Freezer and Kitchen Sink (Soup)

We finally broke down and bought a chest freezer.  With the meat share coming every month and Catherine in DC, some of the quantities have been overwhelming and the small freezer on top of the refrigerators has not been sufficient.  My family has a long tradition of large chest freezers full to the brim (see Mother and Grandmother), so I was initially reluctant to follow suit.  However, Catherine convinced me that we could just get a small one that would fit in our kitchen and that it would alleviate the avalanches cascading from our other freezer due to the delicate balancing act of over-packing.

We bought the freezer at Sears (with the help of Tim Jones), which was super easy (and on sale) and just rolled in next to the refrigerator (yes, it has wheels) and plugged it in!  It's about 5 cu. feet, which seems like plenty of space for now (however, I am worried that my genes are programmed for bigger and better models). I immediately transferred MANY things from our other freezer including the muffins of pesto (pesto frozen in muffin tins) that we recently made from the last basil of the year from our farm.

New freezer all set up (basket and all)!

With Catherine in DC and our visits being less frequent over the last month, I have been having trouble getting through all of the veggies from Waltham Fields.  Some keep for a long time, but others need to be eaten immediately.  Last weekend after Susan, Tim and I went to the farm, I decided it was time to use some veggies.  I saved the squash for Catherine (not my favorite) and decided to make a soup I called Kitchen Sink Soup.  Basically, my plan was to use everything that needed to be used up (sans the cabbage, which I made a delicious coleslaw using mustard - yum-MEE).

Some of the veggies to be used for Kitchen Sink Soup

So I started with some leeks, and onions, got them nice and cooked and then added our home made chicken stock and a little water.  I then added a bunch of potatoes, an onion, a ton of carrots, a couple heads of cauliflower, some kale, some diced hot peppers, black and white pepper and salt.  I let it simmer for several hours and voila!  Only thing left to do was use the hand blender to get it all silky smooth.  It's thick, a little spicy, and delicious (think potato-leek soup taken up a notch) - and made with everything but the kitchen sink!

Kitchen Sink Soup all ready to go into the new freezer - after I had a bowl of course.