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.