Weekly menu for Sept 27/09

With the new fridge and stove now safely standing in my kitchen, you'd think I'd be baking up a storm. After 6 months of using only my barbecue and range top, I'm a bit trepidations to going back to using the stove. We'll see how it goes.

Sunday 27	Baked fish, french fries and green salad
	There's no menu for this one. I used frozen fish fillets, string fries and a home made mix of romaine, spinach, mushrooms, radishes and yellow bell pepper in an Italian vinagrette.
Monday 28	Beef kebabs with green salad, No-bake protein bars, Oatmeal bread
	The protein bars are something I keep adding to my menu, then not making. Tonight is the night! They're supposed to be great lunch-box stuffers and, for once, I deliberately bought no granola bars, cookies, or other lunch-box stuffers when I went for groceries. The oatmeal bread is a favourite of mine, and one I've been wanting to make again. The recipe from King Arthur Flour produces a pleasantly dense loaf -- perfect for toasting.
Tuesday 29	Gnocchi, marinara sauce with meatballs & green salad
	Again, no recipe. The gnocchi is pre-packaged, the marinara sauce and meatballs are already made and in my freezer. I made both using Mark Bittman's recipes from How to Cook Everything.
Wednesday 30	Bangers and Mash with Radish slaw
	Bangers (sausage) and mash (potatoes) is an old family favourite. I have two types of sausages: chicken pesto and hot italian, and baby white potatoes for the meal. The radish slaw is a recipe I found some time ago, but have yet to make it. I love cold slaw, so I'm hopeful.
Thursday 1	Beef tacos Tea bread & cookies
	My night to bake. The tacos are made using fresh (soft) corn tortillas and lots of veggies. The tea bread and cookies shows my intention to bake something; but I'm not yet certain what to bake.
Friday 2	Protein poisoning chili
	Another family favourite. This chili is thick and rich with sausage, ground beef and two types of beans. I've got fresh tomatoes and bell peppers (instead of the tinned variety), and it will sit all day in the crock pot becoming quite fragrant by dinner time. Served with polenta or rice.

Do I really need 5 types of mustard?

Every food blogger worth their salt has posted what should be in your pantry along with starter-kitchen lists (equipment, regular foods etc). With a pantry filled with such wonders, coming up with a week's worth of recipes is supposed to be easy.

My First Apartment - Starter pantry and staples checklist
Minimalist - The lastest must-haves
Homecooking - Pantry basics
Canadian Living - Pantry staples for busy families
How stuff works - 10 must-haves

Here's my own staple list for my pantry:

Pantry Basics Baking Powder Baking Soda Barley (dried) Beans (dried & canned) Black Pepper Cereal Cocoa Cornmeal (coarse) Couscous Crackers /Cookies/Snacks Dried Herbs and Spices Gelatin Granulated Sugar Fish sauce* Flour (all-purpose, whole-wheat) Flax seed (unground) Honey Hot sauces (chili, shriea, chipotle...)* Lentils (du Puy - dried) Oil (Canola, peanut, olive, sunflower, sesame dark and light)8* Oyster sauce Pasta (spaghetti, macaroni, rotini, ...) Peas (split & dried-yellow & green) Rice (basmati, calrose, brown, wild, black) Sesame seeds (fresh or toasted) Salt (rock, kosher, white) Sherry* Soy Sauce (light, dark)* Sugar (brown, white, substitute) Tapioca Taco chips Tea (many types) Tomatoes (tinned -- diced, paste, whole) Tuna (canned in water) Vanilla Extract Vinegar (apple cider, red wine, balsamic, fruit vinegar, rice wine, white wine)* Zahtar

Perishables Apples Anchovies Basil Bell peppers Boneless Chicken Breasts Bread (tortilla, crusty, whole wheat) Broccoli (frozen) Butter Capers Carrots Cauliflower (fresh) Celery Cilantro Cheese Cottage cheese/Riccota Eggs Fruits Garlic Ginger Hamburger Jam Ketchup Lemons/Limes (or lemon/lime juice) Mayonnaise Milk Mustard (old, yellow, grainy, dijon) Onions (red, white, yellow) Oregano Parmigiana-Reggiano Parsley Peanut or nut butter Pears (seasonal) Potatoes Romaine lettuce Rosemary Sour cream Sweet potatoes Tahini* Thyme (lemon, other) Vegetables, Fresh (seasonal) Yeast Yogurt

Household Supplies All-Purpose Cleaner Aluminum Foil Bleach Cheese cloth Dish Detergent Facial Tissue Garbage Bags Glass Cleaner/Vinegar-based Cleaner Laundry Detergent Laundry scouring powder Laundry spot treatment Paper Napkins Paper Towels Plastic Wrap Scouring Powder Sponges and Scrubbing Pads Toilet Cleaner Toilet Tissue Zip-Lock Bags

But at what point does a well-stocked pantry become over-stocked? I've tried to keep the vast number of small bottles (Tai chili sauce, Tai red pepper sauce, fermented black bean sauce, hosin sauce, ...) off the list. Besides do I really need 5 types of mustard?

My own pantry currently suffers from having an abundance of condiments. I love mustard, but I have 5 kinds (dijon, ancient, grainy, yellow, & spicy). I have tiny bottles of things that are used by only one or two recipes (and those I've purposefully tried to find). I have sauces that I use when barbecuing (hosin, memories of seshwan, chipotle dipping sauce), sauces I use when cooking meat (mostly brown sauces like Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce, light and dark soy sauce, fish sauce...), and sauces best used with salads (specialty vinegars, oils, etc.)

Most times I enjoy having this much variety; but with the new fridge I find it constraining to have so many bottles of 1/2 open sauces and preserves. So next week I'm trying to get rid of a few bottles and not replace them until I absolutely have to. Because, you see, that's the problem: I do actually use all this stuff; not all at once and certainly not regularly, but I do use it.

My list of "default" recipes includes a teaspoon of this, and a dab of that. I eat a lot of salads, and so am interested in tasty vinaigrette that are easy to make (and the easiest of all is a 2:3 ratio of oil and vinegar). I love to barbecue and there's nothing easier than grabbing one (or more) ready made sauces as a marinade. My soups sing when I add a drop of hot sauce (or chipotle peppers in adobe sauce or wasabe). Jam for the occasional breakfast, and as a cookie-sandwich filling and for thumb-print cookies. Curd as an alternate to cake icing (in the middle of a layer cake), or to top homemade mousse.

I have to agree with Organizing Junkie in that condiment bottles breed in the darkness of the fridge.

But my biggest worry is that, once the bottles are gone--I'll just go out and buy more. Some because I miss the flavourings of my favourite recipes; others because I've found all new recipes that use something I've not tried before or even because, as I cruse down the sauce isle I'm struck with that sense of wonder. I wonder how I'd use this, I wonder how this would taste...

I wonder if I'm doomed.

Menu for September 20, 2009 & starter kitchens

This is the week I'm supposed to get my new fridge (and hopefully) my new stove. I'm very excited. So excited the fact that the new couch and love seat are being delivered the same day have hardly registered. This does mean, however, that I'm cooking mostly from reserves -- trying to empty out the fridge and freezer as much as possible. I've played around with clean-out-the-fridge/pantry blog events in the past, but I actually do this on a pretty regular basis.
At what point is a pantry overloaded as opposed to over-stocked?

Sunday	1/2 Bagelette with pepperoni Steak sandwiches with cheese Tinned soup
20
Monday	Oatmeal Frozen vegetable lazagnia Gnocchi (packaged), homemade marinara sauce with meatballs & steamed vegetables Snacks: popcorn, apple, cookie pack
21
Tuesday	Oatmeal Smoked meat sandwich on whole wheat & Easy Black Beans and Yellow Rice Unbaked energy bars (for lunches) Snacks: carrots & hummous
22
Wednesday	BBQ hamburgers & mixed green salad Homemade ice cream
23
Thursday	Mixed green salad & Grilled Asian Chicken for 6 Ice cream sandwiches
24
Friday	Fajitas Jello
25
Saturday	Chicken noodle soup
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