Pickle Music

The fridge had gotten to that point. The point at which it was so packed full of half-empty sauce bottles; unopened jars of chutney and antipasto that had arrived in gift baskets two Christmases ago; and other abandoned condiments; that there was hardly any room left in it for actual food that we might actually eat. It was time to clear out the crap.

I apologize to Ken if I threw out anything valuable of yours by accident. I'm pretty sure you won't miss the jar of Patak's Curry Paste that had only a teaspoonful left in the bottom, but what about the half-full Chicken Tikka Sauce? Was that from last month or last year? If I got rid of anything I shouldn't have, just say the word and I'll replace it.

We did have some odd items archived behind the mustard and the peanut butter. For example, a 2 Litre (half-gallon) jar of cubed pickled beets. I assure you, I did not heft that sucker home from the grocery store. There's only one other person shopping for our fridge, and he hates beets. Will not eat them. I have tried. I like beets (just not the pickled variety), but Ken most definitely does not. So why was that jar taking up valuable real estate in our fridge? That's another story to be told another day.

Speaking of econo-sizing, we also had a 2 Litre jar of dill pickles (expired in July). I drained the brine down the sink and then tilted the jar over the trash bin, dumping out a large quantity of whole pickled cucumbers, giving them a poke to get them moving when they got jammed in the mouth of the jar. For reason I cannot justify, I found myself humming the William Tell Overture while performing this operation. That there is pickle music!

I rinsed out all the jars, took out the trash and the recycling. Now I have space in my fridge! For food! Trust me there are still plenty of sauces available. Sauce is always better when you've got something to put it on.