce, turkey stock and the stuffing.  I think it's the last of the capon.

[kayb]

Do I get points from a pork butt roast I brought home from Aldi and cooked, instead of putting in the freezer and taking out the one just like it that was already in the freezer? They're $1.79 a pound, and small enough to not have a half-dozen meals' worth of pork left over.

 

I paired it with crowder peas, frozen from the farmers' market this summer, steam-baked sweet potato wedges, and macaroni and cheese, because the kids were all here. 

 

[Dejah]

Roast Beef, Green Beans, and pan-fried Bean curd. Made gravy with the drippings, green peppercorns from the freezer, and a bit of parsley.

Turned out more medium than we'd like as time got away on me while collating midterm exams.

                                 

[quiet1]

6 hours ago, ElsieD said:

We finished off the last of the Christmas Capon Breast tonight which we had with green Beans, squash,  Cranberry sauce, gravy and stuffing balls.  Items from the freezer were capon, squash, cranberry sauce, turkey stock and the stuffing.  I think it's the last of the capon.

 

'For some reason I've always just assumed cranberry sauce would freeze poorly.

[Anna N]

15 hours ago, Anna N said:

I am staring at my freezer inventory and not a damn thing is calling out to me to cook for dinner this evening.  Proof absolute that I am incredibly spoiled.  Sigh. 

 Well I eventually settled on using some of the ground pork. I made an imitation of Dan Dan noodles using zucchini noodles.   No picture because both attempts  were even more blurry than my usual efforts. The dish turned out to be much saltier than I had hoped but no worries. When I woke up this morning and went into the kitchen there were the perfectly package leftovers still on the counter. There will be no rerun.  

 As far as the freezer goes I can certainly see some light at the end of the tunnel. Eventually I will have to buy some meats or die of boredom from what is in there.  And besides I have some exciting dishes I want to try that call for things I don't have.  Resistance may soon be futile.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Anna N (log)

[ElsieD]

5 hours ago, quiet1 said:

 

'For some reason I've always just assumed cranberry sauce would freeze poorly.

 

I freeze it in these little sauce takeout containers that restaurants use.  They hold just the right amount for us and the sauce freezes perfectly.

[lindag]

 

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 When I woke up this morning and went into the kitchen there were the perfectly package leftovers still on the counter. There will be no rerun.  

 

 

I have had those moments when, just settling into bed I think to myself, "Did I put away the leftover food from dinner?"  I blame it on the wine.

[Anna N]

17 minutes ago, lindag said:

 

I have had those moments when, just settling into bed I think to myself, "Did I put away the leftover food from dinner?"  I blame it on the wine.

 It might easily have been the wine but even more likely a CRAFT moment. (Can't Remember a Flipping Thing.)

[chefmd]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 It might easily have been the wine but even more likely a CRAFT moment. (Can't Remember a Flipping Thing.)

AKA as CRS: can't remember stuff.  I left chicken stock to chill outside last night despite strong winds forecast.  Lost a lovely silicone lid but stock is safe.

[chromedome]

8 hours ago, quiet1 said:

 

'For some reason I've always just assumed cranberry sauce would freeze poorly.

Like jam, it also keeps well in the fridge for extended periods. In fact, I tend to use my leftovers as jam on toast and biscuits. 

[MelissaH]

I'm thinking tonight might be, from our freezer, meatballs in BBQ sauce. But I'm drawing a blank on what to serve them with. Any suggestions on how to use them? Bonus points if they'd meet challenge criteria.

[Kerry Beal]

 

Cleaned out my little freezer in the chocolate lab. Cold enough to put everything outside on the front porch. Very quick thaw with the dog dryer. 

 

So left out of the freezer 6 containers of puree from which I will make pates de fruit. 

[chefmd]

Frozen Steak cooked rare in its previous life chopped Small and served wit Spicy mayo Sauce.

[Porthos]

The corned beef that was supposed to be for tonight has been delayed due to pilot error. I realized about 10:30 last night that I had failed to buy the guinness. I will start it's 18 hour cook in a few minutes, then tomorrow morning it will get chilled and put in the refrigerator for Wednesday night's dinner. I won't be home tomorrow night.

 

The goulash from jaz's The Healthy Pressure Cooker Cookbook has been moved up to this evening. I am off to look at the instruction book for the Instant Pot since this is my maiden voyage.

[Anna N]

Cooked one of the duck breasts from the freezer and made a salad.   Not a single alliterative additional ingredient.  

 

[ElsieD]

We had a boar (Pig) and beef tourtière tonight with oven fried Potatoes, Peas and gravy.  

[Dejah]

Spatchcock rubbed with harissa and roasted for an hour. The skin was lovely and crispy. Eaten with Spaghetti Squash au Gratin and stir-fried asparagus, Sugar Snaps and bell pepper.
Am I to be called up for cheating...Spatchcock instead of Chicken?

                            

                            

 

Condiment of choice was a spoonful of East Indian Lime Pickle made by friends. Perfect!

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Lovely dinner that I want right now!

 

2 hours ago, Dejah said:

Am I to be called up for cheating...Spatchcock instead of Chicken?

 

I would say not. @Anna N has been very merciful about the parameters, which makes it much more fun and approachable IMO. It's easier to herd us cats that way, I reckon. 

 

I wasn't going to post my freezer clearing adventures, because my first attempt was a failure, but after a few drinks ... That's life, and a wise older Southern gentleman once told me, "If you ain't makin' mistakes, it means you ain't doin' nothin'".

 

I took out a half pound of Jimmy Dean hot sausage last night to thaw in the fridge. There was a "local dish" recipe on my WRAL

TV news station website the other day for sausage ball mini muffins. Not having  a mini one in my repertoire of two regular and one jumbo muffin tin (great for popovers), I decided to make standard sausage balls. I've never made them, but have enjoyed them at many an office or church potluck or party. I'd never even heard of them until I moved back down here as an adult. So I looked at these recipes from here, and here, and even here. I sort of combined them, using the jalapenos from the Jimmy Dean one, and the milk from the Betty Crocker/Bisquick site. I also added freeze dried chives and parsley, crushed red pepper, chili powder, black pepper and decided to cut the ratio of cheese in half and use AP flour with added baking powder and salt, because this is a really high fat morsel, and Bisquick has added fat (and trans fats). I also halved the recipe because I only had a half pound of sausage to work with. I prepped all the ingredients and started by fork shredding the sausage (which looked and smelled perfectly fine raw) in a stainless mixing bowl on top of the preheating oven to get the chill off. Then I blended in the herbs and spices, chopped jalapenos and the flour, salt and baking powder. Finally, in went a cup of shredded cheddar and that got mixed up so the still loose flour could sort of coat it like when I do Red Lobster knock-off Cheddar Bay biscuits. Then the milk, and mixed up just until it came together into a cohesive, but not sticky mass that formed easily into the one inch balls called for. I didn't have a scoop, but my largest size melon baller, that I thought would be to small, worked extremely well in my right hand with my left, dirty hand, helping to form the balls. Everything went quite smoothly, and I got 34 pretty uniform and near perfect little morsels for my efforts. 

 

I had decided to cook ten of them for dinner, and freeze the rest until tomorrow to bake and take to the nursing home, going on the advice of one of the tips in the recipes. Wow! was it a good thing I took one for the team, and did a test run! The meat was not to the old freezer meat gag stage, but it was definitely too old to be served to company. This is such a calorie laden dish that it needs to be absolutely optimum, and when it is, it is worth it. I was hungry and ate about three before deciding that the cooked ones would be thrown to the coons, and the carefully wrapped ones in the freezer would be cooked up later for the coons as well. 

 

I was still hungry and cooked up some Sea Pak frozen breaded clam strips and cole slaw with apple for my dinner. I also had "homemade" tartar sauce, but I just chopped olives, onion, capers, store bought dill gherkin and parsley and added it to Duke's mayo. It was good though.

 

When I was finished eating, I cleaned up and made brownies to take to the nursing home tomorrow. The sausage balls would have been better, but such was not to be.

 

In the never again department: I will not put sausage into the freezer without a date!