A friend admonished me once for using too many exclamation marks. He may be right, but in this instance, I hope they are the attention grabbers that they are intended to be.
On a recent weekend, Sylvia’s Aunt Cathy and I made a quick trip to her apartment. Whoa! I have seen it in worse condition (which is not saying much), but I had never experienced it smelling so bad. Sylvia had made a desperate plea for me to check out the refrigerator. By the time we arrived, Marin had tossed the culprit. It was an out-of-date container of milk. That was part of the problem, but there were some leaking milk containers as well, which meant pulling things out of the fridge and doing some damage control.
The sink is not the only place where Sylvia lives that science experiments take place. Honestly? It was a little scary. I recognized leftovers that had long passed their usefulness and were working their way to historical and possibly dangerous. This is not an appropriate venue for souvenir collecting. Some of the containers had ware-housed food for so long, that it seemed best to throw out not only the food, but the container as well. Better safe than sick.
This is what I am going to tell Sylvia:
1. Just keep what you know you are going to eat later. Label it.
2. Label every container, box, storage bag with the date stored and or opened.
3. Freeze food that is perishable or that you want to save for later. Label it.
4. Re-store open packages in a bag or container that is airtight and label it.
I hope that’s emphatic enough! A permanent marker and some tape will be your ticket to food that isn’t scary and leftovers that can be enjoyed safely. Look on the containers of foods that you purchase. There are usually storage instructions somewhere. Most foods can be stored safely for a couple of days or up to a week. Things like cranberry sauce last for much longer (it’s basically fruit and sugar). Watch out for foods with a lot of dairy. Soups without dairy and starches (pasta, rice) freeze brilliantly, as does tomato sauce. Label it!!
I used to do that regularly - I thought it was just an engineer thing. It's a really easy habit to get into and I'm still religious about it for freezing. With some recent fridge clean-outs, I realize I should get back to my good habits - Stephen and Anna would appreciate it and perhaps I could get them into the habit when they put leftovers away???
ReplyDeleteThanks Lindsay, Now to get Sylvia to pay attention. She ate some past-date yogurt Wednesday and felt the effects! Apart from making labels, I guess we should read them too!
ReplyDeleteBest, Paula