Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Snowy and Rainy Days and Full Freezers

I wanted pizza.  Instead, some people get more than a foot of snow. 

When that big front comes into the Northeastern US, it trails a long tail.  The classic shape of it on Radar is a comma.  It starts as a storm in the middle of the country, then works its way across basically driving I-10 to the ocean.  Then it gains strength as it hits the warmer waters of the Atlantic and comes up North to visit you people.

But as it's doing that, that front works its way down to visit me.

It was a wet weekend.  Oh sure, an inch of rain plus can be dealt with in South Florida, we are used to it.  The grounds are basically a Swiss Cheese of Limestone from "The I-4 Line" of Daytona to Orlando to Tampa.  In reality North of that as well, but everyone down here talks about the bad weather being up above the I-Four-Line and ignores it until it gets closer.

That Swiss Cheese flavored Limestone soaks up all the ground water and eventually it's a memory.  But it did keep us indoors.

After all, it's January, the pool has cooled down to 59, and it isn't a good beach day.  It also got a good 20 degrees colder than the high the day before and the house isn't designed for a high below 70.  We get miserable when it is colder than 70, and if it is raining, you'll be giving me some fine cheese to go with that fine Port Wine.

So what do you do.

I know!  Lets cook!  In other words, I filled the freezer.  To the point where next week's plans are shot.  Can't even make a pizza here because there is so much food stuffed in every nook and cranny.

I remember when the older generation had these fridges with a suitcase sized freezer and they were always crammed.   We've got a side by side fridge and I'm complaining that I want a chest freezer.  I'd just fill that too.

But it started with Saturday raining and our deciding that it was a perfect time to make a Roast Chicken.  I will say it turned out great, but that also meant a run to the stores.  Why? 

Soup Kit. 

Prepacked and wrapped in plastic, this had all the vegetables for you to make a proper Chicken Soup.  I'd suspect that with a few more ingredients you could make a proper Vegetable Soup, or stew.  Turnips, Rutabaga, Carrots, Dill Weed, Onion.  Something that looked like a carrot but white.  It all went into the "Lobster Pot".  By the time we were done, there was two gallons plus of Stock bubbling happily on the stove.

Two gallons.  That would be about 8 litres of soup stock. 

The chicken roasting in the oven, we would have a good meal.  Stuffing was made and put in the little bird, and a baking dish, and this all wasn't going to get dealt with until dinner.  Lunch had to be made.

All of that eventually hit the table, and the extra chicken got pulled from the bone.  Bones into the stock pot to boil another two hours.  Made up a wonderful stew with the addition of another half pound of carrots and two potatoes.

The next morning getting up I realized I needed to make English Muffins.  I got out all the gear, made up some beer bread batter from 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, a bottle of room temp Presidente beer, and a tablespoon of sugar. 

When that finished I realized I had to stop.  There was just enough room for the extra English Muffins to fit in the door. 

But ... wait, there's more!  Or rather, there can't be more.  I can't make the Cream Biscuits I wanted to have with some sausage gravy because there simply is no more room in the freezer.  Every square inch was crammed with covered dishes, cooling, and waiting to be eaten.  The Gallon Jug that I keep in there to freeze in case of emergencies had to come out.  The blue blocks of ice were out.  Still no more room.

Damn, no biscuits and gravy, I'll have to have cereal.

How about Pizza again?   Nope?   No room for the extra rolls.  I'm toast. 

Oh and it's Sunday and cold.  We're baking again.  You see, it's Fruitcake season.  None of that rubbish that you get from the shops.  Claxton fruitcake?  No, that's too cloyingly sweet.  Ours is home made from a Welsh recipe from the 1800s.   Each cake is a heavy block that is soaked in Spiced Rum to allow it to absorb the flavor, and is usually best after sitting in the freezer for 1 to 3 months.  We eat fruitcake in the summer because the candied fruits we need to make it are only available from Halloween to mid January - if you are lucky.

So we got enough for 8 fruitcakes.  Each cake being the size and weight of a Belgian Block from a street in an older city, and you know we are going to have a lot of baking to do.

"Hey, our plans got changed, no fruitcake next week!"

There won't be enough room in the freezer for us to make more since there are the better part of two gallons of soup in there.

Still no pizza.  Did I tell you I make the second best pizza on the island, in my own little kitchen?  It's just that that makes 3 large hoagie rolls as well.  You guessed it, no room in the freezer.

So while you are still digging out from your 12 to 36 inches of snow in the Northeastern US, I'm digging my freezer out of homemade food.  If you stop by, I may even give you a slice of fruitcake.

Don't laugh, this stuff is good!  If they sold this in the stores, people wouldn't turn their noses up at it.

But it is, still, fruitcake.

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