What Our Grandmothers Would Have Done

It's Saturday. The glorious weekend.

I arose at the crack of noon.

I had five wonderful friends over for dinner the night before. The day before, I had worked way overtime but still had to procure groceries for the Friday dinner thing.

I'm a staunch, firm believer in the "clean-as-you-go-method" of entertaining. It works.

The dishwasher was empty, dishes were put away, the Cuisinart had no gloppy gloops of watermelon from the previous night's watermelon daiquiries, and the kitchen floor was even shiny.

Neat-o!

But I had no food for the weekend. I had only shopped for the dinner thingy and I SO didn't want to go out for more groceries on a Saturday. The cupboards were bare.

This was my weekend to be a total sofa-'moeba. I didn't want to do anything aside from using the Tivo remote.

I was looking forward to complete immobility. Only a glacier would move me.

If only I could get the Tivo to lower the a/c temperature. . .

I took stock of the provisions on hand and made a move that my grandmothers would have done.

You see, our grandmothers who raised families during The Depression were incredibly resourceful. They were continually faced with hungry tummies, empty pantries, little support, but could somehow emerge with a nutritious supper for six every night.

Now that our everyday living expenses, not to mention food prices, have poised upward, shot skyward, and rocketed out of sight, I think it's time we think back and grasp again onto the intuitive ways that our foremothers so insouciantly displayed with regard to feeding their loved ones.

For example, my usual weekend outing to the market (Trader Joe's) would return with the following:

Heads of Romaine lettuce for salad
Firm Tofu for a stir-fry
Frozen veggies for a stir-fry
Frozen Chinese dinners instead of a stir-fry
Frozen mango chunks
Pasta of some sort
Canned crushed tomatoes
Frozen Indian dinners instead of a stir-fry
Frozen Thai dinners instead of a stir-fry
Heads of Romaine lettuce that would turn to goop in the bottom of the vegetable "crisper".

I didn't have any of these things. Of course, I could have the Thai restaurant across the street just deliver a half-dozen entrees in one felled swoop. That's always fun, and don't think I've not done that pretty often, but I feel guilty at such an indulgence.

Grandmotherly influence kicked in.

I had the following:

One bag of rigatoni pasta
Sixteen cans of Albacore tuna
Some frozen mixed vegetables
8 oz of milk
Half stick of butter
Six green onions
Half a red bell pepper
One wedge of Parmesan cheese
Lots of powdered chicken stock

I sauteed the onion and veggies in the butter. Boiled water for rigatoni. Shredded the Parmesan cheese in the food processor. Added a handful of flour to the veggies. Added two cups of chicken stock, the milk, along with the frozen veggies which made a thick sauce, then added two big cans of albacore tuna.
Dumped the rigatoni into a buttered baking pan. Added the thick veggie-tuna sauce. Topped with a couple of handfuls of Parmesan. Baked at 425.

And there you go. Comfy sustenance for the weekend.