Cooking from the Pantry (merged)

[Syrah]

I shop weekly.. but I can pickup some fresh things pretty easily throughout the week like bread, milk and other bits and bobs.

[Shalmanese]

Does she have arborio rice? I love using risotto to mop up the spare little tidbits when the fridge is getting mighty bare.

[annarborfoodie]

I took this up as a challenge tonight and I'm going to try doing it for the rest of the week. We leave on vacation next week, and we're moving at the end of the summer, so I'd really like to clean out my fridge this week, and the freezer and pantry over the next couple of months. Tonight's dinner was spicy grilled shrimp with mango rice salad and sugar snap peas. I had all of the ingredients on hand, and it was really tasty.

[The Old Foodie]

I took this up as a challenge tonight and I'm going to try doing it for the rest of the week.  We leave on vacation next week, and we're moving at the end of the summer, so I'd really like to clean out my fridge this week, and the freezer and pantry over the next couple of months.  Tonight's dinner was spicy grilled shrimp with mango rice salad and sugar snap peas.  I had all of the ingredients on hand, and it was really tasty.

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we will expect a post each day telling us what you have made!

[sally1121]

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for your input. To answer some of your questions:

I have been keeping flour in the freezer for some time now. I don't do much baking, and even less frying, so I find it keeps so much longer in the freezer. And, yes I know that a bay leaf in the flour canister helps deter those nasty bugs. This just frees up counter space and is just as handy. Note: Be sure and let your flour come up to room temperature before trying to bake with it!

Even though I live in a REALLY small town (800 people), we are fortunate enough to have a grocery store. I try to do most of my shopping there but will go once a month to Algona (20 miles away) to pick up things I can't find here. Also, at least once a month I go to Aldi's in Fort Dodge (40 miles away) to pick up cheap staples (or when they offer seafood like lobster or scallops).

This whole personal challenge came about because I had just thrown out an entire chicken that went bad in my refrigerator waiting to be cooked. This wastefullness almost made me sick. It definitely made me mad, so I decided not to buy ANOTHER THING until I used up some of what I already had.

Like most people I'm, shall we say, "well stocked" so this challenge won't be a particular hardship. Plus, it's summertime here in Iowa and my garden is growing like mad. But, when you can't even find the bottom of your freezer, it's time to do SOMETHING before loosing everything in there. I got a Food Saver for Christmas, so at the very least, I need to get some of this stuff vacuum packed before I start harvesting this years vegetables.

Hope this helps. Keep the comments coming! And, yes, asparagus comes in cans. LOL

[The Old Foodie]

Hello everyone! 

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Hello Sally - my blogging friend, it is good to have you here.

You have given us all a good challenge. I am going to plumb the depths of my freezer for certain.

[Kerry Beal]

Sally,

I'm not sure of the proper form for adding a recipe to your blog. Does it go under comments?

In the mean time I'll make my suggestion here. It ties in nicely to the thread Janet started on retro food. How about a variation on a 'Reuben Sandwich'. You could make a dressing from the mayo (or MW in my house), ketchup, relish, with a tiny bit of prepared mustard to spread the bread with. Not sure if you have rye bread in that freezer, but just about any nice heavy bread would do. A bit of the sliced summer sausage, some of that cheese (swiss would be traditional of course), some canned sauerkraut. Dip the whole thing in beaten egg and grill in a bit of butter. Serve with some extra dressing.

And to tie in with the 'Miracle Whip' thread, canned asparagas, drained well, with a dressing of Miracle Whip is fabulous.

Got (heaven forbid) Cheez Whiz? Decrusted white sandwich bread, spread with Cheez Whiz, rolled around a piece of canned asparagas. Toasted. Sliced. Retro Amuse Bouche!

[Rehovot]

Like annarborfoodie, I'm moving, too, but in two weeks. Last week, I looked in the pantry, and found we had a good month of staples left. Since we don't intend to eat a month's worth of food in two weeks, I gave half of it to a good friend, and came up with this menu from the rest. No doubt you can figure out what the pantry finds were.

--Warm lentil salad with goat cheese and walnuts

--Spring rolls

--Risotto with dried mushrooms

--Kasha with spinach, walnuts, and sour cream (with an Oxo cube)

--Whole-wheat pasta with sun-dried-tomato sauce

--Sesame noodles

--Polenta

--Sbrisulona cookies (from cornmeal)

Well, I am cheating a bit and buying fresh veg and meat to supplement this... Otherwise, I would be faced with mutiny by the Other Diner.

[Megan Blocker]

I made this meal on Saturday entirely from things I had in the house:

- Rice fettucine

- Sriracha

- Soy sauce

- Garlic

- Frozen peas and corn

- Pine nuts

- Chicken breast

- Vegetable oil

- Rice wine vinegar

- Lime zest

- Basil

And man, was it good!

[bavila]

I too hate wasting. Lately my challenge has been how best to use up the fabulous produce in my CSA box, some of which I've never cooked (like beets ).

Last night's dinner fit the category: a salad of black lentils, feta, tomatoes (from the CSA yay!), and chives on red leaf lettuce from the CSA. That was more of a I-don't-have-any-meat-defrosted dinner.

Tonight will be albacore and something. Probably roasted beets and braised beet greens.

Also on hand this week from the CSA are some sugar snap peas, green beans, radish, baby carrots, baby bok choy, chard. And there's probably something else I've forgotten.

Any brilliant ideas? We've been doing lots of stir frys, and omelets or quiche are good for greens.

Oh, and from the farmers' market: broccolini, romaine lettuce.

The radish and snap peas will likely be sauteed together and seasoned with dill. My new favorite.

[Angela Alaimo]

This kind of meal-planning is one of my favorites, especially when the food ends up tasting good, too.

[ludja]

Great thread idea! My freezer is too full to put in the insert for my ice cream maker so I have a double incentive to clear things out! I want fresh peach ice cream! And blueberry and strawberry...

I'm going to defrost some chicken today; not sure how I'll use it yet though.

edited to add: Megan's dish above could be inspiration for me. I have some corn and asparagus at home as well. I need to also troll the chicken salad thread; many good ideas there.

Edited June 13, 2006 by ludja (log)

[Megan Blocker]

I'm going to defrost some chicken today; not sure how I'll use it yet though.

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Does it have bones, skin? What part of the chicken?

[ludja]

I'm going to defrost some chicken today; not sure how I'll use it yet though.

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Does it have bones, skin? What part of the chicken?

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Boneless, skinless chicken breast. I really am leaning towards making something like your dish since I have asparagus and corn. I may use pasta or beans as the starch.

I have some extra yolks and Meyer lemons leftover from an almond lemon cake I made this weekend so I'm also going to make some lemon puddings.

[Megan Blocker]

I'm going to defrost some chicken today; not sure how I'll use it yet though.

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Does it have bones, skin? What part of the chicken?

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Boneless, skinless chicken breast. I really am leaning towards making something like your dish since I have asparagus and corn. I may use pasta or beans as the starch.

I have some extra yolks and Meyer lemons leftover from an almond lemon cake I made this weekend so I'm also going to make some lemon puddings.

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Ooooh, sounds good!

As to my dish, do it! It really hit the spot - spicy and fragrant. Yum.

[sally1121]

I'm overwhelmed by all the great ideas!

O.F. - Carful! You never know what's lurking in those depths!

Kerry - Your sandwich sounds fantastic! And MW on asperagus?! I never thought of that. I love asparagus so much it usually doesn't even make it to my plate! I stand at the stove and eat it from the pan. And, NO, I at least don't have Cheez Whiz in my pantry... LOL.

Rehovot - Your pantry sounds MUCH more healthy than mine. I don't even know most of those ingredients you listed, but I'll come eat at your house any time!

Megan - I. AM. SO. JEALOUS! That looks absolutely fabulous!! Nice picture, too.

Bavila - I'm not exactly sure what CSA is, but it sounds like you get a lot of great veggies there. I think my boys would jump ship if I tried to push *too* many vegetables at them in one sitting. But, omelets are always a great way to use up bits and pieces of things. They're like soups - you can put ANYTHING in them and it'll be good. The kicker for me on your post is radishes? with snap peas? and dill???!!! I've never heard of such a thing. Is it good? Tell me how you do it. My GF is raising snap peas, and I have the radishes. I'd like to try it.

Angela - Obviously, meal planning is my weak spot. Otherwise I would not have had to throw out my chicken. When I cooked at the nursing home the dietician planned the meals and I cooked them. Part of the problem for us is we never are sure when/what time we'll be home (which is what happened with the chicken).

I thank you ALL for your great ideas and feedback. The food community is truly one of the best!

[bavila]

Bavila - I'm not exactly sure what CSA is, but it sounds like you get a lot of great veggies there.  I think my boys would jump ship if I tried to push *too* many vegetables at them in one sitting.    But, omelets are always a great way to use up bits and pieces of things.  They're like soups - you can put ANYTHING in them and it'll be good.  The kicker for me on your post is radishes? with snap peas? and dill???!!!  I've never heard of such a thing.  Is it good?  Tell me how  you do it.  My GF is raising snap peas, and I have the radishes.  I'd like to try it.

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CSA=Community Sponsored Agriculture program. Kinda like a coop. I buy shares in advance and get what I get. Which has been all good except for one week when the drought was still pounding us.

Here is the link for the radish and peas recipe. I know. It sounds like there's a lot going on, but it's really a great pairing of flavors.

And as for throwing things together like soups and omelets, I've been throwing lots of veggies (especially greens) into sauces or making up my own pestos. And pizza, of course. All ways to slip vegetables past the highly tuned radar of children.

Oh, and fajitas/tacos/burritos.

Edited June 13, 2006 by bavila (log)

[The Old Foodie]

I seem to remember some cakes containing veges. I once made a zucchini cake when my daughter was little, and going through a wont-eat-veges-phase. Silly me! I didn't peel them before I grated them, and she took one look at the "green bits", gave me one of her killer looks, and refused it.

There is carrot cake of course, and I know I've made a chocolate beetroot cake.

[suzilightning]

I seem to remember some cakes containing veges. I once made a zucchini cake when my daughter was little, and going through a wont-eat-veges-phase. Silly me!  I didn't peel them before I grated them, and she took one look at the "green bits", gave me one of her killer looks, and refused it.

There is carrot cake of course, and I know I've made a chocolate beetroot cake.

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somewhere i have a recipe for a chocolate zucchini bread and one of my former employees used to make what she called martian cookies - chocolate chip and M&M zucchini cookies... must see if i can find those recipes

[The Old Foodie]

I seem to remember some cakes containing veges. I once made a zucchini cake when my daughter was little, and going through a wont-eat-veges-phase. Silly me!  I didn't peel them before I grated them, and she took one look at the "green bits", gave me one of her killer looks, and refused it.

There is carrot cake of course, and I know I've made a chocolate beetroot cake.

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somewhere i have a recipe for a chocolate zucchini bread and one of my former employees used to make what she called martian cookies - chocolate chip and M&M zucchini cookies... must see if i can find those recipes

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Is this a good idea for a separate thread? "Vege Cakes"? Maybe someone should start this [not me, I'm off to work now and in any case my computer is being taken away for 24 hours (Horror!) for a grease-and-overhall.] How about you, suzilightning? Anyone with a recipe for cookies containing M&Ms AND zucchini should have that honour!

[Marmish]

Whenever I lose the cooking spark, am unmotivated to shop, or just plain ran out of room to shove things, I go through and clean and rearrange everything. While I do this, I make a list, or shout to my husband in the other room, who writes the list, of everything in the house.

It feels good to cross things off the list, and I can come up with combinations sitting at the table with cookbooks at hand instead of rumaging around and going back and forth. I went almost 3 weeks one time without shopping other than a few things here and there and milk+bread type items.

[Meez]

Sally: great idea. Based on Chufi's reply, we should call this the ex nihilo project.

BTW, my wife is from Sheldon.

[ludja]

I'm going to defrost some chicken today; not sure how I'll use it yet though.

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Does it have bones, skin? What part of the chicken?

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Boneless, skinless chicken breast. I really am leaning towards making something like your dish since I have asparagus and corn. I may use pasta or beans as the starch.

I have some extra yolks and Meyer lemons leftover from an almond lemon cake I made this weekend so I'm also going to make some lemon puddings.

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Ooooh, sounds good!

As to my dish, do it! It really hit the spot - spicy and fragrant. Yum.

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Chicken linguine with vegetables

I browned the chicken in olive oil and butter. Added in red pepper, corn and some garlic, capers and crushed red pepper and deglazed with some red wine vinegar. Added a simple vegetable stock made earlier from the corn cob and green onions, I finished cooking the chicken and thickened the sauce with some dried bread crumbs and then added in the asparagus.

Thanks for the inspiration, Megan! I didn’t have limes or basil at home but I’ll try your spicy Asian inspired version another time.

edited to add: Everything in the dish was already in my fridge, pantry or freezer.

Edited June 14, 2006 by ludja (log)

[sally1121]

Ludja - That looks fantastic! I really want to try Megan's variation too.

Meez - uhhhh...ok... guess you can call it whatever you like because I have no idea what you just said! LOL

Marmish - I'm pretty sure this is going to go a LOT longer than one week. I STILL have a ton of food and I've not even touched (well...barely) the freezer.

Thanks, again, to everyone who posted. I'm a little ashamed that I'm basically cleaning out my fridge and not touching much of anything else. However, I am NOT giving in on this. I fully intend to go as long as possible without buying anymore food. America is truly the "land of plenty". If we think in "survival" mode, we would see that much of what we buy is so over the top. When I was in college I survived on mac n' cheese at 35 cents a box. Or ramen noodles - 4 for a dollar. Not that I want to do that again, but do I really need 5 CANS OF GREEN BEANS (especially when the fresh green beans are hitting the stores right now).

I wonder if this is a hold-over from my mother and grandmother's recollection of the depression where hoarding was a necessity. I don't know... just musing here.

Anyway - keep up the suggestions and the wonderful photos of what you make. I'm so inspired by all of you. Thank you, again.

[annarborfoodie]

Last night, I made "garbage" omelettes with as many vegetables as I could stuff into them, and my husband's also had some lox left over from the weekend. I also made an inventory list of the fridge and freezer contents. Tonight, we're having quesadillas. I'm going to have to buy the tortillas and some cilantro, but that's OK - the rest of it will come out of "inventory". And tonight I'm going to make an inventory list of the pantry.