Freezer Food

My mom reminded me that it had been a while since I’d blogged.

This is true.

Here’s what I did during January:  I ate lots of food from my freezer.

You see, I’m a bit of a freezer hoarder. Not to the extent that TLC would actually feature my freezer on an episode of Hoarders. Definitely not. It’s a sanitary freezer — it was just getting a little cramped.

I also had a strong attachment to some of my freezer food. I got a little freezer for my basement so I could freeze tomatoes, peppers, basil, squash, etc. from my garden. It worked well. Two years ago, I had a bumper crop of tomatoes. Many of them wound up in the freezer. This year, I had a bumper crop of yellow squash. The squash was still in the freezer (some was blanched and chopped and some was pulverized into a random recipe I found for “squash patties”).

One might have thought I was into vegetable cryogenics.  I’m not. (although it does sound interesting)

Plus, those squash patties were a dish only a squash mother could love. They were a little funky. But that yellow squash plant fought off squash borers all summer in a battle that resulted in a somewhat-gruesome-looking-but-VERY-fruitful plant. I had to reward its efforts.

So, I ate my squash patties in January. I also ate my 2011 tomato crop.

I discovered that yellow squash and tomatoes cook up rather nicely in a cast iron skillet.

I found frozen lasagna from last year. It was pretty tasty.

I also found a random ice block that turned out to be spaghetti squash. That was pretty tasty, too.

My January grocery bill hit an all-time low, and my tolerance for freezer-burned food hit an all-time high.

Now it’s February, and almost all the “antique” items in my freezer have been eaten (including a roll of Thin Mints….that was a welcome surprise). The only aged item in the freezer at this point is a small container of tomato soup. John and I made the soup a couple years ago. Unfortunately, the individual who created the recipe must have had some sort of salt deficiency, because the soup is basically a tomato-flavored salt lick. I’m not sure why I saved it and put it in my freezer — probably because it was made with tomatoes and basil from the garden.

Alas, I feel like I should attempt to consume the soup to deem my month of freezer food a true success.

Anyone on a low sodium diet should decline any dinner invites to my house.