two different kinds of sick

[rockinlibrarian]

Dude, I caught psychosomatic strep throat from O'Connor in Arkansas! Seriously, Jason got off the phone last night and said, "Sean has really bad strep throat" and was telling me about it and suddenly MY throat started hurting! It had not hurt until that moment! But it didn't go away-- it bothered me all night and is still going strong 24 hours later, so it must not be psychosomatic. Probably not strep either-- just a basic cold. Now I've got all the other symptoms of a cold. I hope that if it's going to get worse than this that it gets bad NOW so I can get it over with before next week. It would be sad to miss my last days at the Museum, but probably worse to miss my FIRST days at a NEW job!

Random question: Has this ever happened to anyone else, and if so, does anybody know what it is and what to do about it? Prepackaged veggies: salad and baby carrots, specifically. It's like they start to decompose or something in the bag-- they get all slimy and start to disintegrate. Worse-- I've noticed it especially with baby carrots-- sometimes it even starts BEFORE YOU EVEN OPEN THE BAG, and the expiration date is still a long way off! What's going on here? And how can I stop it?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/magnolia---/]

i have no idea how to stop your carrots from getting like that, but i DO know that it happens after a while. i am thinking it may not be the expiration date, but how long the carrots have been sitting in the fridge. who knows!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Well, it happened with two bags of carrots the DAY I BROUGHT THEM HOME last week, so it might be Giant Eagle's fault.

And their produce is BETTER than Shop n Save's.

[majellen.livejournal.com]

I noticed that too! And sometimes the carrots taste a little plastic-ey depending on the brand I buy. To try to avoid it, look for the bags that don't seem to have a lot of water in them to begin with, and when you get home, crack open the bag, rinse them, dry them, and store them in an airtight container. That's what I'm planning on doing. The salad, when I buy it, we get the 3lb bag. We take it out of the bag pretty quickly, and put it into smaller bags.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I thought humidity might be a factor. I took your advice on picking carrots today by TRYING to find a bag without too much water in it (difficult!), but was too tired when I got home to open it up and rinse and dry and so forth.

I've noticed that the lettuce in bags I just sort of fold closed somehow lasts longer than the lettuce in bags I tie tight with a twist tie. Maybe it's good to let the moisture escape and air circulate? I remember seeing Ziplock vegetable bags with tiny holes in them that you can buy, maybe that's why.

[rockonliz127.livejournal.com]

EVERYONE has a sore throat right now. I've been sick since Friday, and I thought it was strep too.

I think it's just so contagious, you can get it from a thought.

[majellen.livejournal.com]

Then SHHHH! Cus I don't have it yet!

[rockonliz127.livejournal.com]

Oh--take the salad out of the bag and put it in a salad spinner. If you don't have one, buy one--they're great. You spin all the water out, and the salad lasts for a week.

[wonderingmind.livejournal.com]

hee hee....the only way to never have slimy carrots is to buy carrots with the peels still on them.

They taste better too. You loose nutrients when the carrots are already peeled anyway. PEELS ARE GOOD!

I remember when I first got to college I bought some packaged carrots and wanted to cry. They taste so bland compared to fresh-peeled carrots.

Prepackaged salads make me so happy though...because there are all these different types of lettuce inside! But they also taste bland...

But honesty, the risk of salmonella/other gross things not to mention the lack of taste...

I'M A CARROT SNOB! GO WITH PEELING YOUR OWN AND YOU WILL NEVER HAVE THE TROUBLE AGAIN! That and you'll like the taste of all your food more.

End me being a snob and HAVE FUN AT YOUR NEW JOB!!!!