Guided Tour: My Cold Stuff

I always enjoy seeing the fridge or pantry tour posts on blogs like Umamimart and food websites. My sister guided us through her pantry a while back in a highly informative post, and I'd always intended to reveal my own. Today I thought I would follow through and show you some photos of the chaos that is my refrigerator.

I promise you this (not that you won't believe me) -- I did not clean. I did not rearrange. I hid nothing but a stray leaf in the vegetable bin (and this only by shoving the drawer closed a bit more). The only other items not pictured are two pints of ice cream that (prior to taking these pictures) had already been removed from the freezer to thaw so that I could nourish myself on a bowl of chocolate and strawberry scoops while typing this post.

And now, I admit it all.




Freezer: Ice cubes, homemade chicken stock, cooked cranberries, tomato relish, Vietnamese coffee, pastry cloth in a plastic bag, 1 chicken, 2lbs of chicken parts, hot buttered rum mix, celery stalks, peas, corn, a small amount of pastry dough, a partial box of vegetarian spring rolls, and a "cold pack" for my Pyrex casserole dish,





Freezer Door: Can of grease, a single chicken burger, more peas, farm-bought butter, a popsicle experiment, frosty mugs (for root beer, etc.), spinach, diced CSA celery in a baggie, 2 bananas, french fries, jalapenos, and edamame pods.





Refrigerator:
Top Shelf: Beets, cilantro, mint, partial lemons and limes, leftover beans and greens stuffing from stuffed acorn squash, kale, green peppers, celeriac, celery, buttermilk powder.

Middle Shelf: Fried green tomatoes, 1/2 habanero, "lemonaise," kelp pickles, rose soda, butter, overflow A-P flour, kohlrabi, leftover Indian cabbage dish, chicken sausages, cooked beets, hummus pignoli, fish flakes (cat treats), hot Italian salami, chorizo, parmesan, gouda, muenster, "lucky" slice of American cheese (very old; not to be eaten).

Bottom Shelf: Red currant jelly, cranberry nectar, heavy cream, chocolate Reddi Wip, sweetened condensed milk, 2% milk, mayonnaise, sour pickles, kalamata olives, water, buttermilk, orange juice, yellow mustard, overflow mustard, wet cat food (partial can), caramel sundae syrup, homemade blueberry jam from Dan's sister, walnut oil, chipotle chiles, tomato relish.

The vegetable bin contains refilled water bottles.





Refrigerator Door: Eggs, butter, maple syrup, capers, sofrito, nutritional yeast, anchovies, horseradish, fish sauce, green curry paste, very old salad dressing (which I promptly threw away), slightly less old salad dressing, chocolate syrup, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, chimi churri sauce, sriracha, ketchup, tomato paste, Kewpie mayo, barbecue sauce, cranberry horseradish sauce, 5 more kinds of mustard, 12 bottles of 11 kinds of hot sauce

Fridge Exterior:
Front: Postcards (one of Boutros Boutros-Ghali and one shot of a woman reading in Paris), photo strip from our trip to Portland, PowerPuff Girls magnets, finger puppets (Virginia Woolf and Gustav Klimt), last year's Cookie Party menu, polaroid of Dan with his hand covered in silver paint, my "work" pepper grinder that accidentally came home, a "What to Eat" notepad for menu planning (which I do sporadically), a Gashlycrumb Tinies magnet, a clipping of a photo of Obama, and an Immaculate Daggers of the Divine Light (our kickball team) logo.

Also,on the sides, a New Yorker cover, an Espo sticker, instructions for cooking the meatballs and cookies baked "live" at last year's Cookie Party, 8 other assorted photos, 5 more magnets, a small disco ball, a shopping list notepad, and a piece of "The Gates."

On top of the fridge:
Plastic wrap, baggies, aluminum foil, parchment paper, oven mitts, digital scale, drawing of a hot dog, menus in a pile, digital and analog thermometers, Cookie Party labels, pens, matches, kitchen timer, Restaurant Guide blank book, and 3 plants.


------


So, there you have me. That's me at this moment, anyway. I am aware of several items that need to be thrown away, or of which I have excess, but I'd be more interested in hearing what you can't believe I'm living without. I'm always looking to add to my supplies. I mean, I want to be prepared, after all. The more I have on hand, the less grocery shopping I have to do. And the less grocery shopping I have to do, considering how tiny, understocked, overpriced, and/or crowded stores in NYC tend to be, the happier I am.