Phood Phollies

So...back for the moment to "the trivial round, the common task," as Barbara Pym was fond of quoting (J. Keble). The Dow's dropped 700 points and I need to organize/regroup my thoughts about feeding myself in this economy.

I had a brief respite recently from relentless home-cooking due to a roadtrip, so I found myself when I returned totally out of the groove, to the point where I forgot I was getting groceries delivered the day I returned (a day late) and found them piled, sweating slightly, in front of my door. New groceries didn't help, either, because I had shopped so carefully with such an eye toward cooking/the future, that there was very little I could just...eat. So I pillaged my LU petit ecolier biscuits and moaned about having nothing to eat the rest of the time until I'd occasionally break down and get delivery.

[The ultimate urban delivery idiocy? This past Sat night I broke down and ordered dogs from Portillo's ohhhhhh yeah! only to discover as I got more and more impatient that the delivery time on my receipt was 12 PM not AM...I had ordered dogs for Sunday lunch. Ridiculous.]

I'm back though. I found myself in the very unAmerican position of having no bread at all in the house. 19,000 other starches, but no bread. So I made bread, and am now marinating a flank steak from the very back of the freezer and preparing some lentils for bacon, lentil & potato soup. I feel a little overwhelmed, but determined.

The bread is left: I found the simplest recipe for cornbread I could find, using some of the nice organic cornmeal that's been-let's say--maturing in my freezer forever, plus some buttermilk I bought in the last groceries go-round with an eye toward cornmeal activity. It tastes pretty good, but I think I really need to something to sop it in. Will probably defrost some chicken chili, although I also have a ham steak I've been planning to work into 2-3 meals this week. But I need some soppin'.

Someone I know recently mentioned cooking pasta e fagiole, which seemed so terribly apropos, economy-wise. [Thinking about LaGuardia, I mean; I was trying to picture Richard Daley encouraging us to cook colcannon or soda bread in these trying times.] I love pasta e fagiole...mmmm yum. With white beans and some bacon in the mix if possible. I think this lentil soup will scratch that desire for beany porridge, and the cornbread will be great with it. The steak I will marinate for 24 hrs (marinade is a fun experiment involving vinegars and lime and most of the refrigerator door) then just sear up and use it for whatever--sammchs, with eggs, in tacos. This'll work out. The only real question at the moment is, as ever--can I keep up with the dishes.