After two weekends of being stuck in the house, I’m finally free. Because of all the snow we’ve gotten, I hadn’t been able to grocery shop like I want. On Friday, I decided to head over to Harris Teeter for a few items before driving the car back to my office parking garage and taking a cab home. I learned the hard way people don’t like it when you park in the space it took them hours to plow their car out of.
Although I felt like a prisoner of mother nature, the experience made me really grateful for learning how to cook.
Before the first snow storm began, I rushed to the supermarket to stock up on a bunch of junk food. Somehow I bought too many salty snacks and completely forgot about the sugary stuff. After going without sweets for over a week, I was desperate. For the first time in many, many years, I attempted to make a batch of cookies from scratch.
By no means were they delicious (maybe because I used salted butter), but they satisfied the craving. If you cook on a regular basis, you’re bound to have certain staples on hand, e.g., butter, sugar, flour, eggs. I’m so thankful I had the ingredients for a basic sugar cookie recipe.
The snow has made it miserable the last few weeks, but I did relearn a money lesson that’s easy to forget. It’s quite simple really.
Use what you got.
Monday/Tuesday – Taco Pasta Toss from Everyday with Rachael Ray (using slow cooker to prepare taco meat)
Wednesday/Thursday – Swedish Meatballs and Vegetables
Friday/Saturday – Pork Chops and Roasted Asparagus
Sunday – Layered Taco Salad (using taco meat from above)
Rookie Cook Tip – I hate it when a recipe calls for tomato paste. Primarily because I almost never have any. Also, it seems you usually only need a tablespoon or two from a 6 oz can. Thanks to Tipnut, now I know you can make tomato paste by cooking tomato sauce until it’s reduced to half. And now you know too.
Have you ever learned anything about cooking as a result of a traumatic mildly inconvenient event?
Find other menu plan options on Menu Plan Monday at I’m an Organizing Junkie.
Photo credit: Masashi Mochida
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Did you know that you can buy tomato paste in a resealable tube now? That way you can use your tablespoon without having to throw out the rest.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=tub…
I use what I need from the can of tomato paste and freeze the rest in ice cube trays (to be popped out and bagged when frozen) – each cube is 2 Tablespoons.
I couldn't find any tubes of tomato paste at the grocery store, so I might have to try this technique. Even if I did find a tube of tomato paste, an unacceptable price tag may cause me to revert to this strategy anyway.
There is also a tube of tomato paste that is apparently sold in store. That might be another solution on hand. But that is great info to know.
Love the comment about freezing it in ice cube trays. I do the same with a big batch of pesto.
@The Saved Quarter and @Money Funk – That's news to me, so thanks for sharing it. While searching for tomato paste on Amazon, I noticed you can purchase tomato paste by the jar too. I'm going to look for either the tube or the jar when I go to the grocery store. I'm so excited!
They also have pesto and ginger in the tubes, too.
Wow! Great question. When we lived in San Diego during the grocery store strikes and fires we learned to stock up on the staples.
I never even thought of something like that happening. You never know what might happen that could limit your access to food. A well stocked pantry is something we should always have.
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