I wish I could say Zephyr was signing "I love you,"but really, he was shooting web.
Yes, you read that right, cheese inventory. I knew I had picked up a few extra pounds here and there, as there have been very good sales on the two brands I purchase most- Tillamook and Joseph Farms. While not organic, these brands pledge that they only use milk from cows that don't receive growth hormones, so hopefully Jubilee won't reach puberty before her tenth birthday. Ideally, we'd buy organic cheese, but it's so expensive. These brands are usually a few dollars more than the supermarket label, but it's important enough for us to make room in our budget to allow this luxury.
I don't know what your refrigerator looks like. Perhaps you can easily see everything that's there, even reach for something in the back without risk of upsetting last night's leftovers or a precariously placed jar of fresh grape jelly. I've fantasized about that kind of refrigerator, but I seem to have a greater impulse to stock up. Right now, for instance, an entire shelf is home to 50 pounds of brown rice, divided and stored in quart-sized yogurt containers. My extraneous cheese purchases had overflowed the cheese drawer, and I knew there were bricks of it tucked here and there, as well as in both produce drawers. I wanted to check varieties and expiration dates, and store it in some semblance of order.
So, I sat down and pulled everything out, while Jon made toast. "Tell me again why we have Pepper Jack," I fingered the block with doubt. "Was it an accident?" I love cheese and have been known to stand on a soap box defending its nutritional value, but mostly, I'm a Sharp Cheddar and Mozzarella gal, who has just warmed up to Colby Jack in the past year or so. As I stacked blocks by brand and type, Jon sipped his coffee. "Have you ever heard of the Hunt Brothers?" I may have been too distracted sorting by date to answer. He continued. "In the late 70's, they tried to buy and stockpile all the silver in the world. They had this plan to sell it for double its value once they had it all." I began to see what he was getting at. I felt defensive. "But we'll eat all of this!" I insisted.
And I think we will. Because I was happy to find that although we have amassed eighteen pounds of cheese, the earliest expiration date is Christmas (Colby Jack) and the latest is the day after Jon's 38th birthday in August of '09. That's not counting the Muenster slices (12/21/08), Feta (1/5/09), Manchego (9/19/08- better get on that one!), and Parmesan (5/14/09.) Also, I was able to remove and wash two refrigerator drawers, rerouting a moldy cucumber to the compost in the process.
Post a comment about the status of your refrigerator. Does it look like a Frigidaire Ad? Or does it look like mine? More importantly, what's your cheese policy? Stock up when it's on sale, or just buy as needed? I have a (no longer) secret obsession with how people eat. Humor me.
Jon's reward for living with a compulsive cheese buyer: enchiladas for dinner tonight. Colby Jack, prepare to meet your maker. Yum.
9 comments:
Um, mine is neither. My refrigerator is messy, unorganized but not nearly as well stocked as you apparently are. We go in bursts of lots of leftovers to lots of nearly empties to looking pretty bare. And we only own one cheese at a time, maybe two. ;)
Sadly, ours is usually pretty empty looking. It's a little depressing to me, like we;re not prepared in case of emergency. Then again, our power goes out a lot, so maybe it's a defense mechanism. We always have a full drawer of cheese, though. We go through some cheese. And you know, Kurt's from Wisconsin.
I've been buying extra cheese when its on sale and freezing it. You're making me think maybe I can skip that step... But I have soo much more space in the freezer than in the fridge.
That should be it's. Sigh.
Our fridge is a rain forest. No, really, it is. We have a seal issue and, well, it's a rain forest. I've actually been wondering about making fresh mozz, it's beyond delish and now that M. and A. have discovered my secret expensive obsession and like it better than anything else, somethings got to give.
I have a new blog for our API group and it is attached to my blog and I'm being identified as "all of us" when really it's just me, Connor
My fridge has the right amount of stuff in it, because I can see and find it all. (You'd expect it to be easier for a person who lives alone, I guess.) The shelves need a good wipe-down though.
Wow, that's quite a pile-o-cheese! Our pantry tends to pile up with boxes of cereal that could give your cheese pile a run for their money, but the fridge tends not to have that much cheese. Good for you, though! I love the photo.
Frige is chuck full of brown cow yogurt most the time and always seasonal veggies. we often have cheese with at least 3 choices and many varieties of salsa and chili. homemade jams jellies and canned things. There is always organic cream for my coffee even if we have no milk for cerial and there are now numerous reused plastic containers of left overs all mostly local and organic thanks to Jess. Then there is the periodic slab o meat from the kid and soda and on good days a variety of juice or juicing fruit and veggies. Our freezer always has a ton of meat substitute products of varried kinds with frozen veggies. There are almost always popsicles....my weakness...and tons of green chilli. Yum. I can't even wrap my brain around the idea of taking a cheese inventory. seriously i'm jelous.
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