Ever the idiot

[Bill in Oregon]

That would be me.
I'm not sleeping worth beans these days, partly because of the warm -- 80s -- nights we have had lately.
So I am wide awake at 2 a.m. and decide to stumble into the kitchen for a glug of Gatorade from the fridge and there, sitting on top of the stove is the Corning Ware dish full of a lovely chicken-broccoli-cheese-mayo-curry casserole I baked for dinner last night with one serving gone -- right where I had left it at 6 p.m. to cool a bit before going in the fridge.
Not interested in consuming any of the food poisoning bacteria that had no doubt bloomed in this petri dish over the subsequent eight hours, I very sorrowfully put it in the garbage.
Please, please, someone else admit they have done this so I no longer have to be only one in the annals of human history to have made this mistake.

[Paul105]

Been there done that!

Browned some filets and stuck the frying pan in the oven to finish cooking. Grabbed the handle of the frying pan (with bare hand and oven mitt on other) when removing from hot oven.

[GunnyMack]

Yeah Bill, been there, done that!

[KWK]

Oh, yeah, but I have to sneak it off to the garbage because my Chinese wife grew up without a fridge and isn't convinced about this food poisoning theory.

[JimT]

In Mozambique we didn't always have electricity to keep things cold. A friend made herself a nice tuna cassarole and that week the power was out. She ate it for 3 days .. the 4th day there was some left and it didn't smell bad so she finished it. She said it tasted OK going down but a while later coming back up it didn't taste so good.

[Bill in Oregon]

Jim, I have wondered what kind of food- and water-borne illness issues you and Twyla faced in the Mozambique years. Hope not many.

[JimT]

Jim, I have wondered what kind of food- and water-borne illness issues you and Twyla faced in the Mozambique years. Hope not many.

We didn't come down with many. We were pretty well prepared to deal with most any circumstance, even deep in the bush.

[Tycer]

Your food was fine.
It takes time. The dish was between 140° and 40° for how long? Not long. Maybe three hours? It takes much longer to breed enough salmonella to make you sick. There’s tens of thousands of restaurants in the US that keep food in that range for 12+ hours a day every day and then reheat it the next morning without making anyone sick. Is that safe food handling practices? No, but it works more often than not.
If what I see coming comes true then this is good info. Be ready. “By 2030 you’ll own nothing and be happy “.-K.S.

[Bill in Oregon]

Well, the critters at the landfill are in for a good feed. This is my favorite of the various chicken divan recipes. If you try it, I think you will like it. Just don't leave it out overnight!

Light Chicken Divan

2 cups chicken breasts, chopped
4 cups broccoli, chopped
½ cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 can (10 oz) cream of chicken soup, reduced fat
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup milk
1 TSP lemon juice
I cup sliced mushrooms
2 TBSP bread crumbs
1 TBSP butter, melted
1 TBSP curry powder
salt and pepper to taste

Cook chopped chicken (about ½-inch pieces) on stove until browned
Meanwhile, chop broccoli and steam until just getting tender; NOT soft
Saute mushrooms
Mix together the soup, milk, mayonnaise, lemon juice and shredded cheese. Add curry and salt and pepper to taste
Melt butter and mix in bread crumbs

Assemble:

Coat 9X13 casserole dish with non-stick spray or olive oil and then layer broccoli, then chicken, then mushrooms, then spread the sauce over the top. Sprinkle top with buttered breadcrumbs.
Bake in 375 oven for about 30 minutes

Goes well with rice

Retyped 9-22-23

[FLINT]

I agree that the food was probably fine. I've done that many times and when I remember it was left out, I just put it in the fridge and don't think another thing about it. I'm not really a better safe than sorry kind of guy though.

[GunnyMack]

Bill ya lost me at adding fungus...

[Bill in Oregon]

Will, I add mushrooms to a lot of stuff -- Mississippi Roast for instance -- for the additional savory layer of flavor and richness. I'm making up for having grown up in a house where, if an ingredient didn't come from a Betty Crocker box, it didn't exist -- a world where canned spinach, Del Monte green beans, russet potatoes and endless iceberg lettuce were all one needed to know about vegetables.

[GunnyMack]

I can't stand the smell, texture of mushrooms!

[earlmck]

I'm with FLINT there -- I would have just stuck it in the fridge thinking "it's good and cool by now...".

Gonna try that recipe, maybe cut down on the shrooms a bit, throw in a few peas to make up the volume. Since my cook resigned I've been trying new recipes.

[.45colt]

"When in doubt throw it out".....Even thought I'm retired and only work a few days a week I still have to take food safety for my job on the computer. They claim that You have a 2 hour window that food can be left out no more before bad things start. It then has to be chilled below 40*. It's not worth it to risk getting sick. but to each Hos own.

[Grizz]

Please, please, someone else admit they have done this so I no longer have to be only one in the annals of human history to have made this mistake. :oops:

I'll see you and raise you one > In my prime, which didn't last very long, I was super hungry tracking the wily cohos in the trackless Pacific. Put a potato in the oven in anticipation of eating it for dinner. Two week pause . . . I found the skin of that spud in the oven, the potato had evaporated thru the skin somehow . . . which is why, when I was single and solo at sea, I relied on Sailor Boy Pilot Bread for energy . . . 'cause catching fish is far more important than food. :)

[Bill in Oregon]

Earl, I think you will like it. I added the mushrooms to the existing recipe off the Internet, just cause I like the dang things. Peas would be righteous.

[Bill in Oregon]

Grizz, funny you mentioned pilot bread, as we have been yakking about hardtack over on the ML forum. I've made the classic flour-water Civil War hardtack that can double as body armor or as space shuttle re-entry heat shield tiles, and I have made it that was so edible I couldn't keep it "in stock."

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/thre ... ck.169637/

[Scott Tschirhart]

You are safe, the idiot would have had another helping!

[Grizz]

Grizz, funny you mentioned pilot bread, as we have been yakking about hardtack over on the ML forum. I've made the classic flour-water Civil War hardtack that can double as body armor or as space shuttle re-entry heat shield tiles, and I have made it that was so edible I couldn't keep it "in stock."

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/thre ... ck.169637/

Thanks for the link to the tons of experience there. I don't think any real sailors ate any real hard tack without softening it. I don't think their teeth were solid enough. Saltines are a variety of hard tack, and I buy the no-salt version. I should be making my own hard tack, but it coats the microwave with gluten, a form of glue. I think it probably went into a cauldron with salt pork or whale blubber or tallow. Just guessing.

And, what about corn dodgers, besides gunnery practice, and then there is pemmican, all of which make up proper ships stores for long sea voyages, or overlanding some where over the horizon . . . I periodically think that I should buy an air-dryer appliance for just such endeavors. . .

I collect plastic screw-lid containers for housing such like stores, and for buoyancy to float the boat if too much water infiltrates itself into the wrong locker . . .

[rossim92]

Will, I add mushrooms to a lot of stuff -- Mississippi Roast for instance -- for the additional savory layer of flavor and richness. I'm making up for having grown up in a house where, if an ingredient didn't come from a Betty Crocker box, it didn't exist -- a world where canned spinach, Del Monte green beans, russet potatoes and endless iceberg lettuce were all one needed to know about vegetables.

i hated canned spinach growing up. nasty taste, but fresh from our garden, it is delicious. salmon same way, except fresh from the river, not the garden

[Bill in Oregon]

Rossi, fresh spinach is darned tasty, especially with bacon. Out of a can, it had to be invented by one of Satan's minions. Popeye was -- and still is -- one of my heroes, but I could never understand the cans of spinach!