My mom grew up very poor. We were out to dinner once and she and her brother were both scraping their plates to get every drop of some sauce. It was extremely noisy and uncomfortable for us, but they didn't even notice.

At home I just use my finger on the plate if a sauce or gravy is particularly good.

My husband and I try to eat any leftovers within about 3 days, but at times have pushed it to 4 or even 5. Some older women in his family will eat things up to a week from their fridge (like pot roast or even riskier items like stuffing). I guess their bodies are used to it.

We won't even keep restaurant leftovers if we linger in a restaurant talking too long, or if we aren't going straight home. But my mom will take our things home and she and her husband will eat them. Her husband gets various stomach upsets quite often, but they don't seem to understand the connection.

I have a system where I open germy things inside plastic grocery bags (so no germs get on counter) with one hand and put them directly into a pan for cooking, then I throw the whole bag out. Then there is a system for washing my hands afterwards (cleaning under nails, etc). Of course, not touching the faucet knob with germs hands is important, too, but I see so many people doing that.

I know it sounds nuts to a lot of people that I'm so cautious, but in 26 years, I've never made my husband or myself sick with my cooking, and we eat most of our meals at home. The few times we've been sick have been when we've gone to restaurants (especially fast food places), and one time it was after eating a dinner a friend made for us.

A friend of ours made us sick once when she served us some stuffed pasta shells. Her whole family got sick, too. She said maybe she had left the cottage cheese out on the counter too long before using it.

If I had made guests sick, I would've felt really bad, but she didn't seem very concerned about it.

I realized the other day that in 26 years of cooking for my husband and me, I've never made us sick with anything. I do handle food very carefully. Most of you would laugh at my eggs, chicken, fish, pork, and beef-handling procedures.

Like chowser said, a lot of times people think they have the flu, but it's really food poisoning. There are stronger germs nowadays (like antibiotic-resistant salmonella, e Coli, etc), so it makes sense to be careful.

I can't stand watching chefs on TV, where they contaminate everything all around the kitchen after handling germy foods. Ick.

When a host told me he had used raw eggs in a chocolate pie, I stopped eating it and he thought I was crazy, but I didn't care. I don't eat raw eggs. I won't risk my health to satisfy anyone.

I agree. How else are stupid people going to learn about food safety if no one tells them? I'm always astonished at how little some people know about how long food can safely be left out, etc. It's as if they never read.