Why and How To Clean Your Chest Freezer

The Why:
Cleaning the a free-standing freezer means taking everything out and defrosting the freezer, a perfect time to take inventory of what you have; do this casually or write it down on paper.  I defrost my freezer when I see a build-up of hard frost on the walls and, in this case today, creeping up under the seal.



Mr. Thrift takes the frozen meat across town in the old bike trailer.  His idea.

The How:
1.  Bring a stockpot of water to boil on the stove.  (I took pictures only of the bike trailer; I was making sushi for lunch, hosting a child helper in the kitchen, fielding phone calls, and washing dishes throughout these steps.  Yes, I like a bit of high-speed kitchen chaos now and then to remind me of my waitressing days.)

2.  Prepare a clean space on the floor next to the freezer.  I put down an old vinyl tablecloth on the basement floor.

3.  Turn off the freezer if there is a control.  For extra measure, unplug it.

4. Remove all the food from the freezer.  Mine is in several milk crates and a freezer basket, so it's not too hard to lug it out.  Schlep the meat to another freezer (thank you, dear husband) or an ice chest if you're worried, but don't worry, your food will be back in the clean freezer in 1-2 hours, max.  Insulate the frozen food on the floor with a blanket or two if you wish - it will be more energy-efficient if it's frozen going back into the freezer.  Do not worry about a little thawing - the food will be fine.

I call this his pick-up truck.

5.  Set a trivet on the floor of the freezer.  Place the pot of boiling water, uncovered, on the trivet and close the freezer lid.  Depending on how thick the hard pieces of frost are, you will hear chunks of it falling onto the freezer floor with 30 minutes.  Check on the frost and tug on it if you are impatient.  Really impatient people should probably plug in a hair dryer and help it along (I don't bother).

6.  Pile the chunks of frost in a dishpan and give them to the children, the garden, or whatever.

7.  Get a towel and soak up the extra liquid on the floor of the freezer or, if it's handy, pull the drain plug.

8.  Get a bucket of water with a squirt of dish soap and a rag; extra-sanitary people wearing old clothes can add a glug of bleach (I don't).  Wipe out the freezer and if yours is like mine, there is weird unmentionable glop on the bottom.

9.  Turn the freezer back on and plug it in if you unplugged it (I don't).

10. Place your food back in the clean freezer - this is a good time to take inventory as you do.  I was surprised by shrimp shell stock and sauerkraut.

Since I counted the preserved items, I know that I only have one box of strawberry jam left.  By looking over the records in my preserving notebook, I know how many berries to order to make jam. I went ahead and did an inventory of the remaining canned jars I have, so now I can start making a list of what I want to preserve this summer and fall.

I wrote this post mostly for myself because I seem to draw a blank every time I want to clean the freezer (NOT often, believe me).  Next time, I will borrow an ice chest for the meat and Mr. Thrift will not bike it around town.

Kombucha in My Kitchen

You asked me what fermented foods I am consuming at every meal to combat acid reflux and rebuild healthy bacteria.  I call this "live food," as opposed to "dead food" which doesn't contain living organisms.

Kombucha is one that I drink when nothing else is readily available. 

Like when I went to New York for three days for work recently.  I took a jar of yogurt and a plastic bottle of kombucha and got along just fine with a minimum of fuss.

preparing the sweet tea to feed the big kombucha jar

 

Kombucha is fermented black tea - you need to have the SCOBY (symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast) which is very strange looking in order to ferment the sweet tea.  Any locals who want a kombucha starter SCOBY, please email me privately from the link on the sidebar and tell me, as mine is growing vigorously.

Per Rebecca's directions, I've been doing a secondary fermentation.  I've got a gallon jar of kombucha just hanging out with its SCOBY.  Then I pour off a bottle of the kombucha, seal it, and let it sit for a few days to build up a high level of fizz.  I do this in a plastic bottle so I can press on the side to see how much pressure is building up; you want to be careful with this, as the pressure can make glass jars explode and I'm sure you can imagine the hazardous mess that ensues!  Refrigeration slows the pressure way down, as does loosening the cap.

I am a novice at this sort of thing, so I'm not sure how many questions I can safely answer about kombucha. 

A Simple Bulletin Board

I had accumulated a stack of little things in my room that I wished to hang up.  Cork bulletin boards are expensive and all the DIY projects on Pinterest were too cutesy or required materials I didn't have.

When I stumbled across this tutorial for a bulletin board made of cardboard, I got up immediately from the computer, went to the basement and grabbed a cardboard box.

This was easy.  I didn't buy a single thing and I only asked my husband one question.  I was going to drill holes through the layers to hang the thing up, but he thought that might twist and pull the fabric, so he recommended the awl on his Swiss army knife.  Easy.  Done.

Supplies I used:

2 pieces of mostly straight cardboard, cut out of a big box with a utility knife
big piece of plain canvas fabric + scissors
duct tape
spray adhesive + pumice stone
2 toggle buttons
long ribbon + awl
nail + hammer

The pumice is necessary to get any spray adhesive off your fingers.  I used Elmer's like I did when I covered the coffee can and it's supposed to clean up with soap and water, but 5 handwashings later, I used the pumice for perfectly clean fingers.  Now I know!

And now the board is entirely covered with my children's papers.  I wish it was, you know, cool and stylish, but my heart is warm and proud from their love.  Too soon they will be out of the nest and I will hope wistfully for loveletters from grandchildren.

Bonus:  I snapped some more photos of my room.

A trash-picked frame around the daisy clock.

The clean surface where the pile of children's papers used to be.  Ahhhhh.

The Big Bright Red Peanut Butter Machine

I am leaving for New York for work very shortly, but here I am, throwing up a quick blog post before I leave!

In the interest of eating organic food (no more hidden chemicals killing off my good bacteria), I knew we needed to finally make the switch to organic peanut butter.  Peanuts are typically grown as a rotation crop with cotton and soybeans, both of which are heavily sprayed and not intended for human ingestion.  I confess I do really love the commercial-style sweetened peanut butter with its added chemicals and have never been a huge fan of the natural stuff.  The best price I could find for organic peanut butter was $8 for a pint and for a while, I have simply ignored it and bought Jif or whatever.

Then I remembered an old favorite place of mine, Koinonia farms in Georgia.  I buy my pecans from them with fond memories, but they sell other things, too.  They have organic raw peanuts for peanuts (har har - for cheap).  Then I remembered my dad's commercial peanut butter machine, salvaged from a grocery store through his business years ago.

Light bulb!

Last night, I roasted several trays of peanuts and Dad brought the peanut butter machine over. We cranked out 2 quarts from 5 pounds of peanuts.  At $3.05 per pound including shipping, my quarts of peanut butter cost $7.62 apiece!  Hooray for do-it-yourself!

We sent Dad home with a pint of still-warm peanut butter and many thanks.

Now the machine lives in our basement and if you're local and interested, email me privately - I am happy to let you have a session with Dad's machine. 

Hello, Baby Basil Plants

This year I took a nervous gardening step and brought basil to life from seed instead of buying plants. 

Aren't the babies adorable?  I find myself cooing at them when I go past, and stopping often to look at them, this miracle of life makes me so happy.  From something lifeless-looking and insignificant springs life! 

I followed directions from the guy at the greenhouse who said just put the seeds in a shallow tray.  Later, I wished I would have made little newspaper pots or some such thing for easier transplanting when the time comes.

Seeds are cheaper with more varieties to choose from, but yes, they take fussing with, unlike seedlings that can just go right in the garden bed. But I have found this seed-starting process relatively easy and intensely rewarding.

Next year my southern windowsills might be crowded with little homemade paper pots. . . I can see how people get greenhouse dreams!

Easiest Risotto Ever

This is the cheater's version of risotto, so if you are a purist, turn away now.  But I'll just say it is fabulously delicious and takes very little work.

I actually made this recipe a few times this winter, but it doesn't really photograph well.

I've made it recently because it's turned chilly out and the oven heat is welcome.  Because, yes, the oven is on for almost an hour and does most of the work.  It's an awesome trick.

Asparagus risotto

The recipe is based on one from the Barefoot Contessa.  I tweaked it several times over.

Easy Oven Risotto

1 1/2 cups arborio rice, barley, or short-grain brown rice
5-6 cups chicken stock, divided
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning or just dried sage, optional
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1 garlic clove, minced, optional
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup dry white wine, red wine, or just more stock
2-3 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 cup frozen peas, chopped asparagus, or chopped spinach

Heat 4 cups of stock in cast-iron Dutch oven or other oven-safe pan.  (Use an extra cup if you are using barley or brown rice, so heat 5 cups).  Pour in your grain of choice plus the mushrooms and optional garlic and sage.  Clap on a lid.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes for arborio rice, but 60 minutes for the barley and brown rice.
Heat up the remaining cup of chicken stock (I use the microwave).  Have the cheese, wine, butter, salt, pepper, and green veg all ready to go.
Remove the Dutch oven from oven.  Immediately pour in the hot chicken stock.  Stir vigorously.  Add the cheese, wine, butter, salt and pepper.  Stir vigorously for 2-3 minutes.  Add the green veg.  Stir again and put the lid on or turn the stove burner on low until the risotto is hot through and the vegetable is just barely cooked.

Notes:  Do not try to use long-grain rice with this recipe.  Arborio is a short-grain rice.  Short-grain rices, it is my understanding, have more starch and so will cook up into a more gluey end product than long-grain rices which will be fluffier.  The gluey starch is what translates into "creamy" in risotto.

for dinner, with a green salad

Risotto is great for dinner with a green salad, or for breakfast with some fruit on the side.  Leftovers reheat beautifully, or can sneaked out of the fridge, cold.

 

I wonder what I was expounding on here when my husband snapped this photo?  This was Saturday night.  And then we had gingerbread with a few dregs of lemon curd whipped with heavy cream.

Ordinary Days

Here are some ordinary moments, made special because we noticed them.  This collection is for Leila and Rosie's weekly round-up, pretty/happy/funny/real.

Pretty porch pots:


summer savory with begonias






geraniums and begonias and the rest is edible:  2 thymes, basil, rosemary, lovage

 

 

There was a happy weekend at the cabin with my husband and my uncles' biking club, wherein I biked 23 miles (more than ever before!) and had a ball and renewed my dislike of sleeping on the ground. Next time I am buying or borrowing a cushy mat; my bones are too old.

These are the funny signs that Genevieve made and hung on her bedroom door:

Free! Masashase! [massages] Pleas knok all day long!

A art show and mazeum [museum] for Ben! and crafs [crafts]! Thank you!

And here she is showing me her new freckles.

My girl. Who is almost done with first grade.

And the real part of my week that I have a photo for is that I made this shaved asparagus pizza and wasn't wowed. It was supposed to be wow-y, but I got off on the wrong foot with this pizza when I discovered that my peeler has a metal piece that prevented me from shaving the asparagus down as far as I wanted to. Plus, I didn't used smoked cheddar the way Rebecca's Clara did when it wowed them, so there's that.

I think I'm going to try again.