When QJ moves – Part 10 – We heart our trash men <3
Part of the reason my move last year is getting so much blog loving is because it was a *big* move. We basically consolidated 3 different homes plus storage, all into one big house. It took weeks of preparation, planning, and packing….and a whole lot of boxes.
So even though we threw away a lot of stuff -before- the move, there was obviously a ton of stuff to be disposed of during and after the move as well.
Which meant our trash men had their work cut out for them the first couple weeks. Now they weren’t obligated to take anything beyond our first trashcan that could be picked up by the truck automatically.
But they did. They were awesome. And so while we were setting up a yard sale one morning and they came through to pick up their weekly mountain of trash, I sent one of the girls to go ask them what kind of cookies they liked. They said sugar, so the next week, I spent the evening making heart and truck-shaped cookies for them.
Now obviously I’m no SugarBelle and I didn’t take the time to learn how to flood and perfect. But a butter knife and ziploc bag of icing did fairly well, and I doubt the trash guys really cared what they looked like….they were just happy to get some cookies, hehe.
And in the process of showing my appreciation for their hard work, I also learned how to make hippo cookies.
Upper left cookie? Definite hippo.
Those were the results of trying to figure out just which cookie cutter lines I should follow in order to get something that resembled a truck. Upper left is a hippo. Or guinea pig even, ha. Bottom left has a bison head. Upper right? I have no idea what that miserable thing is, hehe.
Moral of the story: Make lots of extra cookies so half can go to the receiver and all the mistakes can be eaten.
Oh, and appreciate your trash people, mail men and women, etc. They may not always do things the way you like it, but when they do, make sure you tell them thanks….or use them as an excuse to make baked goods. :P
How to freeze olives – Yes, you can!
I didn’t think you could freeze olives. Ew, wouldn’t they come out dehydrated, limp, spongy, or some other form of grossness?
Looking around the internet, I found recounts of exactly that. They’re too water-based, and therefore, when thawed and reheated, all the water in them that previously froze, would come oozing out, leaving them quite disgusting.
But.
That’s also the same thing that makes them so awesome for freezing. 
So how do you do it?
Cover them in water! Yep, put them in a muffin tin or small bowl or ice cube trays even – whatever portion size you want for later. I like the muffin tin because it was easy to gauge 1/2 cup portions and between two tins, I could freeze a bunch at once. Then, cover them in a shallow layer of water.
Once frozen, you can pop out your little olive ice cakes and toss them into a Ziploc plastic bag. Later, when you’re making tostadas or Mexican casserole or just feel like snacking, pull out a cup, toss it in a bowl, and microwave until just thawed. Don’t overdo it…some ice crystals are fine and will pop apart easily.
Or if you’re a little more patient, you can run the block under water, but still put a bowl under because the ice doesn’t take long to melt and olives will crumble out everywhere.
When I first bought the 3 pound can of lives, I agreed to only use them in baked dishes where any funky texture wouldn’t be noticed anyway, but even my mom was fine eating them after they’d been previously frozen, straight out of the bowl. Success!
And yes, that’s a lot of freakin’ olives. And yes, I had to slice them all because they came whole. At least they were already pitted! Well worth the few bucks to have a freezer stocked with olives for months for any ol’ random dish I wanted.
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