The Leen

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Last night, Brett had a bit of a freak out over the amount of our grocery budget. Sure, it’s the second largest expense every month (with rent as number one). I guess it’s a little higher than average, probably, but given that I buy almost all organic and include all cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc in that number, I think it’s pretty reasonable overall. But to Brett, he just sees me come home with bags of groceries every week or two and sees the number in the budget and doesn’t understand how bags of groceries + money spent = yummy food and a well-stocked kitchen.

So last night, after looking at the budget and proclaiming our food expenses to be too high, he looked through our cupboards and declared, in a very Brett-like manner, (I’m sure if you know Brett, you can totally picture him stomping around the kitchen, opening and closing cupboards and the fridge/freezer and saying all of this), “We have SO much food in here! This is absurd! I’ll tell you what we’re going to do! We aren’t going to go grocery shopping until after Christmas, or maybe even until after January 1st! We’re just going to get creative and eat what we have! It’ll be fun!”

This went on for about ten minutes, and of course, every time he’d say something additional about how it would be “creative” and “fun” I would just look at him with raised eyebrows and nod. I finally just told him that if he wanted to do that, then fine — he’s on dinner duty for the duration. He agreed, and that was that.

Regardless of who is making dinner, I did agree to the idea that I will try not to grocery shop for a couple of weeks, despite some major reservations. I’m sure most of you know how it is; you have 95% of the ingredients for a meal on hand at any given time (hence the fullness of the cupboards) but you are missing that crucial 5%. That’s how our cupboards are. I have enough stuff to make maybe four complete meals — after that, I told him all bets are off and I might have to buy one or two things here and there.

He protested and said that we’d just have to make do. I just smiled and nodded, and figured I’d at least get a couple of things out of it: he’d make dinner a few times, and I’d get to make a lot of lentils in the next few weeks. (He doesn’t like lentils much, and I love them, so consequently we have a couple bags of them that just sit in the cupboard, not getting used up since he doesn’t really like them.)

Fast-forward to tonight. I proposed making potato soup for dinner, the recipe for which I’ve put at the end of this post. We’ve eaten it a lot lately, because I like it, it’s easy, and it’s filling, and with the potatoes and the milk it’s a great comfort food item.We have everything I need to make it, and it’s easy, and a good cold weather food, so I figured it would be a winner of a meal.

Brett hemmed and hawed and said he didn’t want potato soup. So I came up with several other options: burritos, homemade mac and cheese, baked potatoes, or some other potentially cheesy/creamy/garlicy potato dish.

He rejected all of them, getting grumpier and grumpier as he kept asking if we had something and I said no, or that it was frozen and would take hours to defrost.

The ingredients for pizza? Nope. No mozzerella and the dough is frozen.

Spaghetti? Nope, the sauce we have is my mom’s homemade sauce and it’s frozen, too. And since Brett doesn’t believe in microwaves (that’s a topic for another post) it would take hours to defrost.

Frozen pizza? No. I haven’t bought any in weeks.

Annie’s Mac? We’re out.

So finally, I gave up trying to find something he’d agree to and went to give Elanor a bath. When I came out from the bathroom after bathing her, he was gone. I had no idea where he had gone. Honestly, it scared me a little, but I trust him so I didn’t freak out too much.

He walked in the door about 20 minutes later, with two packs of specialty organic pasta in hand, and said he’d gone and gotten dinner.

His amazing new grocery regime?

Lasted less than 24 hours.

I had to laugh a little, although I could have predicted it. When it comes right down to it, Brett is too much a food snob and an impulse eater to be able to just eat through the cupboards. When he wants something specific, he wants it, and he’d sooner not eat at all than eat something he didn’t want just because it’s there and it’s food.

It felt like a little victory, knowing that he couldn’t even handle his own proclamation. (Seriously, dude, no grocery shopping for three weeks? Probably not so realistic.)

Anyway, I am definitely going to be trying to cut our grocery budget down; we agreed on that much and I do think it’s reasonable to at least try to shoot for a lower number. I guess a little belt-tightening is inevitable for us right now, but it will be hard for me to shop really frugally. I did it for so long (while we were in Maine, while Brett didn’t have a job) and I got so tired of it. Lately, I’ve taken great pleasure in going to the grocery store and picking really yummy, often organic food. I hope I can still buy a lot of the yummy organic stuff and stay within the budget. I suppose I’ll just try to view it as a game and do my best. I’ll keep everyone posted on how it goes. I am sure I’ll have to make some sacrifices, but hopefully I can do it as painlessly as possible.

Anyway, here’s the potato soup recipe. It’s the one my mom has always made, so it’s really just from my memory. I don’t have it written down anywhere, and I just do it by the seat of my pants every time. Definitely fiddle with the spices if you like; it is definitely the kind of soup that can handle some variation.

I really like to make this with the beer bread I posted a few days ago. Yum!

Potato Soup

• 10 medium-sized baking potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2 T flour
• 2 T butter
• 2 C cold milk
• Garlic Salt
• Pepper
• Oregano
• Thyme or other savory spices

Peel and cut potatoes, placing them in a heavy-bottomed soup pot with enough cool water to cover them while you are cutting them. (This prevents them from turning brown.) When they are all cut, drain the water and add new water, just to cover. Place the pot on the stove and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, while the potatoes are cooking, start a roux by putting butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When it is just melted, add flour while stirring constantly with a fork or a whisk. When all the flour is added, stir briskly until it forms a thick paste that sticks to itself and slides away from the sides of the pan. I continue this until the flour just starts to brown. (The flour browning is more something I can smell than see…sorry, that’s really vague. It just starts to smell kind of nutty and flour-y and yummy.) Slowly add cold milk while constantly stirring to prevent lumps. Let this simmer for a few minutes or until the mixture begins to thicken.

When the roux has begun to thicken, dump it straight into the pot with the potatoes and water. (I know! This sounds weird — adding it in with the water — but it works, trust me.)

Let it cook for five minutes or so, while adding garlic salt, oregano, and pepper to taste. Sometimes I also add thyme, or other savory spices — really, whatever I have lying around and whatever sounds good at the time. I imagine rosemary would be good, and sage, dried parsley, and dried basil as well.

Once the mixture is thick and the potatoes are falling apart, taste for seasoning, adjust spices, and serve.

It’s easy, relatively quick, and yummy and rich. Enjoy!