wham, bam, thank you, jam

I was staying over at my parents' house this weekend, and my mom tells me this morning that she made biscuits, help myself.

As I was preparing my morning treat, I went looking for jam and found none. Now, my mother, and my grandmother, and I think a large part of the population's mothers and grandmothers have that little drawer or whatever in which they keep those little condiment packets you get at fast food places. Our special place is in the fridge, in a ziploc, in the crisper drawer.

Sure enough, there were a couple of packets of strawberry jam, courtesy of Hardees in there. Or was it jelly? (While I'm thinking about it, what constitues the difference between a jam and a jelly? Is it consistency? Or is it purely based on matter of opinion? Is the jam or jelly in the eye of the jar holder? Hm. Then there are fruit spreads and preserves. I understand that they may have a considerable amount more fruit than jelly and jam, but what about the differences between just the two of those? And then there's apple butter, pumpkin butter, etc. That's not even a butter at all. But it's not a jam, jelly, preserve, or any of those. Anyway, I digress. This was not even the real point of this blog, but it's turning out to be just so.)

Anyhow, as I was spreading my jam/jelly on my biscuit, I pondered this thought: My mom keeps these little packets in the fridge, as she deems necessary. But at the restaurants, they are always just right out there, in a bin, not refrigerated.

This got me to thinking about some other things. When I am in the grocery store, I see products that make me wonder. Whenever I make pizza, I pick up some pepperoni, usually the little Hormel pepperonis that come in the little zipped bag. There is a whole plethora of them in the refrigerated section, next to the assorted cheeses and deli meats. However, when I turn around and walk back towards the cake mixes and baking necessities aisle, I see a large display showcasing the same pepperonis - NOT NEAR ANY COOLING APPARATUS!

That bothers me a little bit. Why would you refrigerate some, but not the others? They were exactly the same. And they are a meat product! I have also seen the ready-to-eat microwavable bacon in the same predicament at my local WalMart Super Center Food Center.

And then there are the little Jello cups that are in the breakfast section, or is it snacks? Anyway, they are just hanging up, and it says "No refrigeration needed!" No, thank you. I like my Jello cold. I don't trust hot Jello.

All I know is whenever I buy my pepperonis, I always choose from the selection in the refrigerator case. And I take from the back. (The same lesson is one that my mom always applied to milk ;)