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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Pantry Cooking for the Rest of the Week and Beyond

Tonight, we're going to the monthly free concert at the church down the street. These concerts are followed by food and wine. The concerts are great! But we've noticed that they are not the places to see and be seen by le tout as I call the high society folks of my little town. Most of the audience is comprised of residents of an upscale retirement community. Mr. FS and I are definitely on the youthful side of the demographic.

Usually we get enough at the reception to serve as a small dinner (but those retirees are very competitive eaters, I must say). Here are my pantry-busting meals for net week. I noticed that many of my favorite recipes are permutations of each other. That is why, I suppose, you can't really follow other people's cooking plans; you have to develop your own rhythm and repertoire.

I have cooked red beans (made extra), sausage,meatballs, shrimp,potatoes,cabbage, greens, and bacon. Plus odds and ends like carrots. Look at my choices.

1. Red beans and rice (beans, onions, sausage, peppers).
2. Portuguese soup (potatoes, kale,beans,tomatoes,broth--from The Victory Garden Cookbook).
3. Potatoes, sausage, and cabbage with mustard butter (from Desperation Dinners).
4. Meatballs on braised cabbage with tomatoes (from Marcella Hazan).
5. Cabbage, potato and leek winter soup (Deborah Madison).

That would be at least 10 dinners, since I cook extra.

Here's what I REALLY want to try: I found a recipe for bacon, shrimp, and mashed potato flautas. I am swooning just thinking about it.

2 comments:

Duchesse said...

Though I see the sense of it, three nights of cabbage-inflected dinners, I could not muster- and I like cabbage.

Think of your concert attendance as a note of glamour for the retirees. Older people like being amid younger-than-they-are. "We weren't always old" once of my mother's friends told me.

Frugal Scholar said...

@Duchesse--Don't worry! This is the list of possibilities. I could eat cabbage every day, but not sausage or bacon. I just found this great recipe for cream of barley soup with leeks, mushrooms, and sour cream. That's probably the next thing I will make. (All from pantry/fridge)