Shortcut to Mushrooms

I woke up this morning planning to go to the grocery store and shop. My parents left last week and I am all off my schedule of shopping which is usually Thursday or Friday depending on our milk pick up. Yet another part of my suburban breeding is my tendency to go to the store when I am out of a few basics. It really is rather absurd and I am trying to curb this habit.

As it so happened I also remembered that I am helping butcher our pig this weekend and we have a whole half of a pig coming. When I opened my freezer I realized that it was time to make space and lo and behold I didn't have to go to the store at all.

Out of the freezer came the hidden bounty. I made two pots of stock (pork and fish respectively) patè, malfatti (spinach ricotta dumplings), and potato ham frittata, and a batch of cranberry almond bread. I also soaked the beans and fed my starter for baking bread tomorrow.

Of course I spent all day in the kitchen minus a brief homeschooling hiatus. On the other hand to really make the most of one's cooking I have found that you need to spend at least one day a week making your basics anyway. Stock, beans, sourdough. All the time intensive ingredients you need to throw together quick meals that have that slow flavor. So it was gratifying to realize that just because I don't have apples and lettuce it is no reason to fly out the door and spend money.

Looking forward to sourdough pancakes in the morning.