mmmm orange milk

looking back on my life, post parental connection (and i'm talking about leaving the next not post umbilical cut people), i have lived in many different apartments and townhomes with many different roommates. beginning with my first dorm room and associated roommate (who was known to get really drunk and mistake my bed for a toilet - yes a totally different blog)... to my first room in an apartment. to my first apartment that i could afford to myself... to my first townhouse that almost felt like home... and now - my very own condo. i'm fairly certain that for a good 10 years, i never lived in the same place for more than 9 or 10 months - maybe a year. and i often moved multiple times in one year.

to make a verbose blog short - my current residence, is the first home that i've lived in for any length of time, and with it has come some experiences that one might never have if they live life in a perpetual state of moving. for one, i have realized there are cobwebs on the ceiling. and the moldings are starting to collect a fine, black pile of dust and dirt. i've never thought to clean these areas before but it's built up to the point that i think it's about time.

But more importantly, cleaning out the pantry - or the cabinets in my case - is something that's been done by default, on an annual basis, for many years of my life.

Recently i decided to make a few things.
i had tortillas and a fine guest to share them with - so we thought perhaps some of the tortilla kits that were in the cabinets might be a good option.I knew they were old, but didn't realize that they were actually from 2005. Oops. given their 3 years post expiration date, i decided to recycle.

so, the other night i was baking a cake. not just any cake either - tres leches. a creamy mixture of vanilla cake, cream sauce and a whipped sweet topping. the recipe called for sweetened condensed milk. i had many cans in my cabinets as i had bought some - on sale - a while back for fudge that was never made. i pulled out the cans and noticed an expiration date.

june 2004. hmmm - that's too old so i tried another
jan 2005.... ehhhh...

in fact each can was atleast 3 years old - if not older. now you might think - oh it's canned - it's probably still good. what the heck, let's give it a taste.

i opened the can revealing a bright orange, jiggly-furthest-thing-you-can-imagine-away-from -milk-like substance. it's color was similar to the image to the right. hmmm.

i hadn't used canned milk in quite sometime so i wasn't sure how it should look. i turned the can upside down to pour some out.

nothing came out.

it was a perfect mold. i took some out using a spoon and it even kept it's shape.
so next comes the taste test...

i took a little on my finger and tasted. it was sweet. and a bit grainy. but still sweet.

maybe it would be ok in my cake.

using my better judgement, i opted to make a quick run to the store.
afterall i didn't want my tres leches cake to be orange!

the cake turned out OK in the end. but i guess it's time to clean out the cabinets!