Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 10 Days

 I can see a dent in the pantry!  I no longer am overwhelmed with overstock.

Making a list of what to try to get through last week really helped.  I didn't get through everything on the list, but did move the items to the most convenient spot to grab and that worked.  Got done with many partial jars/bags of things and that makes space so I can see what I have.

I've gotten quite enamored with the pilafs.  Will focus more on whole grains when I go back to the store...whenever that might be!  I'm low on fruit....so I thought.  Then I found the 2nd jar of no-sugar cranberry juice AND a jar of the failed jelly cranberry sauce I made...still not thickening but probably still delicious.   Then there is the 2.5 quarts of berries in vinegar.  I dip a few berries out to throw in breads now and then.  I used some of the strawberry powdered I've had for ages (thanks Pam) in a keto-ish bannock (skillet quick bread) and it was good as well. 

I cracked open the final 5lb bag of flour and have some quick bread (made with a really yummy blackberry vinaigrette a friend gave me) going in the work toaster oven.  It smells good.   I was supposed to have a field trip for work today but we'll see.  It is Monday and I'm the only one without kids in the office.   Mondays are usually a tad chaotic for families.  Still have part of a pound of coconut flour, a quart jar full of almond flour, another of vital wheat gluten.  Plenty of "faking powder" and "faking soda" (the sodium free versions of the "baking" products) and enough yeast to get me through the apocalypse.  About a pint of rye berries (yum).  And camelina seeds that I really should start eating more of.

Anyway, got here and remembered the field trip so figured if I bake up some savory quick bread and take the last can of tuna (not counting the 2 from xmas...thanks Chris!!) it will be a decent lunch.

I am low on fresh veg.  Still have one small onion, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, a hand of ginger, and a medium size squash/pumpkin.

I do have a can of tomatoes and a can of tomato paste which I count as veggies. Along with the can of artichoke hearts and jar of olives from xmas (thanks again Chris!!).  I have kept a bag of dried mixed veggie soup base for when the variety of fresh veggies dwindled and started some radish sprouts for more fresh.  Also have broccoli seeds and alfalfa seeds. And a few fermented ginger carrots left as well. Plenty of veg then really.   And then there are the dried hot peppers.   They add some texture and flavor to almost anything.

The chickens, pretty sure it is Helen and Beatrice, are cranking out 2 eggs most days.  That helps keep the protein supply up.   

Also have 2 jars of duck, a smoked duck, 8 portions of smoked salmon, about 3-4 cups of lentils, a pint of dry garbanzos (maybe 2?), a pint of dry peruana beans, those 2 big cans of tuna, a can of garbanzos and a jar of home canned garbanzos, 2 cans of sardines, 4 pints of chicken stock (bone broth if you are a hipster), and 2 bags of dried egg which are about 10 large eggs equivalent each.   Jesus!   Too much protein??  Oh, and 1.2 lbs of beef based gelatine which is basically pure protein.  And 2lbs of walnuts (like in a bag, not in the shells).

The neighbor gave me 8 eggs but I didn't get them eaten because I have so much and they are SO poopy I am not able to wash them well.  So, they are getting boiled up and fed to my hens now and then.  I am grateful and if it had been warm enough to try to wash them outside, and the woodstove/chimney was not on the blink this weekend, I would have dealt with them better.  Next time?

Have a bag of dried mushrooms that make for some umami in soups and pilafs.  

Enough herbs and spices for the next apocalypse as well.

In other news: 

I did force the chickens out of the coop for an hour this weekend so I could get all the poop out.  The weather warmed up a bit and after a rain the snow was crusty and more solid under the snow shoes.   Still can't get to the utility sled...stupid mistake.  So, I used the empty bedding bag I'd stuffed in the pallet wall of the coop in case I needed it, and loaded it with poopy bedding several times while the chickens whined outside.  It was 35 degrees and SUNNY.  They were FINE.  It took about 4 trips to haul bags over to the terrace garden. The snow is a few feet deep there so it will have plenty of space to leach and rot before it hits the ground and I haven't planted/prepped that bed yet.  I think the woodchip bedding will be good for the super clay "soil."  ("Soil" because really...it is just clay.)   

As I was walking on snow shoes with a recycled bag full of poopy chicken bedding, I thought about that ph.d. I have.  It did get me the job that lets me afford the place where I am doing all this so I guess...but the reality was not the picture I had in my head during graduate school.  I do like this life better than the one I pictured and tried out (being a professor was not a good fit for me), but fewer turd bags on my back would be fine.

The chickens rushed back in when I re-opened their door.   They were all fluffing around in the new non-pooped bedding.  By this morning...crap everywhere.   Assholes!

Anyway, the pantry challenge.  It is going really well.  Clearly.  I've started a list of things I enjoy eating/using/cooking with so I can focus better and not just buy what is cheap.  Also, things that I will just eat up rather than pace myself.  E.g....anything sweet and easy to eat like dried figs and raisins.   Honey in the cold weather is harder to get through so that is lasting.  Coconut oil is easier to deal with in the winter than olive oil.   And I really like working with cocoa and super dark chocolate.  You can make many delicious things.  I got so much coffee as gifts, all amazingly good stuff, that I am not putting that on the list for a while.

Pantry Challenge 1 Month Plus 3 Days Update

 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.

Pantry Challenge Day 29 Update

 OK...I ran out of solar a couple of times (my fault...too much internet surfing and youtubing on cloudy days) and with the home computer battery having crapped the bed a while back, it won't stay on unless plugged in and drawing power.  

Anyway, had some pantry triumphs over the xmas.

For dinner on the day, I made duck braised in cranberry sauce (which was supposed to be jelly made from no sugar cranberry juice bought on super sale with some buckwheat honey (the sweetener of the month) and some pomona brand pectin).  The jelly didn't set up and is quite tart, which I like.  So I braised a half pint of my home jarred duck in a bit of that failed delicious jelly. It was AMAZING.  Side dishes were roasted squash (a hybrid something random from my garden that looked like a pumpkin and had innards like a spaghetti squash..yes, I saved the seeds to roast later and to replant because it was a) delicious and b) ripened up in poor storage conditions) and a roasted onion.  Both roasted inside the woodstove.

I was SWEATING from keeping the stove hot enough all day to bake this cake...

It is a honey based cake with apple sauce (buckwheat honey, and a can of apple sauce from the pantry) and spices.  I had clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg all of which were called for. It was AMAZING.  I had dried figs that I forgot to stir in, and they were supposed to be raisins but I was out of raisins.  So, chopped up figs and threw them on top of the layer pans.   It was amazing.  I will be making it again but maybe 1/4 recipe.  this was a half and it was still a ton of cake.  It was pretty dense in the middle which might be due to the baking at a lower temp than I really wanted (see above...SWEATING) trying to keep the coleman stovetop camp oven thingy hot.  If I make a smaller version I can do it in the cast iron dutch oven and it will be easier.

I packed up a slice of cake for the neighbor because it was A LOT.  She returned a huge slice of pecan pie her daughter made and some penuche. I  had never had penuche. It was delicious and more dairy than I should have and I'm a bit snotty.

Anyway, over ate and it was excellent.  Made a coconut milk (powdered coconut milk in the pantry) mocha (cocoa in the pantry) and opened a buttload of treats from various relatives.

I am in town today, this is the office computer, office closed for the week! (we get crazy amounts of time off at full pay) to pick up yet another package.  As much as I love sugary treats, if there aren't any in there, that will be fine.

One Aunt sent a ton of good food for meals and snacks, and another sent chocolates.   Good people.  I got coffee and cookie packs from another friend, every more coffee and chocolate from yet another friend (people know me??), smoked duck from yet another.

I am rolling in good food.

Just did a formal inventory of the office pantry and will take inventory at home as well to restart January.

I won a 5$ coffee shop gift certificate on a radio show on Sunday, more to do with "exclusive listenership" than with my brains or speed dialing abilities, and hope to share that with a friend's grown kid on Sunday.  

I still have one xmas meal out to buy someone as planned, but otherwise, I think things are winding down.

I have 21" of snow, the bottom 1-2" is compacted ice so the total total that fell is more, on the ground at the homesite right now.  Bit sick of it, but it is super pretty.

It was cloudy 5 days running, zero solar gain on the batteries, and that is partly why I ran out of power.  Also, the batteries are getting old, and they are outside and the temp overnight was about 10F.  It will be colder tonight and tomorrow night, maybe also Friday night.  Then rewarming toward freezing during the day and 20s over night.  That is easier on the batteries.

OK, off to pick up that last box as the post office lady will be reopening post lunch now.

More, anon!

Pantry Challenge Day 22 Update

 As expected, holiday gifts and requisite dinners out are contributing to the ease of the project.

Friends are dropping off treats to the point I over eat massively.  Even fasted yesterday to correct a sugar binge from overindulgence in treats.  Too much sugary stuff!!!!  Delicious, but too sugary.

Then, another friend who is not aware of my experiment took me to lunch.  Not going would be rude so I went and said thank you and enjoyed my meal.  

An Aunt (THANKS!) sent a box with a few wrapped xmas gifts and a ton of really nice food!  Just had a bit of the pre-cooked basmati rice with breakfast.  So convenient, healthy and delicious.  

Perhaps the funnest thing in there is peppercorns!   We all know I was low on those when I started the experiment.  So those are especially welcome and will easily get me through January.

Honestly, so many calories of stuff have come in that I've shared some stuff back out to others.  Also, a few things were just too salty or made of dairy (not from the Aunt!  Her stuff is all still with me).   Another friend contributed peanuts and some almond butter from our trip to 2nd harvest.  How fun and delicious.  I could make fried rice with peanuts and the basmati.  I wonder if I can make like a peanut sauce with the almond butter.  I think some jarred chicken with peanut (almond) sauce w2ould be a reasonable flavor match for satay.   

Which points out my favorite part of a pantry challenge.  It spurs creativity.  I haven't even started my sprouts yet.  Jeez.  Must get on that.  Clearly I am not hurting for veggies.  During the restaurant trips I am trying to get lean burgers in lettuce wraps with side salads so I'm getting more of my veg at restaurants.

One jar of fermented carrots wasn't doing well so I refocused and froze them in portions.  Will add to soups later.  Or a pilaf.

It's SOLSTICE

 Woot Woot!

Here comes the sun.

The days will get longer now.  

Enjoy!

Day 17 and All Is Well with the Pantry Challenge...Except

 It gets boring especially when I forget to make something interesting in the evening for lunch the next day.

Hence, today's lunch:  A can of sardines with the last hot sauce packet, a can of pinto beans, NOT gelatin in a mason jar (I forgot to add vinegared berries or sugar and it tastes so bad I am giving it to the chickens...they can turn it into eggs and meat which will be edible), and a microwave spice bread (2 eggs, 1/2c flour and some spices...we'll see if that worked here shortly) and water.

If I'd remembered to make a pilaf or dumplings yesterday I would have had something delicious.

That said, Pantry Challenge has been going great.

Had Pantry lunch with a friend.  I made a variation of the pilaf from the last post, using home canned chicken.  She asked what broth I had used...water.  The elderly laying hen has lots of flavor even after being canned without bones.  Added some spices/herbs from the pantry too.  She brought a cobbler made from things in her pantry, though she is not doing a pantry challenge she was up for a pantry lunch.  And she's an excellent cook so that helps.  We split it with a coworker.  

This is all good practice for the potential situation calling for true pantry living with limited restock options.  I wonder if the folks who buy those sealed buckets of "SHTF" (the last 3 letters are for "hits the fan"), breakdown of society type scenarios actually try to eat what they get in there and live on it.  Last one I looked at gave each person 1000-1400 calories a day for 3 months for some ungodly price and was made mostly of corn/soy derivatives (textured veggie protein, sweetened junk food dehydrated to dust, super processed whatever).  Living under human power, even making the hot water for these icky meals in a solar cooker, would require more calories per day than they provide and the vitamins and fat were lacking.  Also....last time I had a dehydrated camp meal, a very expensive one, it tasted like crap. 

I'm learning to stock more fruit type things, that I have enough coffee in stock at current purchase rates, and that I rely a great deal on grains for my total daily calories.   Also noticing that it's easier to spread the various supplies out when I do not plan to replenish.  I'm only overconsuming dried fruit and sugars (sweet tooth be damned).  Also noting the quick ferments, like gingered carrots and small batches of sauerkraut are very nice to have.  Quick favor additions.   I'm eating more mustard and spices in an effort to make basically the same scrambled eggs a bit different each day.

I got the spiced bread out of the microwave.  It was fine! I put a bit of coconut oil on it and tried to pretend it was butter...it wasn't butter but it wasn't bad.  Noted!

Day 12 Pantry Challenge Update

Well, it turns out I should not be left alone with nuts (heh heh).  Ate the rest of the Dec. ration of walnuts.  Dang it!  AND broke into the Larabars which I meant to save until January. Didn't eat all of them, but more than I wanted to.  It's the deliciousness.  I'm a victim of deliciousness.

So, I did notice that I'm not going through the cocoa powder (baking, not icky instant gross "hot chocolate" mix...barf).   Had cocoa eggs this morning.  Less delicious, more anti-inflammatory.   And lots of coffee.  Have plenty.  Had tea yesterday and will try to keep up with that.

We're mid storm, actually ending in a few hours.  I shoveled the car out, parked by the highway, yesterday.  4 inches of light snow.  But then it was going to turn to drizzle so better to get ahead. NOW there is 6 inches of HEAVY snow. It was 32 degs and snowing so really big pretty flakes that make for sucky shoveling.  It's going to warm up in a bit so heading out soon for more shoveling.

Anyway, back to the pantry challenge.  

I think I achieved peak frugality yesterday.  I was reading (re-reading of course) a volume of the Tightwad Gazette, the thrifty/frugal bible...get it, while eating a pilaf I made with what I had on hand, using a recipe from the TG, a recipe I hadn't used before.   It was DELICIOUS.

Here is the recipe and how I did it:

2 T oil

1 small onion diced up

3 cloves garlic smashed or diced

1/2 C left over meat or cooked beans or canned meat/fish

1 C grain

2 C water or broth...liquid

1/2 C other vegetable

Seasonings as you like.

In a sauce pan that will fit the entire recipe with room to boil/simmer, heat the oil up on medium.

Put in the onion and garlic (if you don't have them, use dry powder or whatever like chives/leeks/shallots/onion flakes/garlic salt (easy on the salt though)

Fry that until it smells good.  Add meat (not canned tuna or other canned fish...ooo...I have smoked salmon at work...that would be delicious) and then the grain.

Fry a couple minutes, then add the liquid and "other vegetable" and if you are using canned fish, add it.  You can add the fish liquid or not, whatever you like.

Add seasonings.

Bring to a boil.  Turn down to a simmer.  Put the lid on.  It is done when the liquid is absorbed.   

Adjust salt/pepper as needed (protip:  if you put in too much salt and have a potato, slice up the WASHED potato and throw a few slices in for a minute or two and pull them out.  They will pick up some of the salt). 

I used an onion, garlic cloves, a can of tuna, rye berries, water, fermented ginger carrots (only other fresh-ish veg in the house, could used dried and add it with the liquid).  Did not add tuna water.   Added thyme and rosemary from my garden and an indoor potted plant at the office, and cracked pepper.  The tuna was salty enough and I'm watching sodium levels so didn't add any.

It was delicious!  Better than a casserole because no oven needed and no thickener like cream of crap soup which I just don't like even in the vegan versions without the dairy.  If I could handle dairy and had butter, I think frying the stuff in that would be excellent.

There was also some walnut dust in it.  Since I'd just finished the walnuts in jar, I rinsed it with the water going into the pilaf to get the couple of tablespoons of walnut dust out of the jar and not waste it.

I'm going to try it with beans one of these days.  I think hot in a thermos it would be a good food for lunches when I am working outside.

Today I need to get out the week's ration of raisins but might do it right before bed so I don't just eat them all...hopefully!   I  have figs for January.