How old can you go?
At our house someone is always asking "Is this too old? Can I still eat this?" So last week when Marty mentioned in an offhand way that something smelled funny in the fridge, I didn't really pay much attention. The next time I was in the fridge, I gave a cursery look and pulled out a few items that had been in there for far too long, then tossed them in the garbage.
A few days later, he mentioned again that there was still a weird smell in the fridge. This time I gave it a much closer look and realized that there were a few more items that had to go, including some containers of food I don't even remember preparing.
This morning, he said "it still reeks in there". Now at this point, I'm no longer thinking "What could it be?" but am instead thinking "Then why don't you find it?" But, since it was early in the morning, and my mouth sometimes cannot be trusted to accurately deliver my message at that point in the day, I just said "Huh, weird."
This afternoon I gave the fridge a solid once over. I cleaned out every shelf, tossing anything that I hadn't prepared this week. I went through the shelves on the door checking the expiration dates. I found one bottle of spicy sauce who's expiration date was 10/2004. The month before we moved into this house. Now why would I have moved a bottle of sauce that had already expired? We'll never know, because it's no longer here to tell the tale.
It doesn't look too organized, but it smells daisy fresh.
I'll admit it, the 10/2004 sauce that I threw out today doesn't hit #1 on the list of things that have lived to a very ripe old age in my fridge. When Sevda and I first lived together, I made jello in these little glass cups, thinking that it would make a nice cozy snack for us. After several months, we noticed there was still one lonely cup in the back of the fridge and were shocked to find that it looked totally normal! I pulled it out, and found that it had completely dehydrated so that there was only a thin film of jello solids along the sides of the glass. But due to jello's magical powers, it still LOOKED totally fine from the side. So, we packed it when we moved to our next apartment and was the first thing we put into our new apartment's fridge. It stayed in the fridge the entire time we lived there. Which was for two years. We did finally toss it before we moved into the Shrimp Bucket with Meghan, figuring that three years was really long enough to hang onto a joke that was funny only to ourselves (or probably just to me.) In hindsight, we should have brought it with us to the Shrimp Bucket. It would have been a great thing to leave for our landlord, Chuck, after we have to move out when the house was condemned.
Now, fess up - what's the oldest item that you've ever discovered in your fridge? If you can't think of anything, you might want to head over and check your expiration dates right now.
A few days later, he mentioned again that there was still a weird smell in the fridge. This time I gave it a much closer look and realized that there were a few more items that had to go, including some containers of food I don't even remember preparing.
This morning, he said "it still reeks in there". Now at this point, I'm no longer thinking "What could it be?" but am instead thinking "Then why don't you find it?" But, since it was early in the morning, and my mouth sometimes cannot be trusted to accurately deliver my message at that point in the day, I just said "Huh, weird."
This afternoon I gave the fridge a solid once over. I cleaned out every shelf, tossing anything that I hadn't prepared this week. I went through the shelves on the door checking the expiration dates. I found one bottle of spicy sauce who's expiration date was 10/2004. The month before we moved into this house. Now why would I have moved a bottle of sauce that had already expired? We'll never know, because it's no longer here to tell the tale.
It doesn't look too organized, but it smells daisy fresh.
I'll admit it, the 10/2004 sauce that I threw out today doesn't hit #1 on the list of things that have lived to a very ripe old age in my fridge. When Sevda and I first lived together, I made jello in these little glass cups, thinking that it would make a nice cozy snack for us. After several months, we noticed there was still one lonely cup in the back of the fridge and were shocked to find that it looked totally normal! I pulled it out, and found that it had completely dehydrated so that there was only a thin film of jello solids along the sides of the glass. But due to jello's magical powers, it still LOOKED totally fine from the side. So, we packed it when we moved to our next apartment and was the first thing we put into our new apartment's fridge. It stayed in the fridge the entire time we lived there. Which was for two years. We did finally toss it before we moved into the Shrimp Bucket with Meghan, figuring that three years was really long enough to hang onto a joke that was funny only to ourselves (or probably just to me.) In hindsight, we should have brought it with us to the Shrimp Bucket. It would have been a great thing to leave for our landlord, Chuck, after we have to move out when the house was condemned.
Now, fess up - what's the oldest item that you've ever discovered in your fridge? If you can't think of anything, you might want to head over and check your expiration dates right now.
I just went through this exercise -- with the "non-perishables" in the cupboard. There was a carton of cornmeal that was 4 years old. I just found a can of Campbell's Soup that expired April 2005. That's not so bad but it's embarassing and annoying to find really old food. Not just a waste of food, but a waste of $$. I hate it when I buy something and NO ONE eats it.
Just tell marty that you're working on a science experiment, "What environment does mold grow best in."
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I don't know what our oldest item was, but two weeks ago we also had a terrible smell coming from the fridge. Turned out to be a dead mouse who made his final resting spot behind the refridgerator. Nice.
What are the odds that the dead mouse and the live mouse that we caught last week are the only ones in the house. That's what I'd like to believe. Please don't enlighten me.
Oh, and Campbells Soup expires? I thought that was something you could take with you into your bomb shelter.
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I still find things in my fridge that I had when I was single. That was like 15 years ago. Soy sauce. Can that go bad? I can tell its from my single days because it has a sticker with my initials on it so my crazy ass roomate Roger wouldn't use it. Apparently, it's keeping me from using it too.
And then last Thanksgiving I had a can of cranberry sauce that expired in 2002. Phil INSISTED it was fine, so I served it up. Like this - "This is disgusting brown expired cranberry, in case you want to try it." Thank goodness, due to my full disclosure, no one did.
Hey, what doesn't kill us, right?
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We moved last year and I didn't move anything from there to here that was expired. BUT, I do have a bottle of cranberry juice in there that I bought the day we moved. So 13 months.
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