Things My Grandmother Knew: Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Originally published June 25, 2012

If you live in a rural setting, you know how inconvenient it is to run out of anything….especially coffee….and especially when you realize that you are out of coffee at 5 a.m. before ANYTHING is even open.  We live 40 minutes from the closest grocery store and there was no way I was making that drive this morning…sans coffee.  So, I began to scrounge around in my cupboards and found one of those specials that Starbucks runs.  You know…you buys something and you get some instant iced coffee for a discount price.  (HA!)

Well, I took the packet of instant iced coffee poured it into 16 ounces of water as instructed and stirred while I watched it dissolve.  I then poured some into my coffee cup until it was about 2/3 full and put it in the microwave for about a minute and then finished filling the cup with milk.  Oh my goodness!  It was delicious.

Necessity will certainly make you think out of the box…especially when it comes to my morning coffee.  I’ve reheated some still left in the coffee maker from the morning before (gross but true), I’ve made it using paper towels as a coffee filter when I had no filters in the house and the list goes on.  I’m sure you have a list of your own and I know that my grandmother did.

I’m sure that some of the things that I shared in my Waste Not, Want Not post were results of her thinking outside of the box for solutions.  She ran out of twistie ties to tie up drooping tomato plants so she tore up bits of old panty hose and used those instead.  She didn’t want to buy ice so she froze ice in empty milk containers.  She wanted extra room for plants so she used empty milk containers.  She didn’t want to spend money on buying plants so she traded cuttings with neighbors and relatives.

I thought of her this morning as I tried to find a solution for my serious dilemma of being coffeeless…I think she would have been proud! : )