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on the care and feeding of my f'list
So, I had a small epiphany today. During a mild meltdown in the coffee room that started with not being able to go to Tampa with Brandon's family this weekend because I'm fairly buried in a monthlong backlog of basically anything you can be a month behind on, I realized that there's no time to do everything I've been trying to do.
And as I watched the coffee drip down into the pot, it struck me - cooking. Suddenly, I understood the concept of little bodegas in New York and Europe where people buy just enough for that night's meal - which doesn't necessarily mean ingredients.
See, here in Florida, we have endless reclaimed swampland on which to sprawl our not-much-of-a-step-up-in-terms-of-civilization strip malls in place of sawgrass and water moccasins. And the usual fixture of said strip malls is, 3 times our of 4, a Publix. These palatial grocery oases carry virtually every food, paper and cleaning product, frozen good and cheap wine in quadruplicate varieties. They have the freshest produce, the cleanest facilities and the least annoying muzak, and until we get Trader Joe's down here, they'll continue to be the only game worth mentioning in town.
My mother, bless her heart, worked full time (sometimes two jobs) and still managed to cook for us almost every night. Yeah, sometimes it was macaroni and cheese with hot dogs, but even that she made with real cheese and there was always a salad. Point is, there was always hot, fresh food in my house, and the way this was accomplished was either her going on a weekly Publix run or setting me up with a list and her debit card to do so. Having been fortunate enough to have a car, I've continued this ritual through college dorms and now my apartment.
But she ran a much different kind of house from mine. For example, they don't make loaves of bread for single people, who may take a month to eat that many slices. Whatever my mother bought was gone usually before the next shopping trip, so for the last couple of days we were eating leftovers, cereal or Chinese food. Having made a few of the trips to pick up said takeout, I knew how much it cost to feed a family of four a meal you didn't make yourself, and therefore going to the grocery store and cooking at home made sound fiscal sense.
But does it anymore?
I work a full-time job: 40 hours a week, but often up to 45. Brandon and I usually wake up around noon or 1 p.m. and either one of us has to go in to work an earlier shift or we grab a couple of hours or so for our own things before going in together. We get only half an hour for dinner, hardly enough to go to some fast-food place let alone make something. We get off work about 1 a.m., go jogging for about an hour, then head home, watch The Daily Show over a snack, and either read or do something else for a couple of hours before going to bed. Household chores, a couple of semi-regular television shows, miscellaneous errands and laundry (requires trekking to a laundromat) break up the monotony.
Now, I don't intend to stop cooking. If nothing else, to my great surprise and no small amount of feminist guilt, I've found I like cooking for Brandon. But even that's something we do together, so it's not just cooking. Also, eating out for more than one meal a day wouldn't feasible, but that's fine because we both like breakfast foods and sandwiches, which we can throw together quickly with the bonus of minimal dishes. There are make-meals-for-a-month services like Dinner2Gether here in Polk that'd be worth looking into.
But buying ingredients in bulk at Publix that need relatively quick turnaround without the time to do so makes no sense. But with a bodega, while some nights you want to make pasta sauce with fresh garlic, on others picking up a quarter rotisserie chicken and fruit salad is all you have the time or energy for. And it's that time thing that I keep coming back to, but that's hard because there's no bar code to tell you how much it's worth.
So, all things considered, is eating out for one meal a day instead of cooking at home really that much more expensive for a single person? What kind of households do you all live in/run? Do you cook, and if not then what do you eat? When do you cook? Are there any shortcuts you take?
It's a sad thought, that we're losing the art of cooking to the thousand encroachments of the 21st century, but seriously, is it feasible anymore for anyone who has a job that doesn't involve making one's living from it?
And as I watched the coffee drip down into the pot, it struck me - cooking. Suddenly, I understood the concept of little bodegas in New York and Europe where people buy just enough for that night's meal - which doesn't necessarily mean ingredients.
See, here in Florida, we have endless reclaimed swampland on which to sprawl our not-much-of-a-step-up-in-terms-of-civilization strip malls in place of sawgrass and water moccasins. And the usual fixture of said strip malls is, 3 times our of 4, a Publix. These palatial grocery oases carry virtually every food, paper and cleaning product, frozen good and cheap wine in quadruplicate varieties. They have the freshest produce, the cleanest facilities and the least annoying muzak, and until we get Trader Joe's down here, they'll continue to be the only game worth mentioning in town.
My mother, bless her heart, worked full time (sometimes two jobs) and still managed to cook for us almost every night. Yeah, sometimes it was macaroni and cheese with hot dogs, but even that she made with real cheese and there was always a salad. Point is, there was always hot, fresh food in my house, and the way this was accomplished was either her going on a weekly Publix run or setting me up with a list and her debit card to do so. Having been fortunate enough to have a car, I've continued this ritual through college dorms and now my apartment.
But she ran a much different kind of house from mine. For example, they don't make loaves of bread for single people, who may take a month to eat that many slices. Whatever my mother bought was gone usually before the next shopping trip, so for the last couple of days we were eating leftovers, cereal or Chinese food. Having made a few of the trips to pick up said takeout, I knew how much it cost to feed a family of four a meal you didn't make yourself, and therefore going to the grocery store and cooking at home made sound fiscal sense.
But does it anymore?
I work a full-time job: 40 hours a week, but often up to 45. Brandon and I usually wake up around noon or 1 p.m. and either one of us has to go in to work an earlier shift or we grab a couple of hours or so for our own things before going in together. We get only half an hour for dinner, hardly enough to go to some fast-food place let alone make something. We get off work about 1 a.m., go jogging for about an hour, then head home, watch The Daily Show over a snack, and either read or do something else for a couple of hours before going to bed. Household chores, a couple of semi-regular television shows, miscellaneous errands and laundry (requires trekking to a laundromat) break up the monotony.
Now, I don't intend to stop cooking. If nothing else, to my great surprise and no small amount of feminist guilt, I've found I like cooking for Brandon. But even that's something we do together, so it's not just cooking. Also, eating out for more than one meal a day wouldn't feasible, but that's fine because we both like breakfast foods and sandwiches, which we can throw together quickly with the bonus of minimal dishes. There are make-meals-for-a-month services like Dinner2Gether here in Polk that'd be worth looking into.
But buying ingredients in bulk at Publix that need relatively quick turnaround without the time to do so makes no sense. But with a bodega, while some nights you want to make pasta sauce with fresh garlic, on others picking up a quarter rotisserie chicken and fruit salad is all you have the time or energy for. And it's that time thing that I keep coming back to, but that's hard because there's no bar code to tell you how much it's worth.
So, all things considered, is eating out for one meal a day instead of cooking at home really that much more expensive for a single person? What kind of households do you all live in/run? Do you cook, and if not then what do you eat? When do you cook? Are there any shortcuts you take?
It's a sad thought, that we're losing the art of cooking to the thousand encroachments of the 21st century, but seriously, is it feasible anymore for anyone who has a job that doesn't involve making one's living from it?
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I don't see how it would be more expensive, depending on where you go. I live with my mother (I must sound so creepy right now! But I don't have to pay rent and it's near my university...) and we usually have pasta sauces and things in the freezer, so we don't have to spend much time cooking every day.
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- make a bit pot of mixed-and-blendered-vegetable-soup when you are cooking. Portion it in the fridge and/or freezer. Heating it up takes only about five minutes. Dress up or down with any of the following for variety: cream, alfalfa (or other sprouts, a cheap, very fresh and rich source of vitamins), cheese, croutons (fry up stale bread in a little butter, presto, you have croutons), spring onions, pesto, chopped nuts, pasta, rice, etc. That's definitely cheaper and healthier than eating out (and if it's not, I want that restaurant to open a branch here!).
- Put all the bread you know will go bad in the freezer. Thawing takes a second in the microwave. My husband makes sandwiches (usually with jam or salami) and puts them in the freezer. He takes them out when he leaves for work, and they're thawed at lunch time. This practice makes me go 'ew!' every time he does it, but it works for him.
-Stale bread is great for french toast, croque monsiours, improv pizza (add tomato sauce, cheese, anything else you like and put in oven. If you don't have an oven a frying pan, a lid, and moderate heat will do to heat and melt the cheese, but making sure it doesn't burn is a bit more finicky. Also, stale bread, a little butter, banana, thyme (dried, from a packet), black pepper (ground or from a packet) and cheese, again with the oven-or-frying-pan trick, is heavenly. Stale bread is also great for croutons, or put them in the bottom of a soup bowl with some cheese on top, and pour hot soup over it.
-If you can't get half loaves, how about buns? Croissants?
- Salads are easy when the deli or supermarket has pre-cleaned, pre-cut lettice. Even easier when you have one of these (http://www.swissmar.com/vslicer_new.shtml) very handy Boerner vegetable slicers. (http://www.thewhitewhale.com/vslicer.htm) I have one and I personally vouch for the time-saving aspects. Also for the fact to always use the cover thing, because those blades are *sharp*. Also note that Boerner is really Borner with two dots hovering over the o, I've seen both spellings used. I have no financial ties to the company, etc. etc. It makes anything else where you have to cut veggies a lot faster too.
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One of my favorites is a pasta dish I got off the Food Network. Cook whatever pasta you like (I like penne with this). If you have a food processor or little blender/chopper thing - add sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and basil. Blend/chop until it's kind of a paste. Pour over pasta and that's it. Super good. And done in 10-15 minutes.
I used to do a lot of eating out when it was just me though. Seemed to make sense. It's a little more expensive, but sometimes worth it.
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Exactly. I eat very few fresh vegetables at home because of that. I generally try to get in a few salads at lunch to make up for that.
At home I shoot more for meals that can be made quickly and with things in my pantry. Quesadillas, tuna melts, grilled cheese all work well. I also stock a few frozen meals/soups in my freezer for when I have no time. But, I do love to cook so I usually plan for one or two meals and buy groceries for those.
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I go out for lunch every weekday because there are hole-in-the-wall places near my office that are pretty cheap and serve decent food (not fast food). I spend maybe $25 per week on lunch which is a good enough deal for me. I think of it as an ongoing treat -- might as well get out of the office and enjoy lunch before diving into the craziness of work.
I'm single and live with my brother who's also single. He's the cook in the family. Sometimes he'll make enough food for both us so I don't have to cook dinner. (We buy our own groceries separately.)
I'm a horrible cook. Sometimes I forget that I'm cooking something and before you know it, the smoke alarm in the kitchen goes off.
When I do cook, it's something simple like angel hair pasta with a pre-made red sauce, usually Buitoni's Tomato Herb Parmesan sauce. I also make a version of garlic bread to go along with it -- get my favorite bread, slather butter on it, sprinkle garlic salt and then bake it.
If I feel like eating something heavier, I go with turkey sausage (sliced) and put in sliced onions and have a side of garlic mashed potatoes that I buy pre-made from the store.
Both of those take maybe 15-20 minutes to make.
As for shortcuts, I usually make batches of pasta and turkey sausage, enough to last me at least 2-3 meals. I don't mind leftovers.
My rule for food is: Freeze anything that I won't eat within the next 3 days. That way it doesn't spoil and I can always thaw it in the microwave. That goes for stuff like bread, bacon, sausage, other meats, etc. but not dairy or produce.
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The NYT cafeteria is no great shakes
(Anonymous) 2006-10-02 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)Trust me, Condé Nast is better.
I am generally amazed at how, especially since Sarah's home, our groceries have become expensive. We would have paid more than $160 last week if not for coupons.
I attribute this to two major factors: 1) Meat; and 2) Sarah's fervent need to add to our collection every spice and herb that could possibly be used for human consumption, and probably a few that can't.
I'm surprised by how much more meat I'm eating now than when I was in college. It's just hard to cook meat well when you've worked for 12 hours...
But all this eating in does work, because I've lost at least 10 pounds in the few weeks Sarah's been home.
Re: The NYT cafeteria is no great shakes