[gardeners] Tragic Thursday
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 07 Sep 2000 17:03:31 -0500
Got in from work about 11:45 this morning to find the upright freezer door
standing wide open. Checked and sure enough some of the food had thawed or was
getting soft. Made sure the freezer was running and then proceeded to take the
thawed and thawing stuff out and put it in the sink.
Cooked four lbs of chicken tenders and 5 lbs of sirloin steak that was partially
thawed and then repackaged and put back in the freezer. The shrimp went into an
immediately organized seafood gumbo as did one package of okra and one package
of sweet chiles. The rest went into a five gallon bucket to be taken out to the
compost heap later. The bucket was 3/4 full by the time I finished. I did manage
to salvage the vac seal bags so there was a positive side to this. There were 34
packages of veggies that were thawed enough they had to be disposed of. That's
not counting the tomatoes as I peeled and cored them, chopped and put into the
big pot with some bay leaf, oregano, basil, onions, garlic, and black pepper.
That mix is still simmering as I reduce it down to something suitable for a
tomato sauce and will then put in jars and pressure cook it or will boiling
water bath it after I check the pH.
By the time Miz Anne got home from work I was over my mad so we could discuss it
rationally. She was really surprised that I wasn't upset with her. She had
evidentally gone into the freezer to get a "goodie" to put in her lunch bucket
to take to school and just forgot to close the door. She always waits until the
last minute to do things and then her thoughts get chaotic. I guess that after
40 years of this I'm getting used to it. <BSEG>
Any how, disappointed that we lost so much good broccoli, okra, and chopped
sweet chiles but happy the damned persimmon pulp and the blanched cauliflower
went to the compost heap. On the plus side we now have beaucoup room in the big
freezer again.
I guess one reason I'm not as disturbed by this action as I used to get is that
I was offered a very lucrative contract for some consulting work by a major
refiner in this area. Tomorrow at 0900 I go in to sign the contract and to gain
passwords, etc to gain access to their extensive nationwide computer system.
Might be enough in this for a new (to us) small pickup or sedan. Gonna have to
replace one of these vehicles we have as both have over 150K miles on them. See,
there is a silver lining in most clouds.
As an added bonus it is clouding up to rain so I'm gonna put on my woodlands
breech clout and go out and do the old raindance. Miz Anne won't let me do the
Green Corn Dance anymore. B-)
Life is still good.
George