What I am about to say makes my inner feminist twitch a bit, but, I love being in my kitchen. One thing that has bugged me about not feeling well over the past few weeks is that I haven’t felt up to spending my Saturday in the kitchen.
Typically, I like to throw on a marathon of one of the countless Investigation Discovery murder shows — they’re addictive — or even a round of Ghost Adventures now and then, and see what I can make ahead for the week. With a limit on what I was allowed to lift, I’ve been eyeing my canner like a wild woman, counting down the days until I can fill the water bath with jars of spaghetti sauce and quench my need for Italian food. I am now able to pick it up, but this weekend I work, so alas, it will have to wait another week — which makes me feel a bit sad.
While I’ve been laid up, I’ve surfed Pinterest — like I needed an excuse — and stumbled onto more things I can put in the freezer. I believe this has become my second favorite kitchen activity behind canning. Recently, I tried freezing sandwiches for work. I was quite skeptical at first about how this would turn out. I was envisioning dry, freezer-burned bread and inedible meat with a frozen block of cheese between.
Surprisingly, it actually works. We had a few bumps along the way but have worked out the system.
First, if you are going to try this yourself, you can’t add condiments. Save those for when it thaws out. I strictly have meat, cheese and bread in my frozen concoctions. Turkey, ham and roast beef have so far been winners with pastrami on the horizon for future attempts.
Second — and this comes from trial and error — if you leave the sandwich out on your desk at work, it will more than likely have thawed by the time lunch rolls around. Don’t put it in the fridge. You’ll still have icy slush at noon. We learned that the hard way.
Now, you might be asking — why don’t I just make a sandwich that morning before heading out? That answer is simple: I’m lazy. I am not a morning person. Never have been. My stride kicks in around 1 p.m., and by 9 p.m., I’m pretty well useless. I wake up with enough time in the morning to get dressed and grab breakfast, which I usually eat in the car on the way to work. So if I can grab something other than a TV dinner and go, it’s a win-win for me.
On the canning front, I am more than ready for gardening season to get going. My tomatoes failed me last year, but this year I hope I will be up to my eyeballs in the red fruit (vegetable?). I am also going to try potatoes for the first time, so hopefully that isn’t a total disaster. Broccoli and peas round out my veggie wish list. It will be a challenge, but I am ready for it. You have to put in the effort to reap the reward, right? Besides, if I get too busy in the garden, I’ll have plenty of sandwiches in the freezer to keep me fed.