Don’T Take Chances With Leftovers

After 13 years, my husband still swears I was trying to collect on his life insurance.

I had roasted a pair of cornish game hens. Mine was fine; his, though delicious, harbored some relentless bacteria that kept him praising the porcelain god for days. I should have used a meat thermometer.

Then there’s the woman who refrigerated vegetable soup in the stockpot overnight and reheated it the next evening. Before she realized the soup had taken on a life of its own, her daughter had eaten a bowl and gone off to soccer practice. They carried the child off the field to an ambulance.

She should have placed the soup in glass or plastic containers before refrigerating it.

People often ask, “Can I still use this case of canned tomatoes I bought three years ago?”, or “Is this pasta salad left over from the church luncheon safe to eat?”

I usually answer those questions with a question: “Is the $12 you’re saving by not replacing those tomatoes worth a bout of food poisoning?” Or, “Is wasting a bowl of pasta salad so bad you’ll risk a case of salmonella?”

Or, “So, how big is the insurance policy on your spouse?”