There’s a process I go through no matter which direction I’m heading between Arizona and Colorado. I clean out my refrigerator. I don’t mean just wiping down the drawers and the shelves, although I do that too. But I also mean getting rid of the food that I have collected over the past months.

I hate to waste. Having said that, I have to offer a caveat. Leftovers get one shot in this house. Frankly, if if was up to Bill, they wouldn’t even get that. But I will heat up leftovers one time, and if we don’t eat it all, it goes ba-bye. When I’m in Denver (where the city offers composting), I throw the leftovers in the green can, along with egg shells and pizza boxes. Here, the sad remaining food goes into the garbage.

I will also offer a bit of gossip. Both of my sisters (who are single) throw nothing away. There can be the littlest piece of pork chop left, or the smallest bit of leftover scalloped potatoes, and both Jen and Bec will wrap it up in a tiny piece of cellophane wrap and eat it the next day for lunch. I’m pretty sure we are sisters of a different mother.

Anyhoo, when we are preparing to leave, I start trying to use up things in my refrigerator and freezer. This results in things like sauerkraut and salmon with red sauce over six different kinds of pasta. Yum. Bill’s stopped asking what we are having for dinner, because the answer is always the same these days: Whatever is closest when I open the freezer door.

On a serious note, I’ve never made sauerkraut and salmon as part of one meal. But I did use a little bit of cheddar cheese in my lasagna. And I didn’t use the correct number of lasagna noodles because I was two noodles short. I did a lot of patching.

Last night, I dug around a bit and found a piece of salmon and a small filet mignon. I cooked them both inside to avoid having to “walk on the sun” to my grill. I used up the remaining Swiss cheese by making macaroni with Swiss cheese like my grandmother. I pulled out some (kinda) shriveled asparagus I found buried in my vegetable bin, and that was our vegetable.

I suspect there is a chicken noodle soup in our future as I found a package of frozen chicken thigh filets laying under the salmon and steak. I’m pretty sure I can find some celery and I’m fairly certain I have leftover carrots.

You aren’t surprised to hear that Bill will be glad to be settled someplace where the food was purchased more recently than four months ago.