Saturday, March 25, 2006

Freezer Spelunking, Day 8

You'd be surprised how well you can eat for a week without buying groceries.
Put that another way: I'd be surprised. And I was. Am.
It now looks as if we'll be able to finish off all the stored comestibles in less than two weeks.
Some stuff will remain cryogenically suspended, intentionally. I don't want to use up all the frozen tomato sauce before July, for instance, and I think the frozen vegetable broth is safe for now in the freezer.
But most of the leftovers — meat, mainly — have been accounted for.
Today for lunch Cranky made a most wondrous soup with half a small bag of chicken (there's still a whole bag left), some sautéed spring onions and sliced mushrooms, chicken stock that I made from frozen chicken bones, a splash of cream (still a little bit left of that, too), and seasonings.
The best thing about the soup — well, it was really delicious, so the second best thing — is that Cranky made it. He's very tentative about soup (and he's scared to death of my critiques, poor softy). I'm the soup-maker in this house.
But he did it all by himself and it was fantastic.
He's walking on air.

12 comments:

Tea said...

What a gorgeous photo! It sounds like a lovely soup. My compliments to Cranky (I might not know much, but I do know my soups:-)

cookiecrumb said...

Oh, thanks, Tea!
Yeah, I noticed on your blog today that we have soup in common. In fact I was going to suggest one more soup cookbook for you not to use. :D
It's George Morrone's
Simply Elegant Soup. I've never actually looked through it, but I see it on the host's table at Boca whenever I go there. (You can check out a sample recipe at the web site.)

Kalyn Denny said...

Hey CC,
We're having a Utah Food Bloggers dinner at my house and we came to take a look at your photo. Everyone here agrees your blog is the best.

cookiecrumb said...

Kalyn: Oh, totally cool! I wish I'd been online when you all dropped by. Hi, Vanessa. Hi Erin. (Anybody I missed?)
XXX!

Catherine said...

You are really inspiring me to use up my provisions. I tried this before and listed everything in my pantry (after I threw away the stuff that was passed the date -about 40% - hey it got pushed to the back). I gave up before I used everything but I did make a solid effort. I feel a little disgusting having so much, IYKWIM.

IOW, I admire you for doing this.

cookiecrumb said...

I think some of my experimenting sounds creepy to some readers, but the truth is, nothing in there is older than about three months. Except for that kielbasa.
And of course, the tomatoes.
We had a tomato soup yesterday. Pure summer. Divine.
Cranky is *really* enjoying this project.
:D

Dagny said...

I am impressed that Cranky made the soup on his own. Perhaps he will be ready for his own blog soon.

Anonymous said...

Well, I finally broke down and bought groceries, mainly because I had to pick up dry cleaning and the store was there, and we were running low on salt. But I did almost empty my vegetable bins.

Will start on the freezers next, though I don't feel too bad about their contents. Yet.

cookiecrumb said...

Dagny: Cranky has a food background. He was a restaurant reviewer for a few years. So he can eat. And he can write. Also, he's comfortable in the kitchen. But this was just *new* and really nice! (But he's ever so reluctant to blog.) :)
Kathyf: What? You don't make your own salt? :D
Good work.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I didn't know that Cranky used to review restaurants. I second the call for a food blog, "I'm Cranky and I Cook."

cookiecrumb said...

Brett: It would probably be called "I'm Cooky and I Crank."

Dagny said...

I'm with Brett. Cranky obviously needs his own blog.

Also, thanks for the clarification. I know plenty of men who like to eat and who like to talk about food but then are at a complete loss in the kitchen.