Cooking for one

[cjsmith]

Again with the will-I-ever-cook-much, following on where the last post left off.

Three freezers might do it. Compared with a couple who eats together, I'll need to store more stuff and I'll need to store it longer. If a recipe feeds four, and the variety they have in their diet means they eat the leftovers a week later, they're storing two servings for a week. I'd be storing three servings for the first week, two for the second week, and one for the third week, an average of two servings stored over a period of three weeks. This multiplication factor gets carried out to unused portions of ingredients, too, since (in this scenario) I'm not cooking again until two weeks later than the couple would. I am not (consciously) exaggerating; I'm guessing that somewhere near 3x the freezer capacity would put me on an equal footing.

To further multiply the problem, I'm only gastronomically single. Rob gets the top shelf of the freezer. I get the bottom (and by sneakily using those ice packs, I've gradually taken over almost the whole door). Folks who cook and eat in pairs, imagine living in one-sixth of your freezer. Singles, imagine living in half of yours. How would you work that? What clever solutions have you come up with when, say, you've shared the space with roommates?

Some options I have:
- One possibility is an auxiliary freezer. Where to put it is an open question, and we're also kind of trying to CONSERVE electricity, not soak up a lot MORE of it. (Let's not mention the oven, the microwave, the stove, or the crock pot. Shhhh.)

- Another possibility, and for various reasons this is where I want to go eventually, is trying to learn to cook with stuff that can be stored on the shelf. Dried grains are excellent for this if you can handle the glycemic load most of them will give you. Anything sold in dehydrated form would be a serious win (I am never going to re-can half a can of tomato paste, but if it were somehow sold without the water in it, I could easily keep the leftovers). Maybe I should learn to dehydrate stuff myself.

LJ brain, can you see alternatives I'm missing?

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

My fridge door is pretty full, but not so much that I'm bothered by it. I really need to stop buying little bits of stuff though. Impromptu picnic? Mustard's cheap... and suddenly I have four jars. I don't eat mustard THAT fast! And I should just pitch the ketchup. I can't remember eating ketchup in the last year, maybe more.

I used to have problems with a little creature that might have been weevils. (Hard to say; I kept finding them in the larval stage.) I cleaned effing EVERYTHING, throwing out a lot of stuff, and then bought and distributed a big pile of those cedar blocks you're supposed to put in sock drawers and the like. Those are all over my kitchen shelves now. Seems to keep the problem way down.

Potatoes! That's a problem too. If you buy a couple of potatoes individually in one of those the-grocer-will-weigh-it bags, they're costly. For almost the same price you can get a big five-pound bag. But what the heck do I do with a five-pound bag? I use two potatoes, then discover months later that the others have all sprouted and gone squishy. *sigh* Stuff like fresh fruit doesn't have this problem for me. You can't buy apples or pears in cheap five-pound bags, so I'm not tempted. :-)

It's looking pretty clear that what I really want is a chest freezer. Maybe a small one would do.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

I finally pitched my ketchup a few months a go. My brother bought it when he was visiting, and it had turned black on top by the time I got around to tossing it

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Scary.

I think it was Rob who cut his finger on ketchup once. (Can't remember; been a long time since I heard the story.) I bet that ketchup was just about as nasty as the stuff you pitched.

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

Impromptu picnic? Mustard's cheap... and suddenly I have four jars. Exactly! And I like mustard but almost never think to put it on/in anything. One jar would last years.

I can't remember eating ketchup in the last year, maybe more. Me too -- so why am I reluctant to pitch it?

I used to have problems with a little creature that might have been weevils. (Hard to say; I kept finding them in the larval stage.) I cleaned effing EVERYTHING, throwing out a lot of stuff, and then bought and distributed a big pile of those cedar blocks you're supposed to put in sock drawers and the like. Those are all over my kitchen shelves now. Seems to keep the problem way down. I have not heard that one (and yes, those are probably weevils -- laval type critters, like to live in flour, grains, etc -- and then turn into teeny moths). I have a couple of other things around (PERMANENTLY) that are spozed to prevent/reduce/kill them. I'll get the cedar blocks out of the sock drawer and put them in the kitchen, and buy some more. It's hugely frustrating.

If you buy a couple of potatoes individually in one of those the-grocer-will-weigh-it bags, they're costly. For almost the same price you can get a big five-pound bag. But what the heck do I do with a five-pound bag? I use two potatoes, then discover months later that the others have all sprouted and gone squishy. YEP! Sometimes I use up half the bag, but usually not the whole bag. I do try to throw them out prior to the growing stage.


==> What is the deal with "preview". It claims I am previewing, ("This is how your comment will look when posted.") but it doesn't actually do the HTML. But I think HTML does work here.... (Never mind, I'm just griping...)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Me too -- so why am I reluctant to pitch [ketchup]?

I have no clue, but I'm in the same situation. I'll make you a deal: I'll pitch mine if you pitch yours! As little as we use them, both yours and mine are probably nasty by now anyway!

When I look for weevils on the web, I get images of bug things instead of images of moth things, but frankly if they eat flour, I don't care what they are, I want them out of my pantry. Grr. I hope the cedar blocks help you. Their "aid" may have been total coincidence for me, but we can hope.

As for potatoes, this weekend might be Potato Leek Soup. It still won't use the whole bag though!

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's a deal. I took the ketchup out of the fridge last night, but wanted to compost the goo (and then recycle the bottle, of course) -- but the compost pail is outside and full. So now I'm thinking I'll need to add water to get ANYthing out of the bottle anyway, so I'm going to go do that and dump the water+ketchup in the worm compost (which is closer/easier). DONE. Eek! What happens if I make tater-tots?

I know you will be pleased and/or amused that I also decided that the 1/2 bottle of nayonaise could go. I think it is still good, but the expiration date is in 2005. The 1/2 bottle of fancy aiola spread is going too -- it's old and much as it seems like a great idea, apparently I don't think to use it. There are 2 sugary things that I identified to go but they are perfectly useble (I'm eating little or no sugar right now) -- so they are still in the fridge. I need to find a new home for them and think it should be easy (we'll see).

I looked at wikipedia about weevils and what I have is not weevils! I'm disturbed and embarrassed! Where did I get that wrong idea from? Somewhere a looong time ago, as I've thought they were weevils for years now. An image search for "grain moths" results in pictures that look more like what I have, apparently called angoumois grain moth.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I have just now pitched my ketchup as well! I think I'm rather fortunate that I don't like mayonnaise, so I didn't have any ancient mayo in the house. Now to get Rob to eat up the jellies in the fridge. I don't even like jelly.

Grain moths, eh? Well, we want 'em gone whatever they are. And I don't even know what mine turn into. They're all larval. Maybe the food I keep is terrible enough that none of them survive to adulthood! Ha!