The Big Pantry Pare-Down

I'm baaaaaack...

I figured, when I decided not to renew my all-kale-all-the-time CSA two summers ago, that my days of having to use up random foodstuffs before they went bad were over.

I figured wrong.

Like the vast majority of Americans, I (still) waste an appalling amount of the produce I buy. The cucumber I forget in the fridge until it has turned to penicillin; the grapes my kids ask for and then lose interest in; the salad greens I purchase with the best intentions as I start a Monday-morning diet, only to end up at the end of a well-paved road to hell by Wednesday, when a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s for lunch sounds like a fine idea.

And then there’s the leftover cooked food we never get around to eating: The lone chicken leg or the ounce-and-a-half of poached salmon that remains after supper, or the half-portion of spaghetti left in the pot without a college student in sight to snarf it cold from the refrigerator at 3 am.

And somehow (much to my great shame) I have even, occasionally, had to throw out things that should last nearly forever—canned beans or tuna; a vacuum-sealed jar of barbecue sauce. Because while I know that nothing terrible will happen if I eat beans with a January expiration date in February, the can of garbanzos I recently unearthed from before my ten-year-old son was born didn’t leave me feeling entirely comfortable. I mean, I’m willing to ignore a sell-by date. But a sell-by DECADE? Not so much.

So, as we sat around the Thanksgiving table the other night expressing gratitude for all the food we have, I resolved (again) to stop wasting so much of it. To shop for less at a time, and to use up what I have before I bring home anything new. To sort through my pantry and make sure I know what I have on hand, so that I stop buying duplicates that obstruct the view even further, making it more difficult to plan meals efficiently.  Oh, and yeah, to use up the three cans of chipotles in adobo I bought TWO YEARS ago because they were on sale – and never used.

So, here’s what we did (OK, fine, here’s what my husband and son did, while I bossed them around): We emptied the pantry, the fridge and the freezer, created a written inventory, and then put the stuff back in something resembling an organized fashion. We resolved to buy nothing but meat, fish, produce, eggs and dairy (i.e., highly perishables) between now and the end of the year, and to prepare them with only the condiments, grains and other pantry items we have on hand. (In other words, I will not be purchasing another can of chipotles any time soon – nor replacing the walnuts I might use up while I still have 4 bags of pecans on the shelf). AND to keep myself honest -- and because I’m thinking that things could get somewhat entertaining when I’m down to nothing but Japanese rice vinegar, Hungarian walnut conserve and chickpea flour in the cupboard-- I’m going to blog it. 

Because, really, is there anything the world needs MORE than another food blog? ;)     

So, if you have ever wondered what YOU can do with half a head of broccoli or two ounces of roast cod… or if the tinned anchovies in your pantry are older than your mother-in-law and you want a recipe that will help you use them up… or if you just want to see how many chipotles I can eat before landing in the E.R. with a seared esophagus... I hope you’ll follow along.

And feel free to chime in with suggestions. Rice wine-and-chickpea-flour pancakes anyone? No, I didn’t think so. Howzabout let’s put our heads together and come up with something else.