I Conquered the Freezer

The reason my freezer never gets cleaned is because I hate doing it. Trust me, it needed cleaning. I didn't even take a before picture, because it was just a jumble of bags and boxes.

I didn't even know what was in there, except the bags of chicken backs and necks that I was going to make into broth from the chickens we raise a few years back. Yuck! I also knew that there were bags of tomatoes from last years garden, but I didn't realize there were still so many. I'm going to thaw a couple of bags and use them for the cans of stewed tomatoes and diced tomatoes for my Freezer Cooking Frenzy this coming week. It will be a good trade-off. Useless lumps of frozen tomatoes for some great tasting spaghetti sauce and chili!

So, after I defrosted, scrubbed and bleached the inside of the freezer, I just had to take a picture of it being all nice and shiny. It probably will not look this good again for several years!

I took mental stock of what was left after I threw away four garbage bags full of old, freezer burnt stuff like bread samples my boss gave me a couple years ago, chicken backs, very old whole wheat pastry flour, and some miscellaneous stuff. Here is what needs to be cooked up soon:

A bag of salmon fillets and cod fillets, about 10 bags of pumpkin and lots of tomatoes from last years garden, 2 bags of zucchini for muffins, a large bag of cheese curds from the neighbor, several packages of side pork (what do I do with this stuff?), 2 bags of venison, 2 bulk packages of yeasts, and some chopped celery. Sounds like we will be eating stew and muffins for a while!

I would really like to be buy some kind of baskets or shelves to put in the freezer before the Frenzy starts, but I'm not sure that will fit in the budget. I'll have to see how much I'm going to save first and how much they cost. I'm sure I can rig something up for free if I put my mind to it. Or my husband's mind! Anyway, I'm sure glad that job is over!