Im sorry but this is my kitchen

[sinopa27]

Well, I had some unexpected people to come to my house on Thanksgiving day. That's fine. The problem was that they were in my kitchen "touching" food or "messing around" in my kitchen. I didn't see anyone wash their hands. I immediately lost my appetite and I haven't had anything to eat.

So.....I am not THAT picky but I don't know them that well to have them in my kitchen. I guess it's the nurse in me that would have loved to see someone wash their hands.

Thanks.......I had to vent!!

[quilting2day2]

I would have just had to say . Quit handling my food unless you have washed your hands . Tooo much flu going around.

[Contrary Housewife]

I'd have told them to wash their hands if they were going to be touching the food. And then I'd have put them to work since they wanted to be in the kitchen.

[madhen]

I enforce food safety rules even when I'm a guest in someone ELSE's house!! So, yes, you were totally within your rights to want them to wash their hands, and you probably should have told everyone the rules for handling food. As it was, you ruined your own appetite and put all your guests in jeopardy of getting sick.

I was annoyed, when I arrived for T-Day at my sister's yesterday, to be informed that she had a cold (as she was preparing all the food). She has had it for a few days, and she was complaining about the pressure in her head and stopping to blow her nose frequently. Not only did I make sure that she wasn't touching any food directly, but I also washed my hands about 3x as often as I would normally. Despite my precautions, I suspect the whole house was a contagion zone. I was irritated that she didn't call off dinner (yes, it is Thanksgiving, but it isn't a huge thing and she bought the dinner from Raley's), or at least call and warn me that she is sick, so I could opt to NOT go and get sick myself, but I kept my mouth shut, because she was so concerned about the food (because she couldn't taste it, because her sinuses were blocked, because she was SICK) and everything being warmed up on time, etc.

[frugalfranny]

Well, I had some unexpected people to come to my house on Thanksgiving day. That's fine. The problem was that they were in my kitchen "touching" food or "messing around" in my kitchen. I didn't see anyone wash their hands. I immediately lost my appetite and I haven't had anything to eat.

So.....I am not THAT picky but I don't know them that well to have them in my kitchen. I guess it's the nurse in me that would have loved to see someone wash their hands.

Thanks.......I had to vent!!

Oh YEAH SINOPA.......you hit a nerve with me here!

Like some other posters, I wouldn't have HESITATED to tell them to wash their hands first.

Flu or NO FLU......you DO NOT come in to my kitchen and start helping without ME SEEING YOU wash your hands!! And don't give me this crap about "Oh, I just washed them." What??? When? Fourteen door knobs ago???

I had a friends husband 'flip out at me' when he was bar-b-queing steaks and was going to put the cooked steaks back on the same plate that they came off of when raw!! WITHOUT WASHING IT FIRST! I said something to him and all but INSISTED that he wouldn't need to cook me one if he wasn't going to wash the plate first!! Yeow.....I mean, he has a fair temper anyway....but a big time blow up!!

[piney]

I have always since i can remember constancley washing my hands not only when i am cooking but when i handle anything.I can't remember what they call people that has that addiction but my second husband said i was clost to beign that.I would have had to ask them not to touch food nor dishes,it turning my stomach to thank about it.

[frugalwarrior2]

I plated up my DS food for him yesterday because he has a cold. I just got over a very severe virus. At the start of every meal I make by saying. "If everyone wants to go wash up,we are ready to eat." My father brought us up to wash our hands before and after we went to the bathroom and if we touched our animals. Having done catering when I was younger I will not allow waiters to touch the lip of my glass w/ a pitcher. And no one is allowed in my kitchen.
The only thing I have to add is: It's not always what you say as much as how you say it. Some people have not been schooled in germ awareness. Gentler is better.

[Molemommy]

I would have flipped also.... I worked as a cook for a few years and always washed frequently and also worked as a nurse for awhile... I am always washing my hands sometimes they even get cracked and bleed.....
We now have a business that takes us into others homes and I am shocked as to they way some of the kitchens are FILTHY not fit for a animal to eat out of let alone a human....
The one house I went to the lady made those fancy nuts and sold them to local bars and she prepared them in her basement that was filthy and in pans that she never washed and also with mouse droppings all over the work are and in the pans that she prepared them in and she told me plain out that she never washed the pans. AHHHHHH!!!! I vowed there and then that I would never eat anything again that I did not know and see there prep site again.... no wonder why some get food poising!!!
sorry I had to vent also.... I will be having our thanksgiving meal at my house on sat and I will make sure to say here wash your hands please before touching,......

[cab54]

I would have flipped also.... I worked as a cook for a few years and always washed frequently and also worked as a nurse for awhile... I am always washing my hands sometimes they even get cracked and bleed.....
We now have a business that takes us into others homes and I am shocked as to they way some of the kitchens are FILTHY not fit for a animal to eat out of let alone a human....
The one house I went to the lady made those fancy nuts and sold them to local bars and she prepared them in her basement that was filthy and in pans that she never washed and also with mouse droppings all over the work are and in the pans that she prepared them in and she told me plain out that she never washed the pans. AHHHHHH!!!! I vowed there and then that I would never eat anything again that I did not know and see there prep site again.... no wonder why some get food poising!!!
sorry I had to vent also.... I will be having our thanksgiving meal at my house on sat and I will make sure to say here wash your hands please before touching,......

Eww, Molemommy! Ewwww!

I am so grossed out by your post. I am gonna think a little harder about eating foods I see made by local retailers. It's a shame we have to feel like that.

But again---EWWWWWwwwwwww!!!!

[cab54]

Also, Madhen---I have been in the situation wher I've had to do holiday meals with a cold. It is a no win situation, truly. If I dump it on someone else, they will all be mad at me.... If I have it, they will be skeeved out... It's hard to know what to do.

Besides, what am I gonna do....dump it on my SIL who has 5 kids, all under 14? Or on my MIL who can't cook? Or on my other SIL who can't cook even more?

I'm a nurse, also, and make sure everyone knows that although I have a cold (if I do) I have made sure to wash my hands thoruoghly before every food prep, and kept my sneezing, coughing face away from the food.

It's tough to know what's best.

[madhen]

In my sister's case, it is just her family (husband and son) and my mother, who lives RIGHT next to them. Not a big deal. We even talked, this summer, about not doing T-Day anymore, because basically, I have to drive four hours round trip to sit and eat with three people I don't particularly like all that much, and I can see my sister any time. My sister and my mother don't much like each other either, and my mother hates my BIL. So no one can really explain why there is this need to sit down as a group once a year, just because it is a holiday.

I just prefer, if you know you are sick and you have invited me over, that you let me KNOW you are sick, so I can make the decision of whether I want to risk getting sick, too. And if she was sick several days ago, she could have called me then, and we could have decided to go out to a restaurant (saving her a lot of time in which she could have been resting) or postponed the dinner.

[frugalwarrior2]

Our family didn't even get together this year. We had viruses. Dbrothers family was ill and grandparents had heart issues so we are careful. We talk by phone and will get together when we can. KWIM. Sometimes loving someone means not seeing them.
I can never eat food privately prepared food like at a church function because hygiene rules are opinionative and I can't stand the thought of licked spoons and such. DD just took a serve safe course at the college. We have an understanding that she may NOT quote from the book or her mother will starve to death sitting in a pile of food.LOL

[2ndGenGranola]

If someone could not figure out by all the bottles of hand sanitizer sitting around, I would speak up if someone came into my kitchen. I have had food poisoning several times from someone else's kitchen. I have made mine a almost a sacred zone. I refuse to permit my kids or myself eat in MIL's kitchen or anything she has made. Just gross. I've had some severe "big D" from her kitchen before.

[suebeehoney]

Oh I SO get this whole thing....I understand that kitchens (and heck, whole houses) get cluttered and messy, but there's no excuse for filthy kitchens (or basements) being used to prepare food.

And to prepare food or expose others to your illness...when you are OBVIOUSLY very sick....no way!

I had a fit a few weeks ago when a co-worker brought her newborn into the office to show him off and all my female co-workers were holding him, touching his face with their hands, kissing him, putting their faces right in his face....ARRRRRGH!!!

I refused to hold the baby, telling his mom that I didn't want to take any chances, with so many people at work sick with the flu lately....and then those ninnies go right on and hold him, touch his face, kiss him.... I don't know how the mom felt about it, but she didn't say or do anything to stop them.

[xtena]

The one house I went to the lady made those fancy nuts and sold them to local bars and she prepared them in her basement that was filthy and in pans that she never washed and also with mouse droppings all over the work are and in the pans that she prepared them in and she told me plain out that she never washed the pans. AHHHHHH!!!! I vowed there and then that I would never eat anything again that I did not know and see there prep site again.... no wonder why some get food poising!!!
.

Eeeewww. I hope you REPORTED her/the bars she sells to, to the health department.