You could argue that the heart of any home is the refrigerator. It's true- without it, we would have to constantly rely on food delivery, and have nothing to go to for late-night munchies. Obviously, having a fridge is an absolute necessity.
But what are the most essential contents of a fridge? These people of Reddit have all the answers. Connnor4real asked:
What is essential to have in your fridge at all times?
First, let's go back to basics.
Seasoning your food is necessary.
“Having just condiments is pretty sad, but not having condiments at all is a whole different level of low.”
“I'll never forget the time I was invited to eat at my aunt's boyfriend's house (why, I have no clue). I had to have been around 11 or so.
The man had no salt. No salt-like product. How do you not own salt? If you choose not to eat salt for whatever reason, how do you not own salt for people you invite over? It's like the one basic seasoning.
I'm 41 and whenever that comes to mind I still get annoyed at the idea of it.”
Yes to all of this.
Hot Sauce Bip GIF by Bachelor in Paradise
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“Some kinda hot sauce, I go for cholula and sriracha.
Yo I'm very aware you don't need them in the fridge to stay good. Also thanks for the recommendations everyone!”
“We keep El Yucateco, Cholula, Louisiana, Tabasco, Huichol, Valentina, and Tapatío.
Also often keep a more home style jalapeño and tomatillo or chile de árbol salsa. Once in awhile the molcajéte will show up with various salsas in it, or whatever was left over from the last trip to the taqueria.
I could go for some chile morita salsa. And carnitas.”
For the sake of adapting.
“Anything that can be used on bread. Cheese, pâté, any kind of savoury spread.
I lost all pleasure to cook when my partner died, and bread+spreadables is my usual go-to.
Oh, and eggs.
ETA: thank you all so much for the awards, they are really heartwarming; but please, please, please, keep your money and use it for a charity nearby instead, if you can."
“When my grandfather died it was the exact same for my grandmother. She went from being an amazing cook who stood in the kitchen for hours making a three-course menu for a simple family visit to living with easy and ready-made foods. In the past, she never would have touched those. I heard that this is a fairly common concomitant of grief but that it gets better over time.
I wish you all the best!"
Emergency quesadillas.
“Shredded cheese and tortillas. Gotta be able to make a quesadilla at the drop of a hat.”
“Up your quesadilla game by buying the cheese in a block and shredding it yourself. It's cheaper and melts better; the pre-shredded stuff has additives it to keep it from clumping.”
Then there are the nonsensical universal things that we keep in our fridge, despite no reason to.
Don’t eat after phase three.
Hungry Labor Day GIF by Bounce
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“Leftovers that I will never actually eat.”
“Leftovers go through 3 phases. 1) I can still eat this because I just cooked it yesterday but I won't. 2) it's been 2-3 days, I should really eat that now before it goes bad. 3) why did I even save that, now it's been 4 days and it's definitely bad but I don't want to throw it out and let it sit in my garbage can so might as well wait until garbage day.
Edit: yes I get it. You can eat leftovers after 4 days. That's great. Personally I have leftover fish in my fridge from Thursday and it's in phase 3. But if you want to eat food a week after it's been cooked be my guest.”
Every grandma has this.
”A strange jar of something completely unlabelled and hidden toward the back. It stays there for years and keeps people guessing.”
“Please stop coming to my grandma's house.”
Who needs to bake it anyway?
“Cookie dough, I don't care if it's edible or not I'm eating it.”
“There have been way too many times in my house where the cookie dough has never made it to the oven.
ETA: This comment made me want cookies. I managed to get most of them baked.”
And don’t forget the go-to snacks that always have a home in the fridge, especially for those wild nights.
All of this is accurate.
pickle GIF
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“Pickles. Best anytime snack.”
“People don't believe me when I say that eating them before you go to bed will diminish one's hangovers until they try it themselves. I mostly stick to my Mexican roots and eat a bowl of pozole or street tacos for hangover prevention before I crash out but pickles are great when I'm totally smashed and just want to pass out. Pickle juice is also great in the morning if you do wake up with a slight headache. Salud!
Smart ideas all around.
“Barbecue sauce.
Also sandwich supplies (sans bread cuz refrigerated bread is weird) cuz sandwiches are fantastic quickie "meals"."
“I keep bread in the freezer, then give it a quick trip through the toaster to make it edible."
This is a gourmet meal on its own.
“Bacon. So many things.
Fresh Broccoli. Roasted with oil and salt is magic.
A variety of cheeses.
Real Butter. Cook almost everything in it."
Out of all of these, the hot sauce one really spoke to me. Nothing like a fresh pepper filled with hot sauce as my go-to drunk snack.
Take this list to the grocery store, and stop ordering pizza for once.
The excuses people use to dismiss behavior range from mundane and meaningless to the sort of leaps normally reserved for kangaroos and Olympians. It's sometimes amazing that these excuses work - but they do.
Some of them work so well that they're just sort of "accepted." That, obviously, kind of sucks and is something we should avoid - so let's talk about 'em.
Can't swerve around what you don't see, ya know?
Reddit user TMTtasmachine asked:
What's the biggest excuse used for a-hole behavior that shouldn't be accepted as much as it is?
... and away we go.
Jerk Privileges
" 'That's just how they are.' "
"One of the biggest enablers for tantrum throwing, bullying, etc. is that they get treated with kid gloves to avoid dealing with them." - alexrt87
"Oh my God you hit the nail on the head. Whenever someone says 'that's just the way they are' I say:"
" 'Yes, that's the point! Glad you noticed too! Now is it okey-doke for them to be jerks they have special jerk privileges? Or maybe they are just people and should treat everyone else as such?' " - notatrumpchump
"It depends on how it's said."
"People are the way that they are, and you shouldn't be surprised when they continue to be that way."
"This, obviously, doesn't excuse it - but people also shouldn't be surprised when a bad person continues to make bad decisions. Neither should we waste space in our minds being bothered by it." - unlawfulfoxy
Harassment Isn't Humor
season 2 lol GIF by ShamelessGiphy" 'It's just a joke, bro.' Harassing people isn't humor." - loading__99
"Schrödinger's Douchebag"
"A guy who says/does offensive things and decides whether he was joking based on the reaction of people around him." - Eatsleeptren
"Dude, legit had someone come up to me and start shouting in my face, calling me Madison, pretending I was cheating on him. Literally the most crowded location outside a theater, everyone staring at us, looking at me like I was some horrible cheater while I was out with my then fiancé."
"I started hyperventilating, my fiancé nearly decked the dude, and then someone shouts 'CUT' like this is some big 'YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA' moment and everything's supposed to be okay."
"I burst into tears."
"It was the most humiliating moment of my life, and thank god my then fiancé, now husband is not the type to overreact or jump to conclusions, or be abusive. Imagine how bad that could have been for someone with an angry or abusive partner."
"Prank videos are a plague on the internet and there is a REASON so many of them are fake, or involve actors." - Darkovika
Stay Sober, Then!
Drunk Drinking Beer GIFGiphy" 'I was drunk / high / etc.' "
"Then don't drink?! Stay sober if you can't NOT be an a**hole!" - BasedBenjamin
"Alternately, I hear a lot of 'I'm a happy drunk!' "
"Yeah, according to your drunk a$s. That doesn't mean you're not an ahole. Not remembering is not an excuse either." - PepeBabinski
"I was that guy. I swore I was a 'happy drunk' - and I was. It was everyone ELSE who was miserable while I was happy."
"I was also loud, obnoxious, and I wouldn't remember sh*t the next day."
"Quitting drinking has been one of my best choices of my life." - TTungsteNN
"Help"
new girl coach GIFGiphy" 'I'm just trying to help you' " - Miserable-Air1234
"Every time I've heard this, they're manipulating me while helping only themselves." - mykittenfarts
"My Mom to a T. Everything she does is better than anyone else's and she always gets pissed that people don't praise her for 'helping.' "
"She's now a certified (by herself) psychic and I have come to the conclusion that she's not a covert narcissist but an obvious one. I really wish I was joking." - Silent_Discussion657
Parenting Problems
Leave Me Alone Run GIF by TLC EuropeGiphy"Any variation of 'I'm a Mother/parent.' "
"Had some lady cut me in line at a coffee shop and she hit me with 'I'm a single Mom of 3!' as her excuse."
"Ok? And? I was still here first." - maid-for-hire
"I'm a single mom and I f*cking haaaate when other single moms/parents pull that sh*t to get special treatment."
"Last week, I was having a rough morning, my kid was being difficult, and I was running late. I was rude to a cashier over a minor inconvenience."
"Not only did I apologize for my shitty behavior, I wrote corporate to let them know how professional and patient she was while I acted like a f*cking toddler."
"Was being a parent part of the reason I was frustrated? Absolutely. Was it an excuse for that behavior? HELL no."
"I acted like a b*tch, and I called myself out, and I apologized. I still feel bad about that - I rarely let things get to me to the point I snap at others." - ClusterfckyShtshow
"Wow. I'm a Mom as well and tired but it doesn't give anyone a right to use it as some sort of ploy to get away with stuff."
"Like, mice become Moms about 12 times a year. You're not special 🤣" - SpoonLoops
Believing Your Boss
The Office Monday GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"I had a boss say some really racist sh*t around me one day and the next day, out of nowhere, he says:"
" 'Don't believe half the things that come out of my mouth!' "
"It was not really an excuse, more like trying to cover for himself after the fact, but still stuck with me." - sirlongbottom441
"Report them to HR. Seriously." - kokichi--ouma
"Looking past the racist stuff for a bit, that's not a very encouraging thing to hear from a boss…" - WonderfulBlackberry9
Bad Day Again
Bad Day Reaction GIF by Schitt's CreekGiphy" 'I'm having a bad day/week' "
"Okay, so you decide everybody that you interact with deserves the same fate? Get out of here, dude." - myordinaryexistence
"We all got stress, don't take it out on me. I get some people have stress bad enough for it to be passable every once and a while (family member passing, etc) but general, stress should not lead to you being a jerk to me." - willsimpforfree
"Damn, I'm definitely guilty of this. Usually I remember to apologize after but at this point I've learned to just avoid the situation in the first place by minimizing my interaction with people if I'm in a shitty mood." - nozzzrul
"Reminds me of when that White boy went on a murder rampage and killed a bunch of Asian women & that a-hole sheriff gave a press conference telling the media that the 'poor boy had a bad day.' "
"My idea of a bad day involves going home after a rough day at work and just staying in the house."
"Apparently, I should change my ethnicity from Asian to White and go on a murder rampage, see if my @ss gets a sympathetic sheriff to say on my behalf that I had 'a bad day.' " - kingkazul400
It's Not An Excuse
Season 2 Reaction GIF by FriendsGiphy"This won't go down well, but using depression as an excuse. As someone who suffers from it, it's still not ok to treat others like sh*t" - Rainbowwallstickers
"Could not agree enough. My partner has a 'friend' who treats everyone like sh*t all the time, has no consideration for others and openly mocks people in public."
"She gets so much grace from those around her under the guise of her 'mental health.' It's so infuriating watching an adult woman never have to take responsibility for her actions." - 34boor
"I get there are some things you can't control, but you are still responsible for keeping that sh*t in check and if you're aware of your mental illness, you should be aware of how you approach people and situations."
"I'll admit I used to be guilty of using my mental illness to be an @ss, but now I'm trying to better myself" - VeeSquibbles
Florida Gonna Florida
Looney Tunes Florida GIFGiphy"People are letting Florida off the hook way too damn much. And I live in Florida."
"Just because it's hilarious doesn't mean it isn't still completely f*cked up." - AlphaWhiskeyOscar
"The phrase 'Florida Man' is almost always followed some heinous way a Floridian is being an a$$hole." - PepeBabinski
"I'm also originally from Florida, and that state has serious problems. We need to pay attention to it." - [Reddit]
Moment of honesty ... as a Floridian ... yeaaaah, I'm gonna have to agree with that last one.