I peered into the gradual cooker, nonetheless teeming with leftover pork and sauerkraut.
“We are able to eat it once more tomorrow,” I mentioned, with out a lot enthusiasm.
“We might,” mentioned my husband, with even much less enthusiasm.
“Or possibly we will freeze it. Are you able to freeze sauerkraut?”
We debated the professionals and cons of freezing briny cabbage for about 20 minutes. (And sure, younger {couples}, that is what it involves, 30 years down the road — you spend complete evenings having conversations like this, in the meantime pretending Google doesn’t exist.)
We landed in Empty Nest Territory six months in the past, when our youngest youngster left for school. Many adjustments, massive and small, ensued.
Now we have a lot much less laundry. Issues keep (comparatively) neat and tidy. I’m not always choosing up half-empty water bottles, or waking to a kitchen suffering from final night time’s Sheetz particles.
Alternatively, there’s far more meals. A lot meals. Mountains of leftovers, on a regular basis. Fruit, rotting earlier than we will eat it. Luggage of tortilla chips, turning stale earlier than we will get to the underside.
It’s the oldest empty nest cliche within the e-book: I haven’t discovered the best way to prepare dinner for 2 as a substitute of 5. I’m nonetheless fortunately strolling the aisles at Costco, tossing mega-containers of spinach and pasta and natural floor beef into the cart, not fairly comprehending that I’m now not offering provisions for the complete French Overseas Legion.
In my logical thoughts, I do know it’s simply the 2 of us now. However my meals thoughts hasn’t caught up.
I nonetheless wish to have loads in case somebody desires seconds. Or, what if one of many youngsters comes residence for dinner? (As they’re 100, 500, and a couple of,500 miles away, that is unlikely. However potential! And what if one in all them brings a pal? Or two? It could be terrible to not have sufficient meals.)
And naturally, it’s essential to have a full pantry. It makes me really feel safe. Simply in case a type of late-February early-March snowstorms comes alongside. Or there’s one other COVID spike, or worsening chain provide points. Or aliens abduct all of the Chipotle employees and a hen bowl is out of the query.
Additionally, cooking at residence is sweet! I have to do it! It’s more healthy, it’s cheaper, and though we wiggled via COVID Instances with the excuse “We’re supporting native companies!” we will’t go on ordering takeout six nights per week. It’s, as the youngsters say, unsustainable.
Nonetheless.
I opened the freezer the opposite day and was shocked to search out it full of containers of leftovers. I picked one up and puzzled over its contents. Chili? Spaghetti sauce? My well-known (however principally unpopular) Caribbean hen stew?
“I have to reduce,” I assumed, squinting at a container that seemed to be a lump of gravel coated with shards of ice.
Or on the very least, we have to begin chipping away at these leftovers.
I’m wondering: What wine pairs greatest with freezer burn?
Charlotte is a columnist for The Instances. You may attain her at charlottelatvala@gmail.com.
