Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Can you trust that date?

As a mother of school age children I'm not afraid of finding science projects in the refrigerator.  Heck, some aren't projects at all; they are some long lost and forgotten dinners.  Our frig even has a death drawer.  You might call yours the "vegetable bin."  So it shouldn't have come as a surprise when I opened a lid containing what I thought was pudding.  Sheesh, I only made it one day ago.  Let's just say the color was something that you'd expect to find on your child's GI Joe-- the one that's been hiding out in the backyard dirt bunker for several monsoons.  That brown/ green combo I was staring down at did not look anything like the delicious sugar-free chocolate fudge pudding photo on the box!  Now really, it was only one day old.  Recently I found some fungus community in the ricotta cheese hidden in the back of the frig that didn't look like that!  Lest you think I made super old pudding, the box stated best used before 2/17/11.  February!  Only 8 months had passed.  I thought we had at least until the end of the year to use it.  Am I wrong?  I've read the reports where you should throw away any kind of Bisquick- like product if the expiration date is over 2 years, but pudding too?  And not even a year old?  It's too much.  So down the drain when the pudding and pout-y face went the strawberry.  I really wanted some pudding but I didn't want it bad enough to sample that camouflaged concoction.

As I was still on my cooking high, I had already prepared a big crockpot full of chili.  As Hubby walked through the front door, he cheered "Shepherd's Pie!"  Boy heard that and cheered "Mashed Potatoes."  Boy is really a hobbit.  His favorite potato chant is "boil them, mash them, stick them in a stew."  I am still limiting my starchy veggies and grains so I made enough for them-- 8 cups!  During dinner, Hubby scrunched up his face and said "I think you should throw out that milk."  What???  It's expiration date was 11/18/11.

I admire farmers and ranchers.  Grow your own beef, grain, veggies, milk.  It's a hard life, I know.  But at least you know "the buck stops here."

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