Post-Roast Mayhem (AKA The Day After)

So, although I didn't post about it, yesterday was Roast Night. I made a chicken. No, wait; I was going to make a chicken. And you know what? I totally screwed up and forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer the night before. In fact, I forgot about it until about 2:30 in the afternoon, and then I thought I could defrost it in the sink under running water.

I was wrong.

But I'll give you my roast chicken recipe anyway, because it's really easy. Easier than pork shoulder, even. Here's what you do:

Preheat your oven to 450°F.

Sprinkle salt and pepper all over your defrosted chicken carcass, inside and out. I go for about a 5-lb bird.

Stick that sucker in a baking pan, breast up. On a rack if you have one. Don't put anything in it, and don't bother tying the legs. I mean, you can, but nobody's going to care, they're just going to stuff it in they moufs. Plus, not tying the legs = more crispytastic salty skin area. When I make this I almost never even eat any of the meat because my kids all think the skin is gross, so I eat all the skin off while I'm carving it and then I'm full. True story.

Roast it for one hour. Pull it out, let it cool while you prepare the vegetable dish (which if you are anything like me you probably forgot to start earlier), and then carve and serve it. I serve mine most often with rice and steamed broccoli, and then the drippings go right on the rice with a bit of butter and salt.  If your chicken is larger than 5 lbs, add 10 minutes of roasting time per lb.

But my story yesterday ended in me going to the store and buying a pre-roasted chicken, on sale for $5. I was actually going to buy an uncooked one but they didn't have any uncooked ones because they had roasted them all for this sale, I guess. I don't like the pre-cooked ones as much as roasting my own because at that particular store they are doused in an obscene and ridiculous amount of paprika, but they are generally about the same price. I bought it anyway and the kids liked it just fine, and then the remnants (including the bones off our plates) went into a stew pot today. Here's what that goes like:

The morning after Roast Night, pull all the meat off the bones and refrigerate it. Put the remaining carcass in a pot with a couple of quarts of water and a pinch of (wait for it) Herbes de Provence. Simmer until about 5:00pm, then strain, discard bones and carcass slurry, and add 1/2 chopped onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 chopped carrot, 1 stalk of chopped celery, a bit of black pepper, and salt to taste. Now is when you decide whether you want potatoes, barley, or noodles: if you want potatoes or barley, add one large diced potato or 1/2 cup pearl barley now. If you want noodles, wait. Simmer for one hour.

After an hour, chop and add the leftover meat you put in the fridge earlier, and 1 cup noodles of your choice if desired (we're fond of spirals). Simmer for ten more minutes and serve.

Lazy Friday dinner

I like making roasts. A roast is the kind of dinner that is usually cheap and pretty, and gives my kids the impression that I cook special fancy meals for them. I especially like to make roasts on Friday, because by Friday I'm so tired I can't think, and this way I don't really have to deal with anything.

My meat selection process for the Friday roast goes like so:

1. Is it cheap?
2. ...actually, I only have one criterion.

So I was at the store yesterday and I picked up an assortment of supplements for my kitchen. From my receipt:

Tiny chocolate bars (for the kids' lunches)
10" flour tortillas
1 gallon whole  milk
2 cans orange juice concentrate
1/2 gallon chocolate  milk
1 qt half & half
2 lb brick of cheddar
2 loaves of bread (I do bake bread, but this was on sale)
5 lbs of carrots
3 lbs Braeburn apples
1 lb broccoli
A box of wine 
2 whole chickens

and of course, the star of today's story... 

...a 2.3lb pork shoulder blade roast. This roast cost three dollars and eighty-five cents, which is pretty kickass for meat to feed a family of four plus one itinerant boyfriend. My total grocery bill was about $60 total, which is pretty good for a week. Although of course I forgot butter.

I put the chickens in the freezer, and left the pork roast in the fridge for tonight's dinner. This recipe won't work so well with a leaner pork roast; it really requires the fabulous fatty marbling of the shoulder roast. Pork shoulder is pure roast gold! Often avoided because of its fat content, it's delicious, almost always very inexpensive, and virtually foolproof. Do not fear the shoulder.

To prep the roast, I rustled the following out of the fridge:

1/4 of an onion
7-8 cloves of garlic
6 fairly stunted carrots
2 small potatoes
3 smallish turnips

I chopped all these into 1-1/2" chunks (approximately) and placed them in the bottom of a 3-quart Dutch oven,  then poured about 1/4 cup of wine over them (ha! You were judging my box wine, weren't you?) before sprinkling them with salt and laying the roast on top. I drizzled another couple of tablespoons of wine over the roast, then sprinkled it with salt, pepper, and herbes de provence (you will notice that I use these a LOT. This is my "I'm too tired to think and I need a glass of box wine" go-to seasoning) and put it, uncovered, in a preheated 350 degree oven for an hour and a half. After about an hour, I'll look at it, baste it with the juices in the bottom of the pan, and cover it. After I pull it out, I'll let it sit for half an hour and then pull the meat off the bone with a fork and serve it on plates with the root vegetables, all drizzled with a bit of the delicious meat and veggie juices; easy peasy!

Rescued by lentils

I was in the final stretch of tonight's dinner; the garbanzo beans I'd soaked for 24 hours were simmering away on the stove with onions, garlic, and herbs, and I had just started the barley to go with them when I gave them a stir and noticed a dark fleck that didn't look like a thyme leaf. A creeping tingle climbed my spine as I captured the speck with a spoon, moving under the light to get a better look. Oh barf! It was one of those tiny, vile brown beetles that infest dry goods. CRAP.

I had to think on my feet. "Hey," I said to the kids in a casual voice, "The chickpeas are taking longer than I expected so I'm going to make French lentil soup instead".

I wasn't concerned about them being grossed out as much as I wanted to avoid the inevitable stampede and sideshow gawking that happens when I tell them I've discovered vermin.

I'm not a hippie or a vegetarian; I'm just broke, and I have learned from long experience with being broke to make the most of the cheapest food I can get. Furthermore, the only thing French about the lentil soup recipe I was rapidly inventing in my head was the label on the tiny, green lentils I'd purchased just a couple days before.

Here's what I came up with:

Mince 1/4 of a white or yellow onion and saute it in a teaspoon of oil or butter

Add:

1 carrot, grated
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups broth (I used pork stock)

Bring to a boil and add one cup of lentils. Reduce heat and simmer until tender.

Add:

A pinch of Herbes de Provence
1/4 cup of minced ham
1 14-oz can of diced tomatoes

In a separate pan, scald 1/2 cup of cream, then stir it into the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste, then serve. I served it over barley:

Bring to a boil:

1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt

Add:

1/2 cup barley
1 TBSP toasted amaranth seeds

Reduce heat, cover, and simmer undisturbed for 1/2 hour or until tender.

I thought it was excellent! Two kids pronounced it delicious, and one refused to eat it at all. Relative success, I guess.

My pantry list

This is a fairly disorganized list (made with the assistance of my helpful boyfriend) of the actual items that I consider necessary for the day to day operation of my own kitchen. It's noteworthy to know that I'm cooking for a family of four; one person could half or quarter the quantities and still be superbly well-stocked. Later, I'm going to pare this list down into two sub-lists; There will be a "Bare Bones Basics" list and an "I Can't Afford To Eat" list.

PANTRY STAPLES

Yeast – 4 oz (activated)

Corn Starch – 12 oz

Baking Powder – small container

Baking Soda – 1 box (plus for cleaning)

Real Vanilla – 8 oz

Orange Oil

Lemon Oil

Brown Sugar – 2 lbs

Flour – Wheat or white (all purpose) 10 lbs

Cornmeal – 5 lbs

Oatmeal – 3 lbs

Rice (short grain brown, black rice) - 4 lbs

Beans, Dry (3 kinds, pinto, white, black, etc – 2 lbs of each)

Split Peas – 2 lbs

Lentils – 2 lbs

Brewer's Yeast – 1 lb

Barley – 1 lb

Garbanzo Beans – 1 lb

Sugar – 10 lbs

Quinoa – 2 lbs

Almonds – 1 lb

Salt – cheapest/sea/not iodized table salt (if you have limited access to seafood, buy iodized salt)

Lard – 1 lb

Olive Oil – 1 pint extra virgin

Canola (or any veg oil) – 1 qt

Tea (a lot!)

4 (16 oz) cans of tomato sauce

4 (16 oz) cans of diced tomatoes

4 (16 oz) cans of crushed tomatoes

6 cans tuna – solid white, packed in water

White Vinegar – 1 gal

Apple Cider Vinegar – 1 quart

Balsalmic  Vinegar

Rice Wine

Red Wine

Applesauce -2 jars

Oat Bran - 1 lb

Grits - 1 lb

Cocoa powder - 6 oz

Spaghetti – 4 lbs

Other shaped pasta – 4 lbs

Honey  - 1 lb

Soy Sauce or Tamari – 1 pint

Refried Beans – 2 16 oz cans

Peanut Butter – 2 jars

Maple Syrup (good stuff) 1 quart

Tinned Fish (Kippers, sardines, oysters, whatever) – 6 cans

Green Chiles – 1 can diced

Spaghetti Sauce -  2 cans

Tomato Soup – 2 cans

Cream of Soup (any kind) – 4 cans

Beef/Chicken/Veg Broth - 2 Cans

Jam – 3 jars

Pickles – 2 jars

Ramen 10 packs

Dried Cranberries or Raisins 4 lbs
Popcorn – 2 lbs

FROZEN

Corn – 1 bag

Peas – 1 bag

Hamburger – 4 lbs

Steak – 4 lbs

Chicken – 2 whole

Ham – 2 lbs

Sausage (Italian, Bratwurst, whatever) – 2 lbs

Red or Yellow Peppers – 1 lb

Okra, Collard Greens, Lima Beans, Green Beans –  1 bag each

Pork Chops – 6 @

Frozen Berries – 10 lbs by the end of summer

Peaches or Apricots – 5 lbs

SPICES

Onion Powder

Garlic Powder

Red Pepper Flakes

Dried Basil

Dried Oregano

Sage

Marjoram

Cinnamon

Nutmeg, ground

Cloves

Coriander

Turmeric

Cardamom

Curry Powder

Thyme

Rosemary

Cumin

Paprika

Ground Ginger

Fennel Seed

Caraway Seed
Herbes de Provence

FRESH REFRIGERATED

Milk 2% or whole - .5 gal

Butter – 1 lb

Yogurt - .5 gal unsweetened, honey, or plain

Heavy Cream – 1 pt

Med Cheddar – 2 lbs

Eggs – 1 doz

Onions

Potatoes

Carrots

Garlic

Cabbage

Corn Tortillas – 1 doz

Flour Tortillas – 1 doz

CONDIMENTS

Mayo – 1 qt

Dijon Mustard

Sweet Relish

Caesar Salad Dressing

Lemon Juice

Delicious Chili Paste

Hard Cheese for Grating

Olives

Sweet Chicken Sauce

Miso

Sriracha

Tapatio

Tahini

Anchovy Paste

I wanted to call it Pantry Raid

... but apparently that was a putative cable TV show a few years ago and the blog name is taken. Oh well!

The idea behind this blog really comes from a simple question asked by my friend Cori; "What do I need to keep in my kitchen? Because I can cook, but it seems like I never have what I need, and then what should be a simple grocery store stop ends up being an epic ordeal".

That got me thinking. Most of my contemporaries came from families with working parents, and home-ec hasn't been taught in most schools in 30 years. So, where are people supposed to be learning the basic skills of running a kitchen and preparing meals from scratch? Trial and error? The internet? I thought I'd write up a little list of pantry basics to give to my friends, but even as I got started I wondered how most people would make sense of it. My "Pantry basics" list has four different kinds of dry beans on it. I always have staple food in my pantry that allows me to make a healthy, delicious basic meal without going to the store, but unless you know some basic elements of meal preparation and nutrition, it might look like a jumble of confusing, inedible esoterica.

My boyfriend came up with the idea of keeping a meal diary, which will track not only my grocery purchases but also my meal preparation, including the basic recipes I use, so you can actually see what I make with the food I suggest you buy. My goal in stocking my pantry (and hopefully helping you stock yours) is to have everything I need on-hand to allow me to pick up nothing more than a few fresh items at the store, and come home and prepare a complete meal... or, when times are tight, to be able to make palatable meals from the staple food I have in stock. Like almost everyone I know, I work full-time. I have kids. All of us have to be able to do this without spending half the day in our kitchens.

Finally, I want to acknowledge something that most home-and-kitchen-centered books and magazines seem to ignore; we're broke. Almost everyone I know is operating on a tight budget, and we can't afford to spend our grocery money on grapeseed oil, even if it IS the best thing EVER on salad. We don't care, and we don't want to try to care; we want to eat. I want to help you to eat, and eat well, while spending less money on food.