Just throwing things together

I cook some pretty tasty food most of the time, but I don't consider myself a chef of any caliber.  I don't particularly like following recipes (although I enjoy reading them for inspiration).  I've had no training to speak of, unless you count watching my late father cook when I was a child.

What I do love is just throwing things together to see what happens.  That's undisciplined, I know, but it makes both cooking and dining an adventure when I'm in the kitchen.  Adventure = fun, so, of course, I love it.

Last night necessity directed my cooking.  Little Sister had brought us some fresh spinach that was not so fresh.  She had bought herself too much and needed to offload some before it passed its expiration date, which was imminent.  I actually didn't get around to the spinach until a day or two after that date, so it was getting rather urgent to do something with it.  Rather than make a salad, I decided to cook it.

First, I chopped some fresh garlic and threw that in the bottom of a casserole dish.  I washed and tore the spinach (picking out a couple of limp leaves) and tossed that into the dish.  I chopped up some green onions and . . . tossed 'em into the dish.  I opened a can of slices tomatoes (Italian seasoning) and poured that in, liquid and all.  Finally, I sliced some yellow summer squash and placed that on top of what was in the casserole dish.  A little salt, a little pepper, a quick toss, and it all went into the oven along with a roast.

I kept an eye on the spinach, pulling it out when the squash was looking soft.  How long that took, I couldn't say (more indiscipline with the clock), but I could guess at 30 minutes.  The idea was to cook the spinach and onions without turning the squash to mush.  I was close enough, I think.

The resulting dish ("Spinach Hodgepodge"???) was quite tasty.  I did add a little salt at the table (I almost always do anyway, since I undersalt most of my dishes when cooking), but otherwise the dish needed nothing.  The squash had just enough crunch, the tomatoes added a touch of acid, and the whole combination complemented the roast beef nicely.

This time I got pretty lucky and "just throwing things together" worked out well.  The low carb count was an added bonus.

Food dating

Nope, this is not about going out to dinner with the hunk du jour. It's about those troublesome expiration/use by dates on food packages. Imagine my surprise to read this:

Frequently Asked Questions About Food Dates and Storage

Q: Should all food containers have dates on them?

A: There is no uniform system for food dating in the United States. Except for infant formula and some baby food, product dating is not required by federal regulations. Dating of foods is only required by about 20 states right now. Federal regulations do say, however, if a calendar date is used, it must express both the month and the day of the month. In the case of shelf-stable and frozen products, the calendar date, if used, must also include the year. If this calendar is used, there must also be a phrase next to it explaining the meaning of the date, such as �sell by� or �use before.�

Dates found on foods may be �open dating� or �closed� or coded dating. Open dating is the use of a calendar date that the consumer can understand. In general, open dating is found primarily on perishable foods such as meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products. Closed or coded dates might appear on shelf-stable foods such as cans, boxes, bags, etc.

This comes from a University of Georgia web page dated simply "2005." It could be out of date, but I'm cynical enough to believe that it is not. And that annoys me. There are some regulations that might go to far, but I'm pretty much pro-regulation when it comes to food safety. Expiration dates and such are pretty important when deciding what to buy and when to eat it. This is something that I feel strongly enough about that I'm headed over to change.gov to make a recommendation that there ought to be federal standards to the effect that:

• all processed or packaged foods intended for human consumption should have an expiration or use by date, and
• the date should be written as a calendar date that includes month and year in a format easily understood by consumers.

Join me if you wish. Of course, change.gov is the easy way to voice an opinion on the subject. I have not yet discovered that Texas is one of the 20 states that require food expiration dates on products manufactured or sold within the state, so it might not be a bad idea to tell your Texas Representative and Senator about this (if you wish). And then there's your congresscritters (one rep and two senators).

UPDATE: And here's the comment on change.gov. There's already a discussion!

Green Giant product codes

As I mentioned earlier, I picked up some cans of Green Giant veggies on sale. When it came time to store them away, I got ready to write the expiration dates on the cans. Imagine my surprise (not) when I found that 16 out of 20 cans had no expiration date printed anywhere on the cans!

Happily, GG provides a toll free number for consumers to call. I called it.

A nice lady named "Jo" explained the codes to me. For my purposes, the important numbers in the long product codes stamped on the bottom of the cans were the first two. The first number, actually a letter, stands for the month. A is January, B is February, and so on through L (for December). The second number is an actual numeral, and it stands for the year. A 7 would mean that the product was manufactured in 2007.

The next thing we need to know is how long the cans are good for. According to Jo, the whole kernel corn and green peas are good for 3 years, the cut green beans for only 2 years.

It took a little longer to get these cans labeled because of having to decode the product code and calculate the year, but it turns out to be a good thing that I took the time. The 4 cans that did have an expiration date printed on them were cut green beans, and all 4 cans were manufactured this month with an expiration date in 2011 (not 2010, as one would expect). This is another question that I will now have for GG consumer affairs. Also, while all of the cans were purchased at the same time from the same store, they had several manufacturing dates, and some will have an expiring shelf life in less than a year.

Now I just have to figure out how to store them!

Isn't we supposed to be having a fiesta?

I love that line from Shrek 2. I just happen to think it's funny. And it makes a nice segue to talk about today's shopping adventure at Fiesta Food Mart (#10) in Houston.

I had passed the thing for years before I ever stopped to shop. A visit to the Fiesta store in Austin actually broke the ice, so to speak. It was a special errand that showed me whole new options for shopping. Not that I ever get to shop at Fiesta in Austin--it's really too far away to be a practical option.*

The Fiesta here in Houston, however, is so close that I have no excuses not to try it out. Once I finally did, it has become a regular stopping place for fresh vegetables and certain canned goods.

Today's visit came at the end of a series of errands that had left me limping. I was just too tired to go any further, but I still had to get enough food for a couple of important meals. This is usually the point at which I start looking for an electric cart.

I've used one once before at this Fiesta, so I knew where to look. There were two available, but one was out of order. The second looked like it had been through a war. I asked for assistance and--as usual--promptly got it from management staff. She checked the machine, assured me that it worked, and then left me to it. I had to take a moment to reorient to the quirks of the controls, but enjoyed sharing that moment with a little girl who was taking her first ride on the mechanical pony. I waved as I pulled out and said, "Ride 'em, cowgirl!" She waved back, having shed her initial tears for a happy grin.

I should point out that the ambience of this store begins on the sidewalk outside. There is a small trailer that sells roasted ears of corn and other delights. There is a long outdoor clothing shop with everything from cocktail dresses to jammies for the kiddos. The piped in music is lively, usually vintage rock and roll (I'm not the only one who has felt like dancing in the aisles at Fiesta).

Inside, there is a snack bar, an ice cream stand, and other amenities which make this grocery store more like a mall. You can, after all, buy more clothes inside as well as dishes and other household items, including refrigerators!

It's the food that attracts, however. Fiesta does the best job in this part of town in stocking a wide variety of fresh vegetables. There is more emphasis on tropical and south-of-the-border fruits, veggies, and peppers (lots of variety there), but zucchini and other "regular" items are available. I have been pleased with the quality as well as the variety. I even like the plastic bags that Fiesta provides for your produce--easy to open gets a gold star in my book. (Yes, we recycle or reuse the plastic.)

Two "treats" awaited me in the produce section today. One was hearing a cricket while I was picking out new potatoes. I know that the thought of critters in a food store is a major "ick factor," but crickets make me happy. If Sam's Club can have birds flying around the rafters, I guess it's okay for Fiesta to give us a little serenade among the vegetables. The second "treat" was seeing a bin of Black Diamond watermelons. This watermelon has always been "it" for me. I grew up with this variety, indeed didn't know that there were other varieties until I was a teenager, and miss its sweet flavor every time I am disappointed by whatever else is being made available these days. These melons were on the small side and priced per melon ($4.99). I would have bought one regardless of the size or the price if I hadn't been so tired.

My other "mission" at Fiesta was to snag some of their canned tomatoes. I have been quite satisfied with their house brand (Fiesta) and delighted with the wide variety of tomatoes available in the house brand: Italian style, southwestern style, diced, diced with green chiles, sliced, whole, and the list goes on. I picked up several of each variety. Why shop in Houston to haul back to Austin? Even with gas prices what they are, Fiesta has the best price in the state. At 2 cans for $1, we are still saving money. So I loaded down the basket on my cart with as many cans as I could.

At check out, yet another manager stepped up to help me unload. The people at this store have been uniformly friendly and helpful to me. On a day like today, they were appreciated more than they knew. Jose's help to the van was especially helpful on such a hot day.

One issue that did arise was trying to figure out the expiration date on the canned tomatoes. There is a code on the bottom of each can but no clear date. Even the manager was stumped by this one. I will have to call Fiesta's corporate offices to get the key to the code--or at least let them know that these codes are not appreciated.

I guess I will take the opportunity, when I call, to let them know that I really wish that they could get their sale flyers up on the internet. That way I can make a printed list of sale items that I want to get before I go to the store. (More on this subject later on.)

*It seems there is now a second Fiesta in Austin. Sadly, this new one is too far east for us. An occasional visit is not out of the question, tho. I'm glad to see that Fiesta is expanding in Austin again.

Pantry Project, Part 1

At our house, we've been doing a lot of sale shopping, buying in bulk, and generally stocking up. Nope, we are not hoarding for the revolution. We have always been thrifty shoppers, but we've stepped it up a bit since food prices have begun to soar. All these extra boxes of food are the result of shopping for items on sale and at bargain prices. Organizing them better will help efficiency in the kitchen, but it will also help prevent waste.

Food storage has now become a significant problem. How do we keep track of what we have? How do we use things up before their expiration dates? How do I even know what I have to cook with? How do I get to it when I need it? The answers to these questions were all moving into the Annoying Range on the Exasperation Dial.

Aside from some limited counter space and a small closet-sized and -shaped pantry in the kitchen, we have no room to store extra food unless we put it in the laundry room. The laundry room is, of course, where the washer, dryer, and water heater live, taking up half of the floor and wall space. The room connects the kitchen to the garage and serves as a major passage way for the house. It gets limited cooling from the kitchen (when that door is open) and serious heat from the garage (when that door is open)--and the reverse happens in the winter, when the garage is cold and the house is somewhat less so. (I haven't come up with a solution for temperature control, but it's on my mind.)

That leaves some built-in shelves over the washer and dryer and two free standing shelving units on the remaining walls for storage. The laundry room has doubled as a mud room for many years, but those days are going fast as we try to find more (accessible) space for food. Shelves that used to have "outside shoes" and gardening supplies are getting cleared out and refilled with bottles of water and other beverages. Even shelves that held mass quantities of TP and paper towels are getting new loads of chili and canned tomatoes.

One major problem has been how to stack the cans so that shelf use is maximized and still keep the cans from falling all over the place when a shelf is jostled. Right now, my solution is four-sided cardboard boxes, open at the top and the front. These allow me to stack cans three levels high and to maintain stability on the sides. The open top accommodates uneven can heights.

I have been getting the boxes at stores where I shop, especially at Sam's Club. Whenever I see a display box that looks like it will work on my shelves, I just add it to my cart. This keeps it out of the landfill and saves me from having to buy or make something that does the job.

Some boxes are better than others for "the job." The Mrs. Butterworth's syrup box was already closed on the bottom and three sides and worked very nicely for stacking cans of beans.

The display box for Bakers & Chefs brown sugar needed to be cut down a bit in front to give more view of the soups that I stacked in there, and the cardboard was much thicker than the other boxes, making some cans wobble on the folded edges.

Crest's toothpaste display box was perhaps the best designed for my purposes, but it was a tad shallow for the shelving unit that I needed to use it on. It was also shorter than the other boxes and would not have been as stable for No. 10 cans stacked 3 high.

I still need to accumulate more boxes for this project, but I can already tell that we have more than enough beans and soups stored. I hadn't realized this before, so we just kept buying more. I can also now see that I wasn't just imagining a canned tomato shortage in my kitchen. Apparently I can't buy enough of those! I also took this opportunity to make sure that there were no cans with an '08 expiration date lurking about on the back of a shelf where it could get overlooked until 2011.

Pretty, it's not. Still, it works, and that's what matters. I didn't retire to spend all my time digging through cans to find what I need.