OK peeps, here's what I've figured out that will "help." (Mind you, this is still an issue that needs to be fixed because it is totally reasonable to expect to put your produce in the icebox.)
1. Keep as little as possible in your refrigerator. Do you ave all your fruits and veggies in there at high counts? Well, that apparently mucks up the menu. Only keep a few fruits and veg in there at a time.
2. So where do you keep your produce? A trunk/chest. Either the base game versions or (better in my book) the Discovery University wooden chest. With the base game chest, everything you put into it is stored across all base game chests on your lot. With the DU chests you can have chests that store different things (one chest for produce, one for collectibles, one for magic items, etc). The base game chest ought to work that way as well IMHO. Heads up SIMS creators.
In doing this, my pie menu opens pretty quickly. I found this out when I moved my kid out to start college and he had an empty fridge. And so far, not "filling it up" seems to be the trick.
What I have also realized is that the patch that made food spoil again didn't help. I had households with loads of dishes in the refrigerators. I was kind of digging that my food kept. But suddenly, with the patch, my fridge was stuffed and things were going bad every few days and then every few hours. And clicking on the fridge and waiting was ANNOYING. So, clean out your fridge and get a trunk/chest.
Let me know if this works for you like it worked for me.
