MIDWAY...OR DO I GO FOR BROKE?

Although my intention is to blog daily, it just works out some days that the time and/or creative juices aren't there to place pen to paper (or in contemporary terms, fingertips to computer keys) to tell my tale of the day...

So, in real time it's day 18, but I'm relating days 15 and 16 here, what should be the midway point of my 31 day clean-up/clean-out venture. I'm beginning to consider that the 31 day self-challenge may not be enough, and that I must continue until the freezers are bare...or at least devoid of all real food. I cannot include the packages of varied nuts I've stored like a chipmunk (or is it a squirrel), or the unopened bags of chocolate chips (white, semi-sweet, milk), or the butterscotch chips, or toffee chips, or the 3 or is it 4 year old bottle of Limoncello. Since I am also in possession of a variety of flours and a fair amount of sugar, I could prepare a variety of cookies, bars, cakes, muffins, scones, sweet quick breads, etc. but one cannot live by sweets alone and there's no doubt that if I did that and then tested my resulting insulin levels I would immediately be plunged into a diabetic stupor. Having committed this thought to paper, so to speak, I now know....I will continue until the cupboard is, theoretically bare. However long it takes. It may cause the stock value of local grocery stores I frequent to drop, but I must do this.
Decision made.

Day 15 - on a whim, I check the butter compartment in the 2nd refrigerator...whoa! Not only do I find 2 more pounds of butter, but also two 8 oz. packages of cream cheese. And the bulb goes off! For a person who rarely partakes of toast and jelly, I also am the proud owner of a selection of preserves and jams: grape, cherry, fig, raspberry, quince, and a couple of others hidden in the back that I can't recall at the moment. Plus, of course, a jar of imported English orange marmalade. And does anyone know what to do with a jar of something called coffee curd?

But it's breakfast, and what comes to mind but that good ole' standby, cream cheese and jelly. Now I can't recreate my childhood cream cheese and grape jelly sandwich because I no longer have any plain white bread to defrost, but I do have part of a loaf of french bread, so I saw off a chunk, cut it horizontally into thirds since cutting it in half makes the bread portion too thick for my desired sandwich, slather all 3 "slices" with cream cheese and grape jelly, and partake.

Not only did I have leftover polenta and sausage, separately, from last night's meal, but I also have a good sized serving of my all-together Italian treat, so I take the polenta, sauce, sausage combo for lunch.

Dinner is an out-of-home experience, the second one this week, because it's Book Club night and we're having a retro dinner to accompany the discussion of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
(by the way, we all, women 45-65 of varied life experiences, determine that we can still relate to parts of Holden Caulfield's life)

Day 16 - it's the end of my "good cereal", more frozen strawberries, and I've managed to save just enough milk. I realize I've been home 3 full days and haven't been to the store to replenish the dairy, eggs, lettuce, vegetables I'm allowing myself. This is actually a good thing.

Lunch - I choose homemade French onion soup from the freezer. I shave some parmesan and head off for the day. There's still a fair amount remaining when I finish lunch, so I return home with it, thinking I'll incorporate it into something within the next day or so.

And so, dinner. A review of my freezer(s) inspire me to defrost a rice pilaf I've saved. It's a lot, so I only defrost enough for my one meal, leaving at least two more servings in the freezer. Remembering that the rice was a bit dry, I open a can of diced tomatoes, add some to the rice, along with the leftover Italian sausage from the Italian night, and heat it all up. It's missing something though. Cheese is the answer, and realizing that the mozzarella is close to the end of its life, I cube some up and toss it in and wind up with a very flavorful stovetop casserole kind of dish, replete with stringy cheese.

Day 16 is over.