Stocked up
Failure to prepare is preparing to fail
Happy Friday, cowboys and girls. It’s Labor Day weekend, so hopefully you’ve got an action-packed agenda planned. Hiking? Boating? Lounging? Reading? Yard work? Maybe all of the above? Whatever it is, savor it — because summer’s over after this! Not strictly speaking, of course, but certainly in theory.
If you need something to cook this weekend, might I recommend burgers, ribs, pulled pork, whole grilled chicken, or maybe just good ol’ fashioned hot dogs. Cook those hot and fast on the grill until they’re blackened and charred and when you dig in, make you want to eat 3-6 more. Make sure to toast the buns.
While you’re thinking about a long weekend, maybe also take a second to ponder on this question from a hypothetical reader: “What should I always have on hand in my kitchen?”
Great question! A well-stocked pantry is a tremendous boon to easy cooking. Not having to make a shopping list for each meal makes it easier to throw things together and can turn an anxiety-inducing question “What’s for dinner?” into a fairly straightforward process.
There are a lot of lists out there you can draw from. But, this being my newsletter, and since generally the recipes I cook are with what’s on hand, here is, for posterity, an entirely non-comprehensive list of cooking related items you should always have in stock.
Dry Goods
Pasta. Of all sorts. We’ll typically have a few pounds of basic spaghetti or linguini, farfalle, orecchiette, penne + a bag or two of specialty pasta.
Grains. Having rice, quinoa, farro, or otherwise around allows you to add some carbs to your diet fairly quickly — and you can always fry the leftovers.
Beans. A few cans of black beans, pinto beans, navy beans, chickpeas, or whatever you have on hand can add some proverbial meat to those grains, fill our a chili, or you can cook them down with butter and white wine for a delightful pasta sauce.
Canned tuna. Make sure you get it packed in olive oil. Having this on hand makes lunch easy — mix a can of tuna with some mayo, salt, pepper, mustard, and a dash of pickle juice and you have the base for a great tuna salad sandwich or tuna melt. Mind Fish is good, sustainable, and available on Amazon.
Canned tomatoes. Having a few cans of diced or whole tomatoes around will allow you to make tomato soup, braise meat, make sauces, and generally be happier.
Peanut butter. I typically just eat this by the spoonful, but also good on sandwiches and in smoothies. Can also mix this with some sriracha, garlic, and pasta water to make a quick peanut sauce
Mixed nuts. Dealer’s choice here, but for what it’s worth, I like cashews. You eat these by the handful, or add them to stirfrys, salads, or grain bowls.
Chicken stock. Useful for quick starting a soup, for risotto, for cooking grains in, for rehydrating mushrooms, or for braising meats. Chicken seems to be the most versatile, but beef or vegetable aren’t terrible to have on hand either.
Red and white wine. For cooking and for drinking.
Oils, Sauces, and Condiments
Olive oil. This is a must have. Use it for cooking (obviously), in dressings, marinades, or rub a little in your hair to keep it up, slick.
Vegetable/Canola oil. This is for high heat cooking, or use it to help keep your cast iron pans in tiptop shape. You could also splurge for something like avocado oil here.
Vinegars. I love vinegar. I’ll take a shot of apple cider vinegar just to wake me up in the morning. But you should also probably have some red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, maybe a sherry or white wine vinegar, or any other vinegar that gets your juices going. Great for dressings, marinades, over veggies, in sauces, whatever.
Spices. At the least, you should have red pepper flakes, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and a dried herb like oregano. From there, expand based on what you like to cook. I love Camp Mix and nearly anything from Meat Church — but this is probably a choose your own adventure.
Salt. Obviously. Probably a sea salt and a kosher salt, but who’s counting?
Pepper. Get a pepper mill and freshly crack your own.
Fridge
Eggs. Always good to have these on hand and they last a surprisingly long time in the refrigerator. Eggs open you up for fried rice, frittatas, scrambled eggs, carbonara, cornbread, and basically anything you need to bake.
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Don’t skimp, buy whole blocks and grate your own. This goes on 75% of the food we eat.
Butter. Lots of it, preferably Kate’s.
Mustard. Preferably of the dijon variety, but anything besides yellow mustard is great for dressings, marinades, or burgers.
Greek yogurt. You can use this on almost anything. For breakfast with fixings, in place of sour cream for nachos or pierogis, in place of mayo in tuna salad, or for desert with peanut butter and chocolate chips.
Mayo. Just nice to have around.
Hot sauce. As many varieties as you’d like, but at the very least, a traditional pepper sauce (like Cholula or Tabasco), a sriracha, and a wild card cover most of your basis.
BBQ sauce. But this might just be because we eat a lot of meat.
Soy sauce. For kicking up stirfrys, for marinades, with sushi.
Freezer
Frozen raviolis or pierogis. We also keep a few packs of Valicenti raviolis (truffled mushroom is *fire emoji*) and Jaju pierogis in the fridge. Quick, easy, and delicious. Of course, any brand will really do.
Frozen herbs. Kind of nice to have “fresh” herbs on hand.
Frozen fruit. For, ya know, smoothies.
Fruits and Vegetables
Onions. For things that require onions (or shallots in a pinch).
Garlic. For flavor.
Lemons and limes. For flavor and for smoothies.
There you go. I’m sure there’s a lot that’s missing there (like furikake, pickles, miso paste, turmeric, tahini, pepperoncini, grits and/or polenta, chocolate chips… to name somethings I spot in our fridge and pantry) — but starting here will allow you to keep from embarrassing yourself or starving if you forget to go grocery shopping. If there’s anything specific you think I missed, feel free to drop a note.
Enjoy the weekend, be productive, and make good choices.
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