Freezer Woes

I'm sorry to those of you who have wasted precious moments checking this blog...I hope to become a better blogger and share more interesting moments with you from the Houston household. This summer has been filled with travels so far. Kayna and I (Jenn) drove 9 hours alone to Ocracoke, Isl. in June to spend the week with Chris's side of the family, then 6 days later we journeyed to Seattle with my brother. For those of you who do not know, my family has relocated to Seattle, Wa. What an amazing place! It was such a privileged to be able to travel out there for 2 weeks to see where they will be living. They have a house on Pine Lake and it feels entirely like a vacation home.
The purpose of this entry is to let you know about an unfortunate happening last week. Chris was on a business trip for several days and every moment for Kayna and myself was filled with various activities including cleaning out my parents' refrigerators and freezers, in preparation for the move. Of course, part of the payment for helping was taking anything I wanted so, I certainly relieved them of the burden by taking home approx. 40 pounds of frozen meat. As I previously mentioned, Chris was away on business and this particular night was the only night that I intentionally had nothing planned. My desire for the evening was to enjoy relaxing in the bath with my latest issue of instyle magazine followed by a home-pedicure.
When I arrived home this particular evening I let Kayna out of the car and proceeded to unload the car of our days' junk. From inside the house I began to hear little feet splashing in puddles. We had not received rain in quite some time so my mind began racing to figure out what Kayna was splashing in...inside the garage. Of course, my first thoughts were the worst: antifreeze that leaked from the car, the recycling bin leaking some unthinkable goo, or gas from the lawn mower's gas can...?
As I quickly assessed the situation I realized that my daughter was splashing in the drainage from the defrosted deep-freezer that had inadvertently been left ajar for 24+ hours!! All that meat!!! 40 pounds!!! Defrosted!!! I had two options. 1-throw it all away and never tell anyone (besides, Chris never even knew I brought it all home and mom and dad didn't need to know what happened to it after it left their house). Or 2-cook it all immediately and freeze the cooked meat. Since I lean towards the mentality of 'waste not want not' I decided to sacrifice the 1 relaxing evening I had all to myself and bite the bullet and cook the 40 pounds of meat. After 5+ hours of crock-potting, roasting, par-boiling, grilling and cooling I had successfully cooked the following: 2 whole chickens, 3 venison roasts, 2 venison loins, 10 venison fillets, 6 venison fillet chops, 2 pork tenderloins and 2 pounds of ground venison. Regretfully, the salmon fillets, a small portion of ground lamb and an entire chicken didn't make the cut and they were thrown away. But, overall, I'd say the night/wee hours of the morning was a success and all the cooked items (including the resulting 12 cups of chicken stock) were sealed, stored, and silently awaiting their rightful time of culinary enjoyment.
SO, if you ever need a last-minute meal, don't hesitate to call, as our freezer is now securely closed with 30ish pounds of meat inside, fully cooked and ready to eat. Although, I may be slow to answer the phone due to my much deserved bath and indulgent read of instyle magazine.