Well, today was an experience as I ventured out to a store for something essential. I seriously underestimated how much milk we use, especially for coffee and needed to get some more.
This would be the first time in almost a week that I’d visited a store. Last week I dropped by the Dollarama for some pairs of reading glasses since I was down to my last pair, and there was no way I could stay at home without reading glasses to read ebooks on my tablet. I buy the dollar reading glasses since I lose them, sit on them or the cats destroy them on a regular basis. I scoped out the parking lot last week and there were only a couple of cars out front in the parking lot, so I was in and out in minutes without encountering anyone.
A week later and I was more prepared than a big game hunter heading out on a safari. And appropriately enough my hunting ground was Giant Tiger.
Had my list of six items to make sure I was in and out quickly like a Chernobyl clean up worker.
Plastic gloves. Check. Hand Sanitizer. Check. Lysol Wipe in both pockets. Check.
Snow is falling outside so I was pleased to see the parking lot in front of my store of choice was half empty.
Made it in without touching anything. Wiped down the cart handle with one Lysol wipe while wearing plastic gloves.
Store seems relatively empty, so this should be a breeze. I headed directly to the dairy section and picked up some cartons of coffee creamer. (Big mistake – I’ll tell you why at the end)
The other items were in the produce and bread sections, where it was a little more crowded. Got the stink eye from several shoppers who looked scared to death as I closed to within twelve feet of them. Strangely, older women seemed to have a look of naked fear, while the middle aged guys were calm and collected and seemed not to have a care in the world.
Got the six items and off to the checkout. One lady in front at least a dozen feet from me. When she took her last bag I started to put some items on the conveyor but was told to wait as she had to come back to the debit machine to pay for her items. Even then she was eight feet from me but I wasn’t going to argue or crack a joke about people and distance estimations.
Out to the car in the parking lot, didn’t touch my face, took off the gloves, wiped car handle with Lysol wipes, applied hand sanitizer and headed home.
As I’m in no hurry to go through that again, I checked with Google to see if I could freeze milk. Sure enough you can. Skim milk is best for freezing. You may get some yellow discoloration when you defrost it but as long as there was plenty of time left in the expiry date you’re good to go. A cold water bath is better than waiting a day or two for the milk to defrost. Also, you may get a layer of water on top so just shake it before using it. Coffee creamer does not freeze well because of it’s high fat content. So it’s skimmed milk from now on. But wait. That means another trip to the store!
