On the perils of hoarding and moving

[quislibet]

Now, if you are a vegetarian, this will not impress you, but last night J. and I ate homemade organic hamburgers (cooked rare) from Massachusetts-raised beef with Stilton and maple mustard and tomatoes from the back yard, accompanied by a frisé salad, topped with a hazelnut oil vinaigrette (and toasted hazelnuts), and a Peachy Canyon Zinfandel, which we'd bought something like two years ago after tasting one once at a party hosted by jazonlizard and perseverate and which we had been hoarding with the impoverished-graduate-student mentality that a bottle of wine that costs two whole digits should at least be saved for just the right food pairing.

It was all quite tasty.

Excepting the tomatoes and frisé (and the hamburger buns from the store down the street that sells them pre-bagged in sensible pairs), these ingredients had all been hoarded for months or years, in cupboards or freezers; we tend to collect foodstuffs and save them for special occasions that never seem to come, and now all of this is catching up with us as we prepare to put everything in storage for a year. There is a mandate to consume! The clock is ticking away, and there's all this odd food to be eaten! Granted, it's a problem that's a delight to have, and it certainly beats not having enough food, and with our current financial situation it's nice that we can live off our pantry and freezer and don't have to buy much beyond fresh vegetables and milk.

Still: we can get stressed about the damnedest things.

What's amazing is that the hazelnut oil hadn't gone rancid. We'd been saving it for three years, about 600% of its shelf life.

Comments

[relativeaffect.livejournal.com]

mmmmm, hazelnuts and Zinfendel *drool*

So, the beef was good even though it'd been frozen for months? That's ... unexpected.

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

Yes, the freezing worked well. Which is good because we bought it frozen (at a farmer's market in the next town over, which happens to be the opposite end of the state from where the farm is).

Having access to a big chest freezer helps; it doesn't freezer-burn things as readily as the small one above the fridge.

[relativeaffect.livejournal.com]

Good to know, since Mr. Relativeaffect is a proud omnivore.

[ex-clevergir259.livejournal.com]

Actually, that description is almost enough to make me fall off the veg wagon.

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

Then my work is done here.

store cupboard heaven and hell

[silver-notebook.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. When you're down to that jar of truffle oil you were saving for something special, the homemade jam from your neighbour, a jar of luxury olives and no more money 'till you get off the plane in france, then you're truly stuffed. We await the strangest food combos ever.

Re: store cupboard heaven and hell

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much how it's going to be, I think...

peachy

[perseverate.livejournal.com]

glad it worked out, i'm not usually so lucky.
it all started when i was like 7 and got this amazing clay set from my sister. i loved it. i loved it so much i decided to save it until it dried up and had to be thrown out.
then came the ultra special truffle-filled easter eggs that became infested with worms as i 'saved' them for that perfect occasion.
now i have 8 year old dried morels that no occasion is special enough for. i wonder what will be wrong with them when i finally use them....

Re: peachy

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Truffles.

We have lots of chocolate that is certainly past its prime. So far not infested, so far as I know, but that's probably only through luck.