Psssst --Where do you hide it?

[Monica Bhide]

I was visiting a friend a few weeks ago and lamenting about how i had not tasted my favorite Nutella in while. Well, she looked around to make sure no one was looking and then guided me to her office - behind the boatload of law books was a brand new jar of Nutella - hidden from the hubby and kids. I think she expected me to be shocked.... well I had to tell her about mine hidden in my son's sock drawer... (If my hubby is reading this its in a new place now)

Do you ever hide sinful food? Come on the truth now. Or perhaps I am doomed to be the only other one doing this

[GG Mora]

Well, it's not so much that I hide the sinful stuff from everybody else. I hide certain things from the kids, to protect my husband and me from the effects. A 2-liter jar of chocolate chips, an extra large container of Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa Mix, and a 1-gallon tupperware of homemade granola are stashed in the sweater cupboard in our bedroom.

To explain:

Because my chocolate chip cookies are requested for every single stinkin' event at the kids' school, I buy large bags of Nestle's chocolate chips from Costco (for more important events, I would spring for better chips, but...). I learned quickly not to keep them on the kitchen shelves, or even in the pantry, since the Adolescent Raiders® hoovered up the first bag in an afternoon and me an' Hub nearly had to tie the kids to their beds to get them settled down at 11 o'clock at night (you can argue all you want about the effect of sugar on children, but there's no question the caffeine in chocolate sets them off).

Hot Cocoa Mix justification similar. Boy (13) has shown an alarming early interest in the effect of stimulants in the form of sugar and caffeine. On a field trip with his class last year, his friends dared him to drink as many cups of hot cocoa as he could get down before the Po-leece come (well, before the teachers noticed, really) which turned out to be 10 or 12, depending on who you asked. The fallout wasn't pretty...Can you say "Whirling Dervish"? And so, when he discovered that I'd brought home an extra-large Tub-o-Cocoa Mix from Costco, he decided to repeat the experiment. Best we keep the stuff locked away.

Now, granola is just fine for them. That's why I made it myself. Super Mom (well, Step Mom) makes her own healthful granola for the kids! A whole gallon bucket of it on the counter! And the Adolescent Raiders® came home from school and ate an entire third of the bucket in one sitting. I hadn't gotten around to explaining that you eat granola in dainty little servings because, well, oh nevermind. Their well-being depends on my hiding the granola, because of they ever pulled a stunt like that again, I'd fucking kill them.

[Chef Shogun]

I'm still working on this (From the mini-wine-fridge thread):

I considered that, but I might put a 'normal' mini-fridge in there. Main fridge space is at a premium! I'd do both, but bedroom space is similarly tight.

.......You know...I've got the computer rack in the walk-in closet. Betcha there's something to be had by setting up a well-cooled machine case (Watercooled?) fitted with slots for a couple bottles and some coffee/cheese. Wouldn't hold very much, unless it was something like a 5-6U (Which would in itself cost basically what a wine fridge would), but it would be really cool. Tie it into another box's SMB monitoring for lm_sensors temp and humidity....

Funny timing, because the other day I got wind of some friends asking the engineering school for funding to turn a fridge into a machine rack, as an 'interdiciplinary' engineering project. It's a lame plan that will fail on any number of levels, but this is a neat inversion of that.

Hold on, lemme find some paper...

-- C.S.

"Look Out, Mac Classic Aquarium!"

Come on, you KNOW that's a good idea! Until then, the drawer under the bookshelf in my room is home to two six-packs of good beer, to limit their roommate exposure until a bottle or two is rotated into my fridge-stash, as well as a few snack items.

-- C.S.

[bloviatrix]

The Oriol Belaguer chocolate (at $6 a bar) resides in my lingerie drawer.

[NulloModo]

Not so much hidden, but I place the good liquor in inconvenient/inaccessible places. After my roomate decimated a bottle of Glenmorangie 10 year on coke and scotches one night (well, someone was with him) I decided to put it somehwere high and leave the bottle of Rebel Yell easily accessible, much cheaper as he will just reach for whatever is closest.

[tryska]

in my closet.

[tejon]

I have been blessed with a very deep pantry. So deep, it is almost impossible to actually *see* items put way in the back. Lovely place for my current batch of biscotti to live, safe from little people who just want a sugar fix .

[jsolomon]

Being a bachelor living alone, I hide my good stuff... in my gullet

[jgarner53]

I don't think I'd have to do much to hide something from Mr. Garner. Half the time I have to find things in the kitchen for him anyway. "Where's the coconut milk?" "It's in the bottom cupboard above the toaster, lower shelf, right hand side, on top of a can of baby corn and just behind the fish sauce."

So you can imagine how I could easily hide something sinful. Except I don't.

[tanabutler]

I hide things from Bob, like chocolate chips (which I buy for the girls), because he will just eat them and then complain about being fat. I've stopped buying jams and jellies because he can't resist those, either. But yes, I hide things in the big drawer with emergency supplies (batteries, candles, etc.).

Monica, are you avoiding another deadline?

[suzilightning]

we are preparing for a visit from the cookie monster(johnnybird's brother mike) so we are hiding: john's good chocolate, my bodun coffee pot and anything else that we want to eat ourselves sunday afternoon or later. i am leaving out the cheap chocolate john doesn't want and a bag of chip ahoys. the other stuff will go into our reachin closet - in the furthest corner.

at work i hide a small stash of chocolate in the the back of my file cabinet.

one of the catalogers in the first place i worked kept a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine in his filing cabinet.

[Toliver]

The Slim Jims are in my bottom drawer at work. Shhh. Say no more.

[sparrowgrass]

When my kids were younger I would hide things in the crisper drawer--who would expect to find something yummy hidden under the nasty green celery?

[eunny jang]

I eat the truly disgusting things in my car: read, Slim Jims, buffalo-wing flavored crackers, and Junior Johnson's Hot Barbeque Cracklin's.

The wrappers are placed in a brown paper bag, heat-sealed into a heavy-duty garbage back, buried in a bucket of cement and thrown in the East River.

Well, actually, I just throw them away. But I do eat them in my car to avoid grossing normal people out.

[petite tête de chou]

When my kids were younger I would hide things in the crisper drawer--who would expect to find something yummy hidden under the nasty green celery?

Exactly! Would my husband think something yummy (like the last Widmer) could be hiding under the vegetables? Nope!

The crisper drawer is the best !

[GG Mora]

When my kids were younger I would hide things in the crisper drawer--who would expect to find something yummy hidden under the nasty green celery?

That's where the Dulce de Leche lives.

[andiesenji]

When my kids were home we had two refrigerators, one was the kids, free for all, the other had a lock (as did the big freezer). We kept theirs stocked with all kinds of things that kids like but anything that I was saving for a job or anything that was very expensive, was in the locked fridge or freezer, otherwise they would eat frozen cookie dough and various other things that were not good for them.

Now I live alone and my housekeeper knows that certain things are off limits.

At the office I have a locked, fireproof file cabinet that holds things that are MINE alone. Anything in the kitchen cabinets are fair game.

I have one section in the fridge that is off limits and people are good about putting their names on their own stuff. Some stuff is communal property and we all add to it as the supply dwindles.

There is a jar of peppadews in the office fridge that has the lid taped down because those are mine, mine, mine....

[alikat]

On the top shelf of the pantry is the wok, and inside the wok is the special candy that's just for mommies (at the moment, it's Seattle Chocolate mocha truffles.)

[Susan G]

Ditto the car stash. I don't have to confer, I don't have to share, I don't have to explain.

Wrappers are ditched when I refuel.

Mozartkugeln.

[daw]

There's a bottle of Scotch at the back of a cupboard of cleaning products and tools at work.

Now that might give the wrong impression, but in fact it has been there at least four years now and only goes down very slowly.

[nessa]

I used to hide the chocolate bar stash in an old ziplock box. Until one day, the SO was rummaging, bumped it, and it collapsed, spilling the loot. He ate it all. Now, its in a Tampon box. HA! find THAT, Mr. Cadbury Caramel Egg Thief! I can gaurentee he won't be bumpin' into that or looking in there either.

Safe.

[tejon]

Mozartkugeln.

Oh, yes. When I can get my hands on them, they are MINE all MINE!

[FistFullaRoux]

Since my wife had gastric bypass, she doesn't eat sugar. She does not want it around. But it is a don't ask, don't tell situation. She goes to bed before I do, and I spend a fair amount of time in our home office, so I have assorted goodies from Nestle, Hershey, and whoever else catches my eye when I'm in a convenience store stashed inside a box of spare/old computer parts. Or in the rack unit my DJ mixer resides in.

She has no interest or knowledge of computer stuff, so I hide her birthday and Christmas gifts in and around them as well. Also helps if you buy small items. She likes those gifts best anyway...

[aliénor]

my husband goes crazy for ice cream and when there is a sale i like to stock the freezer. i have my butcher at the local coop wrap the ice cream in butcher paper and then i label these as: pork chops, lamb chops, roast, etc. get the idea! he hasn't a clue that the very square and strangely round shaped butcher paper items could be anything but meat.haha

aliénor

[purplewiz]

I don't hide things so much as "out of sight, out of mind". My husband is a creature of habit, and if the snack foods aren't in the regular places he's used to looking for them, he will assume we don't have any and won't look any further.

The stuff I'm "hiding" is in the drawer right next to the one with the nuts and wasabi peas, but he never goes into it. I think this all falls under the category of "know your spouse".

Marcia.