Friday, September 5, 2008

Incredible inedibles

Anyone in my family will tell you that I have no problem pushing the standard boundaries of what's "edible" in the fridge and the pantry. Moldy cheese? No problem. Milk seven days past the expiration date... does it smell bad? No big deal. Homemade, frozen vegetable stock made last year and rediscovered way in the back of the freezer tundra? Sounds delicious. But- when I realized during our most recent move that I still had the packet of Chocolate Cherry Quick Bread I bought (on sale, mind you so it was likely closing in on the expiration date already) at Williams-Sonoma almost two years ago- even I thought twice.

I'm sure the nutritional value was, at this point, questionable. I'm also sure I don't give a hoot about that on a regular basis so why would that stop me with this shelf stable mix? It didn't. I added the water, butter, and eggs, and whipped that baby up as fast as you can say Tallahassee lassie. And I'm still alive and well today. While the experience proves that I am far too stingy to throw out something I paid a good $5.99 for- it also proves that expiration dates are [not always, but often] for suckers.

Okay, it's safe to roll your eyes now, family.

4 comments:

MZ said...

I think what might be the most amazing part of this post is that you moved the flippin' carp to Portland with you. How much of your u-haul money was spent on expired goods overall?

Anonymous said...

Ha!! Moved a carp!

Ever read the essay by David Sedaris on his father saving food forever? This reminds me of it.

Anonymous said...

PS My old landlord was a pharmacist and regularly gave me things like expired Tylenol (nothing good, don't get all excited). You shouldn't really push it with drugs, but they had to get rid of stuff the SECOND it expired and usually it still had a lot of life in it. Not that I'd try that on my own without a pharmacist's approval.

Now that I write all that out, how weird is it that my landlord gave me expired drugs?!

Anonymous said...

I hope that future dinner guests will consider this : ) I know we will suggest dinner out whenever we are able to haul to full crew back out the west coast.
-LKP-M