Outdoor Fridge

[sadistick]

After getting a place with the fiance, did I only start to realize how valuable freezer space is!

While I lived at home, we had 3 freezers! Want to make some extra WHATEVER and freeze it? No Problem!!! Now that we got a Loft and have a tiny freezer under our AEG fridge...not as many options, however....now that the cold has come, the balcony has proved to be our new extended freezer!

For those with issues of freezing to surfaces, put a piece of plastic under whatever it is, and it will not stick/freeze.

So far, we have a jar of mexican corn puree out there, some eggos, some leftover south american meat pie, and some random bits and pieces.

Another reason why I love the great outdoors!

[sjemac]

-20°F -20°F -23°F -25°F -22°F is our forecast for the next 5 days. Add in 10 to 15 mph winds that will give us windchill temps from -40 to -50 F and it's just about perfect for flash freezing stuff up here. I do most of my stock and demiglace making at this time of year for the rapid cooling factor. I put a bottle of apple wine on the deck to chill the other night and left it for about 25 mins -- about 15 minutes too long. We had alcoholic apple slurpees with our dinner.

Edited December 16, 2008 by sjemac (log)

[Hard H2O]

The deck or garage is a great deep freeze for cooling cookies and candies. I thas proven quite useful every winter including this one.

A refridgerator in the unheated garage in really cold winter weather turns into a freezer.

Anyone ever blow bubbles in below zero weather. The kids love it.

Boil water and then step outside and fling it into the air away from spectators.

Winter can be quite long and makes one do anything for a few giggles.

[StanSherman]

Anyone ever blow bubbles in below zero weather. The kids love it.

Boil water and then step outside and fling it into the air away from spectators.

Winter can be quite long and makes one do anything for a few giggles.

←

Our first Northern MidWest winter. I'll have to try that with the grand kids. I guess that building behind the house is basically a 75,000 cubic foot freezer for about 6 months.

[Hard H2O]

Our first Northern MidWest winter.  I'll have to try that with the grand kids.  I guess that building behind the house is basically a 75,000 cubic foot freezer for about 6 months.

←

In Iowa I would imagine that it will be more of a fridge than a freezer most of the time.

[CaliPoutine]

Do you all have squirrells?

A few weeks ago I put a KA bowl outside filled with ganache to cool down. It was covered it plastic wrap. I came back 10 min later and the wrap was torn off and squirrel feet marks were on top.

I also put out some brownies in a plastic storage container. When I came back to it, the storage container and huge chunks of plastic taken out of the top from teeth!!

I'm going to try storing stuff in a cooler next. I have tons of cookie doughs I need to freeze and no freezer space left.

[sjemac]

Do you all have squirrells?

A few weeks ago I put a KA bowl outside filled with ganache to cool down.  It was covered it plastic wrap.  I came back 10 min later and the wrap was torn off and squirrel feet marks were on top.

I also put out some brownies in a plastic storage container.  When I came back to it, the storage container and huge chunks of plastic taken out of the top from teeth!! 

I'm going to try storing stuff in a cooler next.  I have tons of cookie doughs I need to freeze and no freezer space left.

←

No squirrels, but we do get these in our back yards from time to time. They really don't go for ganache.

Edited December 16, 2008 by sjemac (log)

[Edward J]

Growing up in Saskatchewan, I would take advantae of the weather and the snow. I only let my chicken stock cool down once in the mound of snow on our deck--as soon as the stock cooled down to body temp the cats got into it! From then on I'd scoop snow into a washtub/bus tub and haul it inside and set my stock into that.

I remember one of my first jobs working as D/washer in Saskatoon,. The owner was very, uh, "ethnic" and always looking for an easy buck. One day an abnormally large meat order came in,and when the Chef complained that he didn't have enough freezer space, the owner looks at me, and asks me to load the stuff into his car. After loading, he told me to jump in and go for a ride. We go to his house, and load the meat into a metal garden shed in his backyard. (Temps from late October well onto March were always below freezing, WELL below freezing....) Every day from then on, the owner would bring a case of bacon or prime ribs with him to work. This arrrangement went on for a few weeks until one day I came into work and met the owner all red-faced and angry.

You! You know where I live, don't you?

Uh, I think so, don't really know the adress we just went into the backyard. Why?

You!!!! You steal all of my meat? Huh?! You a thief?!!!

Glory days.....

[nakji]

The first Christmas I travelled home to Nova Scotia from Korea, my Korean friend was worried that I'd be going three weeks without kimchi, so she boxed a head or so of it up for me in a styrofoam container "to go". I got it home through Canadian Customs, and proceeded to open it up in the kitchen. My mother got one whiff and declared that my kimchi would have to be stored in the "outdoor fridge" - the patio, of course, already covered with 20 cm of snow. I duly boxed it up and stowed it in a convenient drift.

Flash forward to three o'clock that morning - my mother wakes me up and says - "Get out of bed - there's someone prowling around outside!" (My parents live on the edge of the woods - there's nothing around for about a kilometer out back.)

We sat, huddled in fear for about five minutes while thumping sounds came from the patio.

Then they stopped.

"Raccoons?" I asked.

"Maybe," said my mother.

The next morning, we got up and went out to retrieve the kimchi. Raccoon prints abounded, and there were a few halfhearted claw marks on the styrofoam box. Even the raccoons wouldn't eat the kimchi.

I did, though, it made a brilliant kimchi bokkumbap for dinner.

[Shelby]

I use my porch ALL winter long. I live in Kansas. Right now it's about 10 degrees. I have a brisket, a bunch of venison burger and a pot of stew out there as we speak.