Baby, it's cold outside...

I know. I'm a slacker blogger for not writing for a full week. What can I say, work beckons and it's been a race against the clock to repaint my apartment before new furniture arrives tomorrow (thank goodness). I'm tired, I have a new-found hatred for those TLC/HGTV/DIY network shows where they revamp an entire house in 2 days (Crappy workmanship, I don't care how cute the carpenter is) and

Anyway. Enough complaining and onto the food!

I'm going to admit it here, for everyone in the online universe to see: I have undying love for my freezer. My roommate during senior year of college throught my love bordered on obsession. She'd stare in awe as I would individually package chicken breasts in ziplock bags (why does a single girl need 3 chicken breasts at once), freeze half a muffin (what, it was a big muffin, ok?), spoon pasta sauce into one-seving tupperware containers....the list goes on.

Look in my freezer at any given time and there's a variety of frozen meats (currently pork, chicken, beef and lamb) in a wealth of cuts (tenderloins, tenders, breasts, tips, chops, sausage, bacon strips and ground). Add in the frozen bagged veggies (a critical ingredient for working-girl dinners), all the herbs from the garden that I freeze at the end of the season and your run of the mill pastry doughs and there's very little room in there. But I don't stop there. In go the loaves of bread for sandwiches, as do the 3 dozen bagels from Jersey (sliced, individually wrapped in saran wrap and then ziplocked), the chunk of ginger that I'll maybe use twice a year (hey, Rachael Ray says its okay to freeze it....even though she's evil), candy bars, desserts, frozen pizzas, lean cuisines (a throwback to my single days), girl scout cookies, home made stews, sauces, a bottle of homemade limoncello for when Mr. D comes to town, and cookie dough.

Yes cookie dough. The Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is fantastically freezable, in case you were wondering. Use half butter, half shortening in the recipe and spoon those babies out onto a cookie sheet. Pop them into the freezer until set (30 minutes or so) and then toss them in a freezer bag until you want them (i.e., every night of the week). When you're having a cookie craving (i.e., every night of the week), preheat your oven and put a few in. They melt down just perfectly and nobody will ever know.............

Maybe it's the little old Italian lady in me, who knows. Some people hoard chachkies, I hoard foodstuffs. All I know is that if there's EVER a major disaster, you'll be wishing you were stuck at my house.

What about you out there? Any crazy kitchen obsessions? Do you like gadgets (ha, just wait until I post on THOSE fun little thingamabobbers), expensive pans? Drinking milk or OJ out of the carton? I wanna hear about it!

Fabulous Feasting,
The Diva.