You Can't Tell a Book By Its' Cover

I hate to admit it, but I think a little of my mother in law may have rubbed off on me during the time I knew her.  And that is all I am going to say on that.  However, my mother in law was very frugal.  She lived during the earlier 1900's and learned not to waste much.  I have heard her story about having a piece of bread that got soiled, (I won't tell you with what) and eating around the soiled part, because you just didn't throw good food away.  Apparently, that rule of thumb transformed over the years that you don't throw any food away.  Doc has an aversion to casseroles, because of his mother.  His story is that she would take any old food in the refrigerator periodically and make a casserole out of it.  He claims the food was spoiling, she always stood her ground and swore there was nothing wrong with it. 

Actually, there were a lot of things she never threw away...clothes, newspapers, furniture, boxes, newspapers, shoes, newspapers...but that is a whole other story.

I do admit that I am very lax with the food in our pantry and as a result of my husband's stories and my not staying on top of things, my kids are slightly (well maybe extremely) paranoid about their food.  First of all, they smell everything - even the cups they get out of the cupboard.  Then they check the expiration dates on everything.  They have caught me more than once with items in the refrigerator that are past the expiration date.  And when it comes to milk!!!! One day past the date stamped on the bottle and they start gagging.  I will admit that I lose track of what is in the refrigerator as far as leftovers and that I did serve Pook a steak that was more than just a little past its prime.  It was an honest mistake!

They got a huge chuckle the other day when I thought I was serving homemade Chili that I had frozen.  Turns out it was Baked Beans.  I do need to start labeling the food that I freeze.

So, the other day my new daughter in law asked for honey for her tea.  I just saw a full bottle in the refrigerator!  She took it and noticed that it was very liquid.  Pook of course, immediately checked the expiration date.  No. That was okay, but he continued to comment.  Well the bottle did say that it was organic, maybe that was it.  Well Pook continued to comment  so I offered to be a test pilot and demanded a spoon.  Within seconds, I was soaring.  Turns out that it wasn't honey after all, but an ethnic whiskey/honey mix that our church serves at the holidays.  Someone took the leftovers and poured them into the honey bottle that was used to make the mix.  Wow!!!!  Guess I better put a new label on that.  I sure hope the grandkids didn't get any!

So anyway, we all carry and give out labels.  Take the time to make sure the labels you place on things and people are accurate, that is if you must label them at all.  Make sure you keep them updated.  Things change and so do people.  Some better and some worse, but they do change.  As it is the start of Lent for all Christians this year, maybe we could all take time to clean out our personal closets and refrigerators and hope for better things and people.  Let's start with ourselves.  Have a blessed week.