Amy Currioman

Tonight we’re staying in to celebrate New Year’s Eve.  We’ve bought some sparkling cider and some fancy appetizer type foods and we’re going to watch Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve party on television and watch the ball drop in Times Square.  It is bitterly cold out and really windy; I can’t imagine being outside on a night like this!  When I was driving home from the grocery store the car was being pushed around a lot on the road; I was really glad to get home!  I was upset when I was driving home to find that the road was blocked by a huge downed tree just 1/4 mile from my house.  It was too big for me to move it, so I had to do a detour to get home.

That would not be a big deal to someone in the city – just drive around the block!  Well, out here, driving “around the block” is about a twenty minute detour!  Oh well, I made it home safe and sound – to discover that we had no power!  We had no power until about 5pm, so the housework that I was planning on doing (vacuuming and laundry) didn’t get done.  So I guess I’ll be ringing in the New Year with a dirty house and dirty clothes!  Oh well, life goes on!  I’m glad the power came back before it got dark out!

I hope that everyone had as nice a Christmas as we’ve had today.  We went to visit our parents; they had a huge family dinner.  About twenty four of our “immediate family” were there.  The house was crowded, and noisy and full of laughter and fun!  Everyone brought some food to share; we brought a really easy cake that I like to make that is basically angel food cake mix with a can of pineapple dumped into it.  Easiest cake I’ve every baked!  It’s good served hot or cold, I like to serve it with strawberry ice cream topping on it with whipped cream.  It’s always a popular dish! 

Everyone agreed to scale down on the gift giving, only giving gifts to the kids under the age of eighteen.  I was glad of that because money is so tight right now, gift giving is a problem for us this year!  But just getting together with our family was the best Christmas we could have; after all, that IS what Christmas is all about – being with loved ones!

Well this morning we braved the bad weather (freezing rain) and went shopping for our last-minute Christmas gifts.  We only had a few inexpensive items left on our list, and we finished it up today.  So now we can focus on the gift wrapping and the cooking!  We are planning on having a few friends over for Christmas dinner, but not enough to warrant a turkey so we bought an oven-stuffer roaster chicken for our meal.  This is the first Christmas I’ve ever had where I can remember NOT having turkey!  I’m not sure if it will really feel like Christmas without turkey!  But I just can’t justify buying that much meat – there is no way we would ever eat it all before it went bad, and I have a feeling that if we froze some of it, it would just get freezer burnt, so I don’t even want to try that.  So, chicken it is!

We got some shelf stable 2% milk with the Angel Food order.  Have you ever heard of shelf stable milk?  When I read it on the menu, I thought that meant powdered milk, but it isn’t powedered milk.  And it isn’t condensed or evaporated milk in a metal can, either.  It is milk in a special milk carton that is able to stay “good” without refrigeration for a very long time until it has been opened.  Once it has been opened it needs to be refrigerated and used up within two weeks.  Well, it is a small container – only a quart, so it won’t last long in this house!  But I thought it was really cool!

I wonder if this is the same kind of milk that is sent to impoverished nations?  Anyway, the milk that we got says it will stay good until November of next year!  I was amazed that it would stay good that long!  I opened it up and used it in my morning tea and in my cereal, it tastes the same as my regular milk!  Well, you learn something new every day!  Who would have thought?

I recently found out about an organization called Angel Food Ministries that is dedicated to distributing inexpensive high quality food to the general public at very inexpensive prices.  When I first heard about it I thought that I was not “qualified” to get the food because I thought that I had to prove that I was desperately broke, showing some kind of proof of income (or lack thereof) but I found out that you don’t have to claim to be needy or show any documentation of any kind. 

You simply order the food ahead of time and pay for it and then pick it up at a designated location when it comes in.  You can get a menu (and more information) online at the angelfoodministries.com website.  Some locations allow online – ordering and payment by credit card, some don’t.  I ordered the December regular box of food, which is supposed to feed a family of four for $30.  I had to pick it up on Saturday.  It was quite a chore finding space in my freezer space for it all!  The menu sounded good – I hope the food is as good as it sounds!  It sure will help the family grocery budget!  If the food is good, maybe next month I’ll order two boxes!  But first I’ll re-organize the freezer to make more space for it all.