Thursday, November 13, 2008

What's in YOUR fridge?

Meadowlark posted pix of her fridge, so of course, I had to post mine, too. Come on, everybody can play! If you post yours, put the link in the comments. No fair cleaning it first! I'd love to see a post from someone with a non-traditional cold storage, like a spring house or ice box.

I can't back up far enough in my small kitchen to take a photo of the whole thing at once so I'll do bits and pieces. The fridge is somewhat empty. I am actually cooking stuff right now to put in there, so I made room for yogurt, apple butter, brewed ice tea, and chicken stock.

The top shelf is jars of pickles and jam, milk, bags of spelt and WW flour, and ricotta cheese stockpiled back in the corner. There is a bottle of red cooking wine hiding out behind the chocolate syrup. A pile of spinach, cabbage, and parsley, crowned by a takeout box of leftover homefries. Middle shelf has a barely-visible basket of tortillas and cheese for DD12 to make pizza, and then a lot of stuff in containers: carrots for munching, bacon fat, sour cream, leftover potato soup, cooked sweet potato, miso, lard, yogurt, lebne, etc. Oh, let's not forget the not-quite-rotten bananas I keep saying I am baking into bread. The bottom (dirty) shelf is currently dominated by leeks, a bowl of over-ripe pears, and thawing chicken, but I just made room for a large container of chicken stock to congeal overnight, so I can skim it. DD12's yogurt is down there - she won't eat my homemade, yet.


I am SO happy I recently cleaned these drawers. The left one is the egg and pork-product drawer. I don't like the foam egg cartons, but they get recycled constantly to my organic egg lady. I see DD12's organic hot dogs, kielbasi, a package of cheddar, and my just-arrived Bacon of the Month package. The drawer on the right is just carrots, apples, and celery. I stopped putting leafy greens down there - I forget them and they liquefy in unappetizing ways. Note the lovely vintage 70's harvest gold vinyl flooring - Mmmmm!

Fridge and freezer doors. The top freezer door shelf guardrail is missing, so we don't use it for much beyond freezer packs. On the door are bags of odds and ends like frozen lemon juice cubes and pesto lumps. The fridge door is butter and cream cheese, yeast in the "garage," mayo and Miracle Whip (no judging!), assorted jam, relish and mustard, leftover partial bags of chocolate chips, pickle jars, and a bunch of seldom-used dressing bottles on the bottom. Why can't I throw those away? Hopefully, you can't see the mold in the door gasket, which I can't ever seem to scrub out completely.


You would never know I organized this freezer about 2 weeks ago. People just *root* in here. Visible are DD12's frozen yogurts, back-up butter, a strip of slab bacon, bags of broccoli, beans, and peaches. The box holds things that fall out, like quart bags of stock and rolls of ground turkey. There is a 3-lb bag of shrimp I intend to portion into pounds, a beef bone for stock, DH's "hidden" cookie stash, and the ice cream maker freezer-thingee. I think the blue bag in the bag corner with the clothespin is corn niblets. The string at the top is attached to a glowstick that DD12 is trying to cryosave from Halloween.

The freezer in the basement is new, so it's cleaner, but no better organized. I filled it so fast that I lost track of what is in there. Inventory is an up-coming project. Visible on top: pork chili, ham-n-bean soup, blueberries, tortellini, pork chops, bacon. Pork was the last thing I bought, so all the chicken is on the bottom, another reason I need to re-organize. The basket has assorted sausage and brats.

So... what's in your fridge?

15 comments:

It's me said...

I don't have enough food!!! at least compared to you!

But I'm wondering... why do you store bacon fat in the fridge?

Chile said...

Interesting that the items that jumped out at me were chocolate syrup, chocolate chips, and hidden cookie stash. LOL!

Judy T said...

Mine's up. Fridge and the freezer in the basement.
I didn't identify anything except to confess to having Eggo waffles. Judy

Matriarchy said...

I was afraid the bacon fat would get rancid, so I put it in the fridge. Does it keep indefinitely? Despite the looks of my fridge, I don't produce a lot of bacon fat, or use it very quickly, but there are a few things I like it for, like the occasional batch of fried potatoes. Same with the lard - there are a few things I bake with it.

After reading Chile's list, I started feeling like I should put more oils and sauces in there.

And all that chocolate belongs to other people. You don't see mine, because it doesn't last long enough to get to the fridge. LOL!

Judy, you confess to Eggos - I have my Miracle Whip. :-)

This is fun. My fridge would stay cleaner if I knew the door might be flung open for photos at any time.

It's me said...

Hmmm... good question on bacon grease. (Dont know why we call it that and not fat... its just one of those things)

I keep mine in a canister on the counter. One of those with the little metal hook things... it has a bit of a seal, really just a thin layer of rubber between the lid and the jar. I haven't ever noticed it going bad, but I suppose it would. I'd hate to tell you 1) how fast we go through it and 2) how long we store it. YIKES!

As you can tell from my fridge, Miracle Whip is the least of my worries. I hadn't realized I had so much "fake" food. But Husband and I don't like whole milk (too thick... ugh) and I have no idea why I buy non-fat buttermilk and not the regular stuff. Probably just never put any thought into it. The eggnog? Notfat because I don't even want to look at the label of that stuff. And we only buy it during Nov/Dec. :)

Chile said...

My husband was scaring our company Wednesday night with tales of rancid bacon grease his grandmother used for cooking. Everything was fried in it and a big ol' scoop was added to all cooked vegetables, too. And, yes, it does go bad, he said.

It's me said...

We must go through it too fast. That's SCARY! No wonder I carry extra poundage!

But it's only a dab here and a dab there. :)

Connie said...

I would have shown you my fridge but missed the day *~} This is fun to see.

Matriarchy said...

I'm thinking of doing it again in the future, as part of my menu planning. I'm still learning to plan menus around what needs to be used. Getting into the habit of checking my fridge, freezer, and root cellar before planning the week's food will help me avoid wasting food.

I used to fill and almost empty my fridge every week. I planned food around what was on sale, with little left over. I didn't have to think about how long the squash would keep, or how long the chicken carcass was in the fridge, or whether the pork chops were getting freezer burn.

So, "Check your Fridge" might become a regular feature at my blog. LOL!

eunice said...

"she won't eat my homemade, yet." why won't she eat your homemade yogurt? how is your Ricotta cheese project going?

Matriarchy said...

What she will and won't eat is a mystery, even to her. She will eat store-bought strawberry yogurt. But so far, not mine. Sometimes, she slowly comes around to trying things, so I say "so far."

My older daughter is not a big yogurt fan, and is weirder out when I make yogurt and cheese. She will leave the kitchen. I don't know what it is about playing with dairy that squicks her.

I've made ricotta three times, and it never comes out like ricotta. More like a solid lump of dry curd cottage cheese. I grate it to use it in lasagna. It does melt nicely and make nice lasagna. But, when I find ricotta on sale for $3/pound at the store, I can't make it that cheaply, so I but it.

I am really enjoying my yogurt and lebne. I barely even buy cream cheese anymore, just if I make cheesecake, because I am afraid the texture will not be right when it cooks. I have to do some experimenting.

Stacy McKenna said...

I'm here via urbanhomestead.org - I am so glad I'm not the only one whose greens turn to liquified yech before I use them, and whose fridge gasket is always just not quite free of mold...Thank you!!! (I also can not seem to pitch those seldom used dressings.)

Stacy McKenna said...

oh, and we keep bacon fat in the fridge, too. Makes frying eggs even tastier!

Chris said...

Hey, we have the ice cream maker thingy! I recall that it is supposed to be kept covered, though--apparently the stuff inside can freezer-burn? Seems unlikely, but we keep ours in a couple plastic shopping bags.

Matriarchy said...

Thanks, Chris. I am trying to make time to re-organize that freezer, and I will wash and bag the freezer thingy. I should bag it just to keep it clean between uses. Kinda counter-productive to freeze it and then partially melt it by washing it out.