Time Travelling for New Year's Eve

Having just got back from our week-long Christmas vacation in Florida, this morning we shopped for groceries to replenish perishables and other food items in short supply. Since today (as of my typing this) is December 31, I decided to go through the coupon folder to see which coupons were expiring today and might be for things described as "perishable" or "other food items in short supply." We had two coupons for a dollar off a jar of Spice Islands seasonings. Since all our spices are in full supply, we decided to discard them. I mused about making a purchase anyway and somehow sending the spices to our future selves. Then I realized that we have a time travel device right here in our home.

In order to build up suspense I will now go off on a tangent. (You may want to skip to the next paragraph, but you are sure to be disappointed if you do. Patience is always rewarded.) Sending food to the future seems tricky but I soon realized that I have done it many times in the past. You see, in order to get a really good deal on boneless chicken breast, it's best to buy a "mega" pack of breasts (usually more than five) which any normal individual and few families could easily eat in one sitting. One of my workarounds for this problem (because, believe me, I do buy in bulk if the deal is good enough) is to grill all the chicken at once on the outdoor grill. I might even grill some steaks or burgers along with them since I usually try to maximize the use of the charcoal and they do taste so good and smoky when they're done. Cooked meat lasts much longer than raw. Another workaround is to cut up the chicken and put it in marinade for Cashew Chicken. I cook one batch of chicken and put the rest into ziplock bags and then into the freezer for future use. As this crossed my mind, I suddenly realized that freezing food is a way to send it to the future! Could that possibly work for spices? Was it really worth the bother to save a dollar? Would we forget the spice jar in the freezer and not see it again till some future moment, probably right after we bought more spices? That's the sort of classic blunder we are quite prone to falling into.

It didn't seem worthwhile to buy the spices in order to send them to the future. Plenty of other things filled our shopping list, so it's just as well. Now our pantry is restocked and we are ready to celebrate the new year with new food. If you skipped ahead to this paragraph, you are probably disappointed not to see me describing the time travel device here in our own home. I am sorry for any distress I may have caused, but I did warn you. Perhaps working on patience could be a new year's resolution?

I hope everyone has a happy new year. And plenty of spices.