"Are you trying to rob us?" our next-door neighbor's son asked my 15-year-old.

My eldest had his head crammed into their refrigerator. Our neighbors, arriving home from a weeklong vacation, found our son rooting through their ice box.

"Uh, no," he said. "I'm looking for flour."

At that moment, my friend entered her home.

"Flour?" she asked cheerfully. "Oh, I keep mine in the freezer."

She promptly laid down her belongings and rummaged through her frozen-food section.

"Here you go," she said, handing him a plastic bag with the white powdery substance.

"Uh, thanks, Auntie," my son said sheepishly.

More often than not, I am missing an ingredient for a recipe or meal I'm preparing. I don't want to drive to the store in traffic, find parking, then stand in a line that is 10 deep just to buy an onion or a bag of poi. So I send one of the kids to my friend/neighbor's house to borrow the missing ingredient. She is always overly generous and supplies me with more than I need.

On New Year's Eve, my 11-year-old begged me to make one of his favorite desserts, churros.

I was short a cup of flour, so I asked him to run up to Auntie's house to borrow some. At the time, our neighbor had not yet returned from her trip.

So my son decided to ask another neighbor if he happened to have some flour stashed away. He did not have any flour, so the 11-year-old, on a mission with a measuring cup in hand, headed to another neighbor's house but again returned home empty-handed.

By now, frustration was mounting, but I was not willing to leap in my car and drive down the hill to the nearest store.

My eldest volunteered to ask folks who share the same lane where we live.

He went door to door determined to have someone fill his cup.

Unfortunately, neither home had flour.

My husband accused all of us of being "sick and desperate like a junkie needing a fix."

We agreed.

Not willing to forgo the churro dessert, my eldest volunteered to raid my friend/neighbor's refrigerator.

"Mom, you know Auntie wouldn't mind," he assured me.

"Well, I'd be a bit startled if I came home from vacation to discover my neighbor's kid digging through my refrigerator," I said.

"Aw, Mom," he said, patting me on the head. "You know Auntie, she'll probably say, 'Oh, you hungry? Come sit down and I'll make you something to eat.' "

Mmm ... point well taken.