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Most older women I know are always ready for company. They have cookies or bars in the freezer, just in case somebody drops in.

In most homes I know, the freezer is a woman’s best friend.

The deep freeze is stuffed with pies, cupcakes, pastries and banana bread. When company shows up, the woman of the house grabs something from the freezer and serves it next to a cup of coffee.

When visiting, it’s good to stick around as long as possible. The longer you stay, the better chance the dessert has to thaw out.

Many grandmothers rely on their freezer to help get ready for Christmas. They make their cookies and bars long in advance, and sock them away for the holidays.

My mom didn’t take all of her cookies out for Christmas. Over the holidays, I would routinely grab cookies out of the downstairs freezer. They were hard as a rock, but wonderful. I’d bite the chocolate chip off of the cold frosting on top.

In the battle to keep families fed and the food supply organized, the freezer is a key weapon in the arsenal of many men and women. Like Boy Scouts, they believe in being prepared.

When bananas start getting old, some people stick them in the freezer. Eventually, they make banana bread.

When pork loin and other meats go on sale, they stock up on huge quantities and store them in a chest freezer.

In many homes, freezers are overflowing with deer meat, bags of vegetables or half a cow.

I used to know a guy who won a chili cookoff every year. Into his award-winning concoction he put all sorts of meat. You’d probably call some of those ingredients mystery meat.

In some homes, the older residents might still refer to the freezer as the ice box.

What you keep in your freezer partly depends on your family origins. In Polish families, you might find kolaches sitting next to the ice cube trays.

Reading obituaries, you can see the importance of the freezer in many people’s lives.

Norma Devine, who passed away in 2020, loved being a housewife and mother, and her hands were never idle. “There was always an ice cream bucket full of her delicious homemade cookies in the freezer, ready for company and her children’s friends.”

Jessie Lehmkuhler died in 2015 at the age of 98.

Even at an advanced age, “she continued to serve her church by furnishing a cake for each funeral dinner at the church and always had one baked ahead in the freezer.”

Jessie “preserved vegetables, fruit and meat by canning and freezing.”

Another good mother was Vonna Jackson of Grand Island, who died in June at the age of 91.

“For 67 years, Vonna and a combination of her daughter, granddaughters and great-granddaughters made Christmas sugar cookies together,” the obituary said.

Grandmas and grandchildren who make cookies together might not have a great need for the freezer. The kids probably eat most of the cookies that same day.

In today’s kitchens, some feel they can’t function without a Ninja Foodi Power Blender and Processor.

That’s not true of the grandmothers I remember. Give them an oven and a freezer, and they were ready for anything.

Jeff Bahr is a reporter for The Independent. He may be reached at 308-381-9408.

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