We returned home on Monday from our week long holiday to find that there was a bit of a 'smell' coming from the fridge. The 'sorting' of the fridge was meant to have been carried out soon after I wrote my last blog entry but it never happened. So all of the problem items inside the fridge had been there significantly longer than the time we were away, but that extra week seemed to tip them over the edge.
(And, needless to say, I won't be including any photos with this blog!)
I browsed through the upper shelves of the fridge thinking back over the meals of dinner-times past,
"oh yeah, that was once a yummy shepherds pie..." and finding all of the small plastic containers that I had lost. "So THIS is where they all got to!" Some had a few left over veggies, or bits of pasta that I had intended to use later. I also found half a lemon face down on a dish that had become as hard as cement! You should have heard the sound it made when I tapped it with a butter knife.
Embarrassingly, it gets worse...
I took one look inside the veggie drawer at the bottom of the fridge, quickly shut it and walked away.
Oh my goodness!! Most of the veggies were almost completely liquified! I could make out some sad looking capsicums and the remnants of a bag of green beans. There they were, all dissolving away into a putrid juice. Liquid gold, er, mould...
I buy fresh fruit and veg every week, but don't keep a good track of what is there already, so just keep taking from the top of the pile. Dear oh dear. Mistake.
While there is absolutely no excuse for the state things were in, I am going to make one anyway:
More often than not, at the time I am accessing the fridge, I will be grabbing things to feed hungry small people. They love their food and don't take kindly to waiting any longer than they have to. So I may notice a container with food from two weeks ago, make a mental note to remove it, then walk away and promptly forget.
I have decided now that I should put up with an extra couple of minutes of whinging and remove the suspect items straight away. I am sure it is a massive health and safety risk to leave bad food sitting there. At least, on this occasion, the bad things seemed to be restricted to their own containers or bags.
I have also begun dating things when I open them, such as tomato paste, so I can plan to use them up before they start to rot. And less waste is also an extremely good thing!
My husband suggested that a good time to remove things is before they turn to liquid. Noted. And a fair call too, since he and his iron stomach are the ones to clean out that drawer and completely wash it with soapy water. It is so lovely and sparkly now. (A million times thank you!!)
Together we have turned our refrigerator of doom into a refrigerator of DESTINY!
