My husband, Dale, a retired military logistician and foodie-in-residence, was always in charge of groceries, but he didn’t want to deal with online shopping, so we had a little change of command ceremony, and I took over the supply chain.
He’s going to want it back, damn it, and I guess I’ll be ready to hand it over, but I’ve actually enjoyed my new role. We’ve always taken different approaches to menu planning, and this arrangement gave me an advantage. Pre-pandemic, Dale wakes up and thinks, “What do I want to eat for dinner tonight?” Then after persuading me that I want it, too, he would go to the store to buy anything we were missing.
I’ve always treated the kitchen like a Chopped basket. I love digging things out of the freezer and using up whatever we have before it goes bad. Now that we’re shopping less frequently and guessing what we might want to eat weeks down the road, Dale is more amenable to my approach. Food is a precious commodity.
We were discussing options for tonight, and I said we have a ripe avocado, fresh cilantro that won’t last long and queso fresco. We also have chicken tortilla soup in the freezer. In the old days, he might have gone along with my idea but probably would have said something like, “Yeah, that sounds good, but I was thinking burgers.”
And then I would remind him we don’t have any buns, and he’d jump for joy at the prospect of going to the store to buy some. That time is gone. Now, it’s all about using what we have. I even convinced him to help me defrost and reorganize the chest freezer out in the garage so we can find stuff.
Dale uses a visual filing system, and his argument against the reorg was that he knew where everything was. But I didn’t! And now that I’m in charge of replenishing supplies, he went along with it. With all this new-found power, I took the opportunity to “bundle” like items. I don’t see this as neurotic COVID-19 tidying but maximizing the return on our biggest expense and our biggest interest – food.
Rather than miscellaneous pieces of pork scattered throughout, there’s now a large plastic bag for all the pork. There’s a bag for chicken thighs. A nut and spice bag. A special basket for leftovers. I think he was hyperventilating, and I thought if the virus doesn’t get him, this will.
Now that I am monitoring our stock, I have been astonished by how much cheese we consume. And you know what? This is not a reckoning of any kind. I will not be joining the legions of people who don’t eat dairy. It just means I need to buy more cheese.
We love and eat all kinds of cheese, but we hit the cheddar pretty hard. With our last online order, I accidentally selected an 8-ounce package instead of the usual pounder. We started calling it appetizer-size cheese. Seriously, you dip into that, and next thing you know it’s gone. Kind of like box wine.
Here’s another strange but true cheese story. We stopped using grated mozzarella cheese in the package a couple of years ago in favor of whole milk mozzarella in chunks. Somehow, we forgot about one package in the back of the cheese drawer. The “sell by” date was March 2018. It was unopened.
Dale gently and carefully opened it. I stood by for emergency assistance, should it be required. He did a sniff test and looked for mold or other unsightly additions. All looked and smelled good. Then he did a taste test, and declared the two-year-old cheese was great!
Yes, we ate it and bought another one to keep around in case of a pandemic.
I used to keep a freezer inventory, because I wanted to make sure we used what we have before buying more. It also helped me know if something was low, like frozen veggies. At some point earlier this year, it became futile and I’ve since abandoned it. But I think I will revive it at some point. It would be nice to have now, as Tim’s been buying stuff and throwing it in the freezer. He’s our designated grocery shopper. He wasn’t as diligent as I am in keeping the inventory. When he retires, he wants to permanently take over grocery shopping. I’m not sure what I think about that.
An old proverb: “He who owns inventory rules the kitchen.”
No such thing as too much cheese. Not sure if you have a Costco near you? We have one up near us and I’d renew our membership based on their cheese alone. They have this wonderful aged cheddar (Balderson) which has to be about half the price of other stores. And its fantastic. Always the first thing into my shopping cart.
We don’t go to Costco because normally we have access to the commissary. However, I will be on the lookout for Balderson!
Yeah to cheese and freezer inventory. I usually have a pretty good idea of what’s in there although the garlic swirl bread surprised me. I knew that loaf was in the freezer but the date surprised me; seemed that I’d just put it in there. And still as good as fresh (IMO) toasted and served with the borscht that was on the menu last week awa tuna melts. I do what you do, Donna. I take stock of what there is then make a dish. I call it shopping at home.
P.S. I love “shopping at home.”
They always tell you freezer food needs to be eaten within such and such amount of time, but we sometimes keep it longer than suggested and haven’t had any problems. We are thinking of buying one of those portable generators — just to keep the freezer going if there should be a power outage. Too much good stuff in there to lose.