Rookie Mama – Don’t let your fridge get too full-blown; Lessons learned from Home Alone

By Michelle Cote
The Rookie Mama

“I hope you’re all drinking milk; I want to get rid of it!”
­­–  Kevin McCallister’s mother, Home Alone

For all intents and purposes, Kate McCallister’s character – a role expertly played by the late, great Catherine O’Hara – doesn’t have the best rap as far as movie mama characters go.

Mama McCallister did, after all, leave her youngest son behind – twice – on separate harried family ventures, in films that yet remarkably make for phenomenal Christmas movies in each their own right.

You haven’t seen an airport montage spectacle until it’s been to the ditty of “Run, Run, Rudolph,” and John Candy playing polka holiday tunes in a rental van is stagecraft unmatched.

Clearly, I’m giving away my age – The two OG Home Alone films mark the holiday films of my generation – 80s neon on the brink of 90s life.

I will love them forever (the movies, not the 80s), although I do shake my head in disbelief more and more each year – Really, she forgot her youngest child?

How would this happen in any era, from the boomer days to Y2Ks, to time before and since?

I get the frenzy that comes with big family territory, but I digress.

Of all the classic lines associated with the first film – and there are many in Christmas movie canon – my favorite is an easily missed throwaway line.

The brief remark about drinking milk resonates because it’s such a subtle, unmistakable mama thing to say, along with all classic lines about picking up shoes, eating your broccoli, reminding kids they don’t live in a barn.

The McCallisters are heading out on vacation – Even they don’t want food to spoil, abundant wealth notwithstanding.

Your own mama and hers before likely echoed similar sentiments about avoiding food waste.

And therein lies the point of my column – The importance of being earnest in the great refrigerator cleanout, and to be cognizant of what we purchase in the first place.

What’s in your refrigerator that needs scrapping?

You’d be surprised at how many sneaky condiment bottles or salsa jars and the like may have expired months – perhaps years! – ago.

No shame if this is true, because although your refrigerator is running, so are you, and who’s got time to find the teeny black print conveniently hidden underneath these jars?

Run, Run, Rudolph.

When the Paddington movies were released, our kids went on a short-lived marmalade kick.

The too-sweet citrus fascination died down before the jar emptied, and so in the refrigerator it sat and sat some more, until it was at long last relegated to the green bin.

The intentional clean-out task becomes all the more relevant when our family is preparing for a vacation, which was the recent case.

A week prior to go-time, I blurted it out, ‘I hope you’re all drinking milk; I want to get rid of it.’

We were intentionally rifling through our fresh food to eat what we could before we took off for a stretch.

This promptly led to our checking labels on absolutely everything – it’s the slow-to-perish-ables that get ya, when we’re often so focused squarely on the avocado-type items that we know will decompose faster than the speed of a Little Nero’s pizza delivery at the McCallisters’ front door.

I was shocked – favorite spreads, leftover cake icing, gourmet spiced mustards – tucked neatly into their own place were all but expired.

On the flip side, our refrigerator is much cleaner now, with actual space between the carefully Jenga-block-stacked assembly of fresh foods.

A fresh start with a minimalist carte blanche, almost beckoning for garden harvest goods to come (speaking of blanching).

This was a reminder to not overstock that which can’t be preserved long term, because those expiration dates come quickly, like a child’s first 18 years at home.

We love a good marinade variety, but not enough to risk having some go to waste before we can slather it all up and enjoy its deliciousness. 

I realize we’ll need to tackle our first aid and medicine next for expired Tylenol.

So check your fridge contents and make a clean sweep of whatever cans and jars galore just didn’t make the deadline.

We’re doing the same, and it’s a reminder to meal plan more intentionally and meaningfully for future dishes as responsibly as we can muster in a run, run, Rudolph kind of world.

If you can freeze something that would otherwise go to waste, have at it – Your food-conscious ancestors would nod approval in unison.

Check those expiration dates, pick up your shoes, and drink all that milk.

And when your kiddos become curious about marmalade, buy the travel-size only.

­­– Michelle Cote lives in southern Maine with her husband and four sons, and enjoys camping, distance running, biking, gardening, road trips to new regions, arts and crafts, soccer, and singing to musical showtunes – often several or more at the same time! <