I'm afraid my neighbours think I'm a charity case!

[Sandra Piddock]

Earlier this week, our neighbour made too much lasagne and passed some in to us, which we thoroughly enjoyed - especially as it's too hot to cook much at the moment. Then today, she brought in chicken curry, pasta, watercress and olives.Again, it was lovely.

She said 'I hope you don't mind - I don't think you're a charity case, but we don't like keeping leftovers in this hot weather.'

I assured her we were very grateful for the food, and not offended at all. Do you mind when people pass stuff in to you?

 

[Arch]

Not at all, I'll eat anything free!

One of my workmate's wives (that's one workmate with one wife!) works at a cafe, and there's always leftover cake and scones that wouldn't be fresh enough to sell next day, so it gets shared between the staff. They can't eat it all (esp anything with chocolate or coffee, as he can't have any caffeine), so he brings stuff into work, and we tuck in! The scones are sometimes a bit dry, but we put plenty of butter on them!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

...but we don't like keeping leftovers in this hot weather.'

Sandra, you have just reminded me on my mother's quote of the week - these being daft comments she makes rather than anything inspired. My mother, as she is 'ageing gracefully' is getting obsessive about best before dates. At the weekend we were over for lunch and I was after some ice-cubes to put in the honeysuckle cordial we had taken over to go along with our lunch (also taken over with us). She went off to the freezer on what was offically the hottest day of the year so far, and the shop bought ice-cubes were duely thrown on to her bedding plants because they were "out of date but shouldn't harm the plants".

Personnally I would quite happily have had them in my drinks because I know they have been in her freezer less than a year (they have only been in that house 1 year) and given that the freezer is at -20C I think the risk would have been minimal!

On the donations front, we don't mind either, but other than 9 duck eggs every 2 weeks, people find it difficult to provide us with free food, but then we only have our landlady as a neighbour so that may not help matters much!

 

[Sandra Piddock]

She went off to the freezer on what was offically the hottest day of the year so far, and the shop bought ice-cubes were duely thrown on to her bedding plants because they were "out of date but shouldn't harm the plants".

Personnally I would quite happily have had them in my drinks because I know they have been in her freezer less than a year (they have only been in that house 1 year) and given that the freezer is at -20C I think the risk would have been minimal!

Love it! Our friends live next door to people who won't use stuff even a day over its date. Our friends are quite happy to receive the cast offs, and a couple of months ago, the neighbours passed in some cans of beer that were just one day out of date. Last week, the neighbours called around for a drink, and Larry served him with one of his out of date cans. He said it was one of the nicest canned beers he'd had in ages! They didn't enlighten him, just in case the flow of freebies stops!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We have a friend who is known as the "Blackdown poisoner" because of her approach to Best Before Dates which is basically non-existant, (rather ironcally she is a QC & deputy district Judge!). With her and her partner not being able to eat quite a lot of stuff and also eating much more healthily than most, guests have long since learnt that it is either best not to ask about dates, or to check stuff themselves.

An example was when my brother was much younger in his early teens. He was down staying with us at the time and we had gone over to her house. He would only drink fizzy drinks, only certain brands etc and was going through a really awkward stage. He wanted a coke, but with no shops anywhere near to where she lived and us refusing to take him anywhere it was a case of cope. So our friend went off and had a rummage through one of her pantries and eventually came back with a can of Pepsi in the 1980's style decor. My brother downright refused to drink it - the BBD was before he had been born!