My fridge broke last sunday & it will be at least a week before the fan part comes in, so I'm two weeks without a reefer.The freezer is still working.

I bought dry ice to put in the fridge, it took about 12 to 15 lbs to really cool it down. It didn't seem to working so I thought well duh! you're probably supposed to take the dry ice out of the plastic bags (yes I wore gloves & didn't place it directly on the glass).

I put four other bags of dry ice in their plastic bags in two coolers to use later & dumped regular ice on them. Well the regular ice turned to solid blocks that I couldn't budge to get the dry ice out. The dry ice was getting expensive so now I'm keeping all our food in the ice chests with regular ice.

I have all these things from the fridge sitting a box that wouldn't fit in the coolers & I want to know if they will still be safe to use, Examples are maple syrup, jam, A1 & Worchestshire sauces, thai fish sauce, mustards, pickled things like cocktail onions, olives, capers, ect. And three jars of that boullion paste. They all say refrigerate after opening.

Any advice? And can someone please intruct me on the proper use of dry ice? It would be nice to use it to make the regular ice last longer in the ice chests but not if it mummifies my food in solid ice. Thanks