Frigidaire Knows the Real You
May252009
When Lani was coming to visit a few weeks back, I was cleaning the kitchen and notice that my fridge kind of . . . smelled. I took everything out, and it was all fresh, so I scrubbed the whole thing down with disinfectant cleaner, put my groceries back, and figured my work was done. When Lani got here, she was polite for twenty-four hours and then she said, “That fridge smells.” I said, “I KNOW, but I cleaned it.” Lani is pro-active so we cleaned it again. The next day, we were making lunch and we both said, “What the hell?” because it still smelled. So Lani, a better person than I, went through and smelled everything in there and found the problem: brand new brie. Evidently it was supposed to smell that way, but we pitched it anyway. An hour later, the fridge was lovely again, but I felt oddly exposed.
Lani and Krissie have both rummaged in my fridge frequently, and Bob has blazed many a trail to beer in there, and that never bothered me, but to have someone take everything out was like an autopsy. It was my identity in food spread out on my counter. Some of it I was very proud of–fresh spinach!–and some of it, uh, less so. Like the four kinds of ice cream in my freezer. Not to mention the Hello Kitty icepacks. We may not be what we eat, but the picture our open fridge makes is probably pretty indicative of our hopes (fresh spinach will make me healthy and thin), our dreams (I hate cranberry juice but I’ll drink it anyway because it’s good for me), and our secrets (yes, I do have a lot of salad dressing in there; I LIKE salad dressing). So when I found out from The Dish that Good Magazine had a gallery of open refrigerators, I was fascinated.
It’s amazing the visceral reaction I had to just pictures of fridges. The almost-empty ones were melancholy, that was to be expected, but the over-full ones were, too, expecially the overfull ones that were full of take-out cartons. How can I know who these people are if they hide themselves inside styrofoam boxes? And then there was the freezer full of bloody venison. Ew. But even the bad ones were good: by the time I finished the gallery, I wanted to see more, to go to my friends’ houses and open their refrigerator doors and see how they lived. Instead I opened my own and got out the olives and cheese and snacked. Well, it was right there.
So in the spirit of full disclosure, here’s my fridge:
I feel it’s important that you know that I’m not the one drinking the un-ecological bottled water, that’s Krissie who hates Ohio water. I am also not responsible for the Peach Snapple, that’s Krissie’s, too. And the container with the red stuff in it is leftover White Trash Chicken that Lani made when she was here (with the apricot jam which normally would not be in there) so I should probably just throw that away without opening it. The petrifying ham sandwich on the plate is in there because I keep meaning to cut it into three pieces and give it to the dogs as a treat. But I forget. It’s amazing how different your fridge looks when you’re looking at it in a photograph instead of just standing in front of it in your kitchen, looking for your next nosh. Suddenly you’re responsible for it. It’s you.
So I’ve explained the bottle water, Snapple, and ancient ham and chicken, and flaunted my spinach and peppers and carrots. Now it’s your turn.
What story does your fridge tell?
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70 Comments to 'Frigidaire Knows the Real You'
On May 25, 2009 at 1:50 am Reb said...
My fridge tells a sad story at the moment. It’s a story I’ve more-or-less conceded is just the way my life is right now: if it’s fresh vegetable and it needs to be cooked, I just won’t get round to it. So there’s a bag of corn cobs gradually going slimy in there. I know, I’m dreadful. On the other hand, there’s a big bag of pre-prepared salad in there that I’m scoffing copious amounts of, so I’m working round my dreadfulness.
Other than that, hmmmm. Often leftovers, because when I do bother cooking (with frozen veges) I cook in bulk. Two casks of wine. Decent fruit juice. Quite a lot of sauce bottles. Big blocks of cheese – yum! Definitely no bottled water. My city has some of the best water in the world and people still buy bottled water. Jeez.
You’re right; the story of my life is in my fridge. Must go clean it.
On May 25, 2009 at 1:59 am Dayle said...
Okay, it’s not about my fridge, but about my parents’ freezer…
We had a full freezer in the basement. My mom was the type to bake ahead and then defrost things when company was coming; she was also the type to forget what exactly was in there, which worked to my advantage. My favorite midnight snack was a frozen brownie, because they last. You keep gnawing around the softening edges… Nom!
My father, meanwhile, hunted and trapped during the appropriate seasons. Most of the meat I ate growing up was venison, although I didn’t realize it at the time. It wasn’t an usual sight during hunting season to arrive home, hit the remote for the garage door, and see a hanging deer appear as the door went up. (Apologies to anyone who’s sensitive to those things! It bugged me, but I also respected that we ate what he killed, so…)
Anyway. One night in high school or college, I wandered into the basement in the wee hours to get myself a frozen brownie treat. When I opened the freezer door, I saw a brown paper bag. Could be brownies. Could be zucchini bread (ew). Could be chocolate-chip cookie bars. Could be Mom’s new dessert experiment.
What I did not expect, when I opened the bag, was to find a fully intact, frozen fisher* snarling out at me.
For the longest time, I told this story fully believing the creature was a wolverine, but recently my father set me straight on that crucial detail.
And for some reason, my mother’s frozen brownies just aren’t the same as they used to be…
*also known as a marten or polecat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_(animal))
On May 25, 2009 at 2:08 am Jackie said...
Well, yes, it does need to be cleaned…. But it’s all their fault. There are lots of fresh veggies, and Hazel and I are both to blame for them. I buy fruit for Hazel, but she doesn’t always eat it, but Roy and I never do, so that goes bad…And leftovers… Lots of those…especially the rice. We always make too much, but Hazel doesn’t like to eat leftovers. But we can’t throw them out….at least not untill they are inedible. So our fridge is a reflection of our family and our relationships. We spoil each other…
On May 25, 2009 at 3:32 am Laura Vivanco said...
I think American fridges must be about double the size of European ones, because our fridge only has one door on it, one vegetable area at the bottom etc, whereas yours has two of each.
On May 25, 2009 at 10:31 am Jackie said...
I want a european sized fridge! I prefer to shop 2-3 times a week, and not find so many wonderous foods going on the their second life. I had a smaller fridge in one of my apartments, and it was great. Half as many “lively finds”.
On May 25, 2009 at 5:53 am Jill said...
Nothing much to say about the state of our fridge at the moment. Some virtuous things (lots of veggies from the CSA box) lots of not so virtuous things. Why, yes, we do have lard, bacon fat, and duck fat thank you. Popcorn popped in bacon or duck fat is tasty if anyone is interested. Not a lot of takeout or expensive items now b/c we’re cash poor until the next paycheck
The most interesting project I had in my college photography class was to do a time lapse project. I chose to do the inside of the fridge I shared with my housemates. It was amazing with 4 girls how fast it would be empty after a grocery-shopping day. We were not women that were afraid of eating.
On May 25, 2009 at 6:24 am Caitlin said...
My fridge is surprisingly full for a single person…and while many of the things in there are old and getting moldy in cheap tupperware-like containers that I will eventually throw away instead of attempting to clean, it does have a lot of fruit (grapes and strawberries), spinach, milk, a lot of alcohol considering I don’t drink that often, old old hotdogs (eew…really should throw those away), diet IBC root beer in glass bottles (if you’re going to drink soda, really go all out), a chicken breast that has probably gone bad, and a myriad of random older cans/jars of things that I opened and promptly didn’t finish or throw away. Hmm, I think a little cleaning is in order. Thank goodness you didn’t ask about freezers! Mine is full (as in things fall out and attack you as soon as the door thinks you will open it)…
On May 25, 2009 at 7:09 am Alison said...
My fridge was wiped out by the two-week-plus power outage after the ice storm. The re-stocking trip to the grocery hasn’t happened yet. Milk, a leftover Sonic cranberry slush, and my limited range of spices about covers it. I find the spareness kind of restful, actually.
What was that book about fridge friends several years ago? Something about how everyone needs a few friends who feel comfortable helping themselves to anything in each other’s fridges. A bit thin as a book premise–I think there was a Seinfeld tie-in.
On May 25, 2009 at 7:42 am Allie said...
“My” fridge tells the tale of my roommate, not me, and what a lazy slob he is. Actually, it DOES tell the tale of me too–pushed into a corner, half-organized inside chaos.
One more month till I have my own fridge again. :/
On May 25, 2009 at 9:32 am Penny said...
My fridge is a disgusting and major problem right now. We were not very forward thinking when we put it in the special spot designed for a fridge because…we can’t get the glass shelf and crisper drawers out to clean them without moving half the kitchen. (Phew that’s a long sentence.) DH has spilled something that looks very much like blood onto the shelf and it has leaked underneath. To get that out I have to move my buffet full of dishes to the middle of the floor and the table that is there into the living room.
So you see the problem. Could you please send Lani to clean my fridge? It is full of very healthy vegetables like Romaine; spinach; carrots; green onions; red peppers; green peppers and cucumber. Apples are in the other crisper I can’t get out. I’d even make Lani the spinach salad I am having tonight as the mushrooms and chick peas are soaking in Paul Newman’s Oil and Vinegar dressing to be combined with fresh spinach and spiced Gouda.
Do you think Lani will come? She liked me once.
On May 25, 2009 at 10:39 am Sara said...
Did anyone else notice the snake in the short order cook’s freezer? Eww.
I recently was forced to really come to terms with my fridge; it’s about 80% condiments, and of the condiments, about half were pickles (gherkins, dills, bread & butter and the chip type). So I threw away – not kidding – 12 jars of pickles, after combining them to mak 4 full jars of pickles. Strangely, I don’t remember the last time I ate a pickle at home.
On May 25, 2009 at 10:40 am Mary Stella said...
Jenny, that picture of your fridge made me think of one of your collages. Even your fridge is artistic. The different items in the picture represent a weekend visit with friends, each contributing to the contents of the fridge. Right now my fridge represents a fishing trip waiting to happen with lunch meat, sodas and snacks ready to be put in a cold bag so we can head out!
On May 25, 2009 at 10:44 am McB said...
“and Bob haz blazed…”
“haz blazed”? Someone has been spending too much time with the lolcats.
Laura – yes we do have bigger fridges, and Jenny’s isn’t even remarkably so. I think it’s because (a) Americans detest grocery shopping, and (b) we put the “c” in consumerism.
My fridge is reasonably clean, at the moment, but only because I recently started an “if I open the door, I throw something out” campaign. I get overwhelmed at the thought of making a big project out of cleaning the fridge, but I can tackle anything if I can break it into bite-sized pieces.
But it reminds me of a family story. Once upon a time there was this box of frozen stuffed peppers in the freezer. I don’t know how it got there. I know why I didn’t eat them, but why nobody else did either was a mystery. Supposedly somebody wanted them or why were they there? This box was in the freezer for many months, possibly a year, when my parents moved. One day I was looking in the new freezer for ice cream which I knew had been there just a day or two before and the ice cream was gone. According to my father, it had been up there for more than two weeks and that was much too long to keep ice cream in the freezer. I opened the freezer door again, pulled out the same box of stuffed peppers, and asked “you brought the peppers with you in the move, but the ice cream was too old?”
No stuffed peppers in my freezer, but I do have some squash, pesto and marinara to make pasta with later today. And no bottled water, either, because I filter it from the tap and keep a 2-gallon jug w/ tap in the fridge.
Jenny, try diluting the cranberry juice with water. I like it plain, but will sometimes stretch a bottle by mixing half/half. Still good for you, but the flavor isn’t so strong.
On May 25, 2009 at 11:00 am Jenny said...
Thank you for catching the “haz”, McB. I fixed it. I did write this in the wee small hours and I’d probably been to LOL cats sometime that night so who knows.
On May 25, 2009 at 10:49 am hollygee said...
We have a half size refrigerator. It’s supposed to be on the floor, but we put it up on the counter. Not as much counter space but I don’t have to bend down to the ground to get out the lettuce.
So, being as it is quite small, it will only hold enough for 2 or 3 days plus enough cheese to clog the hearts of our tiny town. Lots of veg. Whatever roast we are working on currently. Eggs and half & half and a bottle of wine. Actually, our cholesterol is pretty good, thank you. As I said, lots of veg.
On May 25, 2009 at 11:28 am Laura C said...
1st: I like that Jenny has 3 dozen eggs & that each carton is a different colour
My parents are living with me at the moment & they do the grocery shopping & cooking (Yay me!) Because we live in tropical climate, we put almost everything in the fridge to prolong it’s “freshness”.
Let’s start at the bottom & work our way up. 2 crispers, 1 full of vegetables & aromatics, the other with salted cod & chinese preserved ingredients.
Next shelf up has my mom’s digestive enzymes, vitamins, jars of sunflower seeds, flax seed, 6-pack of Red Stripe for guests, bowl of seasoned chicken ready for the grill, & at least 5 pounds of cheese we’ve imported b/c it’s really expensive here.
2nd Shelf from the top has eggs & leftovers from previous meals: pumpkin soup, chinese take-out, tuna salad, a ripe papaya, a bowl of redcoat plums.
Top shelf: bowl of mangoes & ripe bananas, glass pitcher of water, yogourt, tall bottles of juice & perrier, hummus, more cheese (goat brie, I believe) & a box of choco-hazlenut biscotti. the door holds assorted condiments & baking goods: Sugar, spelt flour, kamut flour, maple syrup, butter. Oh, & there is a bag of pita bread tucked in there, too.
The freezer: bag of over-ripe bananas to make banana bread, hot peppers for cooking, turkey sausages, pizza dough, cubed pumpkin, smoked salmon, smoked turkey legs & 2 ice-cube trays. oh and fish freshly caught from the sea.
Hmmm, ok, I’m getting hungry now. Time for lunch
On May 25, 2009 at 5:55 pm Jackie said...
Can we trade fridges? Not parents, just fridges…
On May 25, 2009 at 12:25 pm colognegrrl said...
My worst fridge experience was when we went on vacation and left a piece of Italian salami in the fridge. I didn’t even know it could go bad that fast. When we came back, we tried every trick in the book (and advice given by friends) to get rid of that smell. (It was even worse than when we also went on vacation, leaving our house to be watched by my husband’s brother. One day he needed a power outlet for a garden tool and just disconnected the plug of the freezer, never checking where it belonged to and never bothering to plug it back in.)
By the way: the best thing to remove a terrible fridge stench is letting an open bowl of vanilla sugar sit in it for two days. The only thing that worked!
On May 25, 2009 at 1:09 pm Merry the CB said...
Have you checked out Fridgewatcher?
http://www.fridgewatcher.com/
People around the world submit pictures of the inside of their fridge. It’s interesting to see the food priorities of people in different countries.
On May 25, 2009 at 6:49 pm Jenny said...
I LOVE that site. It’s international refrigerator porn.
Thank you!
On May 26, 2009 at 8:59 pm Micki said...
Cool site! (-: But I didn’t see any “spontaneous” fridges — it looked like these had all been cleaned up for public consumption.
On June 6, 2009 at 12:06 pm Annie said...
Wow… check out the choco-fridge!
http://www.fridgewatcher.com/2007/09/mr-shag-sheeps-fridge/
On May 25, 2009 at 1:56 pm Lori J. said...
My fridge tells that I’m too much of an impulse buyer. But that has it’s good points. I bought avocados once, on an impulse, which lead me to googling guacomole and now I make my own almost once a week. Alton Brown’s guac recipe is the best, imo.
I also have way too many condiments. And cheese.
On May 25, 2009 at 2:26 pm Stephanie said...
Jenny, That’s the cleanest full fridge I’ve ever seen. I know you said it’s been cleaned twice recently but golly geez. I want a fridge like that in sooo many ways. Right now, mine is a disaster. The 7 bottles of various types of pickles in various stages of consumption were moved out during spring cleaning but after a week of house guests who ‘helped’ put things away I can’t find a thing. I went to fill sippy cups for the kids this morning and found the butter in the crisper with the spinach. Perhaps that’s the only place there was room and sadly the spinach is from 2 weeks ago so it’s no longer pretty but will get cooked up just as well.
What else is there? I made my own ‘bisquick-type’ mix last week and it’s in the back of the top shelf behind 2 bottles of wine and a gallon of organic milk. Next shelf is random condiments and the returned butter and yogurt. Next shelf is a rotisserie chicken, eggs, leftover wonton soup and 2 packages of cream cheese waiting for to be turned into coffee cake. Bottom shelf has 2 blocks of cheese, some babybel cheeses that my house guests left behind and the ‘yellow dip’ [also known as honey mustard] that our house of toddlers cannot seem to live without.
Of course, this is only the fronts of the shelves. The backs, which I cannot see anymore, holds things like jars of banana peppers, minced garlic, and other useful things that I only need about once a year. And when I do I just close my eyes, reach through and hope that nothing back there grabs my hand and pulls me in.
On May 25, 2009 at 3:15 pm Eva said...
6 gallons of milk (assorted), one red ruby, six OJs, one pineapple (juices are for mixed drinks) cold cuts from a deli in NY City that friends bring over, fresh mozzarella, veggie drawers full of veggies (zucchinis for the grill) 2 leftover flank steak, potato salad and cole slaw. 3 Foil packets of crab meat. Mayo, mustards, hot peppers with anchovies. Berry syrup. A hard cider, 5 Sam Adams Honey Porter, 4 Yeungling Black and Tan, and 5 Coors light. Old heavy cream, new heavy cream, strawberries. 2 tubs of yogurt, two containers of tofu, organic peanut butter and grape, apricot, and boysenberry jelly. Three heads of romaine, three green bell peppers, three boxes of grape tomatoes. I have a 26 cu fridge. And it’s still not big enough with all these kids. No, I’m not embarassed. *g* Thank the dogs you didn’t ask about the freezer.
On May 25, 2009 at 3:52 pm Diane (TT) said...
At the moment, my refrigerator is a bizarre mix of new, fresh and elderly. I have some apples that are mummifying (they started getting too soft for fresh eating and I keep intending to do something else with them) and some new purple asparagus and sugar snap peas. And rhubarb! But there weren’t any strawberries at the Farmer’s Market, so now I need to decide whether to buy some at Kroger or not.
I, too, was mystified by the 3 cartons of eggs. Now that the Farmer’s Market is back to weekly, I don’t have to worry much about stocking up (once a month in the winter – I think I bought eggs once at the supermarket and twice had some given to me by a co-worker with hens). Since I mostly use eggs for baking or otherwise producing sweets, 3 cartons looks like – mousse? poundcake?
I need more fruit in the fridge (although, now I come to think of it, there are some organic frozen raspberries in the freezer that would probably work with the rhubarb). And in my pretty bamboo fruit bowl, that now has two lonely lemons, in case I am inspired to make lemony gingertinis. But very little fruit is ripe yet in Southern Ohio, and I struggle with food mile concepts (unless it is to make lemony gingertinis, because, really, local isn’t much of an option with citrus, here).
Oh, and I have a lovely redleaf lettuce that is, apparently, named Pablo. About 8 varieties available from one of the farmers, but I was charmed by having a lettuce with a first name.
There is also strawberry butter that I bought when I was on a scone kick, but the only scones left in my freezer are jalapeño corn, which goes beyond my willingness to try unusual combinations. The scone girl hasn’t come back to the market yet this year (she MAY be over 20, and then again, she may not. She sells frozen unbaked scones, so you can bake and eat them fresh. I should finish the jalapeño ones. Maybe tonight!) .
On May 25, 2009 at 4:29 pm orangehands said...
The six cartons of milk in my fridge will probably tell someone I have five housemates and we have issues sharing.
But my area of the fridge contains: an apple, pieces of chicken, other pieces from a different chicken, a few really old pieces of turkey I need to toss, a salad dressing I don’t like, a salad dressing I do like, a salad dressing I haven’t opened yet, a large jar of relish (for my tuna), mayo (for my tuna), a container of cut up lettuce, hummus, milk, spaghetti sauce, and my water pitcher.
Freezer: four bags of mixed frozen berries (for my salad and/or dessert), one almost empty container of ice cream, package of chicken legs, package of a piece of salmon, and a bag of frozen blueberries.
If I didn’t have to share it would be more organized and have a lot more food.
On May 25, 2009 at 4:32 pm orangehands said...
Oh, I also have a jar of orange sauce, butter, and an artichoke.
Plus, after tonight I will have a jar of apple sauce and another ice cream container too.
On May 25, 2009 at 6:53 pm RfP said...
My fridge says: Why am I a repository for film canisters, vitamins, aloe vera, ice packs, water glasses, packing peanuts, and sweaters with suspected moth problems… but nothing edible??
On May 26, 2009 at 9:04 pm Micki said...
LOL! Forgive my chauvinism, but that sounds like a BOY fridge! I can see why almost everything you mentioned would wind up in the fridge, but packing peanuts? Rationale? (If it isn’t too personal, of course, LOL!)
On May 25, 2009 at 7:44 pm robena grant said...
I looked in my fridge the other day and thought about how much food was in there for one person, one dog, and three fish. Actually the fish don’t have anything in there, come to think of it. And yes, for about ten seconds I felt guilty. Then I fixed a sandwich.
On May 25, 2009 at 9:40 pm Cherry Honey said...
Jenny, what’s the blue and white thing behind the ham sandwich? And I, too, love that you have three dozen eggs.
My fridge has a lot of eggs, too, because I’m trying to cut down on carbs for breakfast and that seems to be the main way I can do it. Lots of oatmeal for the same reason. Fresh spinach and other greens, which I’m proud of, and a TON of cheese, which I’m not. I’d love to blame the cheese on my three-year-old, but it’s mostly me.
It’s a pretty happy fridge at the moment because it’s filled with leftover juice, flavored cream cheese (that go with the leftover bagels on the counter), and cupcakes (okay, the cupcakes are actually on the counter, too) from my son’s third birthday party yesterday. Anybody want some bagels? I’d love to share. I’d share the cupcakes, too, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be gone in the next few minutes.
On May 26, 2009 at 9:07 am Jenny said...
The blue thing is Krissie’s bottled water. It comes wrapped in plastic with a blue label printed on it, and we just put the whole package in there and then Krissie pulled bottles out of it. So now there are about three bottles in there and a lot of collapsed blue packaging.
I should probably get the plastic out of there.
On May 25, 2009 at 9:50 pm Eva said...
Man oh man did I forget stuff…The whole condiment door. And I found a head of cabbage. I threw out the moldy hummus, too. And I normally have three 18 cartons eggs, but after the weekend I’m down to one.
On May 25, 2009 at 9:58 pm Ericka said...
i have a wee baby fridge and i don’t like it at all… but that’s life in a rental house. my fridge looks like a normal freezer-at-the-top fridge, but it’s only about 5.5 feet tall.
so, let’s see… top shelf – condiments, strawberry jelly, caramel, powered buttermilk for baking, pickles, green olives, yogurt, 2 containers of coffee (regular and hazelnut), chopped nuts (almonds and walnuts), packets of nearly slimy fresh cilantro and parsley, box of baking soda; drawer – bacon, shredded cheese (cheddar & that 4 cheese mexican blend, both sargento), babybel cheese, american slices, clove of garlic; middle shelf – eggs, big yogurt containiner (for smoothies that i will one day make..), sour cream, cream cheese, woodchuck hard cider, coke in plastic bottles; bottom shelf – organic milk, hazelnut creamer, cherry juice, orange juice, cranberry juice, rose’s lime juice, pineapple rum, triple sec, peach schnaps, hersey’s chocolate milk, small stack of take out containers, pepsi in cans; worchestershire sauce, rediwhip; veggie drawer – half fossilized carrots, 2 green peppers that i really need to cut up and freeze; other drawer – apples, 2 bags of salad; door – batteries, many many batteries, packets of condiments from several fast food restaurants, thomas english muffins, bread, butter, margarita mix (tequila included), newman’s own balsamic vingariette salad dressing
let’s not talk about my freezer – there’s something sticky taking over in there.
On May 25, 2009 at 11:47 pm CrankyOtter said...
Too weird! Independently of seeing this, I cleaned out my freezer this weekend!
I also have a french door fridge which I looooooove. It was the first thing I bought for the kitchen remodel after living for a year with a dorm fridge. But part of the reason for the dorm fridge was to learn to stock less and eat what I buy. I have a tendency to hoard – ‘but what if I need this lime later?’ – until the food goes bad. So I’ve mostly broken that habit with the dorm-fridge-boot-camp. I only spend $20 a week at the farmer’s market, only have 2 open jams and 3 open salad dressings at a time.
But my freezer, apparently I haven’t transferred the lesson down there yet. I had a year old bag of mixed seafood, stirfry veggies, and julienned carrots. You know, for those emergency seafood, peapod, carrot stir fry emergencies. And some scraps of old bread loaves, red velvet cupcakes from valentines day, and other stuff that just needed to be tossed. So next trick is to work on eating the stuff from my freezer and remembering if I need more, I can go to trader joes and get some. I do go thru their frozen black raspberries at a pretty good clip and am currently out, so what are the odds I’ll need frozen stir fry veggies anytime soon? The bin is once again crumb free.
On May 26, 2009 at 1:29 am CrankyOtter said...
Oh, and what I meant to say at the start was Plugra, the specialty butter stunk up my fridge so foully I not only threw the butter away but took it straight to the dumpster. Ugh. Never again. Land-o-lakes for me.
And for anyone distressed about short veggie life span, most of them, if rinsed in a 25%vinegar/water mix can last for a couple of weeks. Corn you should just cook the instant you get it home, then reheat if needed later because the sugars convert to starch after it’s picked. It’ll be tastier to boil or microwave it (nuke it still in the husk even), then put it away – cooking sets the sugar. For mushrooms or really fine sprouts and greens, just leave them. But most everything else I haul home from the grocery or farmers market gets dunked in 1 part vinegar/ 3 parts water, then rinsed and (usually drip-) dried before going on the shelf or in the fridge. Since I started doing this, my fresh food lasts almost forever. My latest over-sized batch of strawberries lasted almost 3 weeks in the fridge before I had to start tossing some. The vinegar rinse works so well I rarely think about the expiration date of produce anymore. (Cherries never last more than a day or two, but that’s because they get eaten.)
On May 26, 2009 at 8:02 am Brussel Sprout said...
We bought a big fridge (for Europeans) when we moved into our house a couple of years ago. The veg section is always full because we go to a fresh market once a week, and though we have many eggs, they have a special egg box. We haven’t been to the supermarket in 4 weeks, so there isn’t that much in there at the moment – emergency yoghurt supplies, beans, broccoli, lettuce and peppers from the market, one thing of milk, a lot of flat sprite and coke from kids’ birthday parties last month, a bottle of fancy vodka that we’ve never opened, quince jam, my husband’s apricot jam and half a pot of pesto. We’ve been living out of the freezer recently. But look again tomorrow – I’m biting the bullet and heading out to restock. And I’m going to put the vodka back in the drinks cabinet – we’re never going to get round to those Moscow Mules I was thinking about!
We came back from holiday and I cleared out all the things that had been festering in tupperware and clingfilm. Euw.
On May 26, 2009 at 9:15 am Jenny said...
Eggs. I like eggs. I love breakfast food in general and so does everybody who comes to stay with me, and there’s almost always somebody staying with me, so eggs are a big deal here. Plus I have a microwave egg boiler so I can get hard boiled eggs with very little fuss and I like hard boiled eggs. And I ‘m not a huge fan of vegetables–I grew up on beef, fat, and sugar, and that’s a hard diet to kick–but I love vegetables sauteed in a little bit of butter and then scrambled with eggs and topped with cheese. They look like hell but they taste divine. So I need a lot of eggs. And the cartons are different colors because they’re different sizes bought in different stores. I wasn’t making a statement; I just grab eggs when I think I’m running out. Sometimes I’m wrong.
On May 26, 2009 at 10:53 am Kate said...
My fridge tells the story of dairy. We have a newly acquired jersey cow and every available space has milk in varying forms. Some of it is yogurt; some is kefir; some is cream and the rest is milk. My slightly anal daughter has it arranged by dates so we run less of a risk of spoilage. The kids are drinking it fast enough. LOL. I love seeing all the milk even though we are having to get inventive where the other stuff goes. Thanks for asking.
On May 26, 2009 at 10:57 am McB said...
Quiche!! Very easy to make with the help of Pillsbury Dough Boy. I throw together a quiche every few weeks or so. Slices reheat very nicely in the microwave.
On May 26, 2009 at 4:37 pm inkgrrl said...
Blah blah blah fridge blah blah butter blah blah White Trash Chicken *perks ears up* What, praytell is White Trash Chicken? It sounds suspiciously tasty. Yes, I have priorities.
On May 26, 2009 at 8:49 pm Micki said...
I want to comment before I read everyone’s stuff, so forgive any repeats. But, I know a girl whose friend also takes pictures of refrigerators — but they are Japanese refrigerators — so this is in the international zeitgeist.
Some of the fridges are junky, but some really seem to tell a story. Like someone who keeps the fridge section very orderly, but the deep storage (freezer) has things shoved in every which way. Repressing much? I’d like to tell a story about a person whose fridge looked like that.
Recently, I cleaned my fridge. I put it on the 43Things website five months ago, and finally got it cleaned out about three weeks ago. (-: A guest coming gave me the motivation. That sounds really gross, but aside from a sweet pickle juice spill, I really didn’t have a gross fridge. I do throw stuff out.
My cheese takes up a lot of space, and I’ve been tempted to buy a fridge just for cheese . . . but who has the space for that? And I have way too many little seasoning packets that I plan to “season something with someday.”
My fridge holds a lot of my dream life; if I had time and health and money, I’d be making cheese everyday, and selling it. So, I have citric acid for cottage cheese, tartaric acid for marscapone, vegan and calf rennet, and some frozen cultures buried deep, deep down in the back of the fridge. I haven’t touched any of it for at least six months, so I should let go, but . . . the fridge is kind of like my diary in that respect.
Fridges . . . cool.
On May 26, 2009 at 9:11 pm Micki said...
(-: Yes, I’d like to hear about White Trash Chicken, too. Is it like Tupelo Chicken, which is fried in a spicy cumin cornflake mixture, and then served with jam or ranch dressing? (Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis, BTW, and probably a registered trademark or something of the Hard Rock Cafe; I got my recipe for it from the Top Secret Recipes website.)
I need to lose six pounds for a physical next week (yes, I’m living in a dreamworld), so no Tupelo for me until June 4. Probably no White Trash Chicken, either . . . WT are known for high calorie counts (-:.
On May 27, 2009 at 12:56 am DownUnderGal said...
My fridge??? First shelf is the place half opened condimetns go to die. I’m sure half the stuff up there is expired – usually towards the back…
But I just wanted to say how colourful your fridge is and how it also struck me as being like a collage – an intenstinal collage, the before shot. The colour of the carrots and capsicums and then quite a bit of blue and the green container in the door and the 3 different coloured egg cartons.
It looks very…. zen.
On May 27, 2009 at 8:36 am McB said...
Micki said … “Like someone who keeps the fridge section very orderly, but the deep storage (freezer) has things shoved in every which way. “
I have a coworker like this! Her desktop is gleaming and clutter free, and she likes to tell everyone it’s because she’s so organized. She gets away with it until someone is around when she opens a desk drawer and sees what looks like the result of a small contained explosion.
On May 27, 2009 at 10:01 am Jenny said...
I have a Zen refrigerator. Well, it helps that Lani was coming to stay and it smelled funny. It’s newly cleaned. That’s not its natural state.
For the White Trash Chicken recipe you will have to go to Lani, but I know it involved pouring apricot jam and ranch dressing over chicken breasts, although as somebody who is authentic white trash, I had to point out to her that the original recipe almost certainly did not contain skinless chicken breasts. And probably had Lipton’s instant onion soup in it. Oh, wait, this did have Lipton’s instant onion soup in it, I forgot we bought that, too. You’ll have to ask Lani.
I made White Trash Oven Stew last night. You start with beef and carrots and potatoes–three of the four food groups for white trash food–and then pour mushroom soup and Lipton’s instant onion over top. Oh and lots of real onion, too. It’s not as good as starting from scratch without the sodium-heavy help from Campbell and Lipton, but it’s straight out of my childhood so I’m keeping it.
On May 27, 2009 at 12:41 pm Mary Stella said...
The best thing about my three year old fridge is that the freezer is on the bottom. I LOVE that feature and only looked at fridges with that design.
The second best thing is that I always have stuff in it to make a batch of brownies for friends.
On May 27, 2009 at 2:44 pm Kay T said...
Can’t stop to read all the wonderful comments, but did you know they are having a drawing to GIVE AWAY new Frigidaire appliances? Yes, you could own a new refrigerator, or whatever. It is on Facebook, but I think you can also do it on their site: http://www.frigidaire.com/. “My Mother Load.” Too funny.
On May 27, 2009 at 3:08 pm Lani said...
Hello, all! I have been told that people are wanting the recipe for White Trash Chicken. Well, it’s actually Jenna Fischer’s recipe, and she calls it Sweet and Sticky Chicken or something like that, and explains the whole thing here:
http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/angela/2009/04/angela-and-jenna-talk-recipes/
But I renamed it White Trash Chicken, because it’s got dry French Onion Soup mix in it. That’s when it really crosses the line. Enjoy!
On May 27, 2009 at 5:55 pm robena grant said...
Ooooh, this makes me want to make my special brisket but I usually only fix it for the Jewish holidays. My son loves it. It has a packet of French Onion soup, packet of brown gravy mix, prunes thrown on top, and is cooked at a low temp for a long time. That and a few potato latkes and the next day I look like I’m six months pregnant. : )
On May 28, 2009 at 8:16 am wendy roberts said...
I have four kids and my fridge is sooo jammed one day and sooo empty the next. I grocery shopped Monday and the teens had friends over the next day. It’s now scary empty. I almost need a 2nd fridge just to store all the massive containers of milk. Only once a month I get around to hauling out the stuff in the way back. Usually I find something odd … like Chinese food I don’t remember buying or eating.
On May 28, 2009 at 8:37 am McB said...
While my grandmother would have argued the white trash title, she knew how to use potatoes and carrots to stretch a meal to feed 8 on a small roast. You didn’t get an actual “slice” of the roast; you just hoped there were a lot of meat slivers in your gravy if you wanted protein.
Today we call it “comfort food.”
On May 28, 2009 at 5:20 pm AgTigress said...
Going back to Jenny’s original post, I have to wonder why she was keeping a Brie in the fridge anyway! Cheeses of that kind are best kept in a cool, well-ventilated place, rather than a fridge, which is usually too cold for them. (8-10 degrees C. is recommended). For serious cheese-lovers, a separate cheese-fridge kept at a slightly higher temperature would make sense.
Like the separate white-wine fridge…
I think one of the reasons American fridges are usually so much bigger than ours may be because Americans habitually keep in the fridge many foods that we keep, perfectly safely, in the proverbial ‘cool place’ — things like fruit and bread, which should not be chilled, and are best eaten very fresh anyway. Also, of course, different shopping habits (buying more at one time, and therefore having to store it longer at home) are part of a different pattern, too.
But maybe I am speaking not so much for my culture as my generation, now I come to think of it.
On May 28, 2009 at 9:37 pm Micki said...
(-: Is this the ultimate White Trash recipe? As in, they don’t write it down, they have it on video for the illiterate masses? (That’s going beyond White Trash actually, and into some pretty sad and unfunny territory, I think, so I won’t go there.)
Anyway, I can’t watch the video, but I still want to know . . . how did it get to be red, then? I thought apricot jam was yellow.
(-: I’m having a very tough time imagining this recipe from the hints given (ranch, L’s onion soup mix, jam, chicken) but it does sound like dear old familiar ingredients from childhood. Esp. the Lipton’s. Love the Lipton’s!
On May 29, 2009 at 7:53 am Kieran said...
Micki, the Russian dressing must make it red. I’ve made this recipe before, but mine called just for the apricot jam and the Lipton’s mix.
AgTigress, it would be nice to walk to the corner market to buy fresh, but here the markets are huge (SUPERmarkets for a reason) and the traffic is bad, so…you try to stay out of the grocery stores as long as possible.
Here’s a really good white trash recipe–get one of those small glass jars of sliced Armour dried beef. (You’ll find it by the SPAM). Layer the dried beef on top of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Mix a can of mushroom soup with a cup or more of sour cream. Splash in some sherry. Spread mixture on top of chicken. Bake at 350 degrees until chicken is done. Serve with rice.
On May 29, 2009 at 8:10 pm Micki said...
(-: Thanks! Mystery solved. My connection is sooo slow that I hate to look at videos if I don’t have to.
I’ve got some dried beef; my mom used to make SOS with it (white sauce, frozen green peas, dried beef and sliced hard-boiled eggs — ahhh, the memories). Only problem is, it’s probably 10 years old. I should make it or toss it, I guess . . . .
On May 29, 2009 at 9:48 am robena grant said...
Just finished the Ralph Keyes book, Courage to Write. Thank you so much for the recommendation, Jenny. As you know I’ve struggled for a long time trying to find out what wasn’t working in my stories and had almost given up writing.
You had mentioned this very thing to me a year ago but honestly, I didn’t get it even though I tried hard to do so. I’d worked to get the mechanics right but the authentic voice was lost. Finally after reading Keyes book I knew what you meant. I’m so happy, a bit tired, stayed up late last night making manuscript changes to see if new found theory works. It does. The ball and chain are gone. Yay! Thank you, thank you.
On May 29, 2009 at 7:12 pm ruthie said...
What is that big greenie thing on the right hand door at the top. I love that, or at least what it looks like, like a big ceramic crock or something.
Go ahead, ruin my day and tell me it’s a head of lettuce.
On May 29, 2009 at 8:13 pm Micki said...
This is about the Ralph Keyes book, but it looks like Amazon ran out temporarily — they say it’ll take a week or three to ship it. (-: I wonder if anyone here had anything to do with that? (-: Anyway, I’m waiting. I should have bought it when I put it in the cart, but I wanted to order something else; then I went back yesterday looking for Steve Martin’s new banjo album, and saw that it was going to take awhile. Oh well (-:. At least the banjo album is coming soon, and then I have something to look forward to in July!
On May 29, 2009 at 10:55 pm Jenny said...
The brie was in the fridge because my last cat died about six months ago and the mice have finally caught on and I can’t bear to trap the little bastards. I really need another cat, and not just for the mice, but Milton and Veronica are still in the angry teen years and I hesitate to bring a cat into the mix since it’ll just get yelled at and chased. If Milton and Veronica would just catch mice . . .
The green thing is a package of coffee. God knows why, I don’t drink the stuff. It’s probably up there from the last time Bob was here. He practically takes it intravenously.
On May 30, 2009 at 5:58 am ruthie said...
One other question about the fridge: is that one of those counter-depth ones? I’ve been thinking very seriously of getting one of those and have been wondering if they shallower fridge is really as great as it seems. I’m always losing things at the back of mine because it’s so deep.
On May 30, 2009 at 9:17 am Lori J. said...
Awww, so sorry about your cat. I had to bury one yesterday. : (
On May 30, 2009 at 12:29 pm Jenny said...
Thank you, Lori. Charlie had lived a long and glorious life after being born in my bedroom, and he didn’t suffer a lot, so I think he came out a winner.
Nope, not a counter depth. When we were remodeling the kitchen, we realized that we had to run the exhaust from the range hood along the wall, so we set the floor cabinets out about four so we could build out just that part of the wall. Then we had the counters made to the extra depth and put a regular deep fridge in that was flush with the bumped out counters. I’d do it again even if we didn’t have the exhaust pipe problem. It means I have deep counters so I can put my toaster and blender, et. al, to the back and still have a full 24″ of counter space. Or close to it. The only real problem I’ve encountered is that because they’re flush, the doors don’t open up past a 45 degree angle (see picture) so it can be a real pain getting the drawers out to clean behind them. Otherwise, it’s great.
On May 31, 2009 at 6:43 am AgTigress said...
Ah, I understand about the Brie now!
Any good cheese in a confined space can produce a stronger smell than one would believe possible. I have painful memories of a small — no more than 3 or 4 ounces — well-wrapped piece of fresh Feta that my husband and I once foolishly left in the boot (trunk) of our rented car overnight when on holiday in Greece. For the remaining 10 days of the holiday, the whole interior of the car smelt like all the filthy, sweaty old socks in the world, concentrated into a tiny space. No amount of opening doors and windows and letting the fresh air blow through seemed to have any effect. It was very trying.
I am so sorry to hear about your cat. It doesn’t matter how full of years, how happy the life, and how peaceful the departure, the loss of a family member always hurts.
On June 1, 2009 at 11:51 am Bridget said...
AgTigress,
The other reason that we Americans keep things in the refrigerator is climate. I live in DC. Take my word for it – in July August September there is no cool place in my house. Unless you’re willing to run the AC around the clock (and I don’t like AC until August), it’s amazing how fast things can turn in the heat. Not to mention the bugs.
What I have in my fridge – top shelf sauces, sauces, sauces and sugar, flour.
2nd shelf – pickles, fancy bottled water, applesauce that needs to be thrown out
paprika and curry powder, spagetti, mushrooms
3rd shelf – milk, the Pillsbury cinnamon popup rolls, pie crust, juice
1st crisper -eggs and cheese (my BIL has hens)
2nd crisper – green peppers, more mushrooms, fresh coriander (although I should check that)
3rd crisper – 2 kinds of cabbage
The doors are salad dressing and capers, butter, more pickles and horseradish.
Since I’m single, most of my vegetables are frozen although I can feel the salad craze coming on me. It’s always a fine line. Sometimes you eat the salad – sometimes it becomes a disgusting mix in the bottom crisper.
Bridget
On June 2, 2009 at 8:04 am Zie said...
Our family’s fridge is a 2-door refrigerator, no frost, with different temperature controls for the freezer and refrigerator compartment. It also has an antimicrobial system that helps keep the food fresh and odor-free. The freezer is particularly big, since my mom and I buy meat only about twice or thrice a month so it’s pretty handy for raw meat storage. And ice cream, too, come to think of it, since we buy lots of ice cream when it’s summer in here and it’s so darn hot. I think our fridge is pretty fantastic, I love it! It’s about 3 years old and still fully functional, considering the amount of food we put in there.
Okay, on to the good stuff. The freezer’s full of meat since we just went grocery shopping yesterday – chicken breast fillet, pork chops, ground beef, bacon, sausages, crab meat, cream dory, shrimp, squid balls. There are ice cubes, too, a container of tomato sauce, and basil leaves in a baggie (I learned in a website you can store it there to keep it longer if you don’t want it dried). The chiller contains a whole marinated chicken (honey butter) that I’ll probably bake tom if I’m too lazy to chop things, a container of leftover pasta sauce, and a bowl of leftover stir-fried vegies from this pm. There are a dozen eggs on the egg shelf sitting besides a couple of ointments in tubes. Other door shelves contain boxes of broth cubes, cheese, mayo, salad dressing, bottles of medicine (it’s hot in here so we keep some meds in the fridge), ketchup and my sister’s folded, bagged swimsuit (she’s a swimmer and the swimwear costs a lot!). The fridge shelves are kinda chaotic, with empty glasses that my sisters insist on keeping there, a jar of blueberry, a bottle of sardines, a bottle of “bagoong” (I think it’s shrimp paste in English, this kind is sauteed in garlic and onions and has lots of chilli in it, yum!), a dish of butter, a stick of cream cheese, a container of leftover rice, and gallons of water. The crisper has papayas (we have trees in the backyard and have lots of them that the novelty of eating them have worn off), a bag of bread crumbs (to slow down growth of molds), bananas, a head of lettuce, and green bell peppers. We don’t store much vegies in the crisper since we always buy and cook on the same date. Stored ones are not as delicious as fresh ones. At any point in time, you’ll find a lone piece of fruit in the crisper that has been forgotten and is most probably rotting away and no one wants to take it out and clean the compartment. Hehehe. And there’s also a bowl or saucer filled with food that my father insists on keeping there instead of transferring to a plastic container that saves space. On Fridays, we usually don’t cook and just reheat all the leftovers in the chiller (the still good ones, obviously) and throw away what doesn’t smell/look right. There you go, the contents of our fridge. Does it sound normal to you?
On June 2, 2009 at 5:29 pm Jill said...
Quiz. What does your refrigerator say about you ?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatdothecontentsofyourrefrigeratorsayaboutyouquiz/
On June 2, 2009 at 8:16 pm Marta said...
Our fridge isn’t as full as usual, and I did a complete clean last month, so you’d think it’d look presentable. You’d be wrong.
There’s half a seedless watermelon. On top of that is an almost empty pack of whole wheat tomato and basil wraps left over from making quickie pizzas on the grill. A four liter tupperware bowl is holding about two cups of pork loin trimmings I saved for the dogs—two weeks ago. Three cartons of eggs, or more likely three egg cartons holding anywhere from a dozen to zero eggs. Three glass bottles of raw milk. A wide-mouth quart jar of cream siphoned off the milk. A couple of cartons of buttermilk. A couple of bricks of cheddar. A one inch cube of of mozzarella that has the DH’s finger prints all over it. Two empty zip-lock bags labeled asiago because my DS can find the cheese I grate and hide in the freezer, but can’t find the trash can sitting in plain sight. A wide-mouth pint jar of chopped onions. Some lovely stinky gorganzola crying out for canned pears. Four Daisy sour cream cartons; one holding unrecognizable leftovers, two containing grind-it-yourself peanut butter from the co-op, and the last holding barely a tablespoon of sour cream. Half a dozen lemons. Three bags of cheap iceberg lettuce salad mix. Three bunches of parsley because we have spoiled bunnies. A three pound bag of carrots, ditto. Half a bunch of scallions in post-rigor mortis condition. Five different types of apples because the co-op has so many heirloom varieties and the bunnies are kind enough to share with me. The usual line-up of vinegars, mustards, horseradish, liquid smoke, Texas Pete, mayo, Tiger Sauce, ketchup, salsas, soy sauce, and salad dressings. A jar of marionberry jam. Two cereal bowls half-full of who knows what, covered in plastic wrap even though I’ve pointedly and repeatedly reminded other household occupants those bowls have lids. A bag of almond flour. Bread. Butter. A bottle of local maple syrup. Six cartons of cream cheese. I’m sure there was a reason. Kedem grape juice. Cranberry juice. No Limoncello because my BIL didn’t make any this year, hint, hint, hint.
That’s about it. Well, except for those two large storage containers of brandied fruit I made for Christmas. Six years ago. I kept putting more brandy on top for several months. Then it just sat there. I’ve checked it several times, wondering if it’s still good. It looks exactly the same now as when I made it. Smells like apricot brandy. I just can’t work up the nerve to taste it. So, there it sits . . .
On June 14, 2009 at 2:08 am stac said...
my fridge tells the story of the comedic drama that is my life. two weeks ago hubby’s brand new gps broke, and he needs it for work. then the check engine light came on in both of our vehicles. then the sump pump in the basement broke, so the basement flooded. then the water pump broke and when our house was built no shutoff valve was put in. so in the tradition of hillbilly ohioans, hub and FIL rigged it. then the freezer broke. then i fixed it. hub never pushed the fridge or cabinets back in though. good thing, cuz it broke again. so i emptied it. then the fridge broke. still waiting on the part to hopefully fix it. so i am using a coleman cooler which contains half a gallon of milk, 2 ranch dressings, half a pound of butter, and a few diet sodas. my house looks like a tornado ran through. my garden is overgrown. and i have poison ivy for the fifth time in two months. i sure am keeping someone amused. can’t get any worse, knock on wood…