An Inconvenient Convenience and Cheeses from Heaven

So, since my last post I have been poking around my overstuffed pantry to see what was in there that shouldn’t be. In the process of doing so, I realized that I really hadn’t stated my goals very well, neither to myself nor my legion of faithful blog readers (I think our count is up to 5). I guess at this point I am really straddling several bandwagons: elimination of unnecessary food additives, humane production of organic meat and dairy, supporting local agriculture whenever possible, and growing what we can ourselves. Understand, it will be several years before I feel superior enough to look down haughtily upon the masses and their proletarian cuisine. All of these are on a ‘baby steps’ basis.


So for starters, I pulled out the packaged pasta and rice side dishes that I sometimes buy. They usually cost about $1.50 but I get them for about 60 cents on sale with a coupon. I set about preparing a package of ‘Pasta N Sauce’. I glanced at the list of ingredients. There were about 20 but I wasn’t really surprised by that. I know the stuff is crap; that’s not the issue. What I realized while cooking it was that I had to stand next to the stove, watching the pot full of milk, water, and butter come to a boil. If I left it for too long, it would quickly boil over and make a mess. When it finally did boil, I had to stand there and stir to ensure that the pasta and sauce mixture did not stick together or get mucked up into little, un-dissolvable balls of starch/powdered cheese. So for the better part of 15 minutes, I was stuck by the stove anyway. How is that convenient? I can boil water and cook pasta without nearly as much supervision as my little ‘packet-o-crap’ took. In that amount of time, I can make a light roux, grate in some cheese, and finish off with a little half and half. Because I like to cook, I always have these items on hand. But I haven’t tested the theory in real time to see if my suspicions are correct: that convenience foods are not very convenient if you know how to cook for real what packaged food manufacturers are faking. I will test this theory this week.

I did, however, do something I have always wanted to do in my very own kitchen: I made CHEESE. Yes, CHEESE, GLORIOUS, CHEESE. In the last two weeks I have made homemade mozzarella three times and ricotta once. Last night I was shopping and found organic milk that was on its last ‘sell by’ date. $2.99 for the whole gallon. Score. I took it home and 30 minutes later I had fresh, organic mozzarella that will go into vegetarian lasagna tonight. I don’t know if it was the organic milk or my mad cheese-making skills but it was the best so far. Maybe I will make a béchamel to top the lasagne and test my 'conspiracy of convenience' theory.

How do I love cheese….let me count the ways. I have only met one very smelly one from Spain that I would not eat. It smelled very, very rotten. I think the ex-husband let it go bad en route from the motherland. But fortunately, the current husband feeds my need for cheese fairly regularly by stopping at the artisanal cheese shops in Wisconsin. The aged, the smoked, the sheep, the goat….all heavenly. I suspect I will be enjoying some of such cheese by Valentine’s Day, if not sooner. I long to create such cheese.

Something to aspire to, I suppose. The Frau aspires to much, indeed.

The Now of the Frau

Since the Frau has disclosed that her attention span is debilitatingly short, she will disclose that while the food/consumption culture related posts may be full of wonder, passion, and determination this week, next week’s post may revolve around using dried tofu loafs as rustic doorstops. I just want to be clear that I am not on any kind of a mission to change anyone’s world but mine.


I bought organic milk, half & half, and broccoli from our local co-op yesterday. It cost me a little over $8 and that included a $2 coupon savings. If you know me very well at all, you will know this is not my normal modus operandi. I am, what is known in polite circles as, a tightwad. Moreover, I am an enthusiastic one and will generally share my knowledge of how to become one just like me with anyone who will listen. Having lived most of my life either teetering on the poverty line or living on a hardcore budget, it’s hard for me to live any other way. It’s really less about how much money I have and save than it is about who ‘deserves’ to get some of my money. For example, walmart, the cable company, and stores/gas stations without changing tables are not getting much money from me anymore. The quality of their products/services has rooted them firmly in the ‘undeserving' category. I feel I can and should give my money to more ‘deserving’ entities whether they be charities, someone in need, or another retailer.

So, I like to save money. I research purchases, shop off season, only buy on sale, clip coupons, and stock up on things when they are at their lowest price. There will be posts to this blog detailing those methods as I have promised to share that info with some people. However, I am attempting to make some changes in the way our household consumes goods, namely food. While pregnant last year, I started thinking about what was going in my body and I wasn’t terribly happy with the MSDS data sheet that resulted. I think ,food wise, we live in a very different world than we did the last time I was pregnant in 1993. As a biologist, I know some things.

So to begin, I’ve decided to start by switching at least some of our dairy to organic and sustainable sources available in our region. Since the portion of our food budget related to dairy is probably less than 10%, I am hoping that it won’t break the bank. But it does mean that something else will have to go. The stuff that will go first doesn’t really belong in our pantry in the first place; cheap, unhealthy, convenience foods with an ingredient list that looks like it needs an index. I am foodie, for pete’s sake. Why am I buying this crap?

This weekend we will start purging the pantry of said crap, one meal at a time. Yes, we are going to eat it. If you had any doubts and think my integrity is in question because of that, see paragraph two and stay tuned.