George and I enjoy cooking. We’re not horrible at it, we might even be adept. More than once, out of laziness, we make do with what we have in the house for supper rather than go to the store to pick up what we really might want and nine times out of 10 it turns out pleasantly well. Not shopping would be an inconvenience, since we both enjoy eating what we want when we want it, but it is very doable.
As life happens, the day after agreeing to take on this challenge, I learned George A. would be coming down to Waterloo. While I was very glad to be able to spend time with him because he is an amazing man, it did put a kink in my plans to survive a week of not shopping with flying colors.
I call it a kink for a couple of reasons. First of all I assume it is much easier to cook for two people out of a disappearing pantry than three. A single chicken breast split two ways can be done if necessary, three gets a little dicey, literally.
The second part of the kink comes because George A. can cook. He can really cook. He comes up with concoctions that are brilliant and tasty and usually involve a few things not kept in the house. He probably has a years worth of recipes kept in his head and he uses them well.
Since he can cook up a storm, naturally he also shops. And I was hoping he would give this up to go with the challenge of living out of the pantry that I had taken on for all three of us a day earlier.
I knew the pantry challenge would test me and stretch me, mostly because I am not good at meal planning. When I decide what I want I am fully capable of bringing a meal together, but George and I are procrastinators when it comes to meals. Planning ahead with enough time to defrost whatever I was taking out of the freezer would be a challenge for me.
Many times I’ll set something out to defrost and by the next day, while supper nears, my tastebuds change. The chicken I set out to thaw would get put into the fridge for the next day and I’d pull out some steak for tacos or quesadillas instead.
At the start of this challenge I told myself that since I was not allowing myself to shop for groceries, some of my spontanaeity might get put on hold as well. I would have to deal.
With George A. not home yet and with the evening meal approaching on the first day of pantry mania, I went down to the freezer. For some reason I really wanted to grill. Maybe it was the smell of rain in the air and spring on the horizon, but the 31 degree weather couldn’t deter me.
After rummaging through the freezer I found two cube steaks and two sirloins. I got both out to defrost, deciding we could eat one that night and then have whatever was left the next night.
I should state here that I normally work from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. so I get off early enough to do some defrosting. For someone who doesn’t get off work until 5 p.m., defrosting a steak may not be appealing for supper.
Lucky for me George was up for grilling.
By the time he got home the steaks were mostly thawed and he set the grill out for the charcoals to burn down. George sprinkled some olive oil on our steaks, added a little salt and pepper and garlic to taste and we were ready to go. When he went to put the steaks on, I set three of our precious potatoes in the microwave to cook.
Nine minutes later we were ready to eat.
For our ‘baked’ potatoes we normally use butter, salt, pepper and sour cream. George also puts bacon bits and cheese on his potatoes. We used the last of the sour cream, but other than that and the steaks, there wasn’t a dent in the pantry.
I’m slightly disappointed because I want immediate results, but I also know that I still have a week to go.
When the weather gets warm and cabin fever kicks in, what's your favorite go-to grilling dish?
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