Challenge: No grocery shopping for a month.

My husband Kelly and I went to the grocery store last night. Everything we bought was fresh produce, some cotija cheese, and a box of 'bacon ends'

tangent (Tangent? You've only said one line of blog, how do you tangent already?) I don't use bacon as a breakfast-meat side-dish, I mostly cook with it as a flavor/fat ingredient (lardons, bacon bits) I buy a box of Farmer John bacon 'ends' at $1.25/lb. I package it up into smaller portions with plastic wrap, and toss those portions into a big ziploc, and take out a baconcicle when i need one. so,for that, bacon 'ends' are a way better value than the standard sliced bacon at over $4/lb.

We went up and down every asile in the store, just looking around, making fun of people's photos on the packaging, looking at the horrid food photography, checking out the aisle with the holy candles and incense and Good-Luck-Spray for that santaría stuff. This was in a store called Vallarta that caters to a Spanish-speaking clientele. They've got GREAT produce for really cheap. It's the main draw of that store, but they have lots of other cool things too. Do we need bread? no. Do we need cereal? no. Do we need pasta? no. Do we need peanut butter? Mayonnaise? Beans? Sugar? Rice? No, no, no, no and no.

THEN somebody gets the bright idea of telling her husband, "We don't need any of this stuff. I bet I could feed us for two months with what i've already got in the house.
oops So he challenged me to actually make it a bet. No grocery shopping for two months.

I mean, I'm not so old that i grew up in a depression... And growing up, we weren't wealthy but we always had enough to eat... so why are my cupboards and freezers bursting with food? Maybe it's just a reflection of my obsession, and of how much i like to cook. For me, it's so easy to be able to whip up a dinner with what i've got on hand, because i've got everything on hand!

It's just the two of us, and we've got a fridge, a chest freezer, a large pantry, another narrow cabinet, and an old dresser that's used just for dry goods storage. I've got meat, eggs, veggies, onions, potatoes, all kinds of grains, all kinds of oils/vinegars/condiments, pasta, and lots of beans. And that's not counting the stuff in cans and jars. Of course, i've also got a lot of esoteric stuff like rice paper, nori, masa, dried shrimp, teff flour... and now i've got 3 lbs of bacon!

So there's the challenge. It's not about saving money, because that money's already spent. Not to mention I'm already cooking Kelly's lunches and freezing them so he can take them to work. It's not about nutrition, since we don't go out to eat often and what we eat at home is actually pretty healthy. I think it's just a way for me to force a little creativity on myself, and plow through some of the stuff already in the house.

I'll be using up the fresh stuff i have first, then raiding the freezer, and finally using up the canned/jarred things, while interspersing the bulk stuff. He said that I could have a $20 allowance after the first month to replace the most basic of veggies and because by then, we'll both be dying for a salad.

I'm not sure what will come of it, but i'll post what's going on from time to time.

Wish me luck!

Last thing I ate or drank: buttered toasted onion bagel and a 1L bottle of Arrowhead water

Technorati Tags: Food and Drink in Los Angeles

a fine line between dedication and obsession

This guy may very well be teetering on the threshold, but BOY HOWDY would I like to discover what maniacal obsession tastes like when the results look as good as this:
 my own mozz, but if I could get my hands on some rennet, I'd probably try. (I make my own butter out of heavy cream if I can't use it up before it would go bad.) When we spend the whole day out, or if Kelly has a hankerin' for pizza on a Friday night, we found Dino's in Burbank, and they do quite well. Best I've found in the area. If you know better, tell me!
I still have to write about my horrific dinner at ¢ele$tino from Saturday night. I am still trying to put some distance between it and myself, though, so that might have to wait.

AND...I've got a couple of book reviews coming up... BOTH were totally rave-worthy, and I want to make sure I can blog about them both in detail.