First significant fridge casualty

[cjsmith]

Last night I pulled out a multipound chuck roast to put in the crock pot. After it had been in my fridge for five or six days, I did not completely like the smell or the look of it. Either signal alone I might have skipped. My nose is best described as hyper, and meat always looks different when the blood has had time to drain off it. But both signals together I didn't want to risk. There went $7 worth of meat. Grr!

New rule for self: When purchasing expensive one-shot items like that, cook them the same day. If I can't cook a roast that day I can't buy it that day. I think I need to apply this rule for all meat. See, most weeks, I have exactly one day to do all chores including grocery shopping and cooking for the week. If something doesn't get cooked on day one it won't get cooked until day eight... and that may not be soon enough for a chunk of beef.

*sigh*. Fortunately, the only other goofs so far have been small. The sawdust bars I pitched might have been as high as $4 all told, but the other two things I've opted to pitch were some celery ($1?) and some dried beans that had been soaking for a week ($0.25, another didn't-get-it-in-the-crock-pot-on-Sunday goof). For a total noncook's first month of kitchen life, and considering the insane constraints I'm under, I suppose this isn't too bad.

Comments

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

There's always the freezer....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Except when you do the math, I have some significant problems with freezer space.

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

There is that.. The freezer I recently acquired from Sears doesn't use tons of energy, maybe about 0.4 kWh/day (which is much better than the freezer it replaced, at 3.5 kWh/day!) It's a nice chest freezer that I have in my basement as extra storage space. A nice vacuum sealer to seal individual servings and you're all set.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Basement??

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's probably a good idea you chucked it. You don't have lots of freezer space,right?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Nope, pretty much zilch. I'm not in a financial situation where $7 is something I need to tear my hair over, but it's a stupid, avoidable mistake, and I hate waste.

I'm learning, though. At least I can say I'm learning!! :-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

definitely a learning curve here. i'm glad you've got the nose to detect these things. i don't, so i'm mostly using my sound judgement and the 7-day rule i was raised on.

my friend queensheba almost always does her crock-pot-ing overnight, since she's gone for work for too long for most things. you'd need the fridge space to put the crock in before you head out to work, though. hmm, what about crockpotting AT work?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

May I just say that learning curves are a pain in the ass? :-)

Crock pot overnight is a big win, especially now that I can't predict my evening schedule at all. I don't think I'd need fridge space to put the crock in, though -- and I've heard that that can be problematic in terms of food safety, as the heavy crock takes a while to heat up from fridge temp. I just need to prepare the stuff in the evening instead of in the morning. Alternatively, I could prep in the morning and put chopped things in the fridge in baggies.

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

yes. learning curves ARE a pain in the ass, and these particular ones seem to be a bit pricy, too.

When i used to do my slowcooker potato soup, i'd prep everything the night before, so in the morning, all i'd have to do is dump everything in, turn it on, and go to work.

speaking of learning curves, i'm going to try your frittata today. i have turkey, i have eggs, i have something vegetable-like. how horrible can it go?

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

my rule of thumb for raw meat in the fridge is 2 days, maybe 3 if it's been marinating in something. 5-6 is definitely stretching it.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

google confirms (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Food-Safety-Issues-767/raw-meat-1.htm)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! My fridge is on the cold side -- I find ice crystals in stuff from time to time -- but that doesn't give me a factor of two. It's good to know I wasn't being a nervous ninny.

[lcohen]

by the way, i cook for one, too. half batches, and living with a little more frequent repetitions--that is, i will often eat the same thing two days in a row.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, now that I'm on this annoying diet I eat maybe five or ten possible things ever. There's a lot of repetition for me now! :-)

[katybeth]

things I've opted to pitch were some celery ($1?)

I know you're short on freezer space, but for the record, you can chop extra celery and freeze it chopped, and it will work for soups and casseroles and such. Not so much if you want celery sticks or other raw uses.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm still learning what can and can't be frozen for later. A recent lesson: freezing a whole onion and then thawing it to chop is AWFUL; you get a gooey mess. But chopping an onion and freezing it to use the chopped bits works just fine.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

And *this* is why I don't cook meat at home. (People think it's because I live with two vegetarians -- nope, I ruled out meat v. early in my living alone. Too wasteful.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I hear ya!! I honestly have no idea how I'd do this Lyme diet without meat. But if I'd been vegetarian (*and* cooking for myself) for a while, I'm sure I'd manage.

[katybeth]

Also, I may have a couple of recipe suggestions for you (or modified recipe suggestions), but will have to check ingredients. Can I email them?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh absolutely! That'd be great! My LJ e-mail should work. Um, give me a hint of username or domain it'd be coming from, so I can whitelist it? (Gmail in particular does NOT get into my system unless I whitelist a specific user! Too many spammers fake that domain.)

[katybeth]

mit.edu

if that's not too broad

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Done! Sorry that took so long.

[katybeth]

sent