It’s that time again, a few day’s after Christmas, where I survey all the goodies we’ve been given and have to make some tough choices. It’s great that I have very kind friends/family who make lots of good homemade stuff, but man-oh-man, we’re two people here in the Athena household. Even counting stuff that can be frozen, we can’t possibly go through the cookies, coffeecakes, sweet bread, homemade liqueur, and candy we’ve been given. I’ve tried to bring it to gatherings/offer it to others, but everyone I know tells me they’re in the same boat.
It sucks, but I went through it all this morning and threw out an awful lot of it. I love the kind gestures, but holy crap, it’s a lot.
How 'bout you guys? Am I the only one with this bounty?
We have soda, eggnog, bacon, and several boxes of chocolate, which I’m bringing to work. Possibly a pecan pie also.
We still have Christmas dinner leftovers, which I’m apparently eating all by myself. There’s nothing wrong with all this food, but for some reason people in my household “don’t like leftovers”. I just can’t wrap my head around that one.
If I ever had this problem, I’d bring it to work, and the gaggle of 20-something guys would make it disappear in a flash. As it is, many of my friends don’t cook or bake much, so they always appreciate it when I bring stuff to gatherings. When I baked cookies as my office practice group gifts, I tried to make kinds that would keep for several weeks (shortbread, biscotti, etc.)
We have the same safety valve - work. Where the Old Wench works are several people who eat a lot (and never gain weight the rotten bastards) and leaving things out in the lunch room means they just go away. So today and probably next Monday she takes our srevotfel (leftovers backwards - makes them sound ethnic) on a one way trip. Not a bad system really.
Yeah, working from home doesn’t really give you that “bring it to work” option. It does have that “sit in your chair all deal eating sweets” option that I’m trying to avoid!
We didn’t get that much in the way of edibles - a plate of cookies from my mom (all gone), a small box of chocolates from my bro (all gone), a tin of mixed nuts from my niece (almost all gone), and some horrid hard candies from my sister (gone in the garbage - honestly, there was something wrong with them, but they came from a dollar store, so I wasn’t expecting quality anyway.)
Wish someone near me was trying to get rid of some cookies…
It depends on what it is. If it’s something I really like, I’ll store it and dole it out slowly. If it’s something I’m “meh” about or not interested in, I’ll throw it out. The way I look at it, if I’m going to eat something I shouldn’t, I’d better truly enjoy it. Now that I’m older (ok, not that much older - almost 40), unhealthy food seems to have a magnified effect on my body. If I’m going to deal with non-nutritious calories, it had better be worth it.
Yup, that’s a lot of it for me. For many different reasons, sitting around eating food that’s neither good for me, nor all that great-tasting is not going to happen. Hell, half the time I don’t get to eat as much as I want of the great-tasting stuff I have around because of the good-for-me quotient.
I would if it was something store-bought and unopened, but the stuff I’m talking about is homemade and, in most cases, open because I feel like I oughta at least take a bite before tossing it. It’s rude enough for me to throw away something that someone gave me, but I absolutely wouldn’t go so far as to not even try it, unless I know beforehand that it’s for-sure not to my taste. I’m pretty sure the local food banks won’t take 3/4 of a loaf of cranberry bread or semi-hard homemade almond/ginger fudge wrapped in a festive holiday ziploc.
At Christmas I don’t usually have a surfeit of leftovers (that’s reserved for Thanksgiving). To be fair, as a single guy who celebrates at other family members’ homes, I can usually control how many leftovers/treats I take home. I refused all offers of cookies/desert, and just ended up with a few portions of a lamb roast, and some rice pudding (which I had made in the first place).
Also, I entered this thread because it just won the “Sequential Thread Title of the Day” Award:
How many Christmas goodies do you throw away?
Tossing your cookies: Where you’d prefer NOT to have to do it!
In the past, my parents/grandparents usually did their damnedest to foist everything they could off on my brother and I.
Now that we’re doing Christmases at our own house (and visiting the parents before/after Xmas), we do smaller meals with them, and thus far, smaller meals for ourselves, so not so much leftovers.
We didn’t end up with much in the way of goodies this year, but I’d have done what others have said; brought it to work and left it in the break room, where the hungry locusts will devour it in no time flat.
(if you like to bake sweets, this is also a great way to dispose of the near-misses on things like cookies, candies, cakes, etc…)
I’ve got a dead tree in my living room that I’ll be throwing away. Seems like a waste. In fact, I’ve decided no more xmas trees for our family. Live, cut, dead, whatever. We’re done.
9 times out of 10, the stuff I throw out or give away is the store bought stuff - think purchased chocolates, break & bake cookies, etc. Homemade stuff is the stuff that counts. If I want Christmas goodies, there’s really no substitute for homemade. I’m not sure that helps, but if I’m saving something, it’s something somebody made in their kitchen. Prepackaged baked goods are generally made with shortening or other manufactured fats that make baked goods look pretty but are more or less flavorless.
Do you have other local service providers who might appreciate it? Hairdresser, doctor, etc.? Even 3/4 of a quick bread can look festive if neatly sliced and put on a platter with plastic wrap or something.
We have a breakfast bar full of goodies but my father is a vacuum cleaner so it won’t be a problem. So much so that every year I forget and leave something out that I got as a gift, and he eats it all and I don’t even get a bite. This year it was peanut butter fudge. :mad: This is the third year it’s happened; you’d think I would learn. I mean, I must have gotten him ten types of candy and he still zeroed in on the items I got (presumably because the fudge was homemade and more perishable) and ate it all in one sitting the night we put everything out.
A few years ago, coincidentally again with peanut butter fudge from someone else, I got two dozen pieces. I brought it home from dinner out with the friend, and wasn’t hungry for it that night. The next night I went to look for it, and there were four pieces left. I was steaming – went to brood about it. In the time it took me to decide I would take what was left and hide it, there was another piece gone! Asshole.
Years ago my parents had a pact that they would buy anything in the grocery store that was less than fifty cents. Mom saw almond cookie packages on clearance for 44 cents, and thought they would be nice, so they bought all six packages. Pop proceeded to inhale them all and Mom didn’t even get one taste. Jackass.
TL,DR Guard your peanut butter fudge.
The thought of throwing out someone’s handmade goodies is upsetting to me. If they are truly terrible, I would do it, but if they are just not to my taste or I have too many, I’d bring them somewhere they’d be appreciated. If a food bank didn’t want them, maybe a senior center, VFW, or lodge would. Or I’d get someone who worked anywhere suitable take them. Anything but the trash!
I confess, once I just threw out a bottle of cologne that an in-law (well-intentioned) gave me. I just don’t use the stuff, and didn’t know anyone who might want it.
I’ve taken cookie trays that I could not possibly eat to the local EMT and firefighter stations, they were quite appreciated. The local hospital might be good place too, there are people working there on every holiday who would appreciate some goodies.
