I opened up the refrigerator door the other day, got a whiff
of something foul, and slammed it shut. Sure, I should have completed a search
for the offending item, but the truth is, I was afraid of losing my lunch by
playing detective. The refrigerator in most homes can often produce some
unpleasant and downright scary items.
When my brothers and I were young, we consumed milk by the
gallons. My children drank a fair amount of the stuff too. These days, Amy and
I drink milk or use it for other things occasionally, but nowhere near as often
as we did a few years ago. Yes, we both like a bowl of cereal for breakfast
sometimes. I’ve poured out a heaping bowl of cornflakes and covered them with
Splenda. Then I’d reach for the jug of milk to pour on the flakes. That first
bite has sometimes ruined a whole day. Soured milk on cereal produces a
disgusting taste, not to mention a load of disappointment.
Milk sometimes arrives at home already in a foul state. I’ve
learned to remove the lid and give the container the “sniff test” before
pouring it out. That nauseating smell hangs in the nose for an eternity and
proves to be a good diet aid since I lose my appetite after inhaling. Even
worse is pouring out the milk into a glass, only to have it flow with chunks
included. Some people can drink buttermilk, but to me, it’s no better than a
glass of spoiled milk.
We eat well; my dear wife is a wonderful cook. After many
meals, she shovels leftovers into containers with the express purpose of
serving them the next evening or taking them to work as lunch. Amy knows that I
am not a fan of leftovers unless they come from Christmas dinners and include
turkey, ham, and dressing. The rest of the stuff doesn’t pique my hunger.
We often forget that those leftovers are in the fridge. Amy
gives most things a week before removing and dumping them. However, sometimes
food items hide behind other things and manage to survive for too many days.
When they are discovered, the lid is removed. A glob of something that was once
a part of our meals is stuck to the container. A stinky liquid might also cover
the bottom of the plastic, and hairy-looking mold covers the top of the stuff.
I joke that we’ve grown enough penicillin to cure all sorts of illnesses.
Most of the time, I finish a drink that I have. Amy or the
kids when they are home will place a half-consumed bottles of coke or sports
drinks in the refrigerator, and we all know that none of them will ever be
finished. A while later, the drinks are removed, and they have lost their fizz.
A complete waste of drink and money goes down the drain.
My daddy drank an occasional beer…only when we boys were
gone on vacation or out of the house for extended periods of time. Somehow, he
managed to hide remaining cans in the back of the
refrigerator. If we
discovered them, Mother would swear she bought them to wash her hair, something
I never bought nor understood. At any rate, she’d take one of the bottles to
the bathroom, hang her head over the side of the tub, and pour the beer over
hair that had just been washed. The stuff “glunked” from the can and never
showed even a trace of carbonation. It was as flat as a board, proof that it
had stayed longer that its shelf life.
We still cram leftovers into our refrigerator with a vow to
consume them the next day. All the while, I know it’s a lie because the appeal
of a recipe dims over a 24-hour span. I like hot food, not stuff that’s been
warmed up in a microwave or re-heated in a sauce pan. That means Amy does a
better job of cooking portions that we will finish off the first time. Neither
of us wants to take on cleaning the refrigerator and find mushy scraps of
foods, and we sure don’t like discovering flat beer and soured milk.
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