Nothing's gone bad yet...

I'm sure that in a month I will be lamenting my (perceived) lack of food. However, right now, I feel I am in a race against time to eat anything that spoils easily. I feel a small thrill of triumph every time I finish something (so far: mango slices and chicken salad. Tasty, but nothing that has significantly made a dent in any of my food problem areas). I've been downing bananas as frequently as I can handle (WHY did I buy five of a fruit I don't even really like?!), but there are two remaining this morning, and they are starting show brown spots faster than I would expect. Ok, I have no expectations, since I haven't had bananas since high school, but it does seem to be fast. I actually love banana bread, which needs overripe bananas, but I don't think two is enough (unless someone has a recipe for one very small loaf - in which case, please share!).

So when does a banana actually go bad? Is the one on the left questionable yet? Also, the grapefruits in the background look accusatory - I haven't even opened the bag yet.

I can feel myself already starting to ponder the slightly empty fridge and feel the need to fill it. Which is absurd, since EVERY OTHER surface in my house is creaking under the weight of assortments of food products. I have several containers of pasta and a red sauce in the fridge and on my counter, so I may just make a large prep of that for the next two evenings, until I can get to the weekend and have a bit more time to plan meals and actually bake/cook them.

Snacks, however, haven't been a problem. They are close by as I watch television or work on my computer, and I've already finished two of the (mystically seemingly small) bags of jerky (one turkey, one organic beef).  After my run this evening, a few of the mini-ice cream cones disappeared (I blame the dog). I don't think finishing up the freezer desserts will be a trial. And maybe it will even let me remember what's behind them.

Also, after taking stock, I seem to have an overabundance of breakfast items. Eggs, sausages, turkey bacon, waffles, pancakes. Definitely planning a breakfast-for-dinner this weekend - great excuse to make my favorite bread, biscuits (Insert yearly rant about how no New England restaurants seem to feel the need to bake these - English muffins don't count, people!).

Refrigerator breakfast items. Not too bad - bacon and eggs can be used in a variety of great recipes. I still have pancake batter as well, though.

Annnd this is where it gets slightly absurd. Did I really need to purchase hash browns, waffles, AND chicken sausage in the same trip to the grocery store?

Today's plan: lots and lots of blackberries. They are delicious, but perilously close to the edge. They are the husband's favorite berry, so I'm not used to them being in the fridge more than 6 hours post-grocery store. Also, I'm actually going to try packing and bringing my lunch to lab in an attempt to use up food faster.

Still pondering the rules of the "no buying groceries" challenge I've set for myself. Husband suggested a "buy one if it will get rid of two," which sounds appealing but also could be easily manipulated by moi, especially whilst standing in the middle of lovely in-season produce or the baking supplies aisle. I can feel my willpower breaking down from here.

The challenge

So, it's the morning of day two of Project Use What Ya Got (I'll ponder on a catchier name. Suggestions are welcome).

This is the sum total of what I'm dealing with:

Part of my dining table (realistically just "table" - I live in a one bedroom, so this table is technically in the living room and I use it for anything I need space for - cooking, writing, piling crap on). This is where I have a problem with snacks getting slightly out of control. And for people who know me - yes, those really are bananas. I had a weird craving for them. I still don't like how they smell, but I have eaten 3 already.

Part of the shelf in my "hallway." This is where impulse buys go and rarely get used (this includes the soda, the sea salt, and whatever that is in front of the mustard). Note the large number of green "Archer Farm" items. Also, don't judge about the marshmallows - I bought them for a specific recipe that I haven't had a chance to bake yet.

My refrigerator. It's actually not in that bad of shape, since I just cleaned it out on Sunday. I'm working my way through the chicken salad (middle shelf, from Trader Joe's) and the pancake batter (top shelf, looks similar to a whipped cream can).

My Freezer! Packed to the brim with Trader Joe's items, which is definitely the worst place for fun freezer impulse buys. The problem is that you can't even see the layer behind the front, which I'm sure is where all the old stuff is lurking. I just bought the powdered chai on top of the freezer for my sister, who has a recipe she wanted to try last time she visited and we couldn't find it anywhere. I swear I'm going to give it to her.

The cabinet above my sink. Keeper of several lurking items that need to be used up (I'm looking at you, refried beans and applesauce), but for the most part this is actually full of staples for both baking and cooking that I have no guilt about owning.

Part of the cart in my kitchen. These need to be used up or put into cabinets because it is literally the only counter space I have in my entire kitchen, and..well, obviously, I can't use it as it currently stands.

Ok, I actually forgot about this cabinet until I started taking pictures. It's above my stove, and is full of instant mixes and cereal. I used to use the instant mixes quite a lot, but then I actually started baking and now they feel like cheating.

The goal is to empty my table (Picture 1), shelf (Picture 2), counter space (Picture 6), and seriously cut into freezer items (Picture 4). I cleaned out my fridge (Picture 3) on Sunday morning, so everything in it is fresh and yet to be expired. I also have my cabinet (Picture 5), which is full, but I have no delusions of emptying it. Compared to the other locations, the cabinet plays a supporting role - it has a lot of ingredients (flour, beans, rice, sugar, baking supplies) that will hopefully get used up as I wade through my other supplies.

(I just realized the entire above paragraph is written as if I were composing a "Results" section of a peer-reviewed paper. You can take the kitchen out of a scientist, but you can't take the scientist out of the ...well, anyway.)

Oh, and I also have a tea problem:

I actually have a couple more teas stashed elsewhere because nothing else fits in this cabinet. Oops.

Much of the tea I've actually acquired over the summer (I'll pretend that's true), when it's too hot outside to have a mug in the evening or morning. However, I may need to branch out into iced teas in order to make a dent in it before December.

Currently I am busy trying to eat all the fruit and early perishables (blackberries, mango slices) that I have in my refrigerator. As well as eat as many pancakes as possible this morning (the batter that expires August 16 - cutting it close!).

My breakfast - pancake sandwiches with blackberries and a cocoa almond butter (similar to Nutella). So far, eating what I have is pretty tasty.

My milk expires in a couple days, so I may need to set some ground rules about what I am allowed/not allowed to replace. I feel that milk is acceptable. I have yet to decide about items such as yogurt (I usually eat it for breakfast, which could prevent me from using up some other items such as instant oatmeal), or fresh fruit (mainly berries, which are all super delicious, but sometimes I do a poor job of finishing them before they go bad). Any suggestions as to rules I should set for myself? Although even allowing myself into the grocery store for milk could be a dangerous game...

Weekend adventures in baking

I had an unusual amount of free time this weekend, as I only had to drop into lab briefly on Saturday morning to maintain some cells. I made an ambitious list for the apartment, the garden, although the kitchen ended up dominating my time. When I have a few hours on Sunday (and I've been successful in my grocery shopping), I like to make lunches for the week and portion them out ahead of time - a trick my sister taught me, and one that makes me much more likely to bring my lunch to lab instead of buying it (saving me money and probably healthier as well). So I made herb dijon salmon (which is totes delicious, but I can't claim credit for it - I love Trader Joe's selections of pre-marinated meats that come with clear and easy-to-follow instructions, so even a recovering semi-vegetarian like me can follow them).

Lunches for the week! It uses almost the same number of leftover dishes I would if I separated the meal parts, but so much easier to just grab and go.

To accompany, I sauteed some frozen green beans I had (also from TJ's) and decided to roast some baby potatoes as well (also from TJ's, if you notice a theme). I tossed them in around a tablespoon or so of garlic-infused olive oil (from...well, you get the idea), and then cut up and threw in some dill, thyme, rosemary, and one sage leaf from my window. The first official use of my herbs! I was overly delighted by this. The potatoes came prewashed (much appreciated!) and after some good tossing in a bowl, I simply threw them in the oven in a pan for thirty minutes at 400F. I probably should/could have roasted them for less time - for potatoes this small, twenty minutes would be plenty. But they came out smelling delicious and looking lovely. As a side dish, it couldn't get any easier - no measuring, very little cleanup, and quite fast. For larger potatoes, I would cut them into pieces, but these are the perfect size bite whole. I can't claim originality for this idea - found through supercook.com - although the dill was my idea as I thought it would accompany the salmon well. Next time, I would throw in some sea salt and pepper as well to help spice it up more.

Setting the stage - an overabundance of all things Trader Joe's. I would highly recommend the olive oil for anyone who enjoys garlic - it adds great flavor to just about anything.

Just before the oven - my, what wonderfully chopped herbs you have.

I also put my three herbs (minus the dill) to good use in a buttermilk biscuit recipe I found online. I love biscuits of any kind, so this recipe was right up my alley. I was liberal with the amount of herbs I put in, and I also tossed in a good handful of grated sharp cheddar - because how could cheese not go with this? I didn't do drop biscuits, instead rolling out the dough and cutting them with my improvised biscuit cutter (classy, I know).

Butter, pre-melting. It already smelled delicious, although I wondered why the recipe didn't just put all these herbs directly into the dough.

Sometimes you gotta make it up as you go. As long as the edge is floured well beforehand, this actually works quite well.

Smeared with butter and ready to go in the oven!

You can see the cheese now that it's baked and melted. I paid for early sampling with a burnt tongue, but it was totally worth it.

Next time I would add significantly more cheese and also put more of the herbs actually in the dough. However, the texture of the biscuits turned out beautifully and they would be wonderful with soups, stews, or eggs for breakfast. They weren't good enough for me to convert from my standard baking powder biscuit recipe (the one adapted to produce this berry shortcake), but I'm glad I tried them.

That was the end of my window garden-based cooking adventures, but I didn't stop there. Jenn, a friend whose baking I can only aspire to, gifted me a donut tray some time ago, and I was eager to try it out. I ended up trying out this recipe, with more vanilla and a dash of cardamom added (I have a slight obsession for cardamom, so I will toss in a pinch with just about any dessert I make).

First time use of the donut tray! I had no idea what to expect....

...but they turned out pretty near perfect.

The donuts fresh out of the oven reminded me of bagels, which have now gone on my list of "some day" baking. They were a wonderful, light texture but a bit tasteless pre-sugar. And after sugar - well, how could they not taste good?

Doused in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar! I have no idea how the missing bite came about from the top donut. Must've been the dog.

 I ended my baking adventures with this recipe for what claimed to be "homemade oreos." They ended up being somewhere between a whoopie pie and the classic sandwich cookie - not a bad thing! I took the cookies out of my oven at exactly nine minutes as the recipe called for, even though my oven usually takes a few minutes longer. This left the cookies chewy (delicious - I much prefer soft cookies to crisp ones). I didn't have any vegetable shortening, so I only used butter for the filling - next time I would definitely use a lighter, fluffier filling, more akin to whoopie pies than this recipe. Overall, though, a wonderful baking weekend, and now I have lunches and sweets to spare!

Vodka + vanilla beans = cheap vanilla for baking (you can also use other alcohols). This bottle had been sitting in my room at my parents' house for years (not for drinking but as a centerpiece for the ads I used to collect), and I finally opened it up and put it to use.

The cookies just out of the oven, cooling. I was pleased that they remained soft, even the next day.

My presentation may be lacking, but they certainly tasted delicious. And quite like oreos, though strangely the individual components did not. It's a mystery.