Thoughts by Richard Bleil
Such an odd period of time for me. Although I enjoy cooking (which is why I’m now a Pampered Chef Consultant; search for me on Facebook with Bleil Style Pampered Chef Consulting), historically my cooking has not always been consistent. I guess I started off fine many years ago when I was living in Cincinnati, but it’s easy to fall into bad and very simple (albeit expensive) habits. For too long it’s been too much pizza, and too much fast food. I had a mantra at one, based on Monty Python. Waiting at the drive through, I would chant (in an appropriate accent), “four is the counting of the Enchiritos, and the counting of the Enchiritos shall be four. Five shall I not eat, nor eat me three excepting that I then proceed to four. Six is right out!”
Yes, I’m kind of an odd guy.
Now, as a Pampered Chef consultant, I find myself doing odd things. As I pass fast food joints, for example to get a cheeseburger, I’m thinking to myself “but I have ground beef at home, I can just make it there.” Recently I had lunch with a friend who asked me where I would like to eat, saying “I know that you eat out a lot, so choose someplace you haven’t been in a while.” The reality is that I haven’t eaten out in a very long time. Very strange for me.
Now I have too much food. I have steak thawing in the refrigerator along with two pounds of ground beef. The steak is buffalo, and I’m planning on grilling it but I should have already done it. Yesterday I also had two pounds of chicken and frozen spinach thawing in the refrigerator. Chicken is usually more dangerous to leave thawed, so I stir-fried it last night. I’m eating the leftovers tonight. The ground beef I’ll fry up with cumin, onions and spices to make Mexican meat. I have flour tortillas to make burritos, but this also freezes very well for Mexican dishes for the future as well.
Some of this will be good for the freezer, but speaking of, my freezer is very full of other frozen dishes as well. For example, I have Cincinnati Chili, and Italian Spaghetti in individual packages perfect for reheating, along with frozen meatballs, frozen sausage and more. The reality is that I’ve hardly ever had so much food in my house, so many quick meals in the freezer, and so much thawed meat for such a variety of meals.
It’s like a traffic jam. Honestly, I’m a little bit worried about the thawed meat getting too old before I get around to my plans for them. This is just not normal for my life.
Keep in mind, I’m not complaining. Across the street I have neighbors who have had to leave their house because their electricity was shut off. I don’t know how they even have enough money to keep the family fed (and, yes, I did give them some buffalo meat which I hope helped out), and here I am, with so much food in the house that I can’t bring myself to eat at fast food places. Okay, sometimes I still like to go out to eat on occasion, but even at that it’s been significantly less common.
I have no idea how to wrap up this post now. There’s really not a point to it. Honestly, I just really wanted to explain my situation a bit. In about fifteen minutes I’ll be play-testing a game online for a friend of mine, and I’ll be eating that green bean casserole. Man, I hope that freezes well; I can’t imagine eating it for the next three or four days. As much as I enjoy green bean casserole, I made enough for a small Thanksgiving gathering.
Therein lies the problem with being alone. I’ve already written about how this house is, frankly, just too much house for one person. And cooking for one is never particularly easy either. I’ve taken to making foods that can be frozen and I split them up into single-serving portions. The theory, of course, is that they should make quick and easy meals when I don’t feel like cooking, but in practice, I usually don’t thaw them out. Eventually I will, but it does take a lot of freezer space. Ultimately, in a better world, I would not be eating alone. But, we all have our lives to lead.
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