November 27, 2012

• A Paltry Pantry

  Yesterday, the kids came home anxious to gather items for the school’s holiday food drive. Over the sound of crinkling bags and clanking cans as she rummaged through the pantry, our daughter’s muffled voice asked, “What’s Rice-A-Roni?” 

  Her curly head popped out from around the pantry door with a questioning look. “It’s…..well, I guess it’s a processed food version of rice. It’s like rice with seasoning salt and things mixed in already,” I answered.

  She said lots of kids in her class had donated Rice-A-Roni, so she wanted to know what it was. I told her it wasn’t something we would likely eat in our house, but that it was probably donated because it’s affordable and it can be a whole meal, in one box.

  From our pantry, she produced 2 boxes of organic macaroni and cheese, a vacuum pack of tuna that I have no memory of buying and never eat, and a can of low-sodium Progresso lentil soup that I bought before Hurricane Sandy, in case we lost power and needed easy meals.

  I told her that I would buy some more food to donate, because our pantry is not really stocked with lots of the usual food drive stuff. Our son further demonstrated this point when he went on his own pantry expedition this morning, producing a third box of organic mac-n-cheese and 2 cans of Trader Joe’s pink salmon, left over from last Christmas’ salmon mousse recipe. Hee hee. The Mr. took those back and I reiterated that I would buy some cans of food specifically to donate.

  This is the side effect of eating as many fresh, local foods as possible — not much to offer from the pantry! Our food bank is making an effort to provide fresher foods through some of their programs – but the reality is that shelf stable food is a necessity when you’re trying to keep needy folks fed.

  Last night, I cursed my way through peeling and cubing 2 giant butternut squashes. There is no easy way to get that skin off, I tell you! Once I finally got the suckers prepped, I roasted them in a pan with some shallots, apples, and garlic. Then, I put it all in a pot with some sauteed onions and carrots, a little vegetable broth and simmered it into a tasty soup. Our hand blender broke, so the Mr. helped by transferring batches into the blender to puree. (Someone needs a new hand blender for Christmas.) I served it with the world’s most sour whole wheat sour dough bread, from Trader Joe’s. It was so sour that the kids wouldn’t even eat it. Huh.

  Our mantle is currently decorated with a variety of gourds that need to be roasted/steamed/cooked in some fashion. It’s amazing how dated those decorations become, just days after Thanksgiving. Our daughter is particularly anxious to get the Christmas decorations going, so it’s time to process the pie pumpkins, acorn squash, and Cinderella pumpkin. I just don’t know if my wrists can handle it after battling those butternuts yesterday.

  I have learned, though, that I do need to cook them now and freeze the resulting products. Last year, I decided to store a few gourds in the pantry, “for a rainy day.” I promptly forgot about (or actively ignored) them until they actually started to break down and ooze into the bin where they were stashed. That wasn’t pretty.

  Time to roast the squash.

  • 9:21 am
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