Yeah, so I'm going to continue to bitch about the food that's about to spoil because, hey, the food's still in the fridge and it's about to spoil.
Yesterday (Wednesday), even though I picked up some tomatoes and cherry tomatoes that fell off the vine in the backyard and stored the ones Mother laid out on the counter into the fridge, I finally got to work actually inspecting them. I did that one day after I pored over all corners of the Internet, Googling, "How do you know when tomatoes go bad?"
How can you tell? Well, if they're discolored or look moldy, throw them out. If you grip them and it feels soft, throw them out. If they smell bad, throw them out. If you cut them open and you see dark, fuzzy or white spots, throw them out. And if you open them and feel sliminess on the insides, throw them out.
Well, nearly all the tomatoes in the bag (which was in the crisper) had these long score marks emanating from the stem. They're cut open deep enough that it looks as though they reach well inside. I put pressure on them, and they cave rather easily. And when I cut them open and reach in, I feel the slime. Or is it juice? It could be juice. And then I smell them and they smell ... like tomatoes. And I don't see any mold in the tomatoes. Well, I see white spots. Is that mold? Are those bad?
And that was just one fucking tomato. There are about a dozen now in this bag now that I have taken all the ones that my parents put in the counter out of the strainer. And that doesn't even include the cherry tomatoes.
What the fuck am I supposed to do? All the websites say when in doubt, throw them out. But I can't just waste all these tomatoes my folks planted and picked. And besides, not all the signs point to spoilage.
What I decided is why I hate storing perishable food. It took me upwards of an hour to prepare the sandwich I wanted to eat for dinner. A half-hour of that was devoted to inspected one tomato, cutting it open and, just to be safe, cutting out anything that looks white. What was left I either sliced onto the sandwich or diced into the salad I plan on having for lunch.
And oh, while it took me an hour to prepare that sandwich, it only took me five fucking minutes to eat. That was not without its fuck-ups. The slices of tomato fell off the sandwich. I hate that.
So now I have to worry about food poisoning. Honestly, I felt sort of light-headed after I ate, and I felt sharp pants on the bottom of my feet. But maybe I'm being psychosomatic. I went to the X concert at First Ave. last night and I felt fine. And then, while blogging this, a cup of raspberry-flavored fruit punch made me shit like a storm. That could be from bad tomatoes, or from the two hot dogs, one hamburger and two pieces of cake I ate at work yesterday afternoon. Shit, I'm not dead, so I guess the tomatoes are good, right? Then again, tomorrow's another day.
And now I have to worry about this second wave of tomatoes, the ones my folks left on the counter for me. One of them I held in my hand; when I squeezed it, it caved in too. Did I leave those tomatoes out on the counter too long? Are they going bad because I didn't put them in a bad and then store them in the refrigerator? And don't get me started on the third wave of tomatoes that are currently sitting on the kitchen counter. I have no fucking clue if they're edible or even if they're ripe. I have to look that up on the Internet. And shit, what about the tomatoes that are still outside?
All of this is wrapped up with the eggs that I have to go through. Father said that there were some downstairs. I thought he only meant one carton. But I think there are several. Now why the fuck would he buy so many goddamn eggs when he knows he won't be here for a month? Now I have to eat them all before they spoil, and I had to look up how eggs spoil on the Internet too!
Fuck all this!
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