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.






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.





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.





^
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