UPDATE: The winner is…Sandy Kelly!
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It’s another of those weird holidays I so love. This one actually makes sense for its timing. It’s “Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day!”
My daughter actually tackled that chore a few days ago, clearing out room for Thanksgiving meal storage. The amount of condiments we had accumulated was unbelievable—and yes, quite a few had expired. Leftovers in Tupperware—gone. Fuzzy fruit and vegetables—gone. She’s always death on old cheese and lunchmeat. She watches those pesky, almost unreadable expiration dates, where I tend to do a sniff test before eating. And has anyone ever watched the comedy with Al Brooks and Debbie Reynolds, Mother? The funniest scene, to me, was her cutting the green off a huge block of cheese she’d gotten from the senior center while Al Brooks curled his nose in disgust. My mother would always cut off the edges of old cheese. My daughter? Oh no. I have to be quick to finish a lovely wedge of cheese before she tosses it in the bin.
Anyway, does this holiday sound like one you could celebrate? Do you have any old foods stories to share? I think we actually found spices in the cabinet that had expired in 2012… Answer for a chance to win a free download of one of my books!
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I saved some spices from my mother-in-law but when I went to use them, they had expired in the 1970s.
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I clean out my fridge once a week otherwise things would be a science project or beyond before any of my crew bothered. The pantry is something that I do once or twice a year typically but I am an expiration date person, if it’s expired even only a few days it’s in the trash.
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Debra!!! That’s the worst I’ve ever heard! My daughter thought 20-year-old spices in my mom’s pantry were bad.
Theresa, you and my daughter would get along famously.
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We clean out our fridge every couple of weeks… we actually keep a list on the fridge of leftovers and when we placed them in there.
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Colleen! I hope my dd doesn’t read your comment because she’ll institute your list!
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I cleaned out the fridge last weekend and was embarrassed by how old some of the food in the bottom drawer was. Ugh, lol.
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interesting day
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We clean out the drawers at the bottom often. And if there is a spill, things get cleaned up right away. But right now we are in the middle of a kitchen reno and currently only have about a third of the counter space as normal no oven/stove. No place to stack things out of the way since that tiny area has to have the air fryer, microwave, toaster, and coffee machine, as well as the dish drainer for those things that have to be hand washed(like the copper bottom pans and such).
We do need to do a deep clean of the fridge soon as I have noticed the beginnings of a not nice aroma. We have checked the drawers and the left overs and neither is the culprit.
Oldest daughter got throw out of the house via restraining order, so I have had to pack her stuff. Found out she has moved out of state so all the food that she had in her stuff needed to be gone thru. OMFG! There were cake mixes that expired in 2015 in her stuff. I think that was the oldest items we found though. We wound up filling the kitchen garbage can 3 1/2 times to get rid of all the expired stuff and filled one box with stuff to donate to local food back (they take anything that is up to less than two years after the date) and are keeping maybe two grocery bags of stuff, mainly noodles, canned goods, and some tea.
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I’ve run into outdated spices and nuts when I went to unpack stuff from moving. Let’s just say I threw it and didn’t question what it was lol
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I clean out my fridge once a week at the end of the week. I am however bad about cleaning out the spices in the cabinet
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We frequently play does it sandwich or does it taco to clean out the fridge and freezer. Once a year I go through the pantry and pull out anything that is expired or close to expiration so we can use it.
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I was just thinking this morning that I need to empty some stuff out of the fridge to make room for my frozen turkey breast and leftovers after the fact. I agree about the cheese, too. I mean someone out there decided mold doesn’t kill you or else blue cheese would have never existed. And the spices, too. I had to laugh. At what point does something go from old/expired to collector’s items? Asking because I have spices in a drawer that are metal tins from the OLD A&P store!
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When we cleaned out my SIL’s pantry we found SPAM from the 1980s
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I don’t have to worry about it. My daughter every time she come she is like the fridge natzilShe check every thing.
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I go grocery shopping every week, so every week I make sure there isn’t anything old in the fridge! Because I really hate to cook though, I tend to forget about spices in the cupboard! All the time!