What Lurks Inside?

From the outside it looks typical enough. The standard Maytag side-by-side refrigerator that I always dreamed of with the ice maker the CRUSHES the ice. It even has the requisite magnetic alphabet, children's artwork, notices of appointments, recipes of things I will never make but imagine in the perfect world of "someday" that I will. Quietly this modern convenience has become the mecca to the hungry child after school, the "starving" husband wondering if there is anything to munch on, home to leftovers never to see the actual light of day as something edible again. Not once has this keeper of the condiments ever cried out, clean me, empty me, love me. It doesn't ask to be thanked nor rewarded for steadfastly watching guard over our precious treats. Or does it?

The other day, after having suffered silently through our unfortunate day and a half power outage, the steadfast guardian of all that is yummy finally said it had had enough. I woke up and went to the fridge to get a glass of newly replaced milk and make some eggs for the kiddos only to find that the door was ajar and light in the fridge had remained on all night cooking ever so slightly everything I had just bought. All that survived is what you see below - minus the milk which I had run out and bought more of before the children revolted.


My husband laughed, saying it looked like a bachelor's fridge minus the beer.


Thank goodness for mustard olives and pickles. Maybe we should become vegetarians.