Chirp!:

    Monday, March 04, 2013

    So How's that Mini-Fridge Situation Treating You?

    Me?

    Oh hai, well, i'm glad you asked.

    It's .. been ... a bit annoying frankly .. but not so much for me to whine .. i've been using it as a ..
    character building excercise.

    And of course, i've offset the UGH! by shopping for a new fridge for the new house with
    all the bells and whistles, which has been fun and involved a salesman writing up a docket,
    which was later cancelled, then making my mind up FOR SURE and telling my cabinetmaker
    the dimensions .. and then buying a completely different fridge.

    In fact, a fridge I refused to even look at or entertain the notion of originally. French Door?
    What a load of saleswallop. Add some ooh-la-la, it's Frunch, darhlinks and the punters will come.

    Well, I sneered. Then later had to eat my sneer.
    Sneerlicious.


    What I wanted:

     A side-by-side with water & icemaking facilities in the door.
     My family crunches ice like frozen crack.

    When we go to the 7-11 in Summer for supersized slushies ( $3 a pop ),
    the youngest selects instead a bag of PartyIce for the same price.
    It's weird, but his stash lasts longer than ours.

    Oh, and please don''t tell me you shouldn't eat ice out of the esky.
    I'm sure it's made with carcinogens and stuff, but hell, it's hot, and I don't like arguing
    with 4yr olds in the heat.


    What I don't like:

    Freezers on the bottom. I just don't.
    I don't think they're smart with young children, and I just don't like them.

    Deep ugly baskets remind me of fishing in the deep freeze for the last Bubble-O-Bill 
    in your ill-stocked and probably ill-kept corner store.   All crusty and use-by-date of 1976.

    No.


    BUT .. what happened is this:  i'd picked my side-by-side .. the widest in the land.
    Oh I was chuffed with myself. I was simply in at the Good Guys  to battle out the price.
    I'd done my research and our budget was tight. I was going to make back the money
    I had thrown in the recycling by being a bitch in the sales arena.

    But I arrived at lunchtime, obvs.

    Other times i've had to kick away salesdudes, but today, there was just one..
    helping another couple looking for pretty much the same things as I.
    I kind of hovered and looked over their shoulders and was introduced to fridges
    i'd refused to look at.

     Then I felt a bit creepy and backed off.

    And that's how I ended up in the Frunch Door area.



    frunch


    My friend Kelly, who isn't really a friend because i'm scared of her,  teased me once
    about Les Mis  and I sniffed I wouldn't go see it with her because I felt Les Mis 
    was something to be watched on SBS, in French, with subtitles.
    Of course, she mocked me mercilessly about oh it's not in FRUNCH, and I laughed,
    and now I think of her when looking at whitegoods that are actually silver.

    Hi Kelly.

    And I kinda liked them. And the 'down below' freezers are much better now,
    with magic slidey-outtie shelving and lots of ooh-la-la.


    fridgefreezer


    And the fridge part isn't compromised in width. So all those imaginary parties
    I fantasised about catering will be just fine. Turkey platters, sushi platters,
    my famous Croquembouche....

    Yeah, kidding, I only do savoury, and I order in my sushi platters.
    I do bake a nice ham at Christmas though...


    So yeah, bought a Frunch Fridge. Made in Korea. It's quite spesh.

    My side-by-side I originally was going to purchase was Made in Australia.
    When I looked at the Frunch-Door equivalent in store,
    the handle fell off and it seemed quite .. clunky.

    I feel both bad and good for my choices, don't sue me, ok? ok?



    YES, BUT HOW IS IT GOING WITH THE BAR FRIDGE, LEANNE?


    Yeah, ok, not good, not bad, you know?

    It's been SWELTERING here in Melbs, and we're here in a top story flat with no A/C.
    We should be totes skinny just from the sauna effect. However, people still need to be fed,
    and even if you're doing a simple salad, there's still a component to be boiled/fried/cooked,
    or maybe just for a change of pace/texture .. which left me hot & sweaty & resentful.

    I googled fridgeless households which led me on a merry journey of discovery ..
    but most of the fridgeless blogs/sites I found belonged to self-sufficient/off the grid type people ..
    milking their goats and creating their own sub-floor cooling chambers etc etc ...
    The only trick I learned for apartment living was to invert my lettuces in a glass of water
    to keep fresher longer. Which is cool.. but .. not enough..

    So the tiny fridge is hard work.
    For one, it freezes nothing, which means I have to shop daily
    really, and in miniscule quantities .. which isn't great.
    Too much food and I can't store leftovers, too little and everyone is hungry.

    It's a fine line.


    carrots


    ^
    Unrefrigerated carrots develop black mold spots in only a couple of days.

    It's hard.  A's kinder has a kid that is allergic to his own shadow, which means most foods are out
    and carrot sticks are a healthy lunchbox staple I can guarantee being eaten.
    Anything that can last 1000 days in a pantry, or the apocolypse, is not to be packed.
    NOT COMPLAINING .. geeze, poor kid, poor parents .. my setback is but an annoying interlude
    in an allergy-free life.

    Not complaining.


    Over the weekend, my everlovin' husband offered to do a shop. 
    That would be lovely, I said, but remember we can't store anything fresh,
    You can really only buy food for ONE dinner! 
    Be careful on the PERISHABLES!

    Well, he found some ready-made meals, for $6 a pop discounted,
    and By God they were yummy.


    Small, but good.
    I love it when my husband shops because I do not entertain ready meals.
    I cook from scratch mostly, using fresh ingredients. A set list of things to get,
    and I do not deviate into dangerous territory ( the lolly aisle, the frozen food aisle )..
    but it is such a relief he shops guileless, wandering about.

    Thus we ate from Emily's kitchen this week. It's a Woolworths thing.   
    An abundance of packaging isnt cool .. but .. oh my .. two nights this week,
    we all ate different meals and tasted from each other's plates and not one was a dud ..
    they were small .. but .. pretty much like my own cooking .. but without the PITA!

    We tried:

    Chicken Korma with Indian Style Pilau Rice
    Angus Steak in Ale
    Chicken Tikka Masala with Rice
    Spanish Chicken & Chorizo with Rice
    Chicken Moroccan Tagine & CousCous

    and they were all YUM!

    Please keep in mind however, I cook every night, so for me, this was like going to a restaurant -
    ha ha! It also made eating in front of the tele ( Masterchef Professionals ) not such a sad experience
    ( I don't know about you, but looking at edible art on the tele while eating something less impressive
    always makes me left wanting :)

    I also enjoy eating on planes, and in hospitals.
    Yes I do.

    Again, someone else cooked for me.
    And that's like a holiday unto itself.

    Xx

    6 comments:

    Melody said...

    Oh LB - I possibly think this is my all time favourite post of yours EVA! I nodded in agreement, shook my head, nodded again & then chuckled (about the carrots) and simply agree about those meals. Lyndon recently went shopping for a weekend meal in the supermarket and came home with some delish fresh meals from Woolies and ohh they were yummy!

    LBA said...

    Were they Emily's? I could kiss her .. was so nice to have a homecooked meal without the cleanup or HEAT of the oven/stovetop !!

    Heidi said...

    I like the French door fridges, and that was what I originally wanted for my new kitchen. But we need a bigger fridge and freezer, so I'm having to do the side by side thing. Your post has made me laugh. Good luck with the daily cooking and the sauna situation. The only thing about going through the hard yards while your renovating is that you really, really appreciate all the stuff you've got once you've got it. I loath unpacking the dishwasher, but I am always reminded of the several years we didn't have one at all, and the memory of that carries me on!

    Julie-Ann said...

    Hang in there with the bar fridge. It's not long to go. And that Fancy French fridge will be worth it:)

    Pam Bradford said...

    How long to go? That fridge is sensational by the way. Want one.

    Uli said...

    What you wanted in a fridge is exactly what I want in my next fridge. So I'm guessing I should skip to exactly what you bought?

    I do not envy your bar fridge existence in this weather. I'm hardly coping as a single person with a 3/4 fridge...

    Post a Comment

    Hey, You just read me, and this is crazy,
    But here's my Blogger, Comment maybe <3