No such thing as a free lunch

I used to do a lot of cooking and baking when I still had a family to cook for. Nowadays I mainly cook for myself, vegetarian meals, but since the weight management program, no baking. At this time of year I remember all the preserving and baking, as Christmas cakes and fruit are in abundance. Sometimes I miss my old Bramley apple tree, that kept us in apples all through the winter. This week a friend appeared with a very large bag of cooking apples and a couple of dozen eggs. There is nothing for it but to hit the kitchen. Waste not want not. I peel and core apples before cooking and find enough boxes to freeze them. Half way down the bag I run out of sugar, not an item I use very often and 1 bag can last me a year.

I need to make pastry to make some of them into pies, and also bake some cakes to use the eggs. This means I now have a shopping list that includes sugar, butter, flour and dried fruit. Of course I will not be able to eat all the goodies, and will have to give them to friends. But the free apples and eggs have come at a cost. My freezer is too small to keep much. Of course I could buy a bigger freezer, but then the pies and pastries will have cost even more. Not to mention the extra electricity and gas for the cooking.

Could this be what they mean by "there is no such thing as a free lunch?" The apples and eggs cost nothing, but using them up is going to push my grocery bill up considerably. However I am still very grateful to my friend for thinking of me, and will thank them with pies and cakes when I have finished working my way through them all.