Oh, carp! I am sorry for your loss!
I did that once. We didn’t lose anything (it wasn’t open much but for a good-enough while). I was very worried, however, that I might have burnt out the motor on the freezer. I hope yours is recovering!
ETA: Ever since, I double check the freezer door every time I go into it. 
Ugh, so sorry to read this!
Ugh, sorry about the food loss. That sucketh.
My MIL was telling me that her deep freeze – FULL of garden veg they processed and put up AND a cow they purchased – twice defrosted and had to be emptied. I nearly cried! Horrible. They switched to a chest style.
Sorry for your loss 
Thank you!
Thank you so much.
How awful!
Our previous chest freezer died while we were in Austria and we came home to a defrosted mess. That was when we bought this upright. It is hard to loose that much food
I usually keep my reserve 6 pack of Costco chicken stock as a blocker in front of the freezer door. Think I grabbed some fruit and thought I was going to put some back and didn’t kick my box back.
It needed a defrost anyway
Hello friends we are now in the final stretch of Ottawa’s three weekend long winter festival Winterlude. The only two activities I take in are an ice sculpture display and a day of activities at one of our art galleries ending the day with afternoon tea and a lecture. The art gallery event was last Sunday but as misfortune would have it I woke up to a nasty cold and upset stomach last Friday so I spent the weekend at home resting. I more or less feel better, I just have this lingering cough that won’t go away 
I am hoping to see the ice sculptures at some point this weekend. The weather usually warms up at this time of year so I better run out and see them before they melt. I am also planning on seeing a matinée movie tomorrow afternoon so other than that I plan on staying low key until this annoying cough stops. My actuals from last Friday to plans through to next Thursday look like this:
Last Friday: The last of the cabbage potato soup in the fridge.
Saturday: Scrambled eggs.
Sunday: My stomach was settled so maybe I can eat dinner! I had a salmon fillet and a kale salad.
Monday: Another kale salad.
Tuesday: Vietnamese caramelized pork bowl.
Wednesday: Peanut butter noodles with cucumber. (The recipe is from Bon Apetit which is now behind a paywall.)
Thursday; Ratatouille served over spaghetti.
Today: I had a take-out lunch from the grocery store consisting of mac 'n cheese and fried chicken. I will have a tossed salad with some radish microgreens I have in the fridge along with the last bit of yellow pepper and cherry tomatoes and some avocado.
Tomorrow: I will be going to an afternoon screening of the movie Hamnet. One movie reviewer suggested bringing Kleenex to the movie even if you don’t cry during movies so it’s duly noted. I will be going with someone from my book club that I haven’t actually met yet. There is a group from our club that are going to see the matinée this afternoon because they are retired. But there are two of us who want to go who are still working so we will go together tomorrow then out for dinner after. We will decide on dinner after the movie and there are tons of restaurants near the area so where we end up is a surprise.
Sunday: Another book club meetup! I will be meeting up with a silent book club so we will be sitting in a pub reading quietly together. I will have a spring roll bowl for dinner.
Monday: Peanut butter noodles with cucumber again to finish up the last cuke in the fridge.
Tuesday: Pancakes because it is shrove Tuesday. Or, in my house, that will be a bowl of maple syrup with a pancake floating in it 
(I love maple syrup!)
Wednesday: Maybe ratatouille, maybe dinner out. The film club I am in is going to see Hamnet tonight. I will have already seen it but our meetup organizer suggested I join the group for the post film discussion. I really should stay at home and get some rest but you know what they say about well laid plans…
Thursday: Off to a movie with the Ottawa Film Society so I will have dinner after the show.
I hope everyone has a nice week and I hope it’s warming up where you are.
Your book club sounds absolutely perfect!
It is! Although I think we raise a few eyebrows from customers that come into the bar and see a bunch of people sitting around reading in silence 
I hope that dang cough disappears ASAP! Hamnet is sortakinda on our list of things to watch, but neither of us have been in the mood for sad/depressing films.
I love the ice sculpture event & hope you make it out before they melt. We (like so many others this year) had an exceptionally arctic winter this year, and our little town also displays ice sculptures on New Year’s Eve and the following days until they are gone.
I took a picture of the one in front of our favorite watering hole 
I love that ice sculpture! It’s been freezing cold here too and I’m lucky our ice sculptures are still frozen.
That’s a bar I’d go back to.
I miss paçki so much! They were widely available when we lived in St. Louis but don’t seem to be a thing in the South, because of King cake, I guess
Thank you for this clever idea!
My fridge has an alarm for both the fridge and freezer when the door stays open too long, but if you’re out of hearing distance, it doesn’t help.
My mom’s fridge has an alarm for the fridge but not the freezer, and when someone slams the fridge door, the freezer door jerks slightly ajar without anyone noticing. So when we have a full house, I am constantly doing a freezer check when a door-slammer comes out of the kitchen 
!
That’s a genius application of those child locks!
Hi everyone
The weather in nyc is up and down, but mostly very cold. I slipped on a massive stretch of thin sidewalk ice that looked like water, but thank god for a shred of balance to recover upright rather than splatting out.
Jet lag has had me starving: seems like all I’ve been doing is cooking and eating! Still catching up with friends, but given the weather, we are meeting more at home, which gives us more time together and saves at least one of us from braving the weather!
Recent actuals:
— Indian home food: Chicken in one of my family preps, Bihari-style gobi aloo (cauliflower & potato), Bihari Dal Pitha (rice dumplings stuffed with spiced lentils), yellow moong dal, parathas, and rice — I took dinner over for my friend who lost her mom while I was away. Also baked a simple cake because her dad has a major sweet tooth. It was nice to see her dad eat well, because she had shared that he has been really down and refusing to eat much. But homey food has a way of helping that, and he even had a second paratha. And he had requested the dumplings (which I learned to make last year specifically for him).
— A Chinese feast from a Flushing Chinatown visit, taken over to friends’: braised duck, char siu pork, poached chicken in Sichuan chilli oil, shredded potato salad, beef chow fun, noodles in spicy peanut sauce, pork belly braised with taro, pancake stuffed with mixed greens, pancake stuffed with pork & cabbage, and pork and chive dumplings. We ate too fast because I got delayed by snow removal efforts on the avenue and we were all starving when I got there… and then collapsed onto the sofas 
. Luckily we recovered over a few hours of chatting to catch up, and (they) were even able to have some cake for dessert .
.
Ideas for the coming week:
— Taking dinner over to spend time with another friend tomorrow: either another family chicken recipe (plus veg & sides) if she wants Indian food, otherwise Thai red curry with salmon and vegetables.
— One more dinner to friends the next day — same question will determine menu. One of them is gluten free, so I’m mulling over dessert — maybe flan, or one of the flourless chocolate cakes on the baking thread.
— Maman’s Cheese (Spinach) Soufflé (inspiration courtesy @MunchkinRedux).
— Dal cooked with vegetable stubs + cabbage thoran + rice + papad.
— Duck rendang + coconut rice + vegetables.
— Pongal (South Indian lentils & rice) + yogurt + papad + winter pickle kindly made for me by a family friend.
— Use up (Cantonese) poached chicken breasts that I have been unusually slow to consume — Quesadillas, Chicken pot pie, Chicken salad.
.
I’ve also been thinking about baking a small focaccia to make a mortadella sandwich I enjoyed on a trip, and have the one in the new COTM Samin Nosrat / Good Things bookmarked to try. Also want to pick a few other things from COTM to jump in.
Wish you all a happy weekend, and a peaceful and delicious week ahead.
