When all this started–I think we all know what I mean by “all this,” though we may disagree on when it started, and it started for me long before it was admitted to have started for the White House–I began exploring and organizing my pantry to see what kinds of things I had that would be useful and what things I might want to purchase.
I’m a big believer in dried peas and beans, so I buy them, but because of my work schedule, I’ve been really bad about making a meal plan each week, and you have to plan ahead if you want to use dried vegetables. At least I do, because I don’t use a pressure cooker and the “quick” soak method still requires time to soak and cook. I’ve always been an overnight soaker. That means thinking about tomorrow. And all I was ever thinking about was how to get through several hundred emails a day. (That was why I often did two or more weeks of blog posts at a time. Belatedly.)
BACK TO THE PANTRY. In the interest of better planning and using what I have, here were a couple of things this past week we ate.
I’d baked a chicken one day so I could use up several portions of frozen leftover cornbread for cornbread dressing. Of course, after that meal, we had a lot of leftover chicken. Which went into chicken salad sandwiches a couple of times for Tom, and then this favorite:
Chicken and dumplings, which also used almost the last of my celery.
Among my pantry finds…
Dried kidney beans. Now I seriously only use kidney beans for chili (don’t tell the Texans; they only like meat in their chili), so why I had an entire pack of them is a mystery. I think because I felt like they’d be healthier than canned. Anyway, I read up on them, and found out that many of these peas and beans can be slow cooked in the crock pot. Which is a good way to keep me from burning them. So I used up half of my kidney beans by cooking them overnight in the crockpot and then a couple of days later, slow cooking them for a few hours with the other ingredients to make chili.
(Now I’ve started the next batch of leftover cornbread to freeze unless we finish it with another meal in the coming week, as I’m hoping.)
I also had an excess of great northern beans. I don’t know why.
I soaked some of them one night and cooked them the next day, and holy beans, were they flavorful. I think I served them as a side for pork chops. I usually like pinto beans with pork chops, but the great northerns were really good.
Not to worry. I have pintos, too.
In the salad department, I soak cracked wheat to use in what my Lebanese friends call “sof-sof” which is the same I think as tabbouleh. I haven’t made this in a while, but I’m thinking a grocery trip (masked and gloved and SIX FEET AWAY, PEOPLE) for lemons and parsley are in my future so I can use up the rest of this bulgur wheat.
If you want to try a tabouleh-derived salad, there’s a good recipe here which differs from mine but looks so good. Also, a tip my friend Debbie taught me for cutting up the parsley: roll it in the lettuce leaves (I use iceberg for this, but use what you like) and cut in thin strips. It chops up the parsley and leaves you with beautiful lettuce strips for the salad. I’m now craving this.
For future soups, I have this mixture of dried beans and peas.
Some lentils I’m looking forward to.
No idea what I bought this barley for originally, but it will be used in some soups in our future.
Also on future trips, I’ll hopefully find some of my other favorite peas (crowders? field peas?), that can be used interchangeably with these wonderful dried black-eyed peas.
I honestly have no memory of what I’m doing with this, but I promise to use it and let you know how.
All part of my new desire to cook with variety, mindfulness, and planning.