In all my 20 plus years of experience, I've NEVER had this happen before...
Went to get some pizza sauce from the pantry only to discover some of the jars had unsealed. So, out they went since I had no idea how long they were that way.
Went down a little later that day and what'd ya know... more unsealed jars. WHAT?!
By the next morning, I had thrown out 15 jars *ouch*!
There was no more deciding what to do with the ripe tomatoes sitting on my counter.
Fast forward a few days - Les and I were out late last Saturday afternoon trying to finish up some errands when my phone rang...
"Hey Mom, I don't want to alarm you but..."
Now, what thoughts go through your head when you hear that? I'll tell you, I had several racing simultaneously.
I took a deep breath and calmly asked, "What's wrong?"
"I think our freezer just died, everything inside is melted....kaput!"
Needless to say we raced back home, errands un-accomplished, and began the laborious task of cleaning out all the dripping, messy things that come out of freezers that are left open!
Apparently, while attempting to fetch a frozen treat, an entire pail of mushy, watery ice cream came jumping out and of course burst open as it hit the floor. It took our "ice-cream lovin'" son a while to scoop it all up off the rug!
Though it wasn't exactly what I had planned for that day...I have to say several good things came out of that messy inconvenience..
~ meat was already partially thawed for the next few meals
~ I started a LARGE stock pot of sommer borscht since there was meat, sorrel and onion greens "ready and waiting"
~ we had a variety of yummy things we cooked up for supper (california chicken and rhubarb pie for starters) Oh yum.
~ cooked up some raspberry sauce so that's ready for the next time someone needs a treat
~ I didn't have any worries about what I'd serve for Sunday lunch
~ my freezer got defrosted and organized (a job I had been putting off), and of course, it's emptier.
And.. a little more perspective..
~ I STILL have food!
~ I STILL HAVE my home and I'm not worried when the next typhoon or tsunami will hit!
~ I'm NOT the mom who didn't get a chance to say goodbye to her teenage son before he was tragically gone!
~ I'm NOT the dad who has to tell his kids mommy's not coming home!
~ I DIDN'T have to hear the tragic news from my doc today (working in a clinic setting you become painfully aware of those who do)
PRAY for those to whom this is a reality...pray tho you know no names or faces...
Don't sweat the small stuff but rather GIVE THANKS to the Lord, for He is good!
I'm off to work today.
6 comments:
A little perspective is so healthy now and then. I do feel bad for your canning lost and the freezer mess. . oh dear. . evenutally we all get the dissapointing freezer news. The good news is you've probably had your once in a lifetime freezer event.
Wow, Sara, what a day!!! Yes I suppose when you put things into perspective there's much worse things that could go wrong ... however, oooh what a pain! I probably would have really freaked out at least as an initial response. I guess that's one way of cleaning out your freezer...oh dear. As far as the canning & jars that didn't seal, that really sucks. Once I had a jar of pizza sauce that didn't seal and when I discovered it it was swarming with maggots. I am so impressed with all the canning you do... I just can't bring myself to get into it again. Our garden isn't that big anyway so although we usually have more tomatoes than we can eat, it's not enough for canning so we would always buy more tomatoes from a local farmer. Their tomatoes were also a lot nicer than ours. We aren't fussy about the scars and green spots, etc...we still use them and eat them. Anyway I don't know if I'll ever do canning again - we still have lots of jars. I just never really enjoyed all that work -- it took so much out of me and I just didn't have the physical energy to keep it up... but I know we enjoyed the canning when we did it. By the way did you find a recipe for canning tomato sauce?
Brenda
Sorry about your canning and freezer..but there is a silver lining and so much to be thankful for....as you pointed out so well!
As far as canning goes, I have finally finished the tomatoes and only have the apples left to go...phew!
Lovely blog you have :-)
blessings,
Niki
Thank you for a funny and enlightening post. We should never sweat the small stuff - no matter how messy!
Susan
Over at "RaisinToast"
Now you've got me on the edge of my seat: what on earth happened to unseal your jars????
I'm always wary of canning tomatoes as in Home Ec. school it seemed like canned tomatoes were particulary vulnerable to hideous canning errors that could cause death. I defaulted to just freezing the excess and toss them into big ziplock bags to use later in stews and such!
What a perspective! I would have complained all over the place had that happened to me... but you found so much good in it and yes... a reminder of some of the hard realities that people face in life is good for us.
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