An Unexpected Travel Frenzy Lead to Onion Soup… Sorta

I was in town for only a week between trips just now. While Bill and I travel often, this sort of thing is much more commonly his domain than mine. In fact, he’s nearly in the same boat. Just as I was leaving for San Diego, he was sent by work to New York City to do some things over a weekend. This time, though, he was the one back sooner.

As we have a once a week vegetable delivery from a local(-ish) farm, this sort of travel can lead to excessive veggies in our fridge. Combine that with our farm telling us to please use or freeze the onions as quickly as possible, and our having done a surprisingly good job gardening to get a recipe for me finding myself last Friday staring at a bunch of food that I either needed to deal with before we left this morning, or hope was going to be good when we returned.… Continue reading →

Food Inventory & What We’re Eating This Week.

I’m doing an inventory of my food today (and probably tomorrow). This is prompted by a couple of things, not the least of which were my recent musings on well-stocked freezers & pantries.

Bill and I discussed, this morning, that maybe we can get by for awhile without doing any grocery shopping. For me, a pipe dream would be to make it until after our next CSA delivery1 without shopping, except maybe for milk. That delivery would occur a week from tomorrow, meaning I’d be shopping a week from Wednesday. I think that’s asking too much of ourselves, partially because this upcoming Saturday is when I’m hosting the winners of my homebrew and home-cookin’ giveaway, but a gal can dream. If I can hold out until at least Saturday, to hit Green City Market or Logan Square Farmers Market, I’d still feel pretty excited.… Continue reading →

Freezers, Bachelors and Food

Once upon a time, I was a totally normal person. I was in college. I went to my classes. I came home. I went out with friends. I ate at El Cam to study late at night. My freezer was very full of frozen veggies and microwave meals and such.

Ok. Maybe not totally normal. I suppose most college students’ freezers look a bit more like The Bachelor Cook’s freezer than my old college freezer. Booze and ice and air. I’m pretty sure you just can’t see that she’s got booze in there.

Anyway. My roommates and I always kept a reasonably well stocked fridge and freezer. And I was always a little frustrated at how little one can get into an above-fridge freezer. So you can imagine my delight when my late great-grandmother gave me her old upright.… Continue reading →

This year is just not what I expected in food.

A few years ago, I discovered I actually like tomatoes. It took me a few years to totally come around on them (for awhile I thought it was just “orange” ones I liked), and the moment I did is totally my friend Corrine’s fault. (Thanks, Corrine!)

On Tuesday I’ll be taking a class on how to can tomatoes. I’m actually not sure I really need it, since my handy “Ball Book of Preserving”:http://www.metacookbook.com/permalink/ball-book-of-home-preserving.html makes it seem pretty damn easy. However, the class is fairly inexpensive, I’ll get a chance to see Logan Square Kitchen in person, and I’ll get to meet some people who are also interested in canning. So, why not?

Putting up tomatoes was a big goal for me this year, earlier in the year.… Continue reading →