Thursday, November 7, 2013

A Better Evening.... And A Serious Warning....

I have to admit my evening was better although I missed having Chewlee here.  I guess the Princess had a schedule change and felt that she didn't have to tell me about it because she was going to be here when Chewlee got off the bus and that meant another day off for us.  However, Chewlee had to go to the bathroom, ran in here asking me if she could have a pickle ...QUICK! because mommy was there waiting for her.  I yelled out to the Princess to bring our slow cooker home to us and she said she would once it was clean since she had used it and hadn't cleaned it yet.  I just laughed because it figured!

Then the Beast asked me to peel some potatoes for him so he could make potato pancakes (do you hear that, Tara and the Princess?  We have leftovers.)  It seems that Dennis brought over some potatoes so the Beast could make his potato pancakes because he had never had them and was eager to try them.  Di said she would bring some pork chops over as well as both applesauce and sour cream (she likes them both and Dennis wasn't sure which he would try/like).  So I peeled the potatoes and even got his onions ready for him.

OH OH...gotta tell you what went on while the Beast let me rest.  Because I found some corn muffin mix that expired a year ago (and made them before I found that out), he went through our most stuffed pantry and checked out the dates on all the products in them.  When he showed me the pantry after he had gone through it and thrown out all the expired stuff, you wouldn't have believed the difference!  It was incredible.  He even found something that expired 7...yes, 7 years ago.

Now I know that it often says *best if used by...* because that means it will have the best taste, texture, etc. and you have to use your head when getting rid of many things.  But the muffins turned out rather flat and hard so.....take it from there.  There were a few things the Beast threw out that I wouldn't have but...hey, he did the work so take it from there.  I wasn't going to argue with him after the fact.  The deed was done and the stuff thrown out.  But...a few things that he discovered were past their expired date were things he had bought fairly recently.  Which tells us that some stores are a bit dishonest and are putting them out in the hopes it isn't discovered or that it's used up right away so it can't be told by taste, texture or whatever.

So, do yourself a favor....go through your own pantry and check out what the expiration dates are.  But, remember, vegetables will still be good after their *best if used by ..* dates.  Just put them up front so you use them up first.  It's just like canning.  You use up the oldest dates first.  Then rotate them forward.  

Back when we had kids living with us, nothing lasted long in our house so there was no need to check things like that.  But we are *empty nesters* now and that no longer applies.  We stock up on things and assume we are getting fresh stuff, including canned goods.  How wrong we were.  Don't fall into the same trap.

After Dennis and Di left, I headed in here to do up this blog.  How long before my meds kick in, I have no idea but that will determine when I finally go to bed.

Meantime, love you all and I hope you had a great Hump Day and an even better Thursday.  Just remember tomorrow is Friday and the end of the workweek for most people.  The rest of you?  Well, just try to get through it.  **Wink**



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