I think that is 34 days. I didn't want to do math.
SO....still doing well with the pantry stock.
I went through everything at the office and the wee shed, my two food storage locations.
Made a list with amounts, but I didn't weigh things just put about how much there was because I know what 1 bag of powdered egg looks like and how far it goes.
THEN, I had to reorganize it by type of thing like "Meat/Fish/Poultry" and "Grains"
FINALLY, I figured out and wrote a shorter list to post on the wall, of what I would like to finish up in the first portion of January. I want to use up the tail ends of things that are just a bit in a jar or bag and are taking up room, or that weren't stored where I could see them and are hence overstocked. Also so I don't end up the last week of January with 5lbs of whole wheat flour and 2 dried figs...space the proteins/veg/fruit/grains out over the month.
I appear to be a bit low on fruit but otherwise things are holding up.
This gave me a dozen things to work into recipes and so far so good!
For New Year's Eve and Day I made a salmon and rye berry pilaf. And it was goooooood...
((I really want to throw in a This Is Spinal Tap clip here but there isn't one handy. Just know, that was a reference to a hilarious bit.))
Used some brown rice (Thanks Chris) an my failed cranberry buckwheat honey jam to make a rice pudding which was really good. The jam was delicious, but did not set up. I used the last bit of the last jar in some muffins. Those were not great texturewise but did taste fine. I didn't have any liquid fat and couldn't get the coconut oil to melt and mix in because the flour was so cold. Anyway, lumpy muffins...my new stripper name and signature baked good.
I may not get through the entire pantry this month! Could possibly go through February but the fruit and veg would get low.
I used up the last of some fake egg product I had had for years. I also noticed that I need to eat more REAL eggs! Still getting 2 most days...way to go ladies! 4 of the 6 hens are on break but 2 are soldiering through winter putting out product. One idiot, Gertrude, of course, decided to do the other half of her molt now. Not a good idea to generate bald patches midwinter but she's an odd one.
The chickens have refused to go outside in the snow for 2 or 3 weeks now. I shoved them a flat spot and the rooster, Houdini, poked his head out the door and said, "Oh HELL no" and went back to eating me out of house and home and crapping on everything in the coop. Still, he's a calm rooster. So far (knock on wood) has not crapped on me when I go in to put up the food or water or check for eggs.
Right now I have 27 inches of snow on the ground. Or I did yesterday. That is not a drift, that is just the regular snow and the bottom inch or 2 are compacted so more than that has fallen. Nice fluffy stuff.
Nice fluffy stuff that is NOW blowing all over the tristate area because...wind storm.
Anyway, pantry challenge: I like it and think I can shift my shopping to more pantry use if I am diligent with the cooking.
As a side benefit I am ending up as an accidental 2MAD type person with an incipient fasting period each day. It's just easier to have a breakfast of eggs or whatever, then eat a giant lunch, like 1000 calories, of pilaf or whatever I cooked up. Trying to store stuff is a pain. Right now I have the porch-fridge/freezer, but you never know if it will freeze overnight or get too warm if the sun hits it in the morning. So, easier to eat it up. I keep wanting to get out a bigger pan and make one giant stew or something, but then, gotta store it. Now that I am back at the office (we had 10 days off over the holidays) I can bring servings in here to the fridge so we'll see if the 2MAD keeps working or not.
A side effect of the pantry challenge and the "no spend on clothes in 2022" is that I REALLY don't need to shop. I went to a thrift store hoping for some old brushes to make into a boot scraper and non-glass mason-jar size things to use as chicken waterers in winter (glass is scary in a freeze-thaw cycle), and frames for some art I was given. Found 1 frame. Then, headed to the clothes for my habitual "is there a decent pair of all cotton jeans" and other clothing basics. Remembered that nope. Not doing that this year. Only needed 10 min in the thrift store. I was at loose ends. Didn't need groceries.
I did need some chicken bedding so I went and got that at the hardware store (bag of wood chips works best and us great in the garden after it rots with the poo). Then....
I don't spend much time shopping compared to many americans, but now, even less. I used some of the time to sort crap out at my storage unit and found the owner of the storage place there panicking because, like EVERY winter when we get snow, the roof leaks all over hell. He thought it was fixed. I think that taking gutters on and off and resealing around the AC unit will NOT WORK. There is zero roof overhang on a heated metal building with little insulation. It is a flat roof. Until he puts a peaked or seriously sloped shed roof on there, insulates it and adds enough overhang to get the snow/water/ice to fall away from the building...and then fixes the slope on the paved driveway/parking areas, well, he's going to have a water issue. My unit stays dry and I have everything up on pallets and plastic on the pallets. I might go throw some plastic over the contents as well but so far the water stops at the hallway. I didn't tell him to change then design of the building and the lot, not in the middle of a crisis where he is trying to mop up a small lake with a single shop vac...another time.
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