The Dreaded Refrigerator Cleaning
Date: January 4, 2006
I've been on a cleaning kick lately. I guess it takes my mind off scary world events, gives my neck and shoulders a break from the computer, and it's nice not to apologize for the house if someone stops by. I have gotten really into it-I have a binder and it has a tab for each day of the week and a room to clean and what to do in that room--plus a daily list. Last week I was too busy on the Kitchen Day to deal with the Dreaded Refrigerator Task.
I used to reserve cleaning the fridge for 3 day weekends, but when you're self employed, that sort of is irrelavant becaues if you're on a deadline, you work anyway!
Today I decided to tackle the dirty deed, donned an old shirt, rubber gloves, gas mask and armed myself with a trash bag, a sponge, and some heavy duty cleaner and sat on the floor and began at the bottom, and pulled out the drawers known as the crisper. Going through the contents, I wondered why they don't call it what it is--the rotter. I threw out many thing, some identifiable, some not; some were forming their own governments and receiving federal aid. Once I pulled out the rotter drawers, I scrubbed at an unidentifiable substance which had spilled at the bottom and seemed to be splattered here and there. It was not pretty.
I soon was accompanied by Oreo the cat. He has a penchant for vegetables and while I wasn't looking, he picked up the large bag of salad greens (which is larger than he is) and took it up the hall. I later found it in the bedroom doorway. He and I had a tug of war over my bag of turkey links, so I had to put he and his sister in a room and close the door.
I began pulling things off the shelves and tossing things that had expiration dates dating back to the Gulf War, but was amazed at how many different mustards I have. I've been dieting and mustard has become a staple, and I've been buying some interesting ones, but I found 16 bottles and jars of mustard--14 different types! (Pictured above).
Represented were:
- Grey Poupon
- Grey Poupon Deli
- Grey Poupon Dijon
- Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
- Bone Suckin'
- Maille Horseradish
- Morehouse Horeseradish
- Frenches Classic Yellow (2 of them)
- Sweet Hot Mustard (sample jar)
- Champagne Mustard (2 jars)
- Jalapeno Mustard
- Hickory Farms Sweet-Hot Mustard
- Sweet Hot Garlic Mustard
- Beaver Honey Mustard
I shared this with my friend in Connecticut; I had beat her by 10 jars. She and I had compared notes on how many kinds of mustard we had a while back...
So, the fridge is clean, there isn't anything scary in there anymore...except the amount of mustard we have....