You Know It's Time To Clean Out Your Freezer When....

Picture it: my kitchen, two hours ago or so.

Its that time in our house, when I really should go food shopping but I haven't had time (or inclination if we're being honest). And I knew I had a few meals frozen in the freezer (when I make a large amount of soup/stew/casserole I automatically freeze half of it to have later). So I figured I would just heat something up. Maybe some black bean soup?

Yes. Black Bean Soup. That sounds delightful. Maybe I would put a little dollop of fat free sour cream on top! How perfectly lovely.

So I looked in the freezer and found the frozen bag of black bean soup. I peeled the bag off of the frozen mass of soup, put it in a dutch oven and put the dutch oven in the actual oven. I set the timer for 1/2 an hour so I could stir it and make sure it was defrosting/reheating properly.

I then patted myself on the back for thinking ahead and freezing meals for nights like tonight. I go, girl!

After a bit I went downstairs to do some laundry. When I came back up the stairs I was like "What is that goddawful smell? It must be that neighbor and her GD cat!!". Then I noticed it got stronger as I walked towards my apartment. Then I noticed It was coming from my apartment.

And it was a bad smell. Like death and destruction. And meat.

I opened the oven door, breathing through my mouth and not my nose, and uncovered the pot. In it, a pile of half cooked meat festered like a sore. What the H IS THAT STUFF!? It smelled like rancid meat and looked like a carcass. With great haste I dumped it into the trash and furiously rinsed and washed the pot, then took out the trash. After opening a window, lighting a candle, and calming down a bit I went back into the freezer and found the actual black bean soup, in another container but at that point I really couldn't look at or be near anything that resembled the abomination I just threw out.

I still am not sure what it was. Definitely some kind of meat. Maybe leftover ground venison from my boss last Christmas? But I didn't think he gave me any ground meat, just steaks. I'm scared.

In any case, gross. Just gross.

But let's make this a teachable moment. If you are anything like me, in the future be sure and LABEL THINGS YOU PUT IN THE FREEZER. Lest you nauseate yourself for an entire evening when all you really wanted was some soup.

And later, when I passed the stinky cat-neighbor in the hall, I felt like she gave me a look. Like "now who is stinking up the joint". That kind of look.

Touche, cat lady. Touche.