Its that time again...

Time to get all up on those things in cabinets and freezer. This pot tastes like summer!

And it tastes like summer because it holds tomatoes we canned in Sept, some basil pesto I put up in August and some summer squash from god knows when, though it was def last summer. I can blog about this because I have to stay close by to stir the sauce, and it sort of precludes going very far or doing anything very involved. I often wonder if HN finds it disturbing how many nights he comes home and I have my wooden stirrer thing (essentially the cooking equivalent of a security blanket) in one hand and a computer mouse in the other (and a beer in the 3rd?). Probably not, as he's also pretty weird. I think we're actually pretty even on that one.

Anyhow, I was rooting through the cabinets today trying to make some sense of the rubble from a recent HN camping trip (I ended up with 30 packets of hot chocolate, a pound of craisins, your mother's weight in oatmeal, and a HUGE bag of spicy lo mein noodles; I know not why and it is not mine to question) and put together a grocery list when I realized I was pushing aside tons of food so I could see what I food needed. and I said to my self, "Self. WTF?! How has this happened again? Before the move you were doing so good eating and using whatever you had in house and home and now this whole f*cking place is a mess again. WTF are you doing thinking of shopping while you're knee deep in food? You're a dirty HOARDER!" And then I opened the freezer to confirm this, and the language got much stronger. By the time I looked in the special shelves where all my canned stuff lives, my self esteem was in the gutter.

That shit never lasts for long though and so I picked myself up and laid down some serious f*cking laws. I'm going back on the 1 ingredient challenge, which means I can buy one ingredient to cook a meal and everything else has to come from the cabinets, freezer or my special canning place.

I'm on a mission to eat myself out of house and home. I know where the battle rations ready behavior comes from (Hi Mom!), but I'm super tired of feeling like I have to have 1000 cabinets full of shit at the ready at all times just in case Apocalypse comes and I need white bread and canned food. Not only do I not have the space for it but every month at the same time, I just about break down about it. I know it's largely hormone induced but just because I'm unbalanced doesn't mean I'm not right. Anyhow, garden time is almost here which means more veggies imminent and I can't justify an absurd garden for canning purposes if the canning section is already full so off I go. Titillating, no ?

I'm also instituting a part time vegetarian thing. At least one and hopefully 2 days a week I will go veggie. This is an old idea, ripped off mostly from Mike C but then reminded to me by all this Omnivore dilemmish stuff going around, and all around I just think it's a good idea. Since I have no meat canned and sitting on shelves, I think the one goal will promote the other and if there's anything I'm about, it's cooperation. Unless there's another party involved and then I get a bit tight, but I digress.

So anyhow, expect crazy amounts of boring pictures about me cooking old food I have kicking around the house. Expect also the sewing and knitting equivalent of the same thing, because while putting K-Town (MY room) in order this weekend as last minute party preparations, I stumbled onto the full extent of my fabric and yarn stash and had the same mini freakout as in the cabinets today, so I'm determined that some shit will get done, and done with making do with what I have. That last sentence is almost complete nonsense, and I totally stand by it.

ETA: someone asked what I'm cooking so I guess I'll include the ingredients in case you also neurotically collect food and want to get rid of it and need advice?

Tonight I'm making spaghetti sauce which consists of:

2 16 Oz Jars of tomatoes (one cherry, one lahge) that I found in the canning section
5 (really) small onions off of the onion braid HN made last summer (no more food as decoration!)
Garlic
2 Ice cream scoops of pesto, because i keep it in the freezer and the ice cream scoop is the Official Measuring Unit of Things I Keep in the Freezer
1 ziploc bag of diced summer squash
Oregano
Salt
Olive Oil

Saute the onion in oil until translucent. Add the garlic for a minute or 2. Add everything else but the squash, cook for a long time on lowish heat- you want some bubbles but not crazy bubbles. Cook for an hour or more, stirring a lot so it thickens up and doesn't burn brown all over your pot.
Add the squash, cook a while longer.
Salt to taste. If your tomatoes were too acidic, add some sugar.

Serve over pasta you found way in the back of the cupboard that you don't remember buying but that stuff doesn't go bad right?

Oh, Hai! I am not begging, I thought I heard a cry for help!

Bonus shot of camouflaged dog sneaking around to beg/mad dash for anything that might fall. She does this back and forth thing. Backs up, sits close by- around the corner just out of sight/trouble and occasionally sticks head round corner to check progress and look surprised that I'm here at all. She's quite wily!