Tuesday, January 2, 2007

2007 is here! I have spent nothing!

Well, we started cooking for ourselves, no more going out to eat or ordering in. We started on New Year's Eve, and we have already learned a valuable lesson: Marvin Gardens should not be sent to the store.

I should have known this, and had I thought back to the Christmas Eve tomato disaster of 2002, I would have averted this crisis. As it was, I had somewhere to be in the early hours of New Year's Eve, so before I left, Marvin Gardens and I sat down and made a list of all the food we actually knew how to make. We came up with 11 things.

So, I made a grocery list for the week, a very detailed one, and sent him to the store. The plan was that when I returned, I would make corned beef and cabbage (not something I already knew how to make, but I had a recipe and it looked easy).

When I got home, old Marvin had gotten $189 worth of groceries. He told me he had only bought one pound of corned beef, even tho the recipe had called for 3-5 pounds. (He also told me he had failed to buy vegetable stock and white vinegar, which were both on the grocery list.)

Exasperated, I ran to the store. Now, mind you, this corned beef and cabbage takes THREE HOURS to cook, and it was already 7:30. I got the stuff, ran home and started cooking. I soon found myself searching for the ENTIRE HEAD of garlic called for in the recipe, and Marvin told me, "Oh, I just figured we had some." Now WHY, WHYYYYYYY, I ask you, would I have PUT GARLIC ON THE SHOPPING LIST if we ALREADY HAD SOME?

So Marvin had to go back to the store.

Oh, and one more thing. When you want to make corned beef and cabbage, make sure the store gives you a BRISKET of corned beef, not sliced lunch meat. BOTH Marvin G. and I we given the sliced stuff!

Sigh.

Anyway, so we have eaten in, brought our lunches to work and stuck to our plan thus far. And we know that I will be doing the shopping. So, so far, all is well.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could have sworn we had some garlic...

Does garlic salt count?

Anonymous said...

WHO has corned beef and cabbage??? Wouldn't you start with something really easy like pasta? Spaghetti and parmesan got me through many years.

I thought of you as I spent $1.08 on egg whites (breakfast) and $3.28 for a chicken taco (lunch). Then $2.49 for chicken satay from Whole Foods (dinner). The breakfast and lunch are normal for me; Whole Foods was a treat.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and what was the tomato incident of 2002?

Anonymous said...

Don't ask. Still trying to make up for that one.

noneemac said...

Your inventory of known recipes consisted of 11 things?! That's funny, because, though everyone tells me I am a fine and imaginative cook, I can't count very many items I actually know how to make from memory. I can make two of the mother sauces from memory. I routinely make my own stocck, so I know what goes into that. If I know a dozen things or two by heart, I'd be surprised.

My tomato incident, indicentally, involves a highball full of Canadian whisky.