abundance from the deep freeze

A deep freeze is a most wonderful invention; I'd be lost without mine. Odds and ends that would normally go to waste can be tucked away in there, then resurrected just when I need them. Trouble is, if you get too many unmarked odds and ends piled in there, you end up wondering what's what, especially if it's unmarked. There's always frozen chicken broth, and usually some cooked chicken... or during the holidays, cooked turkey. I keep those pretty much in one certain section, so they seldom get lost. It's those odd bags and containers of leftovers that get away from me.

I love having chili or turkey soup frozen in portions that I can take out for a quick meal when I'm running short on time, or when I'm just plain lazy. Since we're having good weather for cooking (wintry), I decided to make turkey gumbo for our dinner (and probably tomorrow's dinner too), and some chili for the freezer.

I'm working on using some of the assorted bags of frozen leftovers, so they don't get totally lost in the shuffle. Today when I went after some frozen diced onions that I'd put in there to save them from rotting last summer, I noticed an unmarked bag of something red. Something smooth and red, like ketchup. Only I've never frozen ketchup. I opened the bag and sniffed it: definitely a tomato product.

Then it came back to me. Two years ago when the grandson was staying with us and was working for an employer that supplied restaurants with various foods, he came home with some gallon cans of tomato puree that had been discarded because they were outdated. He planned to use them for target practice.

"Over my dead body." I said. "I'll open the cans, freeze that stuff in quart freezer bags, and use it when I make chili, in place of tomato sauce."

I've never been one to worry over outdated canned goods. Obviously, I don't worry about food that's been in the freezer for two years, either. I ain't skeered.

So the mysterious bag of puree, the frozen, diced onions, and some frozen, diced sweet peppers from the garden are in the process of becoming chili, along with ground beef from our dear departed steer, Meatloaf. Oh yes, and a jar of home-canned tomatoes. For dessert we'll have home-made butternut squash bread; I found half a loaf of that while digging in the freezer.

I feel like Miss Frugality today.