Thursday, November 21, 2013

Lessons from a very small refrigerator.

The refrigerator in my RV is 4.43 cubic feet, not all of which is usable. Let's say its really 4 cubic feet. The freezer is 1.51 cubic feet. After two and a half months of cooking out of my small kitchen with its tiny refrigerator, I am slowly coming to an important realization, and that is, I have to scramble to keep up with the food I buy. This is a very curious piece of dawning awareness.

I have tens, if not hundreds of thousands of calories on board. Now who exactly do I think  is going to eat all of that? For ease of calculation, let's say I need 2,000 kCal/day, 60,000 kCal//month. That's just not very much.

I have three pantry drawers that are full of food that is seldom accessed. Canned good include tomatoes in several different forms, tomato sauce, water and oil packed tuna, coconut milk, evaporated milk, pineapple, white beans, canned soups, a can of media crema. That's just the small drawer. The two larger drawers have various types of dried pasta, dried legumes, three types of rice, barley, dried shiitake mushrooms, a bag of Splenda,  a box of kosher salt, gelatin, back up Britta filters. Oh, yeah, flours sugars and coffee have another storage spot I forgot to mention. All the oils, vinegars, molassas, honey, fish sauce, chocolate, cocoa, raisins, currants, nuts, are stored in an upper cabinet. I have more teas than I could ever hope to consume in three years, if I drank tea every day. I very seldom eat out. I cook three meals a day for myself.

I have enough. I have more than enough. In fact, I have too much food. I've gradually realized this, and tried to adjust. but it is painful. I'm used to going to the grocery store and buying food because it looks good at the time. I buy more than I can eat.

If or when I live at a fixed address again, I wonder if this hard-earned realization, still not completely learned, will totally change the way I shop and cook.

I have enough.




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