
EVENINGS CHEZ SOUP are when I amp up my mad multitasking skillz. Curt and I, we set up our two-on-three zone defense and usually manage to cover it all. Last night, however, something slipped through the cracks and my admission on Facebook today caused a flurry of input.
Here’s how it went down:
I rolled into the house, at 6:20, my arms full of groceries and three bottles of my new favorite wine (the Chilean Malbec by Alamos – and it was on sale!). While I was freezer-diving, looking for cheese and pepperoni to make pizza for dinner, I spied two pounds of ground beef that could be easily turned into a nice Italian meat sauce, for use in lasagna this weekend.
In between responding to requests from Peezer for juice (okay), ice cream (not before dinner), and electronic diversions (can I play your iTouch?), I was whipping up pizza and defrosting ground beef. Got the pizza in the oven, started browning the ground beef on the stove, poured a glass of Malbec. Curt arrived home with a huge bag of dog food AND our repaired vacuum cleaner, suited up and tagged into the game.
Photo borrowed from this site
At that point it I realized that Seth, who should have been longboarding home from his friend’s house, was not yet home. I threw the tomato sauce and seasonings into the ground beef, checked on the pizza, and texted:
ME “Where R U?”
HIM “Still at Baileys”
ME “U were sposed 2 B home, stay there, we’ll come get U”
HIM “hahahahaha ok”
ME “NOT FUNNY, Dad will be there in 5”
I dispatched the taxi Curt to fetch the teenager, pulled the pizza out of the oven, stirred the meat sauce, pried the other two boys away from their video games and started serving up dinner. Seth and Curt rolled in and of course we had to explain about how it’s common courtesy to inform YOUR PARENTS that your plans have changed and he said Uh. Okay. My bad. Only then did he remember that he left his backpack at Soroush’s house on the way to Bailey’s and could he just board over and get it?
IN THE DARK? ARE YOU KIDDING??
So, I stirred the sauce again and turned the burner way down and drove Seth over to pick up his backpack. By the time we got home, Curt was herding Peezer into the bathtub and preparing to help him with his homework… then I remembered I had to follow up on a couple of work things, so I turned off the burner, leaving the sauce to cool, and logged into my laptop. Curt read books to Peezer and tucked him into bed – finally – and then he set out to begin The First Day of His New Exercise Regimen because he and some friends have registered for some crazy 5K at the end of May.
I know, right??
It was about this time I decided I was tired, so I washed my face and brushed my teeth and collapsed into bed and when Curt returned, the news was on and I fell asleep and slept the sleep of the dead.
This morning, when I went out to pour my first cup of coffee, I realized I NEVER PUT THE SAUCE AWAY! I left it, covered, on the stove, in its pan, all night.
DAMMIT. That was two pounds of ground beef and some other stuff and it really tasted gooood! I sniffed it: Seemed okay. I asked Curt what he thought. “Meh, should be fine,” he said, as he and Seth rushed out the door. Because the Merry-Go-Round just never stops around here!
Thanks to Freefoto for this picture
I decided to consult the Interwebs, which of course means Facebook. Lots of friends chimed in, most of them with the same response as Curt. Apparently, you people do this all the time and no harm has ever come to you! You cavalier, risk-taking kids you. Four friends urged me to chuck it – or at least feed it to the dog (but wouldn’t the dog get sick if it’s contaminated?). Two of those quoted food industry sources.
My sister – hi, Bets! – who falls waaay to the right on the caution spectrum when it comes to these things, urged me to stop being insane. The others, though, posted variations on a theme: Recook it, it’ll kill the bacteria. Or add more wine. If the meat was cooked, it’ll be okay. The tomatoes are acidic, they’re not friendly to bacteria. And one noted that in Costa Rica, cooks leave things out overnight all the time, to improve the flavor.
The crux of my concern is this. I’m reluctant to waste two pounds of ground beef and what turned out to be a really tasty sauce. If it were just my immediate family, I’d probably not think twice, but I was going to serve it to friends… none of whom are in a high-risk group for susceptibility to bacteria, but still. I get that bacteria is more likely to breed when food is kept at a certain temperature, but really, what are the odds? Are they on par with, say, being struck by lightning, or higher, such as choosing the slowest checkout line at the grocery store?
And I know it sounds terribly cheap of me to not want to throw it away. But hey – money’s money. And besides – it was a really good batch of sauce.
At this point, I had to post one more follow-up question to the FB peanut gallery:
Further to this morning's food safety question: I want to hear one story about you or someone you personally know, who ate food not stored to the FDA's guidelines and got horribly, violently sick. I"m seeing lots of "could" and "might" - how about some "did"?
Many said, nope. Some told me to shut up about it already volunteered to eat the sauce for me. One posted a horror story about a party and some food and three people almost immediately becoming violently ill. My sister, who at this point must have been afraid I’d poison my family and our friends, leaving us all to die a slow, horrible death, laughed and said, how would you know whether it was food that made you sick or a random “stomach bug” of some kind? And someone else shared advice that most “random stomach bugs” do come from foodborne bacteria.
But then my sister shared this link http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/foodsafety/poisoning.shtml which identifies actual food poisioning causes. Together, we figure the most likely risk would be from CLOSTRIDIUM PERFRINGENS, more commonly called the "Buffet germ" that grows rapidly in large portions of food that cool slowly. However, the resulting illness is mild: diarrhea, gas pains, nausea, and sometimes vomiting lasting only a day.
Well, heck, that doesn't seem so bad, does it?
And YES, I could have spent my time Googling instead of Facebooking, but isn’t it more fun to get your friends’ first-person input before you look it up? Of course it is. But it’s nice to have a legitimate resource in addition to anecdotal snippets.
Now I’m thinking it really is probably okay to keep the sauce. But, at my sister’s wise suggestion, I will probably compromise, keeping last night’s batch for a time when it’s just my family, and making a fresh batch for the weekend... and I promise, I will be vigilant about storing it right after I cook it!
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