Eat the Meat (Day 1)

Well, one of my greatest food stockpiling fears came true today...I woke up and found the door to the outside freezer had been left open last night. Immediately I knew when it had happened....I'd gone out last night to get some walnuts for a recipe. All evening I kept looking at the walnut container, thinking, I should put them back in the freezer. But I didn't. When I went to put them away this morning, I found the door open. If only....

Sadly everything in there had thawed. I quickly got out a meat thermometer and checked the temps. Thankfully the warmest, thinnest cuts of meat were a smidge under 40 degrees...the cutoff for food safety temps.

After taking it all out and putting it in the fridge (so it wouldn't re-freeze....a food safety no-no), I figured out that I could cook up about 1/3 of it, and re-freeze the cooked meat. Some of it was already cooked (like meat in a sauce, chicken enchiladas, casseroles, packs of shredded meat, etc.). There were steaks, hot dogs, burgers, shrimp, etc.

With Brian gone for the rest of the week, I needed a plan. There was simply no way I could eat all that meat! (Actually, he wouldn't have been much of a help either...it was a LOT of meat!) So, I emailed friends inviting them over Sunday and Monday nights. I'm calling these "Eat the Meat" gatherings.

Tonight I had the help from 4 families and a lot of neighborhood kids. Tomorrow I'm hoping for more!

There are much greater catastrophes in the world. I'm sighing a bit, shaking my head, ticked that I hadn't yet fixed the latch on the freezer. It pops open easily...which is why we had a latch on it. The latch broke, and I bought a replacement, which is sitting on top of my microwave oven. Yeah, had I fixed the latch, had I put away the walnuts....I'd still have a freezer full of meat and main dish meals. *sigh*

So, if you're around....5-7 Monday night....I have meat for you to eat!

(picture: Cooked Pesto Parmesan Chicken! I'll slice it up for pasta or something. Maybe make sandwiches out of it.)