Things you will find in my freezer

Once in a while I would check my freezer to make sure that there are frozen foods I need to discard just because they have been there forever, you know what I mean? This weekend, I went through the pile and these were the stuff I found:

Blueberries in 2 cup measurements

I made sure that I kept a lot of blueberries this summer. Whenever we go to a potluck party in fall and winter, blueberry cheesecake is a popular request for me to bring. My friends probably knew that I had a supply of frozen blueberries. Well, last year, I was a show off and made 2 pans of cheesecake on one occasion. On top of that, my daughter who was in a Food course learned how to make scones. These just brought my supply down to puffftttt.

Strawberries, whole and sliced also in 2 cup measurements

This was just by accident. I normally do not freeze strawberries but because they were on sale this year, I just bought a few first. And then they were getting cheaper and cheaper and so I was enticed on buying some more. My kids got all so “strawberried-out” that they were left on the kitchen counter bound to rot. I washed and cleaned them and put them in the freezer. One day, my son started digging in the freezer for something to make into a shake. Well he found the strawberries so I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to store some more before they disappear from the shelves.

Bag of Lima beans

I love putting lima beans in my pinakbet. I bought a bag and I couldn’t use them all in one cooking so I put them in the freezer for tonight. Yes, I’m having pinakbet for tonight.

Tomato Sauce

Yes, this is the canned tomato sauce that I cannot use again in one cooking. There are recipes that sometimes call only for 1 half of the can. I don’t want to put the whole can in just because it is going to ruin the taste of my recipe. I first put them in containers and are left to create a science project inside the fridge. I didn’t feel good about putting things into waste so one day I decided to put the excess sauce in a freezer bag, tied it with twisties and then on to a square or round container and threw it in the freezer. Once it hardened, I pulled the bag off the container and left the bagged sauce in the freezer for future use.

Shrimps

These are expensive when not on sale so I just buy them when they are. They make quick and easy recipes or simply just “pangsahog” when you run out of meat.

Smoked Salmon

I make chowder a lot and smoked salmon make good enhancer to my chowder. Just because I live around the coast, we get quite a bit of salmon around this time of the year. I order them from a Filipino friend who works for a fishing company. This is my favorite pasalubong when we go home to the Philippines or when we have relatives coming over for a visit.

There are other practical recipes I freeze for rainy days. I got the idea of freezing from my boss’ wife who is a pro. She seems to freeze everything.
Unfortunately I don’t remember doing this in the Philippines because of the frequent power outages. When we were there for Christmas vacation one time, there was just a massive power outage probably because of the holiday overload and we were forced to cook everything in our freezer either as adobo or paksiw.