We Were Cold. The Food, not so much

Winnie The Pooh and
The Blustery Day [VHS]

"Finally the blustery day turned into a blustery night.  To Pooh, it was an uncomfortable night full of uncomfortable noises..."  
A.A. Milne, retold in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, included on the DVD, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Saturday night I knew how Pooh felt!

We had quite the major wind storm this weekend, which resulted in 2 downed lines in our neighborhood alone, and tens of thousands of outages in major areas of Western Washington.  Our power outage started Saturday evening and ended sometime early this morning...4:30 is my best estimate... so about 32 hours.  

Because I went to my dad's yesterday, it didn't occur to me to advise those at home to do a food rescue of the things in the fridge.  If it had, I wouldn't have just put approximately 100 pounds of food stuffs in the trash can.  I hate to think of the replacement value of that food, and we'll have to pay a fee for the additional weight and overfull garbage receptacle, to boot!  

Anyway, just as a reminder, foodsafety.gov advises in their article, Refrigerated Food and Power Outages: When to Save and When to Throw Out, that perishables in the refrigerator be evaluated and discarded, as their list specifies, after an outage that lasts 4 hours or longer.  The list of things to discard, of course, is longer than those to keep.  It's ok to keep vinegar-based condiments and dressings, uncut fruit and veggies, hard cheeses (as long as it's not shredded), fruit juice, butter, peanut butter and jellies, and bread (which shouldn't be in the fridge anyway!).  All meats, processed meats, casseroles and soups, cooked pasta, cooked veggies, pre-washed and cut, packaged veggies and salads, cream based dressings, all eggs, and all dairy and milks had to go.  Please visit the page for more specifics.

This isn't the post I'd planned for today, so I'll get back on track tomorrow.  Right now I have to make a previously unplanned Costco run to replenish our larders!

Write31days.com

What to Do... What to Do...

Out of the original 9 bags of apples, we got 6 or 7 pies, a few lunchbag snacks, and approximately 5 gallons of applesauce.

That is a LOT of applesauce!

For the first batch, I grabbed some plastic storage containers.  I quickly figured out that I didn't have enough for all the applesauce we'd produce, and what I did have, I didn't want tied up in frozen applesauce.  After a little thought, I could pop the applesauce cubes out of those containers, and put 2 each in large ZipLoc bags instead.  Either way, they take up a lot of freezer space in that shape.

Ha.  Just got this out of the freezer to take the photo.
"Breaking or cutting it" will not be an option, since
it's over 3 inches thick in places.  Will just have to thaw
it and reheat any I want to refreeze.

The second batch, I decided to go for a cheaper container, and a streamlined shape that would be easy to stack and store in the freezer.  I was happy to just fit the whole batch into one gallon-sized ZipLoc bag. --But, Oops!  Why will I want to thaw a full gallon of applesauce at a time?  I will do better to cut or break that into smaller pieces.

This is when I remembered why I used to have ZipLoc bags in the quart size.  For the last year or so, we'd gone to buying only the gallon and sandwich sizes, as the quart-size was usually too small or too big for most daily needs. 

Remember to turn the tops back, so when you goo-up the
top during loading, that it's really inside the bag.

Also, it's advised to write the contents and the date
BEFORE filling.  Oops.

However, they will be perfect for storing applesauce in usable amounts, and they're easy to label.  I can freeze them flat for easy stacking and efficient use of space... "in apple pie order!"  ;-)

31 Days at The Nesting Place

No Wonder the Kids Fight Over This

We have a kitchen gadget that's been around for years.  I think this is actually our 2nd one.  But the kids love using it, so I never have tried our apple peeler, corer, and slicer until today.


Last week I was so excited to find the prized HoneyCrisp apples for $1 a pound and Fujis for 50 cents a pound.  I bought 40 - 45 pounds of each, figuring the HoneyCrisp could keep the snackers happy, while I could get the chance to fix the Fujis into batches of apple pie filling to freeze.  --By the way, in only one week, the HoneyCrisps, which I thought would last us 'awhile,' are all gone!


Anyway, today I wanted to bake apple pies and the girls who usually fight over using this gadget weren't home, and I decided to try it myself.  I understand now why there are skirmishes over this thing.  It's fun!  It's so slick the way it, so easily and quickly, peels, cores, and slices each apple.  I thought it would require a lot of fussing around, but it doesn't.

The bottom vacuum-suctions onto the counter, and actually stays put. 





The apple (core area) is centered onto the prongs, and with a turn of the handle, the apple travels over to where a spring loaded (so it adapts to whatever size and shaped apple), u-shaped blade removes the peel, making long strings of it.  

At the same time, the core is being removed and the apple cut into 1/8" slices.  After taking it off, I cut the apple into fourths, to make the sections into sizes for pie.  

I'm glad it's easy, because we have about 30 pounds left to peel... if the snackers don't dive into those, too.

Good-bye is a Process...

...Even if it's only to a wedding cake!  Ok, maybe a little too dramatic.  But this thing of beauty sat on my island all day.  So gorgeous looking, and so uneaten, except for that tiny piece off the back that the prince and princess had lovingly shared at their reception.  It seemed destructive to cut up something so wonderful and valuable for 'no good reason.'  That was a faulty impression, of course, so it was time.


First I focused on saving the top for the couple's first anniversary.  I removed the decorations, so carefully placed by Princess Bride Sassy, and patched the frosting wounds, hoping to better seal the moisture in the cake.  I then lifted the upper section.  Even this smallest part was heavy.  I had to know how heavy, so out came my Escali kitchen scale.  6 pounds, 6.7 ounces.

  
I pondered whether or not to remove the food-safe ribbon trim, and left it on.  I wrapped it in a few layers of plastic wrap, then foil, then more plastic wrap.  I finally 

Looks like a giant DingDong!

enclosed all in 2 of my plastic bread bags, as it was just barely too large to slide into a gallon ZipLoc Freezer bag, which wouldn't have closed around it anyway.  



I am still second-guessing the ribbon decision, and if you tell me it was a big mistake, I will kick myself, cry, and then unwrap it and start over to make it right.





When lifting the 2nd layer off, I found that this wasn't a project I should've undertaken alone.  An extra set of hands would have been nice.  
This layer weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and was on a plastic plate with major columns that extended into and through the lowest layer.  It was a little precarious to balance an 8 pound cake, covered in copious amounts of frosting, while trying to remove those legs in order to set it down.  At this point, it was necessary to keep a paper towel handy so I'd remember not to lick all the frosting off my fingers!  That wouldn't have been great for the safety of the food, nor for my stomach and blood sugar.



For this and the bottom layer, I cut the cake into manageable sections (fourths for the middle, and sixths for the bottom portion), then wrapped them in plastic wrap.  I was able to place them in ZipLoc freezer bags.  To keep them as fresh as possible I sealed the edges, but with a short straw inserted to suck out excess air before sealing completely.  


 I took my time with a break in between each, since it's a good recipe for getting dizzy!

The island's wedding cake is no more, and a whole freezer shelf is full.  There is a bit of a mess remaining, but I'm headed for bed, and that, like a lot of things, will wait until tomorrow.

Not nearly as pretty, but an accomplishment...and supply of cake for
several weeks to come!