When Comfort Food Runs and Hides...
I got home tonight and wanted Mac and Cheese. With a passion. It was unlike anything I've felt for a while when it comes to food. I wanted it as much as I wanted Cream of Wheat (which I normally can't stand) several periods back. So I reached back into the bowels of my cabinets (yes, they *are* that deep), and pulled out a box of macaroni with the cheese sauce in the pouch, because that's the best kind, in my world. For kicks and giggles, I check the expiration date.
[facefall]
11/2005. Well, shit, I think. Heaving a sigh, I wonder just how bad cheese sauce can go in two months. I mean, it's so processed that there isn't anything organic left for the mold to eat, you know? I cut open the packet and WOW. I never knew cheese sauce could do that. It was like clear liquid oozing around desiccated chunks of talc. It smelled alright, but anything saucy that separates like that should be avoided. Fine. I save the pasta (that just *can't* go bad, right?) and reach into the cabinet for the dry stuff. Yep. Two packages. Having learned from the previous package, I check the dates.
[facepalm]
15 March 2005. Almost a whole year. But it's powder. How can powder go bad? It's kept cool and dry, and it's sealed. There's no way the nasties can get in there. I open one of the packets to see. It looks fine. I sniff. It smells fine. I stir it about with a finger. Feels alright. But really. If something has anything at all to do with milk, and is almost a year out of code, maybe the smart thing to do is pass it up. So, I save the noodles from both boxes, and toss the cheese sauce powder.
By now, I'm actually very hungry, and only mac and cheese will do. I have an abundance of suitable pasta, but no cheese sauce. Yet wait! There's always actual cheddar cheese. And there's always "cream of." So, after much stirring and mixing and tasting, and a conscious effort to ignore whatever little numbers may or may not have been printed on the bottom of the can, I devoured my mac and cheese. The difficulty I had in getting to this point was maybe a sign that I shouldn't be eating it, but I haven't made the stuff in ... nearly a year, as the expiration dates demonstrated.
Ah well. That's life. I'm pretty sure the cream of was fine, by the way. I bought those cans in the middle of last semester, and they last forever. All the same, I'm not looking. Now that I've eaten it, I don't want to know.
Love and Peace
[facefall]
11/2005. Well, shit, I think. Heaving a sigh, I wonder just how bad cheese sauce can go in two months. I mean, it's so processed that there isn't anything organic left for the mold to eat, you know? I cut open the packet and WOW. I never knew cheese sauce could do that. It was like clear liquid oozing around desiccated chunks of talc. It smelled alright, but anything saucy that separates like that should be avoided. Fine. I save the pasta (that just *can't* go bad, right?) and reach into the cabinet for the dry stuff. Yep. Two packages. Having learned from the previous package, I check the dates.
[facepalm]
15 March 2005. Almost a whole year. But it's powder. How can powder go bad? It's kept cool and dry, and it's sealed. There's no way the nasties can get in there. I open one of the packets to see. It looks fine. I sniff. It smells fine. I stir it about with a finger. Feels alright. But really. If something has anything at all to do with milk, and is almost a year out of code, maybe the smart thing to do is pass it up. So, I save the noodles from both boxes, and toss the cheese sauce powder.
By now, I'm actually very hungry, and only mac and cheese will do. I have an abundance of suitable pasta, but no cheese sauce. Yet wait! There's always actual cheddar cheese. And there's always "cream of." So, after much stirring and mixing and tasting, and a conscious effort to ignore whatever little numbers may or may not have been printed on the bottom of the can, I devoured my mac and cheese. The difficulty I had in getting to this point was maybe a sign that I shouldn't be eating it, but I haven't made the stuff in ... nearly a year, as the expiration dates demonstrated.
Ah well. That's life. I'm pretty sure the cream of was fine, by the way. I bought those cans in the middle of last semester, and they last forever. All the same, I'm not looking. Now that I've eaten it, I don't want to know.
Love and Peace
posted by Rehkmira @ 22:18
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