Cook in the kitchen

You might wonder about my absence over the long weekend. No, we didn't escape on a lovely Easter holiday. In fact I was up to my elbows in cooking and baking! Between hosting my family for Easter dinner, catching up on baking bread for us, and preparing some frozen dinners for a friend in need, I didn't see the rest of the house for four days! I think I could have turned off the furnace for the amount of heat my gas oven was pumping out, being that it was constantly on, cooking up delicious meals and sending forth amazing aromas. I even managed to use some pie crust scraps and invented my very own dessert (a strawberry custard pie with a oat/brown sugar/pecan crunchy topping!) I think I've had my fill of the kitchen, now, and I am more than grateful for the leftovers from James' family Easter dinner that will provide at least two meals for us.

As I packed my freezer full of frozen pies and casseroles and breads, it made me start thinking about getting a bigger freezer. I even have a small chest freezer in the basement, but both are packed to the brim. As I squeezed the last loaf of bread in last night, I realized I would really love to get myself an upright freezer (the one that looks like a fridge.) We usually have a 3-month food storage on hand, most of which has been canned and boxed goods. But every time I wander down to bring something up, I see all those canned vegetables staring at me. We used to eat them all the time, but recently I've been turned off. Frozen vegetables have come miles since I was a kid, and we much prefer their taste now, not to mention that frozen veggies are much healthier. If I want to turn my canned storage into frozen storage, though, I am definitely going to need more space! I much prefer the organization of a stand up freezer to the free-for-all, forever-lost-in-the-depths, when-did-I-put-that-in-there abyss of a chest freezer.