Why can’t I make smaller amounts of soups and stews and pasta casseroles?
It seems every time I make something of this ilk, it ends up weighing five pounds and takes up half the fridge.
Just this past week I made a chicken pot pie recipe that ended up filling an entire large lasagna pan. It was so big I used two thawed pie shells for the topping. It wasn’t pretty but it was delicious.
But there was no way my wife and I were going to eat chicken pot pie for seven straight days and nights, so our next-door neighbors were the recipients of two good-sized containers of it. They were happy.
Then, just a few days ago, I happened upon a buy-one, get-two free sale of chicken thighs. So out came the pressure cooker. And voila, instant chicken stock and a whole bunch of falling-off-the-bone meat. So, out came the cans of plum tomatoes and the hot peppers I had in the fridge. And, voila two, I had three pounds of chicken and hot peppers in tomato sauce.
Then, just this Wednesday, there was another buy-one, get-two free sale, this one for hot Italian sausage. So out came the 12-inch saute pan. In went the 18 sausages, then in went chopped escarole and broccoli rabe. And voila three, I had three pounds of bitter greens and sausage.
Then, on Thursday, I decided to pressure-cook a pound of large white beans. Now I have a huge container of cooked beans in their broth. Looks like a vat of bean soup is on the way.
I have to go now and make some more food so we don’t run out this weekend.
P.S.: My wife thinks I’m crazy. But she’s the one who wants to get a dishwasher. I have no idea why.
— LOU
I have a solution to this weighty issue. Don’t go to the grocery store for a while. Live out of your freezer for a couple of weeks. (I don’t mean that literally. But the mental picture of that is kind of fun. You in a big parka, with fur trim on the hood, sitting in the freezer in a little igloo made out of frozen sausages.) Something tells me you have enough food crammed in there to survive for a long, long time.
— LUCY