Freeeezer

Even though I just spend the last post talking about how cold it is outside, that doesn't mean it's silly for me to talk about bringing a device into our home that makes things cooler. Right?

We've been wanting a chest freezer for awhile. Our fridge is great, but the freezer drawer thingy isn't huge. I grew up accustomed to having - in addition to veggies, frozen pizzas, homemade applesauce, strawberries, and ice cream - a side of beef in the garage freezer. Steaks, hamburger, pot roast, you name it! And all so conveniently accessible. The meat was also usually raised by my grandparents, so we knew it was local and responsibly raised (aka hipster approved). So I'm a little spoiled because of all of this... but that doesn't mean it's wrong! And beyond the benefits of being able to store massive amounts of animal flesh close at hand, it will also be nice to keep premade meals, frozen fruit, ice cream, and ridiculous numbers of freeze pops. You know, the essentials.

Luckily for us, we managed to score a freezer for free from one of my coworkers. Somehow it came up in conversation at work that he had an old freezer that he didn't need and just wanted to get rid of. I offered to take it off his hands and ended up getting it for free. It's a little older and beat up, but you can't beat free! Plus we were looking for one anyway. If this one happens to die in a year it's not a big deal - we'll just buy a new one like we were planning on anyway.

This freezer had been sitting empty and unused for awhile, so we let it air out for a few days. Then we (and by that I mean Leslie because she's awesome) cleaned it out with some soap and water. And now it's good as new used!

Leslie has been looking through Pinterest and recipe books to find a bunch of recipes we can make and freeze. We'll hopefully have a weekend in the near future where we prepare a bunch of things and then freeze them for a rainy day. One of the things I'm most looking forward to is making pesto cubes this summer. But that's a different post.

Thanks for reading and have a happy Valentine's Day!