The Season of Giving
It's that time of year when we start dropping off cans of food at various spots, to help stock the various local food banks. At our church we do this throughout the year, But yesterday my favorite pizza place announced if you dropped off a non-perishable food item they'd give you a few dollars off your favorite pizza.
Well, you don't have to twist my arm to get me to my favorite pizza place anyway. But offer me a deal like this and I'll stand in line for hours. Even in the cold and wind. Which was the weather last night.
As always when an appeal for canned food and the like goes out I head for my pantry shelves and select a suitable item. This is not as easy as it sounds, as my pantry shelves are stocked with things like maraschino cherries and black olives. (Come on, you never know when you're going to need a maraschino cherry, am I right?)
But I can usually come up with a canned item or two that is rumored to have more nutritional value. That's when I make the mistake of reading the expiration date on the can, and find out the item's shelf life expired in October or 2010.
But last night I found two cans of cannellini beans that just expired two weeks ago. Well, I said to myself. How bad can they be? I mean, come on, two weeks. Not exactly a big deal.
My first thought was to cook up a batch of some nice Italian-style soup, preferably involving escarole. But epicurious.com failed to inspire, and allrecipes.com refused to recognize the word "cannellini." So I kept digging.
I eventually found a recipe for a soup that involves chicken and cannellini and canned tomatoes. I have decided to chance it.
Unless anyone out there has any serious warnings about expired cannellini.
Well, you don't have to twist my arm to get me to my favorite pizza place anyway. But offer me a deal like this and I'll stand in line for hours. Even in the cold and wind. Which was the weather last night.
As always when an appeal for canned food and the like goes out I head for my pantry shelves and select a suitable item. This is not as easy as it sounds, as my pantry shelves are stocked with things like maraschino cherries and black olives. (Come on, you never know when you're going to need a maraschino cherry, am I right?)
But I can usually come up with a canned item or two that is rumored to have more nutritional value. That's when I make the mistake of reading the expiration date on the can, and find out the item's shelf life expired in October or 2010.
But last night I found two cans of cannellini beans that just expired two weeks ago. Well, I said to myself. How bad can they be? I mean, come on, two weeks. Not exactly a big deal.
My first thought was to cook up a batch of some nice Italian-style soup, preferably involving escarole. But epicurious.com failed to inspire, and allrecipes.com refused to recognize the word "cannellini." So I kept digging.
I eventually found a recipe for a soup that involves chicken and cannellini and canned tomatoes. I have decided to chance it.
Unless anyone out there has any serious warnings about expired cannellini.
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