Friday, December 24, 2010

Kitchen Safety, Poisoned Dishes?

During my years as cook for the local day care center, I prided myself on the fact that there hadn't been any food-borne epidemics on my kitchen watch.

Now, here in my own kitchen, I wonder if I handled things correctly.

On Tuesday, just before one when I started my aborted trip to the grandkids I washed the dairy dishes.  Then I started eating the fish lunch that had been cooking at the time.  I couldn't eat it quickly enough, or maybe that was the first sign that I was getting sick, so I packed it in my good food container and took it with me.  When I made it back home sick without going any further than the bus stop, I put the fish in the fridge and didn't wash the dairy dishes until a short while ago (Friday, noon.)  And over those three days, nobody washed the dairy dishes unless my husband wanted something very specific that was some place in that sink.

Yes, three days of festering flu virus, unless they don't thrive in a sink of dirty dishes.  I took the fish meal and fed it to the strays who like my cooking.  Then I poured some bleach on the dirty stuff in the sink.  Not an awful lot,  just a bit...  And then I finally did my usual very thorough job with soap and hot water.  When I say hot, I mean wear rubber gloves hot.

I guess I'm immune from my own flu, and we're not having any guests, and if my husband gets sick it could be from my coughing, during the first couple of days when I couldn't raise my arm to cover my mouth.

So far all I've eaten for lunch has been a banana.  I need more energy.  Maybe I should cook up some fresh ginger and an apple...  I had my "usual breakfast."  I don't think it has done much good or bad.

2 comments:

Jennifer in MamaLand said...

Three DAYS? Oy, vey... that's nothing!

I once left a pan from chicken - this was long ago, in a different marriage - for three WEEKS. It sat on the back of the stove and eventually, my ex and I were too terrified to go near it. It was TRULY disgusting by the time one of us got up the nerve to wash it. I'm sure by that point any foodborne illnesses had up and died from the toxicity.

Anyway, I think you only need a capful or so of bleach for a whole sink of questionable dishes. I add a splash for cleaning yucky plastic yogurt containers, which otherwise are impossible to clean.

Glad you're on the mend!

Batya said...

The dairy sink mess grew and festered. Lucky for me I've lost my sense of smell for the time being or I'd feel even sicker. My husband did his rountine job of keeping the fleishig sink clean after eating every night.