So I’ve Been Having This Dream…

Several nights this week I had a similar dream.  In the dream, I was grocery shopping, or about to go grocery shopping, and I had this sense of urgency to stock up the pantry.  I was almost frantic in my dream- worried that I wouldn’t have enough in my pantry.  They were definitely vibrant dreams, because I woke in the morning clearly remembering them, and I assumed they were some sort of reaction to all the flooding and disaster going on here in the Midwest.  Although a well-stocked pantry doesn’t seem to do much good in a flood situation, does it.

Then yesterday afternoon I was about to make the kids lunch and I grabbed the peanut butter from the pantry and took it to the counter.  Opened it up, reached in my knife, and…ANTS! Those blasted ants were back.  The PB went in the garbage and Zander had to settle for ham & cheese for lunch- definitely not his favorite. After the kids had lunch the excavation of the pantry began.  Fortunately, I found them early. The peanut butter was only on the second shelf from the bottom, and while they were all over there, very few had migrated north, so the things like my nuts were safe. I emptied four shelves of goods, throwing out plenty of things like unopened crackers that they somehow find their way into.  I didn’t lose as much as I would have thought- a few specialty flours that I don’t use very often, but really, the peanut butter and crackers took the brunt of it.  I put out the Terro for them to find, and while it took awhile for them to find it in the first place, they’ve clearly been going at it all night.

All this to say that I didn’t cook a single thing last night.  In the first place, the contents of my pantry are on my counter, taking up every square inch of available space.  In the second place, I was totally grossed out by the ants in my house, and cooking just wasn’t appealing.  The drive thru was a blessing last night and my hungry kids were thrilled. I don’t know that we’ll be cooking today either…last year it took about four days for the ants to disappear completely.  One of these days we will also be re-stocking my pantry, and can I just mention again how glad I am to have Tupperware in my pantry? They’ve paid for themselves ten times over by keeping the ants out of everything.

So bear with me please.  We’re thinking of heading to the strawberry patch today, and that will mean something delicious coming from the kitchen, regardless of the ant situation.  🙂

Whoops!  I forgot to mention that Abigail has been at it again!  To see what she made this week, head on over to Kids Cuisine for my weekly article.