The Freezer Rules

So I was making pizza dough for Liv's visit (surprise!), and while pulling out the pizza flour, I realized I didn't have a lot of room in the freezer. How could I get my string beans from the farmer's market in if something else didn't come out?

Let's face it. Some of this food has to go.

It's hard, but these are desperate times. I have had to implement the Freezer Rules.


They're pretty simple really.

1. If you pick it up and don't know what it is, you have to thaw it and eat it for dinner.
2. If you pick it up and notice that its been in there over a year, you have to thaw it and eat it for dinner.
3. If you have more than 4 pkgs of the same thing in the freezer, you have to thaw and eat one for dinner.
   

It's sort of like playing Russian Roulette with dinner. And while these may seem like crappy rules, they're actually bad ass on every level.

1. I should be eating food I already have before I go out and buy more food. Obvious.
2. I eat the food before it really does go bad. The other day, I made some bacon for a quiche and the bacon was so old, I really did have to throw it out. It tasted funny. Not as in going-to-give-me-food-poisoning, but just not good. You see, I date most things I make and put in the freezer. My brother, who always gives me tons of venison, also dates the meat. I may think the old meat is going to be awful and tasteless, but sometimes it turns out to be delicious.
3. It's a creative challenge to figure out how to use what I've thawed. The challenge is to use it without another trip to the grocery store.
4. I cut down on the September/October grocery bill and considering that car tags, flood insurance, house insurance, and property taxes are all due in September/October, that's not a bad thing.
5. You never know what you are going to get. You may think it is chili, but it turns out to be spaghetti sauce, or taco meat, or beef stew. You may think it's chicken noodle soup, but it turns out to be stock for seafood gumbo.
   
6. If you have to eat the food you already own, you are less likely to go out to eat.

So today, I had homemade chicken and rice soup for lunch. (Hell if I remember when I made that!) Since I've decided to clean out the fridge once a week, I'm making a carrot cake with the leftover carrots I had in the bin. I didn't have walnuts for the cake, so I'm using pecans that I did have. Sure hope it's good! I bought about 20 poblano peppers, so I'm saving some for the pizza tomorrow and the rest are going into a poblano pepper and polenta casserole. I'm making it up as a go along! I have too much flour in the freezer, so I'm making pizza dough and dog biscuits. I bought a TON of yellow squash so I'm going to make zucchini bread. OK, technically, I guess it's yellow squash bread, but if you don't tell, I won't tell. I've got so much squash that I'm sure I'm going to have extra loaves of the bread. I guess I'll have to pull something else out of the freezer.

Fish for dinner!

Ciabatta!

This was my breakfast.

Poached eggs a la silicone poach pods and a fresh loaf of homemade ciabatta. I got a new cookbook from America's Test Kitchen show. I've never seen the show, but apparently it's on PBS. In any event, they had far too many pork recipes for my tastes and not enough bread, but they do explain why they are doing each step and what it achieves in the way of rising. It is one of the first books that allowed me to actually understand the why behind baking.

It was damn good. I'm making more today. Did I mention that my car is in the shop and I'm stuck at home? Ok, there's that.

This is a weird bread to make because the loaves are flat. In fact, you have to overwork the dough to make them flat and not rise.



And the dough is extremely wet. Think Jabba the Hutt.


And by some miracle, it turns into these awesome, mouth-watering loaves.


That are just fun to hold.


But even better to eat. I prefer it with a bit of honey.