Archive: Geeky

As I ride the pleasantly surprising wave of positive response to “Meal Planning: The System,” I feel the need to clarify and elaborate on one small point. That is, I don’t have to persuade JG to contribute to the meal-planning, list-making process. Since he cooks the majority of our dinners, he usually brings up the week’s meal plan; I’m merely the recorder. JG and I are on the same page about having a plan, being efficient, and shopping with an objective in mind. Sometimes, we differ on the how-to of the plan, but it really is a combined effort, and for that I am eternally grateful.

That said, if I had to take on the meal-planning and cooking all on my own (perish the thought!), I would be even more regimented. I imagine that I would cook a lot on the weekends, freeze, and reheat. Part of that comes from me coming home much later than JG, but most of it is my affection for casseroles. Thankfully, we don’t have to talk about this set-up, and JG is the chef of the house.

I will, however, take full credit for the magnetic caddy. That is all.

- - - - -

Today’s topic is the much-loved recipe binder, for which I will also take the glory, thank you very much. Now, our binder is not for every single recipe that we use. I don’t cull from our collection of cookbooks to create a comprehensive source. The main objective is to tame and file loose recipes. Previously, we had a floppy pocket portfolio with pages flying about, and it drove me crazy. When I had finally had enough of the madness, I went out and bought a binder (green, of course), a package of clear, plastic sleeves, and a set of binder pockets. I stuck an index card in the cover so that I’d know which way was up and assembled my fledgling system. I’ve made minor tweaks to my original scheme, and the days of that messy folder are a distant memory.

I have four categories of recipes: entrées, pasta, sides/soup, and desserts. Each section is marked by a pocket that holds all of the recipes I have not tried yet. Once we deem a recipe good enough to join “the rotation,” the recipe goes into a plastic sleeve (two per sleeve, back to back), and hooked in behind the appropriate section pocket. The pockets facilitate easy filing, and I can flip through the clippings quickly while we’re brainstorming up the meal plan. I don’t bother to alphabetize or keep a specific order for the recipes because we usually just leaf through the pages, and we don’t have so many that things get lost in the shuffle. I have a supply of extra plastic sleeves on hand, as well as a spare pocket in case I want to re-vamp the sections. I like how the binder allows me to move things around as needed.

I don’t feel bad if I never try something and it languishes in the binder because I view it as a waiting room of sorts. I’m probably too aspirational with the recipes I clip, but I figure that they’re there for me whenever I get around to cooking them, and it doesn’t hurt to just file them away for another time. If I’m reading a magazine or a food blog, I don’t hesitate to clip or print recipes for dishes that sound tasty because I know that there’s a place for them to live. When the system breaks down and we are stuck for a meal, or we come home, starving, from a weekend away, we turn to the binder for salvation because it holds our take-out menus. It is a handy arrangement, to say the least.

Although it would have been nice to share the full contents of the binder, here are links to four recipes (one from each section) that have successfully made it into the rotation. I hope they make it into yours, too!

• Spinach Artichoke Calzones
• Penne with Pancetta, Spinach, and Buttery Crumb Topping
• Tuna and Chickpea Salad with Pesto
• Pumpkin Cookies

Tomorrow, I share about my deep love of the salad spinner. Exciting, yes?

Last week, Elise posed two scenarios to her fair readers, “to get your take on kitchen habits: what is normal, and what is not.” The first scenario included meal plans, a stocked fridge, and smooth kitchen operations, whereas the second painted a picture of late arrival home, no food in the house, and caving in to order take-out. After reading a handful of comments empathizing with the second scenario, I shamefacedly admitted that JG and I have a routine that resembles the first one, although I pointed out that we don’t always clean while we cook (at least, I don’t), and the non-cook of the night gets stuck with whatever mess is left behind.

Elise promptly e-mailed me in response to my comment:

Why wouldn’t you want to admit that? I am TOTALLY impressed by it! How do you do it? What do you buy? Who cooks? Can you share some recipes, or ideas, or SOMETHING?? I am desperate

I was stunned. The thought that anyone besides us might want to hear our extremely regimented method of meal planning, recipe filing, and grocery shopping was completely foreign to me. Sure, we can’t imagine living without it, but it’s an entirely different story to describe it to the outside world. After Elise’s encouragement, I present the first of a three-part series on how JG and I deal with meals. So, welcome to our kitchen!

My favorite parts of the kitchen are the gigantic refrigerator that we inherited from the previous owners, the wood floors they put down, our bookshelves of cookbooks, and my Kitchen Aid mixer. My least favorite parts are the little pockets of counter space (rather than a long, lovely expanse) and a complete lack of natural light. We haven’t had to make any major improvements, thank goodness, other than replacing a twenty-year-old dishwasher and stove hood. The kitchen isn’t huge, but it gets the job done. Eventually, I’d like to reface the cabinets and have a more cohesive shelving situation on the opposite wall.

Before I launch into the nitty-gritty (and thrilling!) details of our kitchen processes, I feel the need to disclaim myself to death:

I’m just describing how JG and I do things, and I understand that not everyone will ascribe to or even like how we do it. In fact, I will be pleasantly surprised if this little series does not land me in the So Square We Can’t Even Believe It category. So please do not interpret these posts as a prescription for your life.

So! The topic of this first installment is how we set up a meal plan and create a shopping list for the week. Continue reading →

• The word is “agreement,” not “agreeance.”
• If you didn’t care at all, you couldn’t have cared less. If you really could have cared less, and you were just lukewarm about a topic, why point it out?
• “The reason is because…” is redundant since “reason” and “because” imply each other. The reason I do something is that I want to do it, or I do something because I want to do it.
• While I’m at it, the same goes for “where” and “at.” The question, “Where are my girls?” is sufficient, so it shouldn’t have an “at” at the end.
• When you let a person do whatever he wants, he gets free rein — yes, like a horse — not free reign.
• When a word is included in an abbreviation, there’s no need to say it again. I don’t want to give my personal identification number number or use an automatic teller machine machine.
• You do things by mistake or by accident, not on mistake or on accident. You do other things on purpose.
• An acronym is not simply a set of initials; it’s a set of initials that’s pronounced as a new word, like scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) or laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). Sorry, CIA, you’re not an acronym unless we pronounce you as “see-ya” or something similar. You’re just an abbreviation. Or a set of initials.

Anything else to add?

Secret Blogger Santa is ready to rumble with 41 participants! It’s all very exciting and I can’t wait to see what kinds of fun gifts people create in the next few weeks.

However, the excitement of the moment lies in the information within those 41 rows of the spreadsheet I created for this little endeavor, just waiting to be uncovered. Oh, sure, we could have just forwarded people’s sign-up e-mails to their Santas, but we would have missed the fun inherent in sorting! Trending! Graphing! Mail-merging!

Allow me to demonstrate (click for larger versions):

In the following graph, we see that peaks of sign-up occurred on the announcement day and the day before the deadline of November 16. We can see that SBSers are both quick on the draw and benefit from a last-minute reminder, if necessary.

When we examine the geographical distribution of United States-based SBSers (of the 39 participants who identified location), the most gifts will travel to New York (5), Minnesota (4), and Virginia (4). We also have 2 participants from our nation’s capitol — which was eerily excluded from this map — and 3 from outside the country!

From the personal tidbits SBSers provided to assist in the gift-buying process, we see that our pool of participants has quite a bit in common. SBSers are:

• To the point: 5 directed folks straight to their blogs for gift ideas
• Literary: 15 like to read (2 specifically mentioned Us Weekly)
• Busy:
  3 like crafty things (4 appreciate cards, especially)
  2 enjoy scrapbooking
  3 enjoy cooking (relatedly, 2 love wine)
  3 like to travel
  2 write
• In shape:
  4 love sports
  5 go running regularly
  2 practice yoga
• Family-oriented:
  3 mentioned their children
  8 love dogs
• Fans of color: 11 shared favorite colors
  3: pink
  3: purple
  2: green
  2: yellow
  1: blue

See how handy a spreadsheet can be? How else would we have known all of this invaluable information?

Check out the complete list of SBSers after the jump and see how you match up!

#51

- - - - -

Continue reading →