Fess up now - How many of you are keeping a fruitcake cold?

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neptunebob

neptunebob

Well-known member
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Joined
Oct 30, 2005
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Location
Pittsburgh, PA
As you all know, lately there have been a lot of issues with energy. With all the events in Japan with the nuclear power station (that they still cannot cool down after all this time) Japan and the rest of the world is looking at their power generation plans. As you all know, conservation has been promoted as a way to get the energy for the things we really need to do. Because of power cuts, in Japan, there are not as many neon signs, shorter store hours.

We can cut in America too. One thing I see in every neighborhood is several homeowners have extra refrigerators in the basement or garage that are mostly empty, maybe keeping a can of beer and a fruitcake cold. The beer can fit in the upstairs refrigerator and the fruitcake will never go bad, yet so many people will not give up an extra refrigerator.

Our refrigerator uses 4.7 amps but it is older so lets say a refrigerator uses an even 4 amps or 468 watts of electricity. The new Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plant can produce 1100 megawatts. If you divide 1,100,000,000 by 468 you get 2,350,427,35 extra refrigerators (there is probably one of those dorm cube refrigerators in there for the .35). I would not be surprised if there were that many in the US and all America has to do to cancel a nuclear power plant is to not have all those extra refrigerators keeping a nut roll cold!

I don't have an extra refrigerator. So everyone, what is keeping you from unpluggin the extra fridge? The fruitcake will survive, trust me!
 
Hello, Kelly's Fruitcake which nut do you want?

I love fruit cake as long as candied citron has no part in its make up.  Of course mixing is the best part.

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Cold as Ice

This is a recipe that uses crushed ginger snaps and Eagle Brand milk as the binder.  The cakes are weighted and then chilled over night

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Oh, come on Kelly, I'm asking you to fess up! Are you using an extra refrigerator to keep a nut roll cold!?

I remember Mrs. G in our neighborhood had 2 old refrigerators in her garage, a WH and a GE and one had a fruitcake and the other a nut roll and nothing else. Mr. G. was an engineer for Westinghouse, so maybe they were trying to create job security for him?
 
Pointed Reply

The key in weight control is to cut all desserts in wedges and eat them pointed end first so they don't catch in your gut and back up.

mixfinder++4-16-2011-13-00-19.jpg
 
Chill My Nuts

Sadly Bob, I can polish off a whole cake, pie, batch of cookies or half gallon of ice cream in one setting and ask for more so refrigerated storage isn't a pressing concern.  Today as I speak to you from the control tower of fruitcake central as we know it, I am operating out of one 22 cubic foot GE, but tomorrow I am bringing home an Amana upright freezer from my parents.  I am the prowl for a Frigidaire fridge to grace the kitchen.  I sent 11 emails to the craigslist ad for the $45.00 Frigidaire with wood grain doors, posted an ad on craigs asking the seller to check his junk email yet the Fridge dropped of craigs after being up for 3 weeks.  The GE will be a garage back up and use the ice maker to provice for all social functions and catching mice who crawl in the evaoprator tray for a toasty night's sleep.  I am thinking I'll find a way to line the pull out freezer drawer and have a 100 pounds of ice  on hand just like the jiffy mart.
 
It does seem sensible that the garage refrigerator with nothing more than beer could be unplugged. Not only is the second refrigerator probably unnecessary, but the location in the garage could also probably mean higher power usage in summer, assuming the garage is uninsulated.

Past this, there are people who stockpile way too much in refrigerators and freezers. More than will ever be used, regardless of natural disaster. More than will be used during a "dry" spell between really good sales. I've heard stories about the old woman who has two deep freezers and two refrigerators with stuff that's ten years old and counting.

Of course, I'm sort of guilty of this myself. I'm only using a refrigerator right now--standard freezer on top model. But, being single and living alone, I probably don't need all that space. I could probably get by with a counter top dorm room/office style refrigerator most of the time. Indeed, I've considered this sort of option from time to time. I think if I were to buy a refrigerator, I'd consider buying a smaller model--if, that is, I could find that was not made in China!
 
Shelter Against the Cold

As anti pollution legislations and stronger emission controls are put in place we'll lose coal fired electricity. I fear my hydropowered home will go dark when my electrcity is sold off to the earth muffins who railed against solar panels, wind turbines or nuclear power in their  back yard and we'll all be screwed.  I am sure that you could build a yurt out of fruit cakes and be warm and rum soaked in the darkness.
 
I live alone but have two full-size refrigerators. I do a lot of cooking, and the fridge at the bottom of my kitchen stairs is the "mini grocery store refrigerator."  It always has six or seven cartons of sour cream, four or five dozen eggs, many bags of shredded cheese, sodas, etc.  I also use it to store prepped food when I cook ahead for dinners with company.  Both my refrigerators are relatively new and quite energy-efficient. The kitchen refrigerator is eight years old, and the downstairs fridge, three.  

 

At any rate, both get good use---no lonely beer cans here, LOL.

 

Kelly, that fruit cake looks so dense and moist.  I am also not a fan of candied citron. Yours looks like a fruit cake I'd enjoy tucking into.  I see you have a classic "baker's refrigerator," as well---extra sour cream, butter, eggs, and cream at-the-ready!
 
A couple of thoughts for having a second refrigerator and saving energy:

In some cases, adjusting the thermostat will obviously help save at least a little power. I don't know what temperatures are needed for food safety, but it seems to me that a refrigerator holding nothing but beer could get by with a higher temperature than one holding nothing but stockpiled dairy products.

Thought #2, also obvious: one could have a second refrigerator that gets used only as necessary. Say, just before a big dinner party. When not in use, it gets unplugged.

While obvious, many people (particularly "normal" non-appliance minded people) would never think of either idea.

Another thing that makes me cringe a little bit are those refrigerators that are made to hold nothing but wine. Yes, I guess it's a way of having a wine cellar in your 20th floor apartment. But I couldn't see myself doing that--the wasted energy would disturb me too much.
 
Big Chill

He came from work one day to see his wife sitting in the fridge and asked her what she was doing.  Just fixing a little something cool for you to slip into.

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Back to Fruit Cake

My overly religious mother refuses to eat fruitcake for fear it may have liquor in it.  A friend makes a great fruitcake that has Brazil nuts and marascino cherries.  The "batter" has dark Karo, butter, fruit juice and a bit of hooch.  It's boiled to hard ball and then tossed with the waiting nuts and cherries (I think that's a line from a smutty story) and then pressed into a loaf pan.  I use an old family recipe for Applesauce Cake stirring the sugar, butter and dried fruits into the hot applesauce adding as much candied fruit, dried fruit and nuts as I can afford.  I've never cheecloth or rum soak fruitcake.  The Dutch are reknown for delicious Steamed Puddings and the same batter can be used substituting suet for butter with dried plums, currants and  raisins and then steamed.  As a kid Thanksgiving was at 1:00 pm, non stop pies and whipped cream until 7:00 when the turkey, dressing, potatoes and gravy are heated up and the Suet Pudding that has been steaming since 4:00 is revealed to be served with your choice of Lemon Curd or Creme Anglaise.  It was referred to as lemon pudding and white sauce in those days.  Then I went to culinary school and learned lots of new names to call the old food.  The more syllables in an entree title the more you can charge.
 
The more syllables in an entree title the more you can charg

Fancy names in French also help when cranking up the price. French is also good for disguising ingredients that no one would want to ever eat.
 
I HAVE A CONFESSION!

I have BOTH a garage fridge/freezer AND a freezer. Both freezers are full and the refer hold extra soy milk for Lynn (my partner), some beer, and the crispers are full of bags of cheese. Yeah! The old bag!! I buy parmesan in 5# bags at the cash & carry, Kraft cheeses when they're 2 bucks each-there's about 20. Blocks of Tillamook cheddars, Guryere and wonderful east coast crab meat--canned- when I'm at Costco. Don't get me started on butter! I admit, I'm a bit of a food hoarder. I spend more at the grocery store than anywhere esle...does Ebay count?
Last weekend, whole chickens were 69 cents/#. I bought 6 and make 13 quarts of stock and froze it into 26 2 cups containers. It takes up most of the feezer in the Kitchenaid. The stand alone freezer is full of meat. LOTS OF MEAT! I'm a sucker for a sale and I over-do-it! If all the members of AW came of dinner at the same time, well I have enough to feed you all! Please don't think that's an open invitation!!! LOL!
Mixfinder is the baking genius...I love meat and potatoes and italian. But we both enjoy on thing---THE MORE THE MERRIER!!! Ya'll come soon y'a hear! And NO! I don't need an intervention! LOL!
 
Greg---I didn't realize we were doing full disclosure, LOL;  there is also a large chest freezer in the garage.  I watch local grocery specials and buy in bulk when items are on super-sales.  The freezer is always full.  

 

I joke with my friends that if Western civilization collapses, we'll all eat well for several months at my house.

 

 
 
I'm not a Mormon but I seem to share those tendencies. It all goes back to my youth. My very scatter brained Mother would suddenly leave and race to the store about 5:30 most evenings and come back with yes, you guessed it... a pound of ground beef. I have trouble eating ground beef to this day. Dry, unappealing, well , you get it. I too love the "bargain." I live on Tuesday for the mail as that's when we get the grocery ads. I almost haunt the close out meat bin at my favorite store and yes, it's gotten me in too much trouble. I also want to be able to entertain at the spur of the moment. The freezers ready and I've real talent in microwave defrosting!
 
Fuzzy math

A modern energy star fridge may well use 468 watts, or, as you put it, 4 amps.

But you are forgetting that a fridge isn't running all the time. It only runs as needed to keep the contents at the set temp.

So a 500 watt energy star fridge that is rated at 500 KWh/year is spreading those kilowatt hours over 365 days, or 8760 hours. That in turn means that it is averaging about 57 watts continuous over the course of the year, not 500 watts, as you imply.

Older fridges are the real culprit: a non-energy star fridge from the mid-80's easily uses three times the energy of a modern energy star fridge.

As far as wasteful use of freezers... get a chest freezer, the most energy efficient. I use mine to store real deals on food (like the $5 frozen turkeys one can get only once a year), bulk quantities, and produce from the garden. I figure freezing is more energy efficient and gives better results than other forms of preserving produce, like canning or drying. Yes, it could all go soft and putrid after an extended power outage but in the 14 years I've lived here the outages have been infrequent and at most four hours or so.

Regarding how many fridges/freezers I keep running... that's my problem, not yours!
 
Point in hand:

The price of a loaf of bread has easily doubled in the past year.

But I can get two loaves of my favorite bread (whole wheat light textured) at Costco for the price of one from Safeway. Problem is, I can't use two big loaves before the bread gets moldy and/or stale.

Solution: I open one loaf, freeze the other. Once the other one is frozen, it goes into a long food saver bag and is almost completely vacuum packed and sealed, and then back into the freezer. When I've finished the first loaf, the second one come out of the freezer... I cut the bag to release the vacuum before thawing (otherwise the bread will crush into a giant dumpling)... and it tastes every bit as good as the first loaf. The food saver bag was cut a bit long and is basically clean so I can save it for the next bread purchase, and when it's too short for that it can be used for other smaller foods.

Without a chest freezer I probably wouldn't attempt it.

Another case: Pork butt (shoulder) boneless. $1.89/lb. Works great in the slow cooker. But the amount for sale is about 12 lbs, far too much to fit into the cooker, let alone for one person to finish off in an appropriate amount of time. Solution: 1/2 the pork butt purchase (it comes conveniently in two halves) goes into a food saver bag and gets frozen. The other gets marinated overnight and slow cooked the next day. In a few months when I'm ready for more pork, just thaw out the frozen half and repeat. PS-It's delicious, esp. with a Cuban style marinade...
 
My favorite fruitcake is the light yellow kind that Harry and David include with their fresh fruit gift packages. Really delightful, not dark bitter and heavy like some traditional fruitcakes. Haven't had any for years, though. And it wouldn't be necessary to freeze it, because it doesn't last too long, gets eaten up rather quickly.
 
Well, I must admit it I have 3 refrigerators and a deep freezer in constant use here.

In the kitchen I have a 1993 Kenmore 18 fridge/freezer that is full of the daily use items.

In the basement summer kitchen I have a 2004 Kenmore 22 cu ft. bottom freezer, the freezer is packed full of pizza shells, and the fridge has surplus produce I buy on sale, any food I've prepared that wont fit upstairs, partly used gallon jugs of pickles and sauerkraut, and usually 20 pounds of Imperial margarine. Also downstairs I have a 1979 Sears Coldspot 23 cu ft. chest freezer packed to the brim with meats from the slaughter house, french fries, the few convenience items I buy, home made pies, and, spaghetti sauce and other items I prepare and freeze.

Also out in the garage I have a late 80's 22 cu ft Amana botom freezer fridge, thefreezeis full of those reusable ice pack, and the fride i uually tleast 3/4 ull of bernd pop
 
We're a single refrigerator family here...though there have been times when I wished we had another small freezer or chest freezer as the Westinghouse, whilst not exactly tiny, is nearly half filled with pickles.....

 

Still, we're doing our bit. The photo below was taken a couple of weeks ago as the solar panels were being fitted to our roof. We've had 2.5kw of panels fitted and there is capacity in the inverter for another 4 panels, taking it to 3.5kw in total. ACTEWAGL (Australian Capital Territory Electricity Water/Australian Gas Light) pay us 45.7c perKW generated....and we pay 14.5c perKW to buy it back.....

 

.....the sell rate is guaranteed for 20yrs

 

Interestingly, since we've had it fitted, we've been more careful with power as the system is large enough that it should also cover our gas and water bills,  making our utilities effectively 'free'...and the loan we took out to pay for it is actually the same expense that we were paying in utility bills....so in 5yrs, even with incremental power/gas/water costs rising we will have nil or negligible cost...

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Plan Ahead

I am used to two refrigerators and one freezer. I prefer the back up fridge and freezer to be manual defrost. It uses less energy and the food doesn't dry out as quickly. I have game night Tuesdays, a standing invitation for close friends. I encourage them to bring along friends or family that would make a good fit. My joy of cooking is sated, new clusters of friends form from these chance meetings. It's a non threatening way to invite people who have indicated a desire to know more about our church. It feels safer than fearing  Sunday morning being hauled down to the altar and flogged until you spill all your sins and who doesn't like to see the priest out of his robes? The distraction of holding cards or game pieces in your hand, talking and concentrating on the play seems to unlock the brains fear of interaction and inner glimpses are revealed. I'll cook for anyone at the drop of a hat and Sundays are usually a good day for family and friends to gather for an informal opportunity and fun. Only thing better are guests who bring along some laundry. Like Greg and Eugene I use the garage fridge as the raw food holding unit until ingredients are requisitioned to the kitchen for prep. Finished foods and those held until time of service are kept inside. Wine is stored in the garage which is cool and whites are put in the inside fridge to chill. I have an ice maker and keep soda on the shelf so it melts the ice as it chills and augments water intake. My little burg is all farm folks so buying from the Manager's Specials section of the meat department is seen as wise. I notice in Greg's suburb the QFC and Safeway have reduced meats stacked to over flowing. My guess is the more affluent and the less skilled shy away from dead meat. Having a freezer allows me to maximize the food budget and have more company without being a finacial burden. I live in America's garden bowl where a short drive to the Yakima Valley or Columbia Basin can fill the trunk with wonderful, ripe and flavorful produce which is frozen at it's peak for later use. I am so thankful my children are raised and gone because I simply could not afford to feed them at the prices today. Today's news reported the food cost has risen 4% which is not so in our area where I could say a 40% increase is more like it. It is the first time I have truly felt hard times are coming and having back stock to weather dry spots feels prudent. No one on the face of the planets likes to shop more than Peter and its good to have a place to store it all. I know how easy it feels to be at Greg and Lynn's where the guest is made to feel completely at home joining in the kitchen melee if it looks like fun. I know Eugene is the same way where food just seems to flow of their hands like a concert all the while there is a relaxed air on the kitchen. For those of us who like to make our guests feel like they have just sat down at a four star hotel they never realize they're doing us a favor by just coming to sit a spell.

[this post was last edited: 4/17/2011-00:41]

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Help!!! Thief!!! Robbery!!!

I'd like to report a robbery! The fruitcake thread has been hijacked and Robert is sitting in Pittsburg looking for a crime victim's advocate.
 
What would be appropriate technology??

For several reasons, I no longer drive. The nearest full line supermarket is three miles away (no, it isn't uphill both ways.) The gas station across the street is far from a full line market.

I am lucky to get to my full supermarket twice a month.

My new refrigerator is 19 cubic feet, +/-. (That includes the freezer space.)

A few years ago, CR said that the small fridges were not as energy efficient per watt used as a full size (American size, ok?) fridge. For a while, I had thought of getting a 4-5-6 cubic foot fridge, but it would have required me to get a 9 cubic foot freezer. My electricity provider distributes electricity that is mostly (not totally, but mostly) made from dirty coal.

As I have said before, appropriate technology! As I see it, the only "one size fits most" energy statement might be: "Choose carefully." The landlord's fridge was from the 80s. And noisy, and worse yet, Almond.

Incidentally, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says 37F in the fresh food section, 0F in the freezer section. 37/0 is generally "4" or "5" on the controls of most American refrigerators.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Support Group

Yes Greg, I need a support group, arch supports, over the calf support socks, a truss might be in order as I think I have out lived my athletic supporter days, a body shaper support garmet, a neck brace to support my tired bones and maybe even some foam pads to put on my eye glass supports so they don't make divots in my nose.  As to the rest just check me into Pritikin and skip the overeater's anonymous support group.
 

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