Wednesday, September 24, 2008

As The Food Turns

All you folks linking over from SpinDyeKnit, the post you are looking for is here. But feel free to stick around for the fridge follies. Or type in "knitting" in the search bar up there to the left.

[If you don't understand why I am showing you pictures of moldy food, please read the post that explains it all. After you read it, you still might not understand why I'm doing this (my husband sure doesn't); but at least you can say you tried.]


Okay, let's get started already. You know, that avatar of mine is haunting me. It makes me think, what would Laura Petrie blog? And then things get really weird...

For sure, Laura wouldn't be showing you the inside of her refrigerator, now would she? But today is Wednesday, and I have an obligation to my fan(s) to catalog what is being thrown in the trash this week. So, here we go:

On the left, there, in the Pyrex container (which I love, love, love because it comes with a storage lid) are the remains of our crockpot basil chicken (a recipe I got from Saving Dinner, I believe), which I served with bowtie noodles smothered in homemade pesto. See? Sometimes I cook my family a real meal. And Larry wasn't even here! I cannot figure out how we had any left over, as I served this for dinner 2 nights in a row (as I said, Larry hasn't been here) and then for lunch the day following.

And everyone liked it! Strange, but true.

Atop the container is the bagged carcass of a store-bought roasted chicken (look, Larry hasn't been here for over a week, all right?) that I saved to make into chicken soup. But I forgot. So much for assuaging my guilt over spending 5 dollars for less than 3 pounds of chicken (I weighed it on the produce scale in the store, because I wanted to see exactly how much money I was wasting).


Where were we? Oh, yes - here is the weekly Gladware stack. The bottom container has some leftover scrambled eggs (from the weekend when my parents were here); the next one up is filled with leftover dough for apple dumplings (David was a little overzealous and doubled the recipe). Above that is a bowl (that should have a plastic storage lid, but why use the matching lid when you can waste some saran wrap instead?) with leftover apple-dumpling filling. Sayonara!

Wait - does "sayonara" mean good-bye? Or hello? I don't know. Oh, well.

In the middle (front) is some unwanted hummus - it's texture was off, and so was the flavor. We're not buying this brand again. I'm giving you a close-up so that none of you make the same mistake. I am sure you regulars are not at all surprised to see the half an egg sandwich wrapped in blue saran wrap on top of the hummus. What can I say? We love our traditions.



Finally, the big bag in the center back is filled with apple peels and apple cores. I bought a bushel of apples (only 35 dollars - that comes to less than 80 cents a pound) at the Farmer's Market, so we've been busy all week making apple dumplings and apple crisp. But I hate to see all these healthy, unwaxed peels and cores go to waste.

Luckily for me, I have a friend here in the middle of suburbia whose husband insists on raising a few pigs each year. So I've been meaning to get over to her house and let my kids feed the apple remnants to her livestock. It's like a petting zoo, only admission is free and you don't have to pay for special food to feed to the animals. She has chickens, too.

Of course, raising livestock has its complications, like the time she came home with the kids from a play date and saw that the pigs had gotten loose and were running across the road. Have I mentioned that she doesn't really like the pigs? If it were me, I would have been all "Pigs? What pigs? I haven't seen any pigs" when my husband got home that evening. But, no, she chose to enable her husband's livestock addiction by chasing after the creatures and herding them all back into their pen.

Recalling this incident suggests to me a new book idea: Men Who Raise Livestock, And The Women Who Let Them. It would be a must-read for any woman who has ever found herself feeding chickens on her way to Target or defending her husband's pig-raising proclivities to a suburban homeowner's association. Every wife who has found herself inexplicably experiencing a suburban livestock lifestyle would find solace in its message that she is not alone, that there are others out there like her, struggling to lead normal suburban lives despite her mate's insistence that Green Acres is indeed the place to be.



No one's written it yet, I hope.

31 comments:

  1. Perhaps it's time to reevaluate one's life when you find yourself chasing after your husband's pigs. It's sort of a oprah aha moment I think.

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  2. Your post couldn't come at a better time! My husband has been trying to convince me that raising chickens is the way to go. (Right, 'cause I'm not going to be busy enough- what with the 2 year old and the new baby and all. Let's add some chickens in there.) I told him if it doesn't make fleece, I'm not for it. I mean, really, what's the point?

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  3. Write it before someone else does. That way you can avoid the annoyance of having someone make a bundle of money off the great idea you had but never acted upon. I hate it when that happens!

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  4. Write it before someone else does. That way you can avoid the annoyance of having someone make a bundle of money off the great idea you had but never acted upon. I hate it when that happens!

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  5. I love your refrigerator updates. It helps me feel normal! :) And that is no small feat, I tell you! Some days it feels like our household is the ONLY household that could have such messes and such going on. So, at least the fridge scenario fits with someone else!

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  6. I once had to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours and catalogue my activities for each hour. We had two sheep at the time that got out of our yard that day, so, for the four o' clock hour I had to enter "Threw a four year old a birthday party, herded sheep." That generated several questions from the cardiologist and his staff!

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  7. We didn't have pigs [well, other than the children, the hubby, and for a long time, me], but we did have goats and chickens, and a couple of rabbits that stubbornly refused to breed. We were the "Good Neighbors", only without the British accents. If I could figure out a way to have my own yard eggs without having to deal with chicken poo and the racket they made, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

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  8. I'm not really sure how big a market there would be for that one but I say give it a try, I've been wrong before.

    That one time.

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  9. We get our hummus from a deli in the next town that makes their own. I love it. (Except, the container that's currently in the fridge needs to go... thanks for the reminder!) "Next town" is about a half-hour drive, though, so I feel guilty just going for hummus. So like an addict, I'll make excuses for other things we need in that town.

    Also, I occasionally indulge in a rotisserie chicken, too. I so hate dealing with the raw meat. So a few times a year I'll get a roasted chicken from the market. I like to save it for football Sundays, though, so I'm not in the kitchen when the game is on. Chris thoroughly supports strategies that allow me to see the game, too.

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  10. Konichiwa = Hello
    Sayonara = Goodbye

    You were right. :-)

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  11. I love my crockpot! Maybe you could share your basil chicken recipe? For hummus, you've gotta try the Sabra brand. It has more fat the other kinds. Which means, of course, that it is really really good... (Yummmmm. Fat.)

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  12. I CANNOT get saran wrap to fit that tight like that. I swear you had to take a special class to do that. My MIL is the best saran wrapper around. I should learn from her.

    KEEP BELIEVING

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  13. Oh my, you are KIND to save apple cores & peels for that unloved, unwanted pig.

    *Sigh* I've fallen off the wagon. My fridge boasts a 2 week old leftover stromboli, chicken and spaghetti sauce. Dang it.

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  14. I am the one who wants to raise livestock in my backyard-Mr. G. won't have it. I just want a cute little chicken coop.

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  15. The blue saran wrap is so festive---

    which begs the question--Why is it called 'saran' wrap?

    Blessings~

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  16. No wonder the Hummus was bad. They can't even spell it correctly! LOL! Why not make your own? I made some yesterday, oh so yummy. I'll post a recipe for Tantalizing Tuesday just for you! Maybe even a video if I can swing it!

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  17. Question: How long will salmon keep after it's been frozen? I just found salmon in our freezer that's been there since Jan. 07. We're having it for dinner tonight. I guess if we end up in the ER with food poisoning, we'll know that salmon after 1 1/2 years is a no-no.

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  18. Mrs. R, you are asking the wrong person. I think we would have to use radio-carbon dating to figure out the age of some of the items in our freezer.

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  19. your fridge is way too respectable.....I regularly find all manner of unrecognizables in various states of putrefaction at the bottom of my fridge........

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  20. Mayeb the fact that "Hummus" was spelled "Hommus" made it taste bad? ;)

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  21. When you write your book, my poor spouse requests a chapter titled "Women who keep livestock and the bewildered husbands who are still wondering what in blue blazes just happened". Okay, the title may have to be shortened just a tad ;).

    He said that he wouldn't mind it if I got a few ducks to keep the tomato worms down. I'm pretty sure his idea of a few is a lot fewer than the nearly 40 that are currently gracing the back yard. About 26 of them are female and they've just started laying...I sincerly hope that my park day compadres are willing to liberate a few dozen eggs every week. I'm belatedly researching quiche and custard recipes (my dh has quietly suggested googling "Roast Duck" while I'm at it.)

    DH still thinks he's dodged a wicked bullet, though. The only reason we don't have miniature cows is because we can't afford them.

    Yet.

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  22. Wow, apples are expensive where you are. The orchard near us sells them for $14 a bushel, $5 for seconds.

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  23. I'm glad someone else has "rotisserie chicken guilt", too. Sometimes, when I'm out by myself for the first time in two weeks,I just can't bear to break it off an hour early to cook...

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  24. Sadly, our apple tree is not happy this year. We keep looking across the road at the neighbor's itty-bitty orchard... there's only one of her, and there's 6 of us... but, that would be WRONG. Or so I keep telling my husband!!
    You're right, that basil chicken recipe rocks! I had to stop serving it once a week, because everyone was getting tired of it (except me). It makes the house smell sooooo good.

    BTW, how long can I keep hummus in my fridge? I bought some at Costco....a while ago.... (note, I haven't yet started a food post)

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  25. Would you ever consider doing a guest fridge clean-out, say for someone who lives within a 3-mile radius and never gets around to it herself? For someone who doesn't have a competing (or any other type) blog?

    And then we could all go visit the Pig Lady together?

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  26. Stopping to say hi on my way through!!

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  27. Rose, do I know you? You don't have a public e-mail enabled on your Blogger profile page, so I am unable to respond to your comments directly. You'll have to send me another message with your e-mail (or go to your Blogger profile page and check the little box).

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  28. I am still trying to figure out the whole "wednesday" thing. Does this mean you're cleaning out the fridge every WEEK? Isn't that something you do when you move out?

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  29. ok please spare the kids and the eggs of a sandwhich for one week:)
    HA HA HA!
    -molly-

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  30. OK, that pig lady is too funny. Do you think her husband is just playing a prank on her...? What does he do with the pigs, ultimately... eat them?

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  31. Well, yes, actually. This year's pigs are named Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato. It's a sick family, you know?

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