weekend lunch

I try to be as frugal with the contents of my refrigerator as possible, and at the end of the week I always end up with some odds and ends that I cobble together to make something moderately good. Today it was especially good! But I think the reason this effort usually succeeds is my basic Grocery Shopping Strategy. Here goes:

1) Keep a pantry with grains, beans, garlic, spices, and canned tomatoes; keep stock in the freezer. This way, you can make a soup, pasta, bean or grain salad with whatever you bring home from the store.

2) Buy lots of onions--I usually use upwards of 5 every week. Not only should you include onions in most things you cook for the health benefits, but caramelized onions are a great way to make a quick, I dunno...sandwich? salad? pasta?

3) Have meals in mind when shopping for produce and protein.

4) Buy ingredients that can be used in multiple meals. A fun way to get creative with this is to buy different fresh herbs each week. Also hard cheeses like parmiggiano, pecorino, and english-style aged cheddar keep for a long time and can add complexity of flavor to dishes which are otherwise simple. Having ingredients on hand that can work together in a myriad of ways also allows for more flexibility...because you never know when three extra dinner guests are coming over (this happened to me the other night...I thought: "better add those white beans to this cauliflower casserole, after all")

5) If you like to cook extravagant meals all the time, go ahead and buy the veal shanks. If you're like most of us, keep it simple, and keep the leftovers. I usually buy sausage, chicken, 6 eggs, and a small amount of bacon for a week, and then a ton of vegetables. Plan on eating meat once a day, or less. It will save you money, you won't have to worry about it spoiling, and it makes you do things like experiment with celery root.

Anyways, today I made this--a mushroom frittata with onion, sage, bacon, and aged cheddar:

I had all these cute little cremini mushrooms, a few sage leaves, a small yellow onion, and one slice of bacon in my fridge along with 5 eggs, milk, and some Jasper Hill clothbound cheddar. I think my thought process was something like "duh, I'll make a frittata."

So I cooked the bacon in a pan and in the meanwhile, sliced the onion and mushrooms and chopped the sage roughly. When the bacon was done I put it on a paper towel and drained the fat, then added some olive oil and the onions to the same hot pan and cooked them for a few minutes. I added the mushrooms, and as they started to brown I sprinkled the sage over top. While this was cooking I whisked together the eggs with some milk, salt, and pepper, and grated some of the cheddar into the egg mixture. I broke the bacon into small pieces and scattered it around the pan, then poured the egg mixture over top and baked in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

It turned out wonderfully, and I just wished I hadn't had to use all of my spinach on those three extra dinner guests, because a spinach salad would have really rounded this out, but whatevs. I used up all my groceries! Let's see what next week has in store...