Cooking from Pantry
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Pantry Pasta-Spaghetti with Canned Tuna, Lemon and Parsley
Yesterday evening was one of those busy days of me driving from one appointment after another. I was a bit frazzled more than usual since a San Francisco taxi cab nearly collided with my car..I’m convinced my car is invisible and I should get it Bedazzled or painted orange to be noticed. But I digress. I found myself in my kitchen with the husband and toddler at home earlier than usual and no dinner made. On nights like this, I always make a giant fried rice with the protein and vegetables all mixed in or I make a pasta with a ‘sauce’ made from whatever I have in my pantry.
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A Drink and A Nibble- How to make Satan’s Whiskers and Cheese Popovers
Ever since I stopped working as a line cook and stopped working either early morning brunches or dinners, I’ve been able to enjoy a few things I used to take for granted. One of the things I’ve come to love again is staying up late on Friday or Saturday nights and enjoy a civilized cocktail with my husband. When we lived in the City, we usually went for a stroll around our neighborhood and had a drink at our local pub or wine bar. We could discuss the week’s events, even cerebral things like art and politics, all while we sipped a drink and nibbled on bar snacks.
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How to Cook from your Pantry
Before I became a culinary teacher and blogger, I had a real-life paying job as a line cook. It was an amazing experience that has helped to forge me into this person I am today. One of the more valuable skills I learned was a very practical one as far as being a home cook- I learned how to cook a meal from whatever ingredients we had on hand. Now, this type of cooking wasn’t the type of cooking where we made thoughtful food from perfectly sourced ingredients, which I can do. This food was what was known as the “family meal” or the staff meal.
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How to make ‘Pantry Soup’
Contrary to what Campbells and Progresso would have you believe, homemade soup is not time-consuming to make. I always believed it’s one of the easiest and cheapest meals to put together and far healthier than those soups in a can. The ‘economical’ factor comes in to play when you look to the contents of your pantry, refrigerator and freezer and make a soup from that.
Read moreSamantha Food Geek versus the Refrigerator
I’m pretty good at moving our leftovers out of our refrigerator, but every once in a while, a monkey wrench gets thrown into my system and before you know it, I have a glut of leftovers in the refrigerator. Today was such a day. I came home with the weekly groceries and opened the fridge to find it crammed full of bowl, tupperware and other containers with food from last weeks dinners.
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