Those Aren't Sesame Seeds

Disclaimer: If you have a weak stomach or are eating while reading this, you probably had better not read any further.

Do you ever get a feeling? Well I had a feeling before I left for the U.S. that one of these times when we are gone that one of our fridges is going to go out, and that we would return to a gigantic mess. I just didn't know that it was going to be this time.

It's only 7 am, but I'm already done eating for the day. I'm not sure I can even stomach the possibility of thinking of eating anything today. After procrastinating all of yesterday, I decided that I had better tackle the task of cleaning out the fridge before S gets home tonight.

Yesterday, I had briefly (like for less than two seconds) opened the fridge and the freezer to see what I was going to be dealing with. I removed two containers from the freezer of what once was chili. Being that it is just S and I, there is always too much food, and thus we eat a lot of leftovers. Chili is just one of those things that makes a huge batch, so I always freeze individual containers of it. So, I pulled out the containers of the food-formerly-known-as-Julie's-chili. Yeah, let's just say that chili that has been frozen, then thawed in the freezer, then left to sit for who knows how many days in an 80 plus degree room, and then refrozen is just plain disgusting! It had a good case of mold growing on it...and I'm pretty sure that frozen mold tastes no better than normal mold.

So, after disposing of the two things of chili yesterday (I was able to salvage the Tupperware containers), I decided that the cleaning of the fridge and freezer would have to wait. Just the stench alone from briefly opening the fridge/freezer lasted throughout the day. Of course on the positive side, I don't think geckos like the smell of rotten food!

So, this morning I got up early and decided that I had no choice but to tackle the mess. Well the containers of chili were in a drawer in the freezer that also contained packages of chicken breasts and a bag of frozen shrimp. Let's just say that I'm darn glad that I kept these items in the drawer and not on a regular shelf. I probably just saved myself hours of scrubbing out the freezer...although I'm sure that I'll still use a considerable amount of bleach in it. Also, I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to eat chicken or seafood any time in the near future. I generally don't have a weak stomach (probably one of the reasons why living in India doesn't bother me), but this morning I came real close on more than one occasion to losing my breakfast. I have three candles burning in the kitchen, and I still have to hold my breath any time I go near this room.

Anyway, so yesterday when I was dumping the containers of chili, I noticed sesame seeds on the outside of the containers. I didn't really think twice about this as I have sesame crackers in the freezer, and it's possible that some seeds may be floating around in the freezer. This morning while further cleaning out the freezer, I realized that those weren't sesame seeds. Nope, those were bugs! They are all over the inside of the freezer. Of course, now that the freezer is back working, the bugs are frozen (and hopefully dead), but talk about GROSS!

What I'm trying to figure out now is whether or not I can salvage crackers, cereal, chips, sugar, flour, brown sugar, etc. that I had stored in my freezer. I pulled the crackers out of the box, and they look OK. Now, I'm just hoping that the plastic they are sealed in is strong enough to have kept the crackers from absorbing the rotten chicken/shrimp smell. I haven't gotten to the flour and sugar yet. I have a feeling that those will have to go in the garbage.

So, the freezer is about half cleaned out. I haven't even started to tackle the fridge side yet. Does ketchup, mustard, jelly, hot sauce, etc. go bad if it is refrigerated, then gets hot, and then is cooled again? I did notice that S has moved one of the bottles of ketchup to the other fridge, so he must have been using it. I guess when he gets home tonight I'll have to ask him if it tastes OK and if he has got sick at all. I'm thinking that I should be able to salvage my chocolate chips and butterscotch chips.

So, why did the refrigerator go out? We have been having major power problems here for a couple of months now. Supposedly, the electrical lines are being fixed, and every week I hear that they will be fixed in one week. In the meantime, the voltage coming into the house is high (or so I've been told), and even with the whole house stabilizer, which is suppose to help keep appliances from getting fried, the power issues have been wreaking havoc in our house. Breakers keep tripping and certain items won't work at different times. Even though we don't pay for the generator fuel, it just isn't feasible to have a generator running 24/7 for days on end. So, we deal with the electrical issues...and the problems created. We have to...this is what we signed up for when we moved here.

Anyway, I guess I should make another run at the cleaning. This is probably going to be an entire weekend project as I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to handle doing the entire thing at once. However, I do need to keep moving on it as I need to make a list of items that I need to replace. Then I can go to the grocery store here to see what I can find, and then I can still have time to beg my cousin and aunt into bringing whatever else I need with them when they come at the end of next week.

So goes my exciting weekend in India! I'm hoping that everyone else is having a much better (and less smelly) time than I am.