Fridge Clearing

We have an odd complex in our household - certain members of the family (myself included) will determine one day that they simply must have an item in the fridge or pantry, so they rush out and buy up 3 or 4 of whatever it is. Then, after that moment's craving is satisfied, the remaining glut wastes away... for days, weeks and sadly sometimes years.

Yes, you read that right. Years. When we moved into our current house (and combined our families) my mother and I found several packets of Lipton SideKicks, Uncle Ben's Bistro Express rice, cookies and crackers that should have bid this world farewell long ago. Apparently, frugality over-rides general health and safety practices with my step-family, and the practice is still continuing - I was forbidden to toss the Sidekicks (that expired Feb 2006) just last week. And yes, it's still in our cupboard. With the rice (at the time of our move in Jan 2007) boasting an expiry date of only November 2006, my mom actually did prepare it - and mixed it in with regular boiled rice in an attempt to use it. They ate it - clearing their plates - and then determined that it tasted "odd". They blamed the combo of the flavoured and plain rice... I blame what had to be the slightly rancid oil.

Where was I again, pre-rant? Right. Leftovers. You'll recall (or you know, scoll down a couple posts) that I had already noticed (and partially dealt with) an almost-dead carton of eggnog that was in our fridge. I left the remainder waiting for either my mom or stepbrother Dan (the only two in the house that drink it) to finish off, so as not to leave them hanging mid-craving. Well, the cravings never came back for them, and the expiry date came and went... leaving the carton in the fridge.

Seeing as eggnog is full of potentially hazardous milk and eggs (albeit pasteurised), I wasn't going to hedge my bets that someone drinking the rest of it was going to walk away unscathed. So I did what I could to turn the disaster into a treat. I made more muffins.

In this case Andrew was the lucky recipient of these snacks - he asked for them after the last batch I made and I was happy to oblige, on a super-sized scale. And I manged to clear out not only the shared detritus in the icebox, but also some of my personal junk too (hence the random spoonful of pumpkin in the mix... leave it out if you have none handy).

Holiday Dregs Muffin-Cakes
Makes 8 jumbo muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chunky, unsweetened applesauce (try the roasted kind!)
1 tbsp pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
3/4 cup egg nog
1 egg
1/2 cup Thompson raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350F, grease or line 8 jumbo or 16 regular muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, spice, baking powder and sugar.
3. In another bowl mix applesauce, pumpkin, brown sugar, egg nog and egg until well combined.
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined.
5. Fold in the raisins.
6. Bake 17 minutes (for regular muffins) or 35 minutes for jumbo muffins.
7. Turn out immediately and cool on a rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 243.5
Total Fat: 2.9 g
Cholesterol: 40.6 mg
Sodium: 32.3 mg
Total Carbs: 51.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 4.5 g
Protein: 6.0 g