There is a game being played by food bloggers at the moment. This “What’s in your refrigerator?” game was started by Sam at Becks and Posh a few weeks back (see her May 3 entry). Several other bloggers have led readers inside their refrigerators (Shuna at Eggbeater has a list of participants in her May 16 entry.), and I thought it would be fun to do the same.
Here is my refrigerator on a sleepy Thursday morning. She didn’t have time to primp, so here she is - in her PJs, if you will.
Looking in someone’s refrigerator is a bit like rummaging through her dresser drawers or rifling through her medicine cabinet. It’s revealing. So, what does my refrigerator reveal about me?
My refrigerator tells me that I am an ingredient girl. I love raw materials that I can manipulate and transform into something wonderfully tasty.
Today I have an assortment of foundation ingredients on hand. A partial list includes: chipotle chilies, tomato paste, Dijon mustard, simple syrup, anchovies, fresh lemon juice, blond roux and sundried tomato oil.
In the right-hand salad crisper you will find fruits anchored at the bottom and fresh herbs resting on top. At the moment I have dill, sage, thyme, parsley, chives and cilantro residing in the drawer.
In the left-hand salad crisper I keep all my vegetables (or as many as will fit).
The two middle shelves house foods that are more or less ready to eat with little or no preparation - eggs, cooked brown rice, peanut butter, cheese, plain yogurt, leftovers, etc., plus anything that won’t fit elsewhere.
There are other ingredients I choose to keep in my fridge that many people opt to keep in their kitchen cabinets. These include whole grain flours (right now I have buckwheat, cornmeal and a baking mix made of chickpea and rice flours) and nuts. Because of their oil content, nuts and whole grain flours become rancid in a relatively short amount of time, so I always keep them fresh by storing them in the refrigerator.
I also keep oils chilling in my refrigerator door because they turn rancid very quickly when kept near any heat source (including heat that accumulates in high-reaching kitchen cabinets). Always smell oil before using - if it smells musty or uncharacteristic of its source (like sesame oil smelling like deep fryer oil), don’t use it. The oil probably won’t make you sick, but it will certainly make your food taste bad.
So there you have it, folks - a virtual tour of my refrigerator. Care to play along and tell us what’s living in your refrigerator?
Not only a great post, but very helpful hints!
Welcome to the blogosphere!