Wednesday, October 01, 2008

As The Food Turns

[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.]

Look! No egg sandwich! From the bottom up, I present to you the contestants in this week's refrigerator clean-out:
  1. my spectacular dill potato salad (I don't even remember making this, which makes me suspect I need radiocarbon dating to determine how old it is);
  2. 6 cucumber slices sitting forlornly in the bottom of a Gladware container;
  3. some almost-finished hummus (Trader Joe's brand this time, rather than that feeble impostor pictured here last Wednesday);
  4. leftover apple oatmeal that I forgot to force on someone for snack;
  5. and some way-past-its-prime parsley lying limply atop it all.
You know what I did immediately after taking this picture? I tossed all these items into the trash can! Isn't that a good idea?

Too bad I didn't think of it last week. Instead, I put all the discards right back into my refrigerator because I was too tired/lazy to wash out the containers that evening. And then? I forgot about them. So imagine my surprise and dismay when I pulled the following from my refrigerator this afternoon:Look familiar? At least I did toss the egg sandwich...

If you are wondering (as I am) why my refrigerator didn't stink to high heaven from housing that chicken-carcass-in-a-bag (yum!) for a whole extra week, I have no answer for you. I do know that my friend with the livestock problem will be happy to hear that I took up valuable refrigerator space saving that bagful of apple cores and skins for her pigs. Plus, a bonus:
This week's peelings, for their porcine dining pleasure...

24 comments:

  1. Tasty. I just got rid a really frightening looking cucumber at the bottom of the vegetable drawer. I least I think cucumber at one time. Now? Kind of hard to tell anymore.

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  2. Now I'm a little worried about the missing egg salad sandwich.
    What happened?
    Did someone actually eat the whole sandwich, or did they just make half so there wasn't any left over.

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  3. LOL you are very brave... maybe if I forced myself to show pics of the science experiments breeding in my fridge... err totally meant those delectable leftovers... I would either make sure they got eaten or toss them before we get scared they might revolt and kill us in our sleep.
    I am adding you to my blogroll, I've gotten a ton of laughs from your blog and want to finish reading and see what else your crew comes up with.

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  4. My biggest sin is pasta sauce. I once had three mouldering jars at once, but at least the one was home made. That makes it better, right? Right?! Oh, and my potato bin experiments... Eew.

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  5. But I MISS the egg sandwich.

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  6. You've reminded me of some mushrooms I need to deal with. The weather turned hot again so roast vegetables fell by the wayside.

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  7. Funny. I was going to say how good you were doing. And then I got to the part about last weeks stuff still being in there!

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  8. I had a nasty food encounter in my pantry this week (it may be gross, but it gave me something to blog about!). At least in the fridge everything is contained, and the cold keeps everything somewhat mellow.

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  9. I think you could have salvaged those cucumber slices for a facial.

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  10. I hate washing out containers too.

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  11. I hate washing out containers too.

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  12. Wow! You inspire me. I do have a monster odor emanating from the fridge and I don't have the nerve to see where/what it is coming from....there's always next week, right?

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  13. You remember to photogragh and post about it, just not to throw it away? Classic!

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  14. I miss having pigs that I could save my scraps for. It almost makes me cry to throw away watermelon rinds as they were our pigs fay vo rite treat. I'll have to find a friend that has some.

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  15. i too must admit to actually throwing out old food still in the containers because i've been too lazy to wash out the containers....a chore that i absolutely DETEST........

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  16. I could watch other people clean out their fridges all day!
    Sadly, this doesn't translate to me cleaning out MY sty of a fridge. It's too scary for my delicate constitution.

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  17. I clean out the fridge in our work break room once a month or so. My boss says I should throw out the containers. Hell No! I throw the food out and take home the container to throw in the dishwasher. Free cheap containers for hubby's lunch. He usually loses my decent Tupperware or Rubbermaid containers.

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  18. Our food toss out is still deplorable, but it could use some improvement. What I try to do to save our food is cook less. I mean who is going to hurt from not getting seconds? Probably not many of us(just don't touch that leftover cheesecake, I measured it and if moves a millimeter you are dead).

    I look forward to the day I eliminate throw away food. *ROFLOL*

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  19. it hasn't happened very often that hummus has gone unfinished.

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  20. Every time I look in my fridge I think of you. My husband would love me even more if I did the fridge purge weekly. Anyway, I am impressed.

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  21. What you need is a juicer.
    Throw it all in and make a delicious smoothie.
    A hummus apple oatmeal dill potato smoothie with parsley cucumber garnish.
    Think of all the possibilities!

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  22. Oh, I wouldn't rely on radiocarbon dating for the dill salad. It's not as reliable as the sniff test. The sniff test would tell you 'a week or two' whereas the radiocarbon dating will say 100million years the first time, then 5 million the second, and if you're lucky you might get 47.81 million on a third go.

    Whever I see your weekly fridge clean out post I think about cleaning my fridge. But by the time I have stood up and taken two steps towards the kitchen my brain buries the thought under a multitude of others (you know how your brain can 'forget' things that may cause you harm?)

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  23. My mother is sick, and has 24 hour care. My siblings and I visit on the weekends, and when we can during the week, and we leave food or cook food. What makes me apeshit is when I come back a week or more later and it hasn't been touched! I've taken to masking tape and a sharpie - writing down WHAT it is, and WHEN it went in the fridge. And it still doesn't help.

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  24. Ah, a womam after my own heart. I do a fridge clean out every few weeks and it's always an exciting game of "What will we find next?"

    Btw, thank you for your comment on my post last week. I have been learning more and mroe to trust my instincts.

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