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1. A few weeks ago, I made garlic pickles according to a recipe that involves soaking the cloves in white vinegar in the fridge for a couple of weeks and then draining off the vinegar and pouring soy sauce over the garlic. I put the strained garlicky vinegar in a bottle, intending to use it for salads, and put it on a shelf. The vinegar, which was a clear pale yellow when first drained from the garlic, is now somewhat cloudy, with particulate in it. Should I have refrigerated it?

Is it safe to use? I know that wine vinegar sometimes develops a "mother" at room temperature, which doesn't affect the safety of the vinegar. If this is mold or yeast growing, can I filter it out and boil the vinegar?

2. A recent fridge cleaning netted far too many items that were beyond useability. They had been shoved to the back of the refrigerator and forgotten. I try to keep leftovers, etc., front and center till they're used up, but I'm often foiled.

How do you keep leftovers and opened food containers from being mislaid in this way? Perhaps more importantly, how do you keep other members of your household from pushing such items to the back of the fridge?

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

5% acetic acid is usually the minimum acidity for safe preservation. Depending on how much garlic was in there it's possible that you reduced the acidity of the vinegar. I'd err on the side of caution, but that's just me.

Here is what I have done to organize my refrigerator which is old. My fridge of course has door space for bottles and milk and the typical meat and fruit and vegetable drawers. First I bought two plastic lazy susans (I think that is what they are called..circulate plastic things that turn around) and put two of them on the top shelf of my refrigerator. On those I put jams, mustards, pickles or other condiments which are short. The taller items such as salad dressings or catsup go in the door. I am the kind that might have quite a few jams, olives, gardiera, etc. so I need room for those. You can find things much easier just by spinning these around and nothing get shoved to the back. In the back of these I put the baking soda deodorizer boxes.

Then I went to the hardware store and where they sell shelving and drawer and closet organizers I bought two clear plastic shallow "boxes" without lids..these are meant to be drawer organizers but they work perfectly in the fridge. I put those in the second shelf down. Then to get access to things I just pull the plastic box and I can see everything in it and nothing is shoved in the back. I put things I do not want to spoil or things I use all the time like a tub of parmesan or cut up lemons. In the back of the fridge where things usually get lost I store things I do not use often. For example I have a plastic tub of raw brown rice there. You can buy rubbermade lazy susans and the plastic boxes at most hardware stores and also on line.

Here is a link to bins similar to what I bought although mine were not really designed for the fridge.

http://www.solutions.com/jump.jsp?itemI ... ctID=15845

http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Page ... D=RP091528

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Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,
W. Shakespeare

Easy organization: very early, every Saturday morning, I go through the fridge and do a keep/toss. If during the week it looks messy and I need dinner ideas, I may do it then and create a "must go" dinner. (Eat it or it must go)

Truly, I have given up expecting family to keep it neat. I have a basket in there for deli meats/cheese and half the time I find salami just tossed back in there, loose.

It seems like most of my dinners lately are "eat it or it must go." (See "Getting carried away in the produce aisle.") Also, my freezer is overfilled with leftovers and bags of past-their-prime produce and trimmings put away for future soup making.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

Toria, this is an awesome idea!
My top shelf is like an expedition...
I'm going to use this idea ASAP!

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"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home."
~James Michener

Yes these ideas help quite a bit. You can get at all the jars and stuff easier. Just make sure you measure before you buy to make sure whatever you buy fits. If you go to a hardware store like Ace they generally have stuff like this but you can get it on line too.

Also I hate to waste food too but I have stopped saving so many things in my freezer. I hate it when there is a bunch of stuff there "mystery items" and they get thrown away anyway. One help is to buy the freezer label and mark everything. I am trying to waste less food but sometimes things get buried only to get thrown out later. boo hoo.

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Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,
W. Shakespeare

It depends on how much clutter you can tolerate and whether you have a Compulsive Disorder to have everything in place. To me the effort to have a place fir everything is simply not worth the time and effort and if its out of date and lost, it gets thrown out.
Now cloudy stuff is a judgement call that you need to make but you can search various states ag sites for food safety standards.-Dick

I agree. I do not have a compulsive disorder but live in "organized" semi disorder. I do not like not finding things though so I like to have some kind of method to my madness about where I put things.

_________________
Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,
W. Shakespeare