A Week in the Life of the February Pantry
The days of winter pantrying are in full swing. We are eating from the stores of food we worked to put up all summer. Last week I kept track of everything I did in the kitchen to share with you all. It’s easy to want to keep a pantry, preserve food, and cook from scratch. But what does that really look like day to day? Sometimes it’s helpful to see the practical details of a working kitchen, and hopefully posts like these can be that for you.
We eat seasonally and locally, so we aren’t buying imported produce from the grocery store in the winter months. Because of this, our food preservation efforts are imperative. It saves us money and allow us to indulge in flavors that we wouldn’t otherwise have in the winter. Small efforts like the 4 oz jars of pesto I made in August now bring life to winter pizzas. The frozen peaches from our peach tree make for delicious smoothies for breakfast and salsas to go with winter tacos. This is the art of pantrying— the little dance we do with food scraps and simple ingredients we have on hand. It’s beautiful and rewarding and my favorite way to spend my days. Grab a warm drink, settle in, and enjoy a week-long visit to my kitchen!
Saturday
Saturday was a sunshiney day which always makes me feel productive in the kitchen. After coffee and breakfast I used my grain mill for the first time. I’ve had this thing sitting in the basement for almost a year but haven’t had the time to figure out how to use it. One of my winter goals was to change that! I ran rice through first to clean according the manufacturer instructions and then got to grinding some organic hard white wheat berries. I then used the freshly milled flour to test out my oats n honey loaf recipe that calls for some whole wheat flour. I have a bit more tweaking to do on the recipe and then it will be on the blog! The fresh flour made for a delicious loaf and I look forward to learning my way around the mill more.
I then fed my sourdough starter and left it on the counter to rise. I went to the freezer and got out a jar of pesto that I made last summer. It’s such a beautiful green to see sitting there! I was making cheesy breadsticks to bring to our Italian-themed fellowship meal at church the next day, so I got some pizza dough started. I actually used a yeast dough for these since sourdough is sometimes a bit heavier and not everyone is used to that. It was funny though because I had to have my mom teach me how to do it because I only ever use sourdough. I set the dough aside to rise.
While the dough was rising I decided to try my gram’s gob recipe with einkorn flour and homemade butter for the filling. I had the intention of putting the recipe on my blog but they did not turn out the prettiest, but delicious nonetheless! I covered up the imperfections with a little bit of powdered sugar.
By the time I cleaned up the cookie mess, the pizza dough had risen and I divided it in 2 crusts. I made one with butter, garlic salt, dried garden oregano, chili flakes, and mozzarella cheese, and the other with the pesto, salt, and mozzarella cheese. They were delicious!
I shaped the oats n honey loaf and set it to rise. I used my starter to begin sourdough soft pretzel dough to rise overnight. I then put what was left of my starter in the fridge. A few hours later I baked the oats n honey loaf, let it cool, and then put it in the breadbox before bed. It was a full but satisfying kitchen day!
Sunday
When I woke up the soft pretzel dough had nicely doubled in size. I wasn’t going to be able to get to making the pretzels until late afternoon, so I put the dough in the fridge to avoid any sour flavor. We ate oats n honey toast for breakfast, lunch at church, and then came home to prep a snack board for the super bowl (which we didn’t watch lol). I shaped, boiled, and baked the soft pretzel dough while mom made a salad with leftover ingredients from the salad we brought to church. It was simple and low maintenance which is what I aim for on Sundays.
monday
The week began with no real plan or inspiration with meals for the week. When this happens, Pinterest and cookbooks can be overwhelming. So after a breakfast of oats n honey toast, I went through the fridge and freezers to see what needed used up and planned from there. I got out a whole chicken and a pound of bacon from the freezer and placed it in the fridge to thaw. In the freezer I found a bag of oat crumble topping so I greased a small baking dish and added local strawberries, local blueberries, and homegrown peaches from our frozen fruit stash. I mixed the fruit with a little bit of brown sugar, cinnamon, arrowroot flour and topped it with the crumble. I covered that with a beeswax wrap and put it in the fridge to bake for breakfast the next day.
I got my starter out of the fridge, fed it, and placed it on the counter to rise. For lunch I ate leftover salad and soft pretzels. I noticed the bananas on the counter were overripe so I whipped up a quick batch of my einkorn banana bread. For dinner we had leftover beef and peppers that were in the fridge from a few days prior. I heated that up and served it in sourdough naan that I had made the week prior with sour cream, cheese, and peach salsa made from homegrown peaches and cilantro from the freezer, red onion, lime, and salt. Banana bread, pickles, carrots and ranch on the side. Not a meal that has a name but it was a great fridge clean out dinner!
Before bed I used my starter to mix up a sourdough pie crust before bed and then put my starter back in fridge.
Tuesday
When I got up I turned the oven on and popped in the fruit crumble to bake. I had my coffee and did my devotions and by then it was bubbling and ready. I served it over grassfed yogurt and it was delicious. Bright and early was our Azure Standard pickup—ten pounds of yellow onions, 3 pounds of red onions, beeswax candles, einkorn berries (to try in the mill!), dark rye flour for my starter and the shop starter, ten pounds of lemons, raw almonds, four pounds of cream cheese, rice ramen, flour tortillas, vanilla extract, and a few toiletries. Not a huge order but I had a coupon. Of course I forgot a few things so I’ll probably have to do an order next month, although we try to keep it to every other month.
After the Azure pickup my mom made hashbrowns from potatoes we had shredded and put in the freezer last month. I put the sourdough pie crust in fridge to chill a few hours before rolling out. In the afternoon I attempted handpies with our home canned cherry preserves and they turned out not so good sadly. Ya win some ya lose some! Dinner was rice ramen with frozen veggies and a simple sauce made from peanut butter, maple syrup, tamari, and vinegar.
Thursday
Wednesday was nothing to write home about, so onward we go! On Thursday morning, mom took a ham bone from the freezer and started broth to simmer all day. I cooked the bacon and the chicken that I had gotten out on Monday. I chopped the bacon into crumbles and picked the chicken off the bone. For lunch I had a chicken bacon ranch wrap on sourdough naan. For dinner mom made potato soup with the ham bone broth and we served it with banana bread, pickles, peaches, applesauce, and garden green beans from the freezer.
Friday
On Friday morning I got out chicken bones we’ve been collecting in the freezer and added them to Thursday’s bones in a pot with filtered water and ACV. I put that on the stove to simmer gently all day. I got out a few slices of sourdough bread and ground sausage that was already cooked from the freezer to prep a breakfast strata later in the day. Breakfast was a yogurt smoothie with frozen local and homegrown fruit.
After breakfast I took my starter out of the fridge, gave it a feeding and left it on the counter to rise. I texted our egg farmers to order 3 dozen for the weekend pickup. Late morning I ran to the local grocery store for dairy and fresh greens for my bunny. For lunch we ate leftover potato soup and dinner was another chicken bacon ranch wrap. In the evening I started a dough for a rustic country loaf and put my starter back in the fridge. I strained the bone broth and put both the broth and the bones in the fridge once they were cooled.
Before bed I prepped the sourdough breakfast strata. I used slices of my rustic sandwich loaf I had in the freezer because we only had the oats n honey loaf in the breadbox at that time, which is definitely not the right flavor. I use this recipe with a few alterations. My sausage was already cooked so I didn’t cook the onions. I simply cubed the bread and tossed it in a greased baking dish with the sausage, chopped onion, sage, and cheese. In a bowl I combined the eggs, milk, and salt (I used a bit less milk than the recipe called for) and poured it over the bread and sausage mixture and stirred it around until it was evenly soaked. I covered that with beeswax wrap and put it in the fridge to bake in the morning.
Saturday
When I woke up I preheated the oven and baked the sourdough strata while I had my coffee and devotions. I leave the lid off the entire cook time to avoid any sogginess. I got the chicken bones into a pot to boil another round. Because they were already used on Friday, the second round of broth was weaker, but I imagine it’s still more flavorful and nutrient dense than just using water. I’ve heard of people using their bones until they disintegrate! But usually we do two rounds and then toss them. Mom went to pick up the eggs I ordered earlier in the week and I got to starting some sourdough pizza dough for dinner. Because I had just put my starter into the fridge the night before, I knew it was strong enough to do the job without feeding again. I helped it along by using warm water and keeping the dough to rise by the warm stove and it turned out just fine.
After breakfast I shaped the country loaf dough I started on Friday night and placed it in a proofing basket. I allowed it to proof for a few hours on the counter, and then put it in the fridge for a few hours. It was a higher hydration dough so cold dough was going to make it easier to score and a better oven spring. Once it was proofed and I baked it, let it cool, then added it to our breadbox.
At dinner time, I divided the pizza dough into thirds. I put one piece of the dough in a greased ziplock bag and placed it in the freezer to make an easy future meal. My mom and I each had a personal sized pizza with the dough that was left. We made one half of our pizzas buffalo chicken— cream cheese, Frank’s Red Hot sauce, chicken, bacon, cilantro, green onions, and cheese…and the other half BBQ chicken— barbecue sauce, chicken, bacon, pineapple from the freezer, red onion, and cheese. They were the best pizzas I’ve had in a long time!
Sunday
Breakfast on Sunday was leftover strata, lunch was leftover pizza, and for dinner I made our favorite white chicken chili for a quick and easy meal. All of the ingredients came from our pantry, fridge, or freezer. This time we actually had green chilis on hand, but I normally just use chopped jalapeños from the freezer instead and it turns out great. I used Jovial’s canned beans instead of soaking my own to make it really easy! It was delicious.
Now we are in a new week and we are still making meals from the chicken I cooked and broth I made! I’m noticing our abundance of butternut squash that need used up, so I think we may be having squash in any and everything this week! I hope you’ve enjoyed a little visit to my kitchen, and that you feel inspired to go cook something yummy in yours. I know it’s a lot of work, but kitchens are meant to be places of high production. Take heart dear friends— and keep baking the bread, soaking the beans, browning the meat, and preserving the surplus.
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