If It Says Soup, It Just Might be Cookies

By Carolyn Abell

A magazine article years ago told about famous people and their individual quirks of conservation. While I don't recall all of the particulars, I do remember that one person just couldn't bear to throw away aluminum foil. After initially using it, she would carefully smooth it out, wipe it clean, and fold it for another use. I guess eventually it would tear and become unusable, but she clearly got her money's worth before it was relegated to the trash.

Another man admitted that he just had to get that last bit of toothpaste out of the tube, even if he had to cut the tube open to get at it.

My own mother, may she rest in peace, saved many things. Plastic grocery bags were her biggest hoard. She had one of those long cloth bags that you hang from the ceiling in the kitchen, where she would stuff them after unpacking the groceries. Then when she needed one, she just reached up and pulled it out of the bottom. She also saved buttons from worn-out clothes, safety pins from dry cleaning, and all of those straight pins they put in a new shirt to keep it looking so nice, but which can cause pain and suffering when you are trying to remove them from a stiff collar!

My Aunt Frances, though, was the one I thought had the best idea. For as long as I can remember we have had periodic family get-togethers, to which everybody brings a ton of food to share in a huge smorgasboard of southern vegetables, baked ham, and assorted pies and cakes, plus corn bread, of course. Somebody usually has a new cookie or cake recipe, and since we can't possibly eat some of everything, we divvy it all up at the end and take home some of whatever we couldn't eat at the time.

That's when Frances would haul out her stack of Cool Whip containers. She usually had at least twenty that she had carefully washed and saved for just such emergencies, and she just packed them up along with her famous Georgia cream pound cake and brought them to the gathering.

I thought it was the most wonderful idea! Since the containers didn't cost anything, you didn't mind taking them, because you knew you didn't have to return them. So we would all take at least two or three of Frances' Cool Whip cartons and fill them with turnip greens, chocolate cake, or slices of ham to take home for the next meal (or maybe the next several meals!).

Dear Frances passed on several years ago, so I appointed myself to be responsible for saving Cool Whip containers. The job fits me well, because I have several recipes that use Cool Whip. I buy the small 8-ounce size, which are just perfect for re-use. For example, when I make a big pot of my favorite soup, I freeze the extra in individual portions in these containers. They keep for weeks, and are perfect for a meal when you don't have time to cook.

Miss Kitty, my cat, probably thinks that is the only way to drink water. I've put her water in Cool Whip bowls for as long as I can remember. After several months of washing and refilling, I eventually decide to replace it, so just toss it into my recycling bin. That's the really great part: I've already recycled it for other uses, and then it gets melted down and made into T-shirts!

I think I might have even exceeded Frances in my diligence with recycling. I have used some of my cartons several times. (In case you were wondering, the cat's water bowl is ONLY used for her water!)

Recently I hosted one of those family meals here at my home, and when we had all stuffed ourselves, I rummaged through the cabinet and brought out my stack of Cool Whip cartons and lids and passed them out. As we started packing sliced pork loin, Hilda's turnip greens, and Ann's newest version of sugar free cookies (so good, you would never guess they didn't have sugar), I noticed that some of my lids had been used so many times, they had "soup," (crossed through), "mustard greens" (also crossed through), and "spaghetti sauce" written across them with a black marker. I probably should have thrown that one out when I used the spaghetti sauce, because I've learned that a Cool Whip container is usually just good for one batch of leftover spaghetti sauce. It causes stains, and orange spaghetti stains for me are an indication that the container is finally ready for the recycling bin, and the lid should have gone, too.

Oh, well, no problem. I just got my black marking pen out for those who need to re-label the lids. Belle said she didn't need to; she put turnips in the Chili Mac container, but she memorized what was in it. I did the same thing with the one sitting on my kitchen table. It says "soup" on the lid, but I know it's some of Ann's delicious cookies inside.

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