a game I play

I have this “thing” where the more I run out of groceries, the more resistant I become to going shopping. 

With the low-hanging fruit gone — the chips and cereal, celery and potatoes, frozen leftovers, snacky chocolate — cooking becomes a challenge. Now’s the time to dig into my reserves: the meats that take some planning, the dry goods that gather dust in the pastry, the bits and pieces rattling around the fridge. 

Sparse shelves mean it’s time to downshift into low gear and actually use what I have, to create something out of all the little bits, to practice the art of cooking from scratch. Yay! 

(Am I the only one who gets excited when the fridge gets empty? Is anyone else like this?) 

So last night, with our supplies dwindling dangerously and the moans of the masses getting ever louder, I set one goal for my Saturday: make so much food that it would totally obliterate any need to go grocery shopping. 

Before going to bed, I took inventory and made plans. I scribbled a list of all the things I could make. I ran down cellar and pulled a bunch of meat, fruit, and bread from the freezer to thaw. 

I was ready. 

This morning, I woke up a little after six. I vaulted out of bed and for the next seven hours, I cooked and baked, whipped and beat, chopped and sauteed and simmered and seared. 

(The guys washed the dishes.)

Here’s what I made:

• parbaked 5 pie crusts (that had been ready-to-bake in the freezer)
• sauteed a large bag of kale for later in the week
• made pie crumb topping (half went into the freezer for later)
• baked 1 grape pie with crumb topping
• baked 1 sour cherry-red raspberry-rhubarb pie with oat crumble topping (that I found in the freezer)
• oven-baked 3 pounds of sliced bacon
• made a double batch of chocolate ice cream base
• cooked a pound of white beans in the instapot
• turned the white beans into baked beans (leftover tomato juice, harissa paste, honey, etc)
• cooked a bunch of potatoes in the instapot and then turned them into a potato salad
• pressure-cooked beef cheeks in a red wine onion sauce (for later in the week)
• prepped a beef heart for grilling tomorrow (tacos!)
• made a cilantro chimichurri sauce to go with the tacos (after I went to a friend’s house to pick the cilantro)
• prepped a big pan of baked French toast to use up an experimental loaf of cinnamon swirl bread from the freezer and a bunch of random packs of cream cheese
• turned 3 quarts of yogurt into smoothies for the week
• made mascarpone whip (using up two test batches of mascarpone) for a fruit tiramisu I’ll assemble later
• cleaned, cut, and packaged an Asiago

We don’t need to go shopping any more.

This same time, years previous: cake candles, little devils stairs, civil rights learning tour: Georgia, the quotidian (5.2.22), a few good things, an under-the-stairs office nook, freezer coffee cake, PUERTO RICO, besties, the quotidian (5.2.16), carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, depression chocolate mayonnaise cake, baked-in-a-pot artisan bread.