October 25, 2011

Taking Back My Freezer

Somewhere in the depths of this frozen tundra could lie the remains of a dead body.  I would have absolutely no idea, because it seems that things go into my freezer, but they never come out.  I can't tell you how many times I have gone to the store to buy chicken with the idea of freezing it when I get home. I should have an entire Purdue chicken plant in there by now.  

I wrote not too long ago about a smell that was coming from my refrigerator, I have fixed that problem.  However there is an equally if not worse smell coming from the freezer.  I know this is hard to do because everything is SUPPOSED TO BE FROZEN and it shouldn't have an odor.

But alas it does.

If you are anything like me your freezer looks something like this.  Frozen something or others stacked on top of each other with no idea what is underneath.  This is what makes finding anything difficult, and explains why I buy chicken every time I go to the grocery store.  I can't tell you how much money I must have wasted buying new meats to freeze.

Take a look at this ice cream.  I knew that I had two of these boxes as I just bought the ones on the left.  As for the other box of ice cream sandwiches I don't know where that came from and I certainly don't have any idea when I bought it.  I know that my kids love to eat ice cream so to find a whole box of sandwiches is baffling.  I could be from before we had kids for all I know.  Maybe I'll get lucky and no one will get sick from eating them.

But where is that odor coming from?

I think we have now found an issue.  First of all fish from almost three years ago has got to be a problem right?  I don't think that I have ever eaten frozen fish, unless of course we are talking fish sticks, where I have unfortunately eaten more than my share over the years.  Second, take a look at the date on those garden burgers, August 05.  THAT CANNOT BE GOOD. 
Garden burgers are not good to begin with, six and a half year old ones, probably don't taste that much different than fresh ones, but why have these been in our freezer so long?  I can't swear by this, but I think they bought when we had ANOTHER FREEZER. Countless Power outages through the years and a transfer between freezers have certainly taken their toll on these burger wannabes.  Out they go.

Now we all know that the only reason I removed anything out there aside from the smell, was to put things in there that are really important.  I know my kids could care less about frozen meats or vegetables, I don't even know if they know what a vegetable is, and the next time they beg me for a steak will be the first.  The only things that they care about are frozen waffles and chicken nuggets.

Chicken?!  More frozen chicken.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?



  1. My freezer is the exact same, but then Marie has a habit of saying oh i'll save this and use it later and it still sits there to this day, me personally would just throw everything out because i know that she won't use it but heh you can't argue with the missus right :)

  2. I hear you on the freezer front. We moved a year and a half ago and brought everything with us that had been in our freezer. It wasn't my call, some of that stuff was OLD, but my wife wanted to bring it all and it was easier just to appease her.

    We have managed, on occasion, to eat through a decent chunk and get some actual room in the freezer...until the next time we go to the store.

  3. Oh wow! '05 and '08! You have definitely inspired me to do a thorough check of our freezer more often! :)

  4. I was thinking exactly what you were before I read "Garden burgers are not good to begin with..."

    My MIL freezes EVERYTHING. Fresh corn during the summer: straight to the freezer. Fresh bread: freezer. I guess she's been doing this long enough that she thinks it all tastes normal, but it really tastes terrible. (Needless to say, I've been working on a blog post of my own on this very subject).

    JJ – The Dude
    Twitter: @DudeOfTheHouse

  5. I'm all for freezing things... I just have to remember that it's there. The only thing I know that gets replaced is ice cream. There is another freezer in my basement that I am scared to look at.

  6. we have a chest freezer and our regular freezer. I am so afraid the chest freezer will turn into the black hole of food. Of course the level of OCD in my house keeps it from happening, but I have woken in cold sweats thinking about it. yeah.. not normal.
    if it sits too long it tastes NASTY. with 7 people in this house that almost never happens

  7. Thank God I don't have one of those chest freezers... that would never get opened. Certainly there would be food from the Eisenhower administration in there.

  8. This made me laugh out loud because it seemed all too familiar. You would think those pictures were straight from my very own freezer. Although running on a tight budget has forced me to get to the bottom of it for once. :)

  9. Will you take ours, please? AND, dude, follow me back on Twitter already!

  10. Wow Bruce is needy...LOL... Anyway... I am in the minority here. The one thing I do have control over is my fridge and freezer....and my freezer in the basement where I keep my "stockpile." maybe you ned one of those to organize? I lve mine. But leftovers do get pushed to the back of the fridge from time to time...causing a stink once they're forgotten.

  11. Seriously Bruce... I do have another freezer and I am not quite sure what down there. Most likely a variety of mozerella sticks, pigs in a blanket, and little triangular cheese things that I only see once a year.

  12. The worst thing is taking something out of your freezer and getting That Smell on your hands. I took out a plastic bag of frozen veggies... the smell got on my hands from just taking it out of the freezer and laying it on the counter. I had to wash my hands THREE times, with scented soap, to fully get the funk out.
    Or then my husband and I were eating ice cream straight out of the half-gallon (don't judge me) and I had to make him hold it - scoop a bite out, now take that thing away from my face - because the smell was emanating from the outside of the container. I've had it soak into ice cream, rendering it inedible, but luckily this half-gallon was only about 2 weeks old.


  13. The worst part is when the food in your freezer contaminates everything in the box. Tea that tastes like frozen chicken is not good....again frozen chicken.