Challenge: Cook your way through your freezer (part 2)

[kayb]

Sigh. So neat. 

[Okanagancook]

2 hours ago, scubadoo97 said:

Looks so well organized 

Thanks @kayb and @scubadoo97

I am a neat freak.  Each item is in the inventory spread sheet and includes which freezer it is in and which shelf/compartment it is in/on.  It would be impossible to find things if not organized in this fashion.

(Speaking of loving organization....I guess that’s one of the reasons I love living here....lots of rows of grape vines or fruit trees, all nicely trimmed and tidy...whole valleys of this.....kinda like this http://www.bluemountainwinery.com/ ) 🤓

Edited April 6, 2019 by Okanagancook (log)

[Owtahear]

I got an Iberico Pork Shoulder defrosting........... 

 

Still weighing in on how I am going to cook it.  With the weather getting nice, definitely on the grill.     Just trying to decide to marinate in a citrus garlic marinade (got a great recipe from Roy Choi) or a classic garlic/rosemary/olive oil rub marinade.

[Smithy]

I eliminated two freezer packages and most of a package of tortillas yesterday evening. The cheese wasn't a leftover, but it was taking space in the refrigerator.

 

 

The leftovers from a stuffed-pepper dish last winter got rolled into tortillas that had been barely-browned in an oiled skillet. The rolled tortillas went into a baking dish; the sauce went over them; cheese over that. It all baked at 350F, covered for maybe a half hour, and then uncovered for another 15 minutes until the cheese had browned.

 

 

There was a wonderful crust on the bottom and edges of the finished dish. 

 

 

I can actually see to the back of my freezer!

[DanM]

Challenge accepted. I have most of a bag of frozen veg, some flagolet beans, broth, and three chicken thighs. 

 

I browned the chicken, added the veg and beans, and then the broth. I let it simmer until tender. It was a little soupy, so I whipped up some drop biscuit dough, evacuated the chicken, cooked the dumplings, and then, through the magic of television, I have chicken and dumplings.  

[kayb]

I rid the freezer of a chicken today, which has been thawing and will shortly go into an overnight brine in preparation for being roasted tomorrow. I'll also pull out a bag of mixed vegetables or green peas or lima beans to go with it. And likely add to it some potato salad I'll get up and make in the morning when I put the chicken in to roast. Already have fresh strawberries macerating, and pound cakes in the oven for dessert. Sunday dinner!

 

[ElsieD]

44 minutes ago, kayb said:

I rid the freezer of a chicken today, which has been thawing and will shortly go into an overnight brine in preparation for being roasted tomorrow. I'll also pull out a bag of mixed vegetables or green peas or lima beans to go with it. And likely add to it some potato salad I'll get up and make in the morning when I put the chicken in to roast. Already have fresh strawberries macerating, and pound cakes in the oven for dessert. Sunday dinner!

 

 

May I come?

[Okanagancook]

This weekend will be a good freezer dig:

4 duck breasts

6 pork tortillas

A lamb leg

A bag of garden tomatoes

A bag blackberries and peaches...for a cobbler😁😁😁

 

 

 

 

 

[kayb]

20 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

May I come?

Any time you wish!

 

[scubadoo97]

Dug out 2 BSCB.  Will cook either on the grill or stove top with roasted potatoes and salad.  

[Okanagancook]

Ok, I’ll bite...BSCB?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts?

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Brine-salted corned brisket?

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Boiled stuffed cabbage balls?

 

[Okanagancook]

53 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts?

 

That’s probably it.  

Or Big Skewered Chicken Brochettes.

 

 

[kayb]

I have been gifted two gallon plastic bags full of frozen wild duck breasts; I'd anticipate a good three to four pounds in each bag. That would translate to a dozen to 16 half-breasts per bag, given wild duck breasts are much smaller than farmed. I'm undecided as to how to prepare them, given that that's a lot of duck to cook at a time.

 

In the past, I've parboiled and then grilled duck breasts wrapped in bacon, and I've floured, quick-fried and then braised them in wine. Both are good. I'm contemplating curing half a bag of these and then smoking them, and doing...something with the rest. 

 

I'll add to the complexity by noting that, while I'll eat a steak as rare as the next guy, I do NOT like rare duck. I would also note that wild duck has a significantly different, essentially gamier taste than farmed duck, and has always taken better, in my mind, to higher spiced preps.

 

I think I shall peruse Hank Shaw's blog for ideas, but appreciate any thoughts y'all might offer.

 

[CatIsHungry]

Cooking my way through the freezer! The other night I found a 10lb - 11lb pork butt we bought on sale for $.89/lb so I pulled that out and rubbed it and loved it with my special pork rub ... the butt rewarded my love with fork tender, juicy goodness ... (thank goodness my son comes by, eats and takes home a large portion of leftovers) ... 

 

While I was in the freezer - I made some selection of venison and hog (this time of year we have a ridiculous amount of both in the freezer - a variety of cuts and a variety of sausage) - so I will cook my selections this week - exactly how, yet I have not decided - but I'll have to decide soon :o) ... I will probably take it easy one day this week and slice up a  smoked venison sausage w/jalapeno - light layer of cheese on top of thin'ish pizza dough - roll it up and bake.  

 

[blue_dolphin]

11 hours ago, kayb said:

I have been gifted two gallon plastic bags full of frozen wild duck breasts; I'd anticipate a good three to four pounds in each bag. That would translate to a dozen to 16 half-breasts per bag, given wild duck breasts are much smaller than farmed. I'm undecided as to how to prepare them, given that that's a lot of duck to cook at a time.

 

In the past, I've parboiled and then grilled duck breasts wrapped in bacon, and I've floured, quick-fried and then braised them in wine. Both are good. I'm contemplating curing half a bag of these and then smoking them, and doing...something with the rest. 

 

I'll add to the complexity by noting that, while I'll eat a steak as rare as the next guy, I do NOT like rare duck. I would also note that wild duck has a significantly different, essentially gamier taste than farmed duck, and has always taken better, in my mind, to higher spiced preps.

 

I think I shall peruse Hank Shaw's blog for ideas, but appreciate any thoughts y'all might offer.

 

 

Here's what came to mind after reading your preferences.  You could try a sous vide confit.  Most people recommend against that for duck breast because they think it should be served more rare but that's not your preference anyway.  I saw that Hank Shaw thinks they can become "liver-y" and that may be so, but you could try it with just a couple and see what you think.  If you liked them, there would be many options to use the confit meat. 

Your preference for spiced preps made me think a batch of pork belly and duck breast sausages might be pretty great.  

I hope to see you get suggestions from the more knowledgable peeps around here!

[gfweb]

@kaybI SV duck breast a lot. I like 135 f for 2.5 hours followed by a fat rendering sear. 

Edited April 16, 2019 by gfweb (log)

[Shelby]

A forced purge happened yesterday.  

 

I went out out night before last to get some venison burger out of the chest freezer in the garage so I could make a lasagna yesterday.  I had a perplexing moment when I saw that the chicken quarters that I had repackaged and put in there a few days ago were not all the way frozen.  Everything else still hard as a rock, though...and since it was already like 6:30 pm I decided to put something heavy on top of the freezer and check it early in the morning.  Maybe the seal on the freezer hadn't sealed for some reason?

 

I crossed my fingers and woke up a million times all night long wanting to go check it, but I refrained until 6:15 the next morning.

 

Chicken was even more thawed out.

 

Oh crap.

 

And, Ronnie was out of town.

 

So, I did what had to be done.  We have a stand up freezer in the basement that I cleaned out first----it gets ice that builds up on the ceiling and the next two shelves. So, I used my heat gun to thaw that out...took like 2 1/2 hours.  I got rid of several older than dirt containers of goodness knows what.  And, a bag of popsicles was sacrificed and so were several containers of broth.  

 

I came to realize yesterday that I am a broth hoarder.

 

Anyway, I can't tell you how many trips from the basement, up sixteen stairs, through the kitchen and out to the garage and back that I made carrying as much frozen stuff as I could in a laundry basket.   I started at about 6:30 in the morning and didn't get done until about 3 that afternoon. Today I feel like I've been run over by a semi I'm so sore.

 

I can't believe I was able to fit all of the chest freezer into the upright.  We didn't lose any meat to spoilage or anything.  Thankfully.  I'm so glad I decided to make lasagna otherwise I would have never known that the great thaw was happening.

 

Here is the aftermath and the newly packed and organized downstairs freezer:

 

 

And, by the way, after all of that, the lasagna did not get made lol.

 

I'm off to buy a new freezer!

 

 

 

 

[Okanagancook]

Oh dear Shelby!  And of course Ronnie is out of town.  What a royal pain in the you know what.  Such a lot of work.  Everyone's worst nightmare.  

Are you going to move everything back out to the garage when you get your new freezer?

[Shelby]

18 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Oh dear Shelby!  And of course Ronnie is out of town.  What a royal pain in the you know what.  Such a lot of work.  Everyone's worst nightmare.  

Are you going to move everything back out to the garage when you get your new freezer?

I'm definitely going to move some of it out to the new one.....for sure that top shelf needs to be reduced because of the dang ice that builds up in there.  But I'm not moving all of it!

 

 

[lindag]

28 minutes ago, Shelby said:

 

I'm definitely going to move some of it out to the new one.....for sure that top shelf needs to be reduced because of the dang ice that builds up in there.  But I'm not moving all of it!

 

 

Be sure to show us the new freezer when you get it...nothing gets me going more than available freezer space!  I have two uprights and yet I still lust after a new chest style.  (If I could find any kind that was self-defrosting I'd buy it despite any amount of common sense.)

Edited April 18, 2019 by lindag (log)

[Shelby]

5 minutes ago, lindag said:

Be sure to show us the new freezer when you get it...nothing gets me going more than available freezer space!  I have two uprights and yet I still lust after a new chest style.  (If I could find any kind that was self-defrosting I'd buy it despite any amount of common sense.)

 

LOL me too!

 

Ronnie is out tinkering with the broken freezer.....wouldn't it be fun for that one to start working again and then we'd have TWO.  However, we have no space for two.....  I suppose we could put one in the bedroom....

 

Then again, how can you ever trust a freezer again after it's betrayed you like mine did?

[robirdstx]

Finally used up the last of the ham from Thanksgiving 2018:

 

 

Ham and Bean Soup, with a Salad, will be dinner tonight!

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by robirdstx (log)