Twice Re-Used

Ah yes, apparently I re-used a used zip lock baggie….

Wow, this is always something I said I wouldn’t do, you know, put something in a zip lock, store it, use it and then re-use the same bag to store something else.  We all remember the days when our mothers did this – don’t we?

For a week there would be four slices of bologna in a bag, then she’d make the last sandwich for your lunch, cut up an orange, pop the orange in the old greasy bologna bag and send you off to school… You’d open that orange bag looking forward to a sweet treat and be hit with the overwhelming smell of processed meat, mixed with orange – ah, the aroma never leaves you – does it???

Clearly, the meat in a baggie thing still lives on – only I did it in the opposite order.  

I have a good habit of writing on the bags what the cooking instructions are for whatever it is I am freezing.  I do this a lot when I don’t want to keep a big package in the freezer for just one item.  This item didn’t come in a package, it’s the remainder from a full ring of homemade kielbasa from Srodeks in Hamtramck (if you live in the Southeastern Michigan area – go there – they make THE best sausage in town, I get the chunky stuff).

Noted on the bag - if you can read my cooking instruction for this little leftover end of frozen kielbasa - it says, “Run under water, add bananas, milk and berries – Blender”.

Hmmm. Never put a sausage in a blender before – do you think it goes well with the bananas?? Yuck-o

Here’s what used to be in the baggie – it was Acai mush, frozen in a package.  I couldn’t use it all at once, so I clipped the end up with a paper clip and popped it in a ziplock – the bag never actually got dirty, the Acai was in a bag already, it just wasn’t a re-sealable one.  

Therefore my mind found it ok to re-use the used ziplock.  That is until I pulled it out and read my cooking instructions – which at that point, well, I wanted to cry.

So, that’s it – I’ve re-used a used baggie.  Holy crap, this is a major “you are turning into your parent’s” moment.  And I so wish to avoid the multiple smells of my lunchtime youth….blech.  

Oh the many sights and smells flooding me right now.  

Did any of you have those desks that opened?  The top was hinged and you kept your lunch in the desk – then at lunch time you’d clear everything off, put your paper and pencils back in the desk and pull out your lunch – everyday for a year.  Yep – another awful smell reminder from my youth – all tied to lunches, sandwiches in baggies and old lead pencils…

Help – bologna, bananas and pencil lead – oh my, with a dash of old lingering peanut butter, wafting through my memories.

Please – does anyone have a flower, it’s a shame it’s too soon for roses or lilacs, yes, lilac would do nicely. Oh how do I get those smells to leave my head, cut grass anyone – no grass is still brown – damn. 

While I’m at it, anyone remember Olive Loaf?  Yeah – what the hell was that? Who ever thought that was good?  “Ah yes, what can we put in this pink processed meat to make it standout?  Oh – of course – Green Olives!!”  Can you say sodium tidal wave?

So happy to be out of my youth – so, so very happy.