$550 plus some dollars and change
I just got back to New York (after a loooong absence) and I’ve been jonesing to get cooking. So I headed to the most likely source for some quality staples. The non-perishable items pictured here (each is price tagged) total $457.25. Presuming these baked goods sell for $2.50 each at the fancy food store from which they hail, those presented here total $100 (though likely many sell for well over that price point).
So that’s $557.25 of goods wasted, then reclaimed in less than an hour. Full breakdown after the jump.
Like this:
Call Me Kuchu
My absence from you dear readers has been long and weighty, but not without its purpose!
I have been in far away lands, filming a documentary about the lives of LGBT Ugandans. We’ve returned from abroad and have hit the ground running in the edit room, and now our Kickstarter page is up and running alongside us!
Please CLICK HERE to help support the film, and the LGBT community’s fight for their rights.
Halloweenie Roast and Cookies
In need of provisions for a Halloween party, I hit the streets and returned with three rings of Rip and Dip, assorted festive cookies, cucumbers, apples, bananas, wax beans, hot dogs and burger buns, yogurt, tomatoes, cupcakes, brownie bites, grape tomatoes, bagels, sandwich rolls, and potatoes. Much munchies were munched.
500 filters of ghost on the wall
Oops, I left for Uganda in a post-Halloween dash and neglected to share my terribly cute little ghosts with you. We were in need of decoration for a Halloween party, and had recently come across 500 coffee filters in the trash. So we crumpled them up one by one, tied them off with a few of the trillion feet of freegan yarn I have, then drew faces and strung them across the ceiling. Such character!
When hungry,
…like eggplants, romaine lettuce, bananas, tomato, carrots, cucumbers, whole grain flat bread, naan, cinnamon Buns, rye, white, and Italian semolina bread.
Stoploss puree
Slice eggplant and squash, coat with olive oil and gifted fancy balsamic mustard, roast.
Discover flavor remains bland. Carmelize onions. Add garlic, vegetable stock, coriander, cumin, salt, and pepper. Blend with roasted vegetables. Add cream. Lesson: when a concoction fails to charm, make it SOUP(er)!
Trunk show
Jane spotted this under some garbage bags after we went to the Mexican supermarket for some supplies. Naturally, we wheeled it home atop my bicycle.
Then while dinner cooked itself in the crock pot, I fished out what was left of the paint I had used for my walls, and did a quick (shoddy, but improved nonetheless) revamp of this grand trunk. As ever, it was a pleasure making strokes with the thick milkshakey scent-free zero-VOC paint. Our new trunk now houses winter boots and other unsightlies.
Betty Crock-Pot
As previously stated, I have great affection for my hand-me-down crock pot. What an invention! I tossed in a bunch of the veggies from the other night along with a smorgasbord of Asian sauces (black bean, hoisin, soy, black pepper, ponzu, fish, spicy/sour, Sriracha) largely left over from the Singaporean girls I used to live with. Turned on machine, let be for some hours.
I’m a picky apple eater. I like them sweet tart crispy. Freegan apples are often red delicious mealy–but perfect for cooking. Jane cored the apples with our freegan apple corer, then down the hatch plunked some brown sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, pecans, freegan raisins, a bit o butter, and for good luck: a marshmallow on top.
Grocery shopping
Mushrooms, parsley, lettuce, green beans, broccoli, corn, eggplant, red and yellow bell pepper, parsnips, carrots, yellow squash, apples, salad dressing, whole wheat bread, baguettes, cheesy enchilada Cheetos, Fritos. Vegetables are par for the course, but what a treat to find stuff I’d never buy. Every so often, I take one for the team and clog my arteries instead of our landfills. Can’t wait to get my Frito cook on!
Meatloaf cupcakes, key lime pie, and Cranium
I had a lot of freegan potatoes to use up, as well as some beef chuck in the freezer. So naturally, I made meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting.
We combined freegan eggplant with an indulgent purchase of asparagus and roasted them with olive oil and and lemon.
I had a dozen nearly-expired limes that I had been meaning to use the last couple weeks. So I decided to make key lime pie. Except I only had mini pie tins that my old roommates had left behind, so I decided to make 5 mini pies rather than one large. We had a half a bag of really old graham crackers left from a work party, but that wasn’t enough for all the crust, so I also used a handful of pretzel Ritz crackers that I had found in the trash. I thought the salty pretzelness would be a nice balance with the sweet tart of the pie, but didn’t want it to be too savory so I also mixed in some fresh (also nearly too old) ginger and shredded coconut I found in the fridge. I threw everything for the crust in the food processor along with a stick of butter, then patted it out inside the tins. Then I made the filling and meringue more or less as dictated by the Joy of Cooking. It turned out seriously delicious. The crust was perfectly gooey and crumbly and sweet and salty. And because I put in 1/4 c extra lime juice and zest (and an extra egg yolk to balance it out), the filling was nigh exploding with flavor–it mattered not that the lime juice had come from limes that, on account of their browning exterior, often would have been tossed. And although I didn’t beat the eggs as much as suggested for the meringue because my beater ran out of batteries, the topping was just puffy enough for such little pies.
Then we all dined on the roof, on a found table, with found cutlery and wine glasses, old jam jar water glasses, a box of Black Box poured into an old wine bottle, a beautiful view, and with dessert, a game of Cranium. Almost nothing matched or was even picked out or purchased, but the setting, the food, and the people were comfortable and wonderful and charming and that’s what makes an evening memorable.
Labelmaker make me a match
Scavenger’s Pie
A shepherd’s pie of sorts (or cottage pie if you must) concocted from the potatoes and tomatoes, and the kale and corn.
I left the cookie and took the jar(s)
Four giant cookie jars, tank top, t-shirt, cardigan, bushes of kale, bell peppers, purple and white eggplants, dark chocolate covered orange peel, zucchini, corn, banana, bellini mix, English muffins, burger buns, raisin bread, and a neti pot! The jars were a bit grungy, but nothing a little scrub-a-dub couldn’t take care of. And with my household storage capacity reaching its limit, I gifted much of the top layer to friends.
Restock
My fridge was quite barren when I returned from a recent trip, so I went gathering. I came upon: mushrooms, hummus, alfredo sauce, bananas, tomatoes, a peach, a yellow pepper, romaine lettuce, baking potatoes, fingerling potatoes, country bread, focaccia, ciabatta, bran and blueberry muffins, broccoli, limes. And I neglected to include in the photo a perfectly plump Listada De Gandia eggplant!
Recharge
Apologies for the hiatus. I was in South America snapping this shot of lightning. And also surfing, SCUBA diving, sailing, sunning, spelunking, snorkeling, and otherwise wondering why so many outdoor sports start with an “s.”
