Clean House

Lately- with my husband in physical therapy three nights a week, and me fighting off a cold, dinner creations have been... whimsical. I have never been one for the European style of grocery shopping, not even as an urbanite, and instead prefer to mentally catalogue a series of meals and basics and load up my cart for a once a week haul. But this week has been different. Last weekend, when said haul usually occurs, I was not feeling up for it. And as I perused my freezer I pulled a variety of meats out and figured that with some creativity I could make my way through the week.
And make my way I did! Shockingly, what I discovered, is that I have a ton of food stuffs that have been cast off from a previous recipe, never made, or quite frankly, just forgotten. As I persued the wide array of seasoning packets, hidden behind the forty-odd tins of tuna fish, I recalled an article written by a local "chef", if you will ( actually- a housewife with self-proclaimed cooking skills ).... she mentioned that January was clean house month at her house.
She described making her way throught the nooks and crannies of her pantry- pulling, tossing, baking and cooking all those morsels with expirations dates approaching or cans of what-nots whose partners vanished in a flash of cooking lightbulb moments or Betty Crocker inspired frivolity.
The trick for me was to not let my husband recognize the sudden adding and subtracting of ingredients in what we have deemed a "previously refined dish". So there are almonds in the brownies. So there is pineapple in the jell-o. Wait. There is JELL-O? I put sprinkles in the cupcakes and excuse me but yes- that is what I call mayonnaise on your burger. Delicious, isn't it? And stop asking about the amount of pickles this week. I just crave them. Eat up, honey! Chop chop now!
And so we have made it. We have been well fed and nary a meal was tossed. And now again it's Saturday and I am considering managing another haul-less grocery weekend. To flush out the last of the oddities... pesto pasta anyone? and forge through another creative week of cooking. By Wednesday evening, when we sit down to a glorious meal of Italian Meatballs and french fries, I am sure we will be ready to get back to the old ways, where the protein is enhanced by the carb and the veggies are meshed with the protein. In the meantime, our meals will look increasingly like a three ring circus until the last of the artichokes are baked and the pimentos stuffed.