Some thoughts on stockpiling

Yeah, when I woke up this morning, I didn't know that my thoughts would turn to this. But...trying to make cookies promised for today and knowing that I didn't have a car to go get ingredients needed that I thought I had when I started out...well, you know how it goes. I decided on Chocolate chip cookies and ended up with about a 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar more than I needed left in the whole house. That is if the recipe yields 6 dozen, and I think that it will, if I don't get all consumed in this post and burn a pan. And I can make more brown sugar, I have plenty of white sugar and molasses....but I don't want to have to. Then the chocolate chip situation. In my head I feel that I am always buying chocolate chips and when I need to use them there is always just one bag and a partial bag left. Maybe I am forgetting where I am stashing them? But that would mean that I was old and forgetful and we all know that I'm not. I need to get some lima bean or cauliflower bags to store them in when I put them in the freezer. Then they might be safe from teenage boys craving chocolate. Remember that one line in the movie "17 Again" where Zack Efron(as a 17 yr. old boy) is talking to his friend while consuming all kinds of "stuff" layed out on the kitchen counter and the friend says, "Dude, what are you eating?" and Zack Efron says, "I don't even know, all I know is that I'm HUNGRY ALL of THE TIME"? That line has come to mean so much to me. So, I had one full bag of chocolate chips and a partial bag of mini chips and then a full bag of white chocolate chips. So enough to make something out of but kind of more rustic a look than I wanted. So I found some snack bags of M&Ms and some Hersheys nuggets in the fridge. So I chopped up some nuggets and put those with the milk chocolate chips that I had in the cookie dough. And if I need to make more dough I can use the M&Ms. But I think that I'm in good shape now. But all this got me thinking about stockpiling. Last November when sugar and baking goods were low, low, low priced I stocked up and I may have bought some more brown sugar and powdered sugar around Easter time and Passover when baking goods were cheap again. I am now just this week running out of powdered sugar, cocoa and brown sugar. And the chocolate chips would have held out if I didn't have chocoholics living here with me. I still have lots of flour and white sugar left but will rotate that with the new stuff I plan to get when the sales come. So get ready for the holiday baking season sales and frenzy that will hit the stores in a couple of months and plan to stock up for the whole year. Save some $ for it now if you need to. And start clipping coupons for flour and sugar now because you will get so much bang for your buck if you do, even if just in the baking area of food alone. And use up that Halloween candy you'll be getting soon enough, make cookies out of the chocolate kinds. For great stockpiling secrets, tips and motivation, see my side bar for Mindy's blog, the $50 stockpile. Her ideas are terrific. And I'm not just saying this because she wrote about me yesterday. Okay, well, had better go clean up the cookie mess in the kitchen and see if the sharpie pen stain came out of the white tee shirt that I treated with hairspray. And in case you were wondering...I came out 4 1/2 cookies more than I needed. YES! That means that I can consume some of the M&Ms in their pure form after I get things under control.

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Glenda Nielsen

1 lb. real butter
1 1/2 C. white sugar
2 C. brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
6 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
6 C. or 2 bags chocolate chips
2 C. chopped nuts

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.