The Prepared Pantry

The weather has been bad the last couple of weeks in Spokane.  Lots of snow and poorly plowed roads.  Makes a city slicker like me not want to go out as much as I can avoid it.  Now, this snow storm and the ensuing "trapped in my apartment" feeling came right after Thanksgiving, so I was eating leftovers.  But we all know that as much as many of us really love Thanksgiving leftovers, they can get tedious.  I had given a lot of the leftovers away to my guests, which was a good plan, but there was still a lot to eat.

The leftover situation made my reliance on my pantry less than typical for a snowed in period.  I am not, however, one of those people who does a pre-blizzard shopping trip made up of bread, milk and peanut butter.  (I remember fondly an article about pre-hurricane shopping that appeared in the local paper when I lived in Florida about how many people did this and why this wasn't the best choice.)  Instead of rushing out, buying a weird collection of things that likely can't be turned into any particular meal, I have a well-stocked pantry of things I know enough about.  And in my kitchen, with its serious lack of cabinet and counter space, it's a feat in itself.

In any event, winter is the time for pantry cooking.  For one thing, if you are committed to local food, in most place in America, there isn't a lot growing in winter.  And so far this winter, Spokane has already had more snow than last winter and we now have the honor of the snowiest November on record, beating out a record from 1955.  I am lucky to live in a neighborhood with a coffee shop, a pub, a nice Italian restaurant, a bar, a pizza place (although I am not crazy about their pizza) and a grocery store in walking distance.  I can even walk to downtown from my neighborhood if need be.  It takes some of the pressure off for doing the mad-dash pre-storm shopping trip, but I am usually pretty well-prepared.

I am pretty permissive for what I consider to be in my pantry.  I include whatever vegetables and fruit that I am wintering over (like apples, onions, potatoes and winter squash), whatever I have stored in my freezer (chopped carrots and celery for soups, crushed tomatoes, homemade stock, sliced strawberries and rhubarb, other berries, usually some frozen green beans, peas and spinach, and usually some grass fed beef--hamburger, or steak), what is in the fridge, always butter, milk and cheese, hopefully a lemon, lime and orange, and what is in the actually pantry--dried pasta, corn meal for polenta and baking, rice (arborio, white, and brown) and other grains (including wheatberries, faro, and quinoa), local flour (bread, all purpose, and whole wheat), canned tuna, cartons of organic stock, lentils,  fair trade chocolate, nuts.  There is always oatmeal and other breakfast cereal (one of the few processed foods I really eat), crackers, peanut butter, sundried tomatoes, dried fruit (some bought, some dried by me), local honey and a variety of vinegars.  My pantry, however, is always a mess.  I have some basic idea where things are, but it is cramped and crowded.  (This is why I have opted for no photo of it--it is a bit embarrassing!)

It is amazing what you can do with that collection of things.  Tonight for dinner -- beef and barley soup, a pantry meal (and lunch for next week) for a cold, icy, Spokane winter night.

Over leftovers, planting in the garden and the farmers market

Finally, I am finished with the leftovers. Hallelujah! I admit to some strange meals while working through them. But, such is cooking ethically with the leftovers still in the fridge.

So last night I cooked for myself again, not merely making some rice or pasta to fill out the leftovers. I made white pizza with local new spring onions cooked slow in olive oil with salt and pepper. At the very end I put in some arugula from the window sill and some pine nuts to toast. That was put on pizza dough made with local flour in my bread machine and then some shaved Parmesan cheese. Yummy.

But tonight I am at a loss for what to cook. I have some time to mull it over and I am planning on using some of the bounty from stopping at the farmers market this morning, but I am still unsure. I might just stir fry up some of the snap peas and asparagus I got and serve it over pasta.

I have been thinking more about the plants I got at the farmers market today that I put in the ground at the little garden I am working this summer. First priority was a cucumber plant to replace the one that died in the super cold temperatures a week ago. That was actually a taller order than I expected. A few of the farmers who were selling plants either had no cukes or were also lamenting that the colder weather had done them damage. But I eventually found a couple of the "muncher" variety -- thin skins, good for salads. I also picked up a black beauty eggplant, a brandywine tomato, a golden nugget cherry tomato and a roma tomato, plus a pattipan squash--got to love those little UFO shaped summer squash!

I spent about an hour at the garden today under overcast skies and cooler breezes putting in those plants, some onion, carrot and beet seed as well. I gave the garden a good soaking, checked to see a few beans and peas coming up and hoping the lettuce sprouts soon.

This is the part that makes eating ethically fun. It is work to grow things, sure. But the work is so very rewarding--I know that in a while there will be food to pick (there are strawberries that will be ripe, soon!) and I know that food is ethical.

Loving Leftovers Part II: The Potluck

My fridge is full. I have been to the farmers market, had a dinner party, eaten out and helped host a going away party for a friend and colleague that was a potluck. There are many leftovers from the potluck now in my fridge. Thankfully, many of the party-goers are like-minded about ethical eating and I could "cherry-pick" what leftovers I wanted to take. I only ended up with a single container of something I am unsure about. There were a few items that were not things I would eat ethically or otherwise and I did say no to. I don't want to waste food. At some point , though, when dividing up the leftovers after this kind of party, you just have to say "sure, I'll take it."

I've had some interesting meals made of leftovers since the potluck as I combine leftovers and other items. Last night for dinner I had some left over "grown-up" mac and cheese with a salad. Today I had a salad for lunch that had some orzo salad leftover from the potluck as well as some cheese and steak from a salad I had out the other night with a friend. Who knows what tonight's dinner will be?

There is more orzo salad, wild rice salad and some baked ziti I made for the potluck still left. Some of the ziti I brought home from the party I smartly froze when I got back knowing what was already in the fridge and knowing of the things left, that would freeze the best.

Loving leftovers is really important after a potluck. There are always leftovers. And usually it is not that the food wasn't good. People just always bring too much. Admittedly, I almost made even more of the baked ziti than I did. And talking with the person who hosted the party at her home, she was worried that there might not be enough food. I always have the same worry. We wondered aloud if it was our New England upbringing and the memories of our parents (our mothers in particular) and the parties they hosted that gave us this inheritance. But it might not be. It seems a worry of most party planners -- will things go well? Will people have a good time? Will there be enough food?

But there almost always is enough food. When was the last time you were at a party and there wasn't? What a luxury since most people come to a party for the company first and the food and drink only second or third.

I have made a pledge to myself. I will not go the store to buy anything but toilet paper or milk until I have made my way through the leftovers in the fridge. We'll see how long I can keep that resolve! Wasting food is a bad idea. It is itself unethical, because usually it is waste that can be avoided. So I am going to avoid as much waste as possible.

Learning to Love Leftovers

Leftovers. Sometimes it's a dirty word. I remember as a child the nights we would make dinner by, as my parents put it, "cleaning out" the refrigerator. It was not usually my favorite night. Sometimes there would be something that was good and we impatiently made claims, my brother, sister and I, on what it was that we wanted. Sometimes we made almost no claims on the leftovers--none seemed appealing. Usually dinner was a little of this and a little of that and not always a balanced meal with all the four food groups represented.

But the longer I study food and its ethical implications, the more I think that we in the developed world had better learn to love leftovers. This is for a couple of reasons. First is that for many people all over the world having enough food is a luxury, so having too much is something unfathomable. Yet many days in my own kitchen, even if I am just cooking for myself, there are leftovers. Now, I try to make good use of them so I often make more than I eat at one sitting so as to have a hot lunch the next day (I embrace soup for example for this very reason).

Second, though, is that many people, myself included, carry a few extra pounds on our frames. Remembering exhortations to join the "clean plate club" I often ate more than I should have when I was young, and often still do. Sometimes it is because something is just so good, but other times is out of a bad habit to finish what is on my plate. But if I were to learn to love leftovers even more than I do now and in a different way than I do now, maybe that could change a little bit.

So for these two, disparate reasons, learning to love leftovers is important. It is good for me physically as I could stand to lose a few pounds and good for me intellectually and spiritually as I recall that many go without. Now, I don't mean for this last point to sound like the "clean your plate there are children starving in China" (or some other country) thing that many of us heard and has been memorialized in television shows and movies. We all know that if I eat all that is on my plate it doesn't do a thing to feed a starving or malnourished person. But the idea here is a little different. It is an acknowledgement that when we have enough to have leftovers we should be recognizing that we are living in a time and place of plenty which is not the case for so many others around the world, around the country and probably around the block. And it moves from this recognition to hopefully action that works to prevent hunger and malnutrition.

So today it has been primarily dining on leftovers. Breakfast was coffee (fair trade and locally roasted, of course), juice (from a northwest farmers collective) and toast from left over bread from the dinner party. Lunch was made from the leftovers from the appetizers from Monday's party too. Homemade hummus, cucumbers, feta cheese and some more baguette. Dinner was made up of leftovers, too. Some roasted acorn squash bought in October at Green Bluff and held over the winter (just a few squash left--thank God they won't be seasonal again for a while!), leftover wild rice salad and chicken marbella. I put some arugula with the rice salad -- got it eat it while it is still green on the plant now that it has bolted!

And a side note--last night I was out with a friend for a drink who told me after I ordered my drink (and somewhat obnoxiously I admit, changed her drink order) that she had been wondering after seeing my blog how I would go out for a drink ethically (that is, "ethically" in the sense of eating ethically). She said that when she heard my drink order she answered her own question--drink locally. And boy, oh boy, does that Dry Fly Gin mean drinking locally and drinking well. Hope she liked it!