Expiration dates are only a suggestion, aren't they?

So I'm having dinner at my grandparents' house this evening, just baby Ben and me since John and Larry are away with my folks visiting my sister in Texas until next weekend, when I realize the newly-opened bottle of blue cheese salad dressing is really, really out-of-this-world GOOD. So good that I must get the brand name and try to locate more of this stuff. Instead I flip the bottle over to reveal: "EXP 04 96"

*LIKEWHOA* This stuff would've been old before I graduated high school, and I'm 32! What were you doing in 1996?

And what would you, as a presumably rational adult or teen, have done? Graciously pointed out its age? Said nothing to your host, but "accidentally" poured it down the drain when no one was looking? Or thought to yourself, "it's d#mn good, expiration dates be d#mned!" and finished your salad? Suffice it to say, I threw practicality (and likely sanity, as well) by the wayside and went with the last option. Although I seriously think the stuff improved with age, if I succumb to expired-food-bourne-illness overnight I insist on having "But that salad dressing didn't taste fourteen years old" inscribed on my gravestone. Then again, if I didn't get sick by now it's probably just proof that I'm extremely bad#ss (but not so bad#ss that I feel okay leaving mild swears uncensored) and I'm immune to wussy things like "slightly" vintage dairy-based salad dressings.

In my grandparents' defense, they don't make a habit of eating old food. I suspect they bought this long ago for dinner guests only since I don't think either of them even like blue cheese dressing and then they just forgot how long it was sitting in their basement pantry.

A fun historical footnote: in 2001 I brought my then-boyfriend to their house for a summer picnic, he asked if they had beer and they, being non-drinkers, suddenly remembered they might have a few cans lurking in the basement. Boyfriend, a big fan of all things beer, was handed a can and remarked that he hadn't realized the brewery had brought back the original beer can design. He tasted the beer and realized they hadn't; it was just really, really old. We quietly poured the last few cans of the stuff out in the sink. :) Boyfriend survived and we just celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary.

Was there any point to this blog entry? Probably not -- attribute it to delusions induced by old salad dressing. X)