Category: food

Food, planning, and life going on

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The other night I made dinner. Though it was made up of mostly great sausages, Kiolbassa, and Russian rye from Central Market. I can claim credit for steaming the cauliflower. And finding the last 4-pack of Midas Touch, too. Regardless, it felt more like I cooked. This was the kind of meal I would have made at our home. We had the right kind of mustard. We didn’t have steak knives, and I couldn’t grill the sausages, but that didn’t matter. We ate a meal together like we always used to.

I also made a meal plan yesterday and prepped food for the week. I plan breakfast and dinner for the week on Saturday or Sunday. By planning the week it reduces the thinking I have to do during the week. That stuff you read about decision fatigue is real, so the last thing I want to do at 5pm is figure out what’s for dinner. This planning stuff has been going on for at least 5 years now, so it’s pretty second nature, and I sometimes do get bored and try new things, or change my mind, but not often. Anyway…

Last night I sauteed the veggies for Taco Tuesday and the onions for mujaddara (basically this but I don’t cook the onions as much and sometimes use just cumin, other times balti seasoning) on Wednesday. This kind of prep work felt normal and all I needed was a cutting board, knife, cast iron skillet, and wooden spoon.

So the list of things I will save from a burning house includes the cast iron. Not the first or second run (with the children and after the kids were safe but before the big fire), but after the fire, the cast iron came out. The skillet I used to saute veggies was was my great grandmother’s. I also had Sean pull out the crepe pan and 5-quart Le Creuset. Crepes, pancakes, and fritters, and soup will feed a family for a long time. Though in the crazy of the afterwards, I’m afraid that another skillet–that I stored in the oven–may have been tossed in the dumpster with the stove. That one was a different great grandmother’s. Here’s to hoping that the salvage people knew to check the oven for stuff because lots of people store stuff in the oven.

Lastly, I quick pickled veggies. Because every parent wants their kids to eat more veggies, right? Mine have loved a bread and butter pickle that I’ve done in the past, and a cookbook I got at the library reminded me that you can pickle anything. So I made pickles. In second round of kitchen purchases, a dozen 16 oz, wide mouth canning jars and lids were procured. They store food, serve as mugs, are dishwasher safe, and cheap. They also serve as measuring cups, which I was reminded of when I realized after my decision to pickle carrots, zucchini, and peppers that I didn’t have any measuring cups. Hey, those markings on the side are good for something! And, I’m happy to report, David decided he’d eat pickled red pepper and zucchini in his lunch any time.

So despite the missing things, and with the things we have, we eat and generally eat well.

Restocking

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As a parent, I acknowledge that there are relatively few things I can actually control about my children. The limitation comes from my own desire for them to learn to chart their own course–to a certain extent–and my own sanity. One of the things I’ve chosen to focus on is food. I was a somewhat picky eater growing up and, as with many things with children, I didn’t want my kids to be that way. I also enjoy cooking, so figured I’d cook. Having three active boys and a triathlete for a husband, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Though the food thing seems to have worked out as dinner at my cousin’s house ended up with my big boys having three helpings of salad (helped along by ranch) and polishing off the broccoli.

For the last two weeks, we’ve been kept in meals through the generosity of our village here in San Antonio, and far beyond. Sandwiches, chili, soup, casserole, and gift cards have meant I haven’t done much beyond making sandwiches for lunch and pouring cereal. In triage mode, we can revert to processed carbohydrates, which I supplement heavily with fresh fruit.

After getting our feet under us in the in-between house, though, I knew it was time to start restocking. I also wanted to restock. Because I’m committed to this food thing, I’m a bit out of sorts when not cooking, even as I sometimes grumble at my four hour Sunday kitchen shift.

When things are running normally, I do a Costco run about every 3 weeks and spend about $230, mostly food and some household supplies. Carbs (cereal, pasta, oatmeal, crackers), soy milk and other dairy, fresh fruit, meats (organic sausages, sandwich meat, organic gr beef), beans and rice, and frozen food (veggies, and veggie foods like spring rolls and burritos). And, of course, the school snacks. We’re always well-stocked at home because of sales, space, and my knowledge that we may have to push off the run for a week or two, and the prices are just that much better. That means we put a fair bit of our capital into having food around the house.

So how much did my restocking trip cost?

That does include glasses, pillows, and Pyrex storage containers, but otherwise it is food. And I spent about $200 at HEB the next day, when $100 is our normal weekend run. Baking powder, flour, sugars, more bananas (seriously, they eat easily 10 lbs a week [I can’t stand bananas]). Now I feel like we’re settled in because I can make food, though we’ve got folks signed up to bring food through this week and more offering. Though, as I consider diving back into the cooking, I’m confronted again by what we don’t have– a vegetable peeler was the realization as I went to peel carrots for my lunch. (I’m having cucumbers instead.)

The ability to drop $800 on mostly food in a weekend is an immense privilege. Seeing the line items for food on our contents inventory (more on that next week), means I’ll actually get a fair bit of that back. The fact that we can float $800 for food is also a blessing brought to us by friends’ and families’ generosity, and our general spendthriftness. And a privilege based on our knowledge that our jobs are relatively secure, our incomes won’t fluctuate wildly in the near future, and our general creditworthiness.

This weekend’s restocking is also one of the many moments I’ve had in this whole affair where I feel, viscerally, the reality of my privilege.  We have the insurance, cash, credit, and resources to buy a whole bunch of stuff–including rent for a new place to live–on short notice.  So, so many families don’t have that privilege.  We can even ride out the short term disaster this is wreaking on our finances, another privilege.