Small Household Food Exchange-Planning Mtg 12/1 6:30 at Khan

LTH:

One weekend last summer, I made a really nice lentil salad which I enjoyed for lunch on Monday. And for dinner on Monday. And lunch on Tuesday. And for several other meals. After which it was not such a nice lentil salad but rather a boring lentil salad.

I find myself in these circumstances frequently as a single-person household and as someone who likes to cook. I’ll make a pot of soup or chili or a bean salad and because I have limited freezer space and usually only one person to feed, I’m eating that soup/chili/salad for almost every meal for the next few days or at least very frequently over the next several weeks.

Some of us have commiserated a bit about this phenomenon (dansch last summer on the Tour de France recounted making a pate, and then having to eat that pate for many, many days thereafter). I, for one, know that I would cook more often if I had more people to cook for. So I’d like to suggest a way those of us in small households can both indulge our love of cooking and also increase the variety into our meals.

What I am proposing is an LTH Forum Small Household Food Exchange for single and two-person households (I’m not discriminating against families - it just seems that the food variety issue seems to be more acute when cooking for just one or two). The basic idea would be:

Every ____(month? Few weeks?) a group of participants would gather
Each person in the group would bring a dish that can be stored a few days or frozen (soups and stews would be especially good).
Every person in the group would take a serving of each of the dishes home to enjoy over the next week or month or so (depending at what intervals we meet)

So instead of my freezer being loaded up with eight serving containers of Moroccan Chickpea Soup, I would have a container of this soup, of someone else’s chili, some of dansch’s pate, someone’s butternut squash soup, etc.

Think of it a bit like the LTH picnic and or LTH Recipe Index party but in smaller, more frequent versions.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten in thinking about it and would like to propose a gathering for those who are interested to answer some questions/figure out logistics such as:

How frequently we would do this
Would the group members stay the same each time or do we mix it up somehow?
How many people in the group?
Would we each bring our own storage containers and fill them, or would we bring our offerings already portioned in individual serving containers?
Any other guidelines we might want for the group(s)?

No need to answer these questions now, but please do suggest other questions you think we’d need to address.

As an organizing meeting, I’d like to propose dinner:

Monday December 1
(post Thanksgiving leftovers and pre-holiday madness, I hope – and then we could aim to launch in the new year)
6:30 pm
Khan BBQ (because it’s only two block from my house)
2401 W. Devon (corner of Western and Devon)

Bravo!

The Wife and I would like to be a part of this -- we're a two-person household (again) as of January, 2009.

I would be interested in this; it would encourage me to cook more which I have been severely remiss in lately.

I love this idea! I'm notorious for over-estimating our ability to eat the same thing for several meals. Unfortunately, I can't make it on December 1.

My two cents:

* Items should be preportioned in disposable containers. In theory, the containers could be reused for the next exchange.

* There should be some limit in group size or some methodology so that participants aren't having to double or triple recipes just to have enough to trade.

Those were the first things that popped in mind.

HI,

I am interested in participating, though I represent a 3-person household that often acts like a 2-person household. I have a 7:30 meeting that night, which I may arrive late to or maybe not at all.

I like Ziploc bags in pint and quart sizes. The pint is very convenient for a small household and relatively rare: I find them often in Walmart. Fill them with your favored content, lay them flat on a cookie sheet to freeze, then stack neatly in your freezer. Rinse them out and toss them in with your grocery bags to be recycled.

Regards,

Hi,

My friend Helen will join, too. Two years ago she was feeding five, last year four and now two. She is still adjusting to cooking in small quantities and thought this exchange applies to her situation, too.

Regards,

The GP wrote:There should be some limit in group size or some methodology so that participants aren't having to double or triple recipes just to have enough to trade.

I'm sure there will be a limit on group size, but you'd want enough people to ensure some variety; it seems likely that recipes will have to be doubled (at least) to make enough stuff to trade.

I currently host food swaps with my group, What's Cooking Chicago. It has been very successful over the past year and if you need assistance in organizing, I'd be glad to help. You're also welcome to attend our soup swap & panini event this Saturday, November 1st to get an idea of how I organize and execute the swaps.

I'm definitely in.

Just over the past couple of days I've been passing off homemade pastrami to coworkers so that I don't end up eating nothing but pastrami for the next two weeks. You just can't make a *little* bit of pastrami - it's kind of a one brisket minimum* and hardly seems worth firing up the smoker for less than two.

happy_stomach, I hereby publicly air my request that you join the group and bring cake.

-Dan

* Which sounds like a really odd night at a comedy club... "no door charge, one brisket minimum"

Great idea!

I generally cook large quantities of everything so that I can pack and store for future meals. I would love to share with my fellow LTHers.

Jyoti

this sounds terrific, and I'd definitely like to participate.

What a great idea! I'd love to participate.

Dimitra,

I've thought this a brilliant idea since you first mentioned it. Please count me in as very interested. I will be returning the night of November 30th from a 10-day silent retreat, so I can't promise that I'll be psychologically with-it enough (I may be a little unhinged) to make the planning meeting. However, some initial thoughts:

How frequently we would do this

Once a month would be great for me.

Would the group members stay the same each time or do we mix it up somehow?

I imagine people's availability will change, so while there may end up being a core group of regulars, I say we just see from month to month.

How many people in the group?

I say however many people the given space will fit. This will also change depending on folks' availability. I don't have a ton of space, but I could host the exchange in my home if the group is, say, no more than 12 people.

dansch wrote:]happy_stomach, I hereby publicly air my request that you join the group and bring cake.

I hereby commit to bringing cake(s) to the first exchange. My co-workers are still complaining about their expanding waistlines from my cake-a-week habit. (Though they're still eating all of it...)

I can't wait to see this exchange get started! Thanks for getting it off the ground, Dimitra!

Me too - we will probably be late to the meeting at Khan, but would like to participate. I'd also like to see this include things like green salad. I get the containers at Costco sometimes, and can't always use it up.


Leek and MrLeek

Hi,

If we are exchanging food to be eaten at home at a later date, why couldn't these be brought pre-portioned, frozen (or fresh like salads) and ready to hand off? Nobody would need to meet at a home. You could meet at almost any restaurant or parking lot to quickly exchange the food, then either go for lunch or go home.

I did look at Foodie1's example: bring a crockpot of soup. Pick out what you want and portion it into freezer containers. Does everyone have the space to freeze off that much food in a short period?

General Freezing Information wrote:Do not overload your freezer with unfrozen food. Add only the amount that will freeze within 24 hours, which is usually 2 to 3 pounds of food per cubic foot of storage space. Overloading slows down the freezing rate, and foods that freeze too slowly may lose quality

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has articles devoted to freezing foods including what does not freeze well.

I don't mind eating what I never tried before. Some things I will like and some maybe not so much, though it would all get eaten.

Perhaps I am jumping ahead of myself on this with discussion to be postponed to December 1st.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:

General Freezing Information wrote:Do not overload your freezer with unfrozen food. Add only the amount that will freeze within 24 hours, which is usually 2 to 3 pounds of food per cubic foot of storage space. Overloading slows down the freezing rate, and foods that freeze too slowly may lose quality

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has articles devoted to freezing foods including what does not freeze well.

The trick is to transfer the product into shallow containers (<4" deep) and chill it until is assumes refrigerator temperature. Then place it into the freezer.

Back in my days in the kitchen, we used to emphasize the necessity of using SHALLOW pans for chilling. A large pot of chili or mayonaise (when you make it from scratch) can take 12-14 hours to get to 35F, a fact that I had to demonstrate on occasion to my employees.

Cathy2 wrote:If we are exchanging food to be eaten at home at a later date, why couldn't these be brought pre-portioned, frozen (or fresh like salads) and ready to hand off? Nobody would need to meet at a home. You could meet at almost any restaurant or parking lot to quickly exchange the food, then either go for lunch or go home.

Excellent thinking. We make the stuff, put it in containers, and trade containers. Simple.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

This sounds perfect for me. I have the exact problem of too many huge dishes of food and not enough time to eat it all. Guess it's a habbit that I've learned growing up in a huge family that i can't shake. Not sure if RSVP was requested, but count me in for 2.

Are we bringing food for the first meeting? Or is this just to plan and decide what we consider a portion, etc.

What a great idea. I am a vegetarian in a 2 and half folks(my mother in law eats like a small child) household. This is often a problem for us as well. Routinely we end up throwing food out. We have way too much in the freezer, including a pheasant from my husband's first hunt. That I am not permitted to throw out. Our dog cannot have it due to buckshot, ugh.

Hi all:

Glad to see so much interest. Before everyone gets caught up in Thanksgiving preparations, I thought I'd remind everyone about the meeting to plan the LTH small household food exchange:

Monday December 1
6:30 pm
Khan BBQ
2401 W. Devon (corner of Western and Devon)

So far for participants we have:

David Hammond
Octarine
The GP
Cathy2
Helen
dansch
jygach
kennyz
pucca
happy_stomach
leek
RAB
laikom
pairs4life
giovanna
tarte tatin
hellodali

I know that some of you may not make the planning dinner and we'll fill you in soon afterwards.

The gathering is to plan and eat, so don't plan on bringing food on December 1. But to prepare, please spend some time thinking about these questions in advance:


How frequently we would do this? What days and times?
Where should we meet?
How many people in the group?
If there is more than one group, would the group members stay the same each time or do we mix it up somehow?
The pre-proportioned servings seems to be a good idea. Should we all use the same size/type container so that we can use them for each exchange and portions stay relatively uniform? If so, what containers?
Should we take into account any dietary considerations or just agree to be omniverous?
Any other guidelines we might want for the group(s)?

Thanks and see you all on December 1.

Here are my gut-response answers; maybe we can have some online discussion before we meet.

How frequently?

The first Monday of every month.

Where should we meet?

At GNRs selected by a new person every month (people don’t have to stay to eat, if they don’t want to, but I’m guessing most will, and those restaurants that are open on Monday will probably appreciate the business).

How many people in the group?

Up to 12

If there is more than one group, would the group members stay the same each time or do we mix it up somehow?

I'd try to keep groups the same, maybe for a calendar year.

The pre-proportioned servings seems to be a good idea. Should we all use the same size/type container so that we can use them for each exchange and portions stay relatively uniform? If so, what containers?

Yes, I feel we should use Ziploc 3-cup round or four-cup square containers. We can affix table labels with the name of each dish; these labels could be pulled off and changed out for every exchange.

Should we take into account any dietary considerations or just agree to be omnivorous?

Dietary considerations might dictate that we set up two groups. I’d prefer to be in the omnivorous group, but others might prefer the vegetarian option.

Any other guidelines we might want for the group(s)?

I’d recommend NOT freezing anything prior to distribution; each member can make it fresh the day before (which would always be a Sunday) and let people freeze what they want.

Might be good to establish a separate thread each month where people can post what they’re bringing (with recipes?) to avoid redundancy.

It seems implicit, but I'm guessing we're focusing on entrees or sides, not desserts.

I'm watching this thread with interest. Might I also suggest that each member of the group grab an inexpensive cooler bag or tote (Aldi's always has them, other groceries sometimes do) and some freezer packs for food safety and easy portability?

Unfortunately, I will not be able to make the planning meeting on the 1st - I have a work-related meeting I need to attend However, I remain very interested in this idea.

I like David's suggestion of sticking with Mondays - this would allow for frenzied cooking over the weekend. Combining the food exchange with a dinner will, I believe, enhance the experience.

I too am more than happy to host at my home.

Looking forward to more details.

Jyoti

David Hammond wrote:Any other guidelines we might want for the group(s)?

I’d recommend NOT freezing anything prior to distribution; each member can make it fresh the day before (which would always be a Sunday) and let people freeze what they want.

I suggest receiving these items frozen and preportioned, because it then lends flexibility when they can be made. The weekend before the 1st Monday might be hectic, though the weekend before one was scratching for something to do.

Depending on the size of your freezer, you might overwhelm it with a dozen containers. Whereas the freezing and portioning could be done over two days at the point of origin and closer to time it was made.

Regards,

I'll offer some gut-reaction answers too:

Where should we meet?
There are some BYOF taverns that are fun neighborhood spots. I'd suggest that for at least some of the meetings, so we can have a bit of a potluck dinner before divvying up for storage.


How many people in the group?
No limit. If the group grows large, you don't have to cook enough for everyone. Just bring what you've got, and we'll come up with a way to dole it out.


The pre-proportioned servings seems to be a good idea. Should we all use the same size/type container so that we can use them for each exchange and portions stay relatively uniform? If so, what containers?
I have mixed feelings about this. It seems to imply that all of the food will be of the ready-to-serve, complete dish variety. I'd rather be more flexible than that. Maybe someone made a really good veal stock they'd like to share, and it's best frozen in ice cube trays. Or maybe someone made some terrific bread, best stored in plastic wrap or a freezer bag. I say just bring whatever makes sense for your dish.


Should we take into account any dietary considerations or just agree to be omniverous?
To me, fewer formal rules = better. Let's see who joins the group, and make stuff we think people will enjoy. It's OK if what you make isn't for everyone.


Any other guidelines we might want for the group(s)?
Nah. Bring food to share. That's it.

Kennyz wrote:
The pre-proportioned servings seems to be a good idea. Should we all use the same size/type container so that we can use them for each exchange and portions stay relatively uniform? If so, what containers?
I have mixed feelings about this. It seems to imply that all of the food will be of the ready-to-serve, complete dish variety. I'd rather be more flexible than that. Maybe someone made a really good veal stock they'd like to share, and it's best frozen in ice cube trays. Or maybe someone made some terrific bread, best stored in plastic wrap or a freezer bag. I say just bring whatever makes sense for your dish.

I have mixed feelings, too, but it seems easier to deal with containers of a uniform size.

I've been laggard in my attention to LTH of late, and just saw this fabulous idea.

I have a 1 person household and a packed freezer, and would love to participate, too, BUT I work on Monday nights. Since this seems to be convenient for most people [with dinner at Khan as a bonus!], does anybody have any good ideas how I can participate, but not be there?

Also, I didn't notice how the food would get distributed. Numbers handed out at the door? What if everybody wants the pastrami? I can move pretty fast when I need to?

Giovanna

I'm not sure yet whether I can make the planning meeting on 12/1 (I will confirm one way or the other this weekend), but please add me to the list of those who are very interested in this idea and in participating in the exchange.... Thanks.