Snowbound Pantry Raid

So, if you're like me you probably want to avoid the elements during these snowy and frigid days of early January. Other then to venture out to shovel my sidewalk (many times), I've decided to avoid the whole thing and just stay in and cook using what I have on hand. It's a good way to clean some of those holiday leftovers out of the fridge and pantry.

Today's breakfast:



Egg scramble of king crab, shitake & oyster mushrooms, onions, jalapeno and colby/jack cheese served with Miesfeld's applewood smoked bacon and Kaufman's challe toast.

What's on your plate?

Nice looking, and I bet tasting plate there Steve,

I didn't trust what I had in my freezer and pantry so I hit a few stores yesterday in preperation if hunkering down.

We had scrambled eggs with blanched broccoli and Jarlsberg cheese for dinner. Lots of leftover chili still to go through. Plenty of beer, wine and milk so we won't starve.

Freaking out. It's so cold. I just caught a mouse and ate it raw.

Looks good, Steve. For once in my life, I timed this out well. In anticipation of the lousy weather, we shopped and thawed stuff in advance, and were ready as the weather hit. On Saturday, we cooked up a ham I received from a supplier at work over the holidays and had it for dinner (I'd been keeping it in the garage). On Sunday morning we used some of it to make omelets for breakfast. On Monday, I'll make a pot of split pea soup with what's left on the bone.

A bit later on Sunday, I made a big pot of chili and braised a pork shoulder I'd recently vacuum-sealed and put up in our freezer. When friends arrived for dinner on Sunday night, we were all set to go and didn't even need to call an audible. We also roasted some cauliflower and made a green salad.

I've lived here all my life and it only took me 50 years to finally be ready for the weather . . . once.

=R=

HI,

I have bread dough rising in the oven at 100 degrees overnight.

I have beans soaking for tomorrows slow cooked Boston baked beans. I bought natural casing frankfurters from Usinger's in Milwaukee along with some slab bacon for the beans. It may be cold outside, though it will smell heavenly inside.

Regards,

Using leftover rice to make zook (congee) with some leftovers from a pork roast and an egg to stir in and cook in the bowl. With a healthy spoonful of Sambal and a dash of mushroom soy.

I've got enough dried red beans and rice plus a freezer full of protein to survive a month if necessary. When we get tired of red beans and rice I have a small army's worth of dried pasta and home made sauce I put up. I usually have 10 lbs of potatoes and onions at any given time as well. I guess I'll have to break down and bake once we run through all that.

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

I have bread dough rising in the oven at 100 degrees overnight.

I have beans soaking for tomorrows slow cooked Boston baked beans. I bought natural casing frankfurters from Usinger's in Milwaukee along with some slab bacon for the beans. It may be cold outside, though it will smell heavenly inside.

Regards,

I made bread and pie yesterday, so for today I also chose baked beans-- for the keep-the-oven-running-all-day strategy. Unfortunately, all I had in the pantry were lima beans. Fortunately, I did have some nice Hungarian Bende bacon to add. Maybe it'll be a new taste sensation. We're roasting a half-turkey this afternoon too. Wish I had Usinger's franks!

100 degrees overnight seems like a very long time for bread to rise-- do you use a tiny amount of yeast?

Cheers, Jen

Anyone else misread this topic as "Snowbound PANTY Raid"?

Teresa wrote:Anyone else misread this topic as "Snowbound PANTY Raid"?

Yes, so that's two of us who were maybe a little disappointed.

Good idea for a thread, nonetheless.

Pie-love wrote:I made bread and pie yesterday, so for today I also chose baked beans-- for the keep-the-oven-running-all-day strategy. Unfortunately, all I had in the pantry were lima beans. Fortunately, I did have some nice Hungarian Bende bacon to add. Maybe it'll be a new taste sensation. We're roasting a half-turkey this afternoon too. Wish I had Usinger's franks!

100 degrees overnight seems like a very long time for bread to rise-- do you use a tiny amount of yeast?

Cheers, Jen

Jen,

It's one of those no knead long rise breads, where you use a half teaspoon of yeast.

Our house is zoned, so the kitchen is allowed to get quite cool overnight. It would be an even longer rise, if I let it sit at overnight room temperatures.

I made Boston baked beans with dried lima beans recently. My family is not enthusiastic generally by lima beans, though nobody complained and it disappeared. Some days not getting a complaint is a compliment.

We still have Christmas cookies and stuff roaming around here, so no pie yet for us.

Stay warm!

Regards,

I plan on making turkey soup today from bones and meat stashed in the freezer from Xmas. I may make an apple something or other, some mac and cheese and date bread. I plan on not going out. Every few hours I stick my nose out the door to see what its really like.....need to experience Chiberia.

I also timed well, and shopped on Sat AM in anticipation.
Last night we had a big (spatchcocked) roast chicken over potatoes onions and carrots- so the veg got all caramelized in the chicken fat.
Tonight will be oven baked chicken cacciatore (can you tell the chicken was on sale?)
After that I have a lovely chuck roast for crock pot stew because I anticipate I'll have to be back at work.

David Hammond wrote:

Teresa wrote:Anyone else misread this topic as "Snowbound PANTY Raid"?

Yes, so that's two of us who were maybe a little disappointed.

Good idea for a thread, nonetheless.

I thought about naming the thread Snowbound pantRy Raid for just this reason, but feel free to contribute any photos you feel are appropriate in either category.

I made Bolognese yesterday and have been baking bread. There is pizza dough in the fridge to try out my new baking steel tonight.

I also baked bread yesterday (it was gluten-free so I used the Bob's Red Mill Hearty GF Bread mix... tastes like Ry-Krisp!), to accompany a giant batch of beef stew, simmering all day in the crockpot. It's even better today! Also some chocolate chip muffin-type things with a few cups of leftover cooked steel-cut oats, and a pile of crispy tofu with sweet-n-sour sauce and a pot of quinoa for the vegetarian boy.

Hope everyone is staying warm and safe... this kind of weather (ice on the INSIDE of my double-paned windows, with the furnace running?) is so far beyond this wimpy California girl's ken. I did like the Tribune's editorial, though: "'How do you stand it? How do you survive?' And you shrug indifferently, as if you think nothing of it. Of course we do think a lot of it, and right now we don't like it much. But they don't have to know that."

mamagotcha wrote: a giant batch of beef stew, simmering all day in the crockpot. It's even better today!

Beef stew is also in my oven today. I'll post a pic tonight after it's ready.

Found braised short ribs in the freezer. Perfect for a somewhat cool day.

As usual, I find I most desire what is NOT in the pantry or freezer, salad greens and fixings. We've already run through romaine hearts, radicchio, arugula, 3-4cans of chickpeas and a tub of marinated feta. Made curried cauliflower & one pot rice w/ coconut milk yesterday & roasted just under 2lbs of broccoli with preserved Meyer lemon yesterday in anticipation of the week.

Will go out today(2-fer, b/c I must hit the gym) to get more salad stuff, oil, eggs, & chick peas. But we have tons of dried beans, rice, pasta, a 96 oz can of San Marzano tomatoes, just under 5lbs of Yukon gold, a couple of sad shallots,citrus from Florida( although it is dwindling) a couple of Asian pears, an onion, 2 bulbs of garlic, tons of pickles, preserves, + pickled asparagus & cherry bomb peppers, olives, and I baked one loaf of olive bread so far. We are good for at least a month without rationing. There's also milk, nuts, ice cream,half & half, coconut milk, soy products, tofu, and butter in the freezer. And that's just the stuff we may want to eat. We have cereal also. I bought a lot of stuff on close out at Dominick's last month .

But I want leafy greens.

Gotta say that (be prepared to be shocked) I actually went and did some shopping today. And yes, I managed to survive the walk from my house to my car, and even the walk from my spot in the parking lot to the store entrance.

Jonah

Jonah wrote:Gotta say that (be prepared to be shocked) I actually went and did some shopping today. And yes, I managed to survive the walk from my house to my car, and even the walk from my spot in the parking lot to the store entrance.

Jonah

I walked the dog last night. Will go back to store today. So what did you get?

Big pot of Cincinnati chili yesterday, baking some rolls and making a marinara today. Tomorrow: vanilla cupcakes and buttercream frosting.

Rather perfect snowbound day - my daughter who cooks at Embeya was home since they wisely closed for the evening so she got my fireplace going which I had not been able to do and then she hit my kitchen and made me a big batch of biscuits and a big pot of my mom's chicken a la king recipe ... delish and comforting.

Next up hot cocoa and marshmallows - snow days make me yearn for the things my mom always made -- and now very grateful to have a cook in the house!

Ran out of rice so round 2 of my faux Korean goat stew was served with mash potatoes. Would eat again.

stevez wrote:Beef stew is also in my oven today. I'll post a pic tonight after it's ready.

Served with the Pillsbury Doughboy's finest, it made for a satisfying dinner on this freezing-ass day. Other than the chuck, which I bought on Saturday at Fresh Farms, everything else was on hand.

I found a whole pound of Nueske's bacon in the freezer, and baked it off yesterday while watching that tragic Packers/Niners game. Drowned my sorrows with a double fried egg and bacon sandwich for dinner, on levain sourdough toast with a nice slug of Ketchipotle, one of my all-time favorite condiments. Damn, it was good. I felt like Homer Simpson.

Not so much a pantry as a freezer and fridge raid:
1.5 lbs mixed heirloom beans (from a winter CSA I belonged to several years ago) were the only thing from the pantry. These were dropped in the slow cooker in the morning with two cloves of garlic, two bay leaves and a turkey leg I'd stashed in the freezer after smoking it on Halloween.

Soup was about 5 cups turkey stock (same Turkey, other freezer), about two cups beans stick-blended into it, another cup and a half ladled in, shredded meat from the turkey leg, a half-can of diced tomatoes with chiles from the fridge, a half a leftover onion from the fridge diced fine, a cup of kale (from the garden, blanched and frozen), and a cup or so of frozen diced mixed root veg (left from another recipe which called for 1/4 cup each of rutabaga, turnip, celeriac and parsnip). Seasoned with thyme, salt and pepper, and it's dinner, with two lunches' worth left over.

Hi,

I bought pork spareribs waiting for the next cold snap.

Today I cooking pork spareribs in sauerkraut with potatoes thrown in toward the end. I will let these cook to fall off the bone tender.

Tomorrow whatever leftovers will be mixed in with spaetzle and baked.

Regards,

Made a hearty Spilt Pea Soup to eat throughout week. Roasting a chicken with stuffing, since only two in house lots of leftover. Made hamburger patties of chuck beef and veal (8) for quick dinners or lunches. Pork Chops in freezer if needed.