Lessons learned in married life

There are things that go on around a house that you don't realize until you are in charge of the house.

When you're living with your parents as a youngster, the fridge miraculously always stays clean. This could be for a number of reasons - for me it was a combination of dad's cleaning, our frugal mother who didn't buy things to stock the fridge, and a brother who inhaled everything in sight. But yet there was never any outdated food - better known as science experiments.

Tonight we're cooking a pasta dish modeled after one I love at Carraba's - it takes cavatappi, panchetta, onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, and red pepper flakes and makes a master piece. We had everything but the panchetta in our kitchen and seeing as we're going for cheap these days, it seemed like a grand idea.

Jake said we had onion in the bottom left drawer. Now, I'm handy in the kitchen but in our house the kitchen is his domain. It is small, he is more gifted and ... patient than I and so he does most of the cooking. Trusting his word, I went for the elusive onion in the drawer. As soon as I opened the drawer I knew something was awry. The smell gave it away. One trash bag later, the drawer was emptied of all the moldy green beans, asparagus, onion, and tomato. The smell alone made me lose my appetite.

No one tells you when you move away from home that you should make sure you clean the fridge weekly. You'd think we would have known..