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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Quieting the Voices

I had an accident last week that involved a big ham and a crisper drawer. You guessed it, it fell from the top shelf and crashed down on the bottom crisper. Yep, it broke. I was unloading the groceries from one of my many runs to the store to stock up for the holidays. The fridge looked like we were preparing for a famine and I just kept remembering one more thing I needed. Every trip to town was another opportunity to add to the stash. While the kids were all here over Christmas, I had to move the juice to get to the milk to get the container of half and half wedged in the back left corner. Every nook and cranny was filled to the brim with cheesecake or jello salad, brisket marinating waiting to be cooked or spiral ham leftover for sandwiches. Hash brown casserole, leftover dressing, cheese balls and breakfast casserole...it is a maze of bowls and containers, only I know how to find things. I would even say it's dangerous to open my fridge during the holidays!

So yesterday we went shopping for a new freezer. I'm not certain we NEED a freezer, we already have a side by side and a small chest freezer. Really it's just certain times of the year they are stuffed to the gills. Summertime and the holidays being the worst. If I try to add one more thing, the doors won't shut!

The voices in my head tell me I have to buy things that are on sale or else. I blame my Mom, she followed the same rules and when I was growing up we had two large chest freezers plus the two fridges, one in the house and the other on the service porch. It may have been a 50's thing, or a Missouri thing, or maybe it was a Depression thing. Every summer my parents would either can or freeze from the garden. Then every fall they would add a hog and a side of beef. Week by week the freezer would receive package after package of hamburger on sale, pork chops too good to pass up and roasts that begged to be taken home at 89 cents a pound!

I'm trying to be reasonable and tell myself two people do not need a large freezer. There's no chance of a famine anytime soon predicted for NW Arkansas. My grocery stores are open 24 hours a day so I could get my hands on a ham or a brisket or a turkey anytime I need one. For right now, I'm able to put a muzzle on the VOICES!

7 comments:

  1. Oh goodness, I'm glad nobody was hurt in your overstuffed refrigerator accident! I giggled when I read your post b/c my fridge was the same over the holidays! We also have an old fridge downstairs in our cold cellar which was stuffed with all of my baking. Just think of it this way ... it's smart and savvy to purchase things on sale and that's exactly what you're trying to do!

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  2. It is always good have a little extra. We have a small freezer down cellar with frozen pizzas, sausages, steak tips. Just a few extras for when you are short on groceries one week.

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  3. You sound like the mirror image of the two living in the Hollow!! We have the frig in the kitchen, a frig in the garage, a chest freezer and an upright freezer! Yikes! In CT, with all the kids coming by, we needed them. Joe did not want to part with them when we moved. And he does have a "thing" about buying way too much food...:)JP

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  4. Sounds like my overflowing fridge! But I only have one & a freezer in the garage. Last Easter I was preparing a sweet potato casserole & had it sitting on the kitchen counter...I thought! I had my stainless interior KitchenAid dishwasher door open, when the casserole flipped upside down in the dishwasher! Since the door was clean (I think!) I scooped the casserole back up, fluffed it, & sprinkled on more pecans. No one was the wiser, until my hubby saw the dent in the door. Oh dear...

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  5. All of my famly has multiple refrigerators and at least one chest freezer! Where else do you keep the frozen veggies from the garden and the deer steaks and sausage?
    Blessings,
    Lorilee

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  6. We have an old coke box that has a lift up door on the right and one on the left.....Right side has cokes, sprite, an occasional bag of oranges, etc and the left side belongs to my husband for his (drink of choice) During the holidays I have casseroles, ham, etc on both sides...plus a full refrigerator...I don't know how people make it with just one refrigerator during these times......I stack as high as they will go....lol

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  7. Your refrigerator sounds a whole lot like mine. We still have one Christmas celebration to go weekend after next so the fridge won't empty out soon. We also have one fridge in the garage and another in my husband's shop. The one in the garage holds pop for the most part and there's AP flour and bread flour in that freezer. The fridge in the shop holds whatever it is that my husband thinks he needs out there - pop, snacks and extra ice.

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