Emptying the Freezer

My golden years have brought some interesting changes in my life. Many of these changes, I’ve discovered, have occurred in my freezer.
Let me explain.
For decades, I froze selected vegetables from my garden, soup, stews, and other delights and carefully noted the contents and date on each item. This is a fairly accepted practice, and exceedingly useful.
Of late, however, I have discovered the joy and adventure in items that have been frozen at some unspecified time, and without a label. Is it soup? Salsa? Perhaps just sauce? This has led to some interesting dinner menus, let me just say. One of the most memorable was the time I made an entire pot of chili, only to discover that what had looked like tomato sauce was strawberry jam.
Then I decided to make a lasagna casserole for friends who were having a rough time. I selected a large container that I was confident contained spaghetti sauce. I allowed it to sit on the counter to thaw while I cooked noodles, browned meat, and chopped onion. Soon, I was ready to make my layers and bake the casserole.
I popped the lid off the freezer container and found it was completely thawed. It was also NOT spaghetti sauce. It was some kind of beef stew.
Hmm…that really didn’t seem like the right thing to layer the noodles and ground beef with. But, I prevailed. I found some sauce in a jar and my lucky friends received both lasagna and beef stew. Or whatever that dish was. I really wasn’t sure, though, it may have been jambalaya or some sort of soup. Hopefully, whatever it was, it was edible. If not, I’m sure I’ll hear about it. (Though perhaps not. You know how friends are…they often don’t tell you home truths like “that beef dish was horrible” or “that haircut is awful.” But that’s why they are friends!)
I also discovered enough popsicle sticks to last about fifteen years. They were out of the handy bag in which they are packaged and loose around every shelf and drawer of all three of my freezers. There seemed to be enough that I realized I must have, at some point, purchased a second bag of 40 popsicles and opened it, as well. I think in all, there were 63 popsicles. They have now all been relegated to one drawer, and if luck holds out, they will stay there until all have been consumed.
But popsicles are like Tupperware lids. They turn up in strange places, don’t they? And often without anyone really moving them.
If all that wasn’t strange enough, the behavior has escalated. I decided to clean out my little freezer and plan meals to empty it out. I found a large bag which had once been opened and now sported a clip on it, protecting the contents. I had helpfully taped the cooking instructions onto the bag. It said, “Heat in 375 degree oven for 20 minutes, turning once.” Excellent.
What I had not taped to the bag (nor could I recall) was the actual name of the product. The bag contained a number of little golden nuggets. Bigger than tater tots, but not as big as breaded cauliflower. Were they cheese bites? Sausage crumbles? Jalapeno poppers?
No idea. But we’re going to find out tomorrow night, as they are the side dish to whatever meat was in that closed Tupperware.