WE are finally heading home, so the Austin freezer needs some work. My husband bought two useless ducks from Costco a while back. They are bony and pathetic looking. There are six of us in Austin right now, so I have zero desire to deal with two ducks which will amount to snacks.

Other than that I just keep lots of frozen shrimp on hand, and frozen prepared gnocchi from WFM which my eldest likes when he is here.

All this talk of ducks makes me want to order some nice meaty duck legs. I think my frozen snack ducks may be turned into soup, perhaps.

Yes, Zalco. The duck sound perfect for soup after you roast them. Maybe you fella wants to try roasting them first? I love duck and one of the things in our freezer is duck broth. I often use it for ramen soups with vegetables and shrimp.

Yum! I'd throw it in the smoker then chop up the meat for sandwiches!

Petalique, Thank goodness you chimed in about roasting them first. I probably would not have thought of that- like never. And it makes perfect sense. Thank you!

mine2x, the smoked idea sounds great too.

My freezer is full too!

I use roasts like that in my slow-cooker. I make a sauce using soy sauce, molasses, cider vinegar, garlic powder, some water. Cook 6-7 hours. Thicken the sauce with cornstarch at the end. I use some of the leftovers shredded and simmered in some the of sauce, mixed with some bbq sauce for pulled pork sandwiches.

I don't have the problem of losing food in my freezers but then I have two. One is 15 cu/ft chest freezer that has the beef and pork from the last ones we had processed. All of the meat is organized in storage boxes that fit perfectly in the freezer stacked 3 high and wide and the lids of the boxes have the contents written on it (burger, steaks, roasts, sausage/bacon, chops, etc).

Everything else fits easily in the upright freezer. At the bottom I have one box of about 3 dozen quart bags of frozen corn from my brother's garden and another box with various other frozen veggies from my garden. Chicken has a shelf it shares with seafood. Another shelf for packaged things like pizza, lasagna, perogies etc. The rest of the stuff goes on the third shelf or on the door.

I make a boneless pork loin roast for xmas every year using this recipe. It's in the crockpot so the ovens are free for all the other casseroles. No complaints from the family so far: https://farmbellrecipes.com/cranberry-pork-roast/

And I thought it was just my freezer! I am full up. I went a little crazy when my favorite frozen yogurt pops were on sale, and a little crazier making soup when the weather turned cold. We did a ravioli run into my favorite NYC pasta store and came home with a dozen boxes. (Have to make the tolls worthwhile). There are certain dinners that almost beg me to make an extra batch, and I haven't even gotten to "Pie Crust Day" when I make a few and stick them in. And let's not even discuss the cranberries and rhubarb in there. I am really a nut!

Faftris - I hear you on the cranberries and rhubarb! We have a large freezer drawer in the bottom of our refrigerator and a medium sized chest freezer in our basement. Even though there are only the two of us, we batch cook soups and stock and also freeze leftovers for a later meal. DH fishes and we vacuum seal striped bass and smoked bluefish to eat off-season. We also take advantage of sales. Yesterday a small market I went to for a quick salad for lunch had vacuum-sealed fresh turkey parts on sale and I bought 2 large turkey leg/thigh pieces for about $5. We found pork loin roasts today at our large grocery store for about $4 each.

It is hard to keep track of what we have. I found this template and we keep a freezer inventory using it, marking off food as we use it - I categorize food by groups on different pages...

Lonejack, I am envious. The key word seems to be “organized.” And I’m learning that it requires space (bigger freezer) to be able to organize. our chest freezer is small. I regret not getting a more ample freezer. DH is no longer organized, neat or motivated. I have some medical issues that get in my way.

I met a woman who, like you, explained how her large freezer (for only two seniors) was very organized. i like the description of your freezer layout. I am by nature someone who likes ro cooperate, strive for consensus. But I may just have to make some unilateral decisions since I am the only person I can count on to clean. My DH doesn’t listen well or remember. This house and yard are too much for us these days. I want to downsize and move. DH mumbles ” uh huh.”

mine2x and jasdip — good suggestions, but hours involved and it’s already past 5 pm. I won’t have time today, maybe tomorrow.

seagrass--I think we may be related. We are two as well, but apparently, I am still cooking for four! I love a good bowl of soup for dinner and Campbell's is not part of the vocabulary. And, if you are cooking, you might as well cook. I am going to make an inventory list. Mine is an upright freezer, so I don't have to dig, but it makes perfect sense. Thank you.

My freezer got emptied out when we evacuated for Ian, but it's slowly filling back up. I also like to have things on hand and take advantage of seasonal things like cranberries (which seemingly keep forever) too.

I'm trying not to let it get as crazy as it was before the hurricane, but time will tell.

I used to make a pork loin roast with fresh garlic, rosemary and white wine - very simple and tasty, and you can use the leftovers for other dishes.

I have been trying to pare down our freezer contents too. I'm not having a lot of luck because I do things like take out beef and sausage and frozen roasted tomatoes and make a big pot of spaghetti sauce and then, yup, put all the extra in the freezer! I just can't see making spaghetti sauce for 2 or 3 when it only takes a couple of minutes to make 10 times that much!

I adore my freezer! It is packed in the fall with marinara sauces, green vegetables from the garden, chicken or beef or pork broths, soups, and the top shelf is full of homemade breads and rolls. By March, I'll have less in the freezer and I'll be looking forward to filling it up again with garden produce.

nekotish, like you, I can't see making a small amount of something when you can have a pot of it made to put in the freezer. That's why we have so many containers of chicken vegetable soup and chili!

I was digging in the freezer looking for something and found a huge ice thingy growing in the back. I guess I will need to take everything out and put the heater next to it and thaw out the huge hunk to see what is in there - maybe a jar.

Obviously the defrosted water is no longer draining down the channel like it's suppose to and emptying into an evaporation pan.

I guess doing this will also give me an idea of what's all in there. I know I will find too many bags of cranberries bought last year. What else may be a surprise.

The pork would make great green chile. Then smother nachos with it. Or....put BBQ sauce on it.

I had to thaw 3 bags of cranberries and made a big pot of cranberry sauce with them - and then froze it 😃

I did use half for Thanksgiving 😇

I asked for a freeze dryer for my (early) Christmas present this year. I am tired of the food waste from both my fridge and freezer.

So far I am really impressed with eggs and milks. Canned vegetables (I had some past their 'best before' date) were disgusting. They were either waterlogged, or like eating jerky.

Meat, so far has been amazing. I froze a leftover hamburger patty, rehydrated, and it truly tasted the same. The difference is they can keep for 30 years!

I am anxious to try fresh produce- that is really why I wanted it- to be able to buy local produce in season and freeze dry it. I will be sad if it turns out like the canned beans. Fingers crossed!

Time to defrost and get rid of some stuff! There are some things from my daughter's wedding I think 3 years ago, that we haven't touched! Some pate, cheeses, salami....then there are tomato sauces that were too thin! I'll find a homeless encampment that might enjoy it! Nothing wrong with it, just frozen for awhile!

@CA Kate z9, try using a hairdryer on the ice thingy :-)

I’ll need to use a hair dryer just to get the baskets out, and unattach a few jars. What a mess!

Nicole, green chili sounds good. I will have to look up what it is.

carol, nekotesh and 674, I agree about making a batch of something and freezing extra. In for a penny, in for a pound. I often take out a chicken, cook it, then the freezer fills back up with the chicken broth I make with the bones ;-)

And we love making large pots of marinara sauce with delicious meatballs so that we freeze quarts of it. I also love cranberries.

Kate, I hope you can get the frozen blob figured out. Maybe you can keep the frozens in a cooler with blocks of ice. I often have to put two gallons jugs (filled) on top of my freezer to keep the lid sealed tight.

Someone up thread (can’t find the post now) suggested roasting the pork. I forgot about that. When I have a large piece of loin, I roast it with garlic slices embedded into it — like nails. Its great sliced thin for half sandwiches.

In winter is New England, its a great time to put on gloves and defrost the freezer. Just put the contents into a cooler in the cold garage.

I wonder how those Apple tracker IDs would work — helping me locate a duck or rib roast.

Ooo. Duck broth. I love that. It's my favorite couscous. Orange zest, and juice, along with duck broth. Good stuff!

Zalco, how about duck gumbo? I don’t have a recipe. It’s been ages since I made it, but there are many online. I’d choose one from Emeril or from a site with Louisiana connections.

Petal, pork ragu! https://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/pork-rib-ragu-with-polenta.html This is the recipe I use over and over. Love it.

rob333, really? did you come up with that? Or perhaps the juice from duck d’orange? And you cook couscous with it? sounds good.

We're trying to make room for the next side of beef, so we've been playing chopped challenge a lot. I just pulled a very similar piece of pork loin out of the depths of one of my freezers. I made a big pot of of pozole, which also used an aging jar of tomatillos. Sort of defeated the purpose, though....the leftovers are going into the freezer, lol.

" I don't have the problem of losing food in my freezers "

I don't either - we don't tend to use them much and in two locations, both are half full. Eating the freezer would be a good start to a diet.

I modified this recipe from Cooking Light (the crunchy shrimp recipe is also good).

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/crunchy-shrimp-with-toasted-couscous-ginger-orange-sauce

I am in a dumpling mood, so I'd combine with shrimp or water chestnut or other veg and make dumplings, potstickers, or shao mai!

More generally on the freezer issue, we have a large upright that is terribly overfilled.

My father is living with us, and he has no activity except to drive to Costco and buy hundreds of dollars of food that we don't want, that he has no plans to cook, and that we don't have room to store. For example, he might come back with 10 lb of prime rib, 10 lb of mussels, and 10 lb of strawberries and say "its for you" and then we have to have The Discussion. Which is, succinctly, that his purchases are causing us inconvenience and are a symptom of his hoarding illness and he has to stop. I've mostly gotten him to cut down on this, but a result is way too much meat in the freezer.

It's not that having some meat in the freezer is a bad thing, but we don't actually want to eat beef that often, and it seems silly to buy fresh beef at elevated retail prices, just to stick it in the freezer for a year or more. Like I keep telling my dad, its not an investment.

I just watched a video yesterday of someone making a delicious looking shepherd's pie with diced pork loin.

I've given up on my freezer. That's not to say I don't use the contents. I left a vintage 23 cubic sq ft running perfectly in the basement of our house when we'd moved. Many years earlier we'd had to remove the door to back porch, door to the basement and the freezers door (1926 home) just to get it downstairs. I bought a more efficient 18 cubic foot freezer now conveniently in my mud room and its just not quite big enough. I Costco shop, take advantage of specials, cook in bulk, always like to have frozen rice, shrimp, waffles, many other things on hand.

Any day I can open the upright door and not have a package of something land on my foot is a good day.

We like roast pork. I'll use cubed browned pork in chili and freeze portions. We also enjoy Hispanic seasoned 'pulled pork' (tacos, carnitas) that I'll often do in a dutch oven on my stove but a slow cooker works too. Although then I just about have to finish it on the stove to cook off the very last of the liquid before shredding with a couple of forks. I go heavy on the cumin, garlic, we like both those flavors.

Last year I was so frustrated with the jumbled mess of lost items in my garage’s upright freezer, I did a major revamp of my storing process in there! I totally filled it with labeled freezer baskets. What a huge difference it’s made in my life!

Oh, you ORGANIZED people! You are missing out on the fun of freezer foraging, getting frostbite while digging about, and having frozen food fall on your head from the top shelf while you are searching the lower shelves.

I admire your organizational skills, and if you want to come and straighten out my freezer, I'll welcome you with open arms!

I have 2.4 cu. ft of freezer space in my 24" counter depth refrigerator. Apartment living! I am very good at making the most of it. When I was a kid we used to have little plastic puzzles with tiles that you slid around to move other tiles into place. I feel like I'm playing with one of those. But I always manage to have ice, pierogies, butter, some kind of ice cream, a package of chicken thighs, spaghetti sauce and some kind of meat that cooks low and slow. I replace things as I use them. Tonight I'm making goat. Next time I'll use the space for either beef shank or short ribs, whichever looks best at the butcher.

Freezer defrosted, cleaned and refreezing.

The huge mass didn’t have a jar encased in ice, but rather was solid ice. Eek! The hair drier idea really helped lossen the big mass.

Later tonight I’ll reload the freezer. And, yes, I found way too many bags of cranberries; and more jars of chicken bone broth/stock than I knew I had. But, no surprises so far.