My New Austerity Program

It's mighty frosty up here in the office. My fingers are so cold they don't want to type but I'm making them do it anyhow. We have been on a real austerity program lately and especially enjoying NOT using too much energy. It is fun if you think of it as a game rather than a hardship.

We are trying to see how we can affect our utility bills without suffering. For example, I would be less cold if I had more clothing on...but I'm still in my jammies and fresh from a warm, cozy bed, making the relatively cool temperature up here seem even cooler.

Gas is going through the veritable roof, holiday shopping is draining the savings account and taxes loom in January so I decided a little bit of belt tightening in one area could yield a balanced budget for the next few months.

I'm also eating from the freezer. We have two that are loaded with little packages of unknown foods. I don't know what we're going to have for dinner until the packages defrost and I can tell (usually) what it was. I know one thing, we have tons of peppers frozen, red and green. Why so many I wonder? We didn't grow any in the garden...I think they are just seeding themselves in the freezer and are a new variety that thrives on frozen temperatures and being next to rock-solid mystery meats.

"What's this?" husband asks. I look at the package and to my eyes it looks like snails. I don't recall freezing snails or ever eating, buying or cooking snails...but who knows, it looks like the "snails" have been in the freezer since Truman was in office.

"Or this?" He holds up a cream colored orb with sugar or ice crystals stuck to it's sides. "I dunno what that is or was," I say.

He holds up another package, a zip lock bag that looks like it's filled with blood. Oh, I think that's tomato sauce. He throws that onto the counter along with the snails and the orb.

"How about this?" Another package emerges from the freezer that is unidentifiable.

Hmmm. I turn the package over and try to guess what it is. It looks like meatballs that have been smashed into smithereens. I tell him that...and he adds it to the counter pile.

Now I have my ingredients for supper but god only knows what that supper might be.

A few hours later, we are enjoying a most delicious pizza with "snails" (sauteed mushrooms), "smashed meatballs" (crumbled browned sausage), with a delicious crispy "orb" (pizza dough) and (blood) home grown tomato sauce. Yummy.