I’ve long taken advantage of the freezer. 

When I shop at my friendly neighborhood fishmonger (well, Johnny Yi at the Reading Terminal Market actually), I buy more flounder or salmon than I can eat in a couple days and freeze the rest. So my freezer is usually well stocked with various fish and shrimp and meats.

Similarly, when I make a pot of soup, most of it gets frozen in small containers. 

But for the longest time I didn’t think to do the same with bread. Oh, I knew one could freeze a whole loaf, or even a half a loaf, and when I baked a loaf of oatmeal bread, I routinely froze half the loaf so it wouldn’t spoil before I could consume it.

Then more recently I realized, if you could freeze a half loaf, how about a few slices?

So that’s what I’ve been doing when I buy a loaf at the supermarket. I wrap four slices together then place two groups of four slices in a freezer bag. They keep very nicely for several weeks, and they defrost very quickly. What’s more, I can reuse the freezer bags to minimize the waste.

There was one thing that hadn’t occurred to me to freeze. The filling. I mean the lunchmeat that I put into a sandwich. I like the lunchmeat that they carry at the Hatville Deli at the Reading Terminal Market including genuine Lebanon baloney that I remember from my youth. The trouble is, it only stays fresh for two or three days in the fridge. It had never occurred to me to freeze it.

But just like bread, it’s a simple procedure. 

I take roughly two servings of the lunchmeat and put it in wax paper, making sure to squeeze out as much air as I can, then put the packets into a freezer bag. And again, it defrosts in no time.

Wish I had latched onto this idea years ago. I don’t eat a lot of sandwiches, but now I don’t have to gobble them up in two or three days time when I do buy some lunchmeat.