Tag Archives: shop pantry

Frig and Pantry Shopping

Tonight I’d bought a large skirt steak, enough for two of us for two nights.  The thicker piece I undercooked so I can heat it up on the grill tomorrow.

I served it with rosti potatoes and boiled corn on the cob.

Tomorrow night is the kicker.  I have that steak, made dough for grilled fry bread  and a classic white bean salad with red onion and dry Italian sausage.  All I need to do is make a sauce and I’m done.  Perhaps some cukes and cherry tomatoes.

I love shopping in the frig and pantry partly because it lets me invent new things but also because to me it’s “free” food.  It’s food I already paid for, sometimes months ago, so it doesn’t require a trip to the grocery store or any money.

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Slate.com had a great piece today about useful cooking shows.  The favorite was America’s Test Kitchen, of course.  I still have a beef with them for thinking their recipes are flawless and threatening one of our fellow WP bloggers for changing one of their recipes and blogging it.  I think they’re all a little bit anal retentive, psychologically speaking.

I spoke up for the eternal Julia and Jacques, Alton Brown, should have mentioned Eric Ripert and perhaps Mario Batali (but I’m mad at him for suing a TX restaurant that had been in business for many years before he created Babbo for usurping the name), Ming Tsai and also should have mentioned Laura Calder who also bothers me for some reason I’ve yet to define.  Perhaps she got to go to France and cook and be cute and somewhat comforting while knowing what she’s doing.  Jealousy, that’s it.

As I hear it, Food Network needed revenue so decided to tap into the chefs’ bottom line, restaurant profits.  All the smart folks left, except Emeril who branded the channel and also Alton Brown, who must have cut a heck of a deal.  The new people they put on are all wanna-be’s which is why they have game shows on with no money, and are hiring their talent from another game show.  If you want to watch cooking shows watch Create (Ming Tsai, Lidia Bastianich), Cooking Channel (owned by FN but I understand many of the shows are not produced by them), and Travel Channel.  PBS also has a number of great shows, some new and some classics like Julia and Jacques.

As the venerable Julia would have said, “Bon Appetit.”  Cheers, Dee