So we went over to Scott and Elizabeth’s this evening for extended cocktail hour. Scott made us some daiquiris and we strolled around their back yard, a huge portion of which has been taken over by their gigantic vegetable garden. (I’m starting to get reeeeeally cranky with all you people and your gigantic non-container gardens.)
Scott always has wonderful things to eat, but he’s been on a dairy products rampage lately (he made me make yogurt, which is fabulous, but of course theirs is way better). Gentle readers, I am not making this up. He made some creme fraiche, which is cool enough, but then he made BUTTER out of it. It was absolutely ridiculous. It was buttery and tangy and creamy and so, so delicious. There was also regular butter, but it paled in comparison.
We were marveling that we hardly ever buy bread anymore (except baguette, which I can’t do yet), we make our own yogurt, cocktail ingredients (Elizabeth got her hands on a boatload of fresh cherries and brandied those suckers), BUTTER FROM CREME FRAICHE THAT YOU MADE, bacon, tomatoes, mayo, you name it. Nathan observed that except for items that are stored in the bathroom, we hardly ever go to the supermarket any more. So it got us wondering.
Could we go a whole month without going into a grocery store for food? We’re thinking of taking up this challenge. Some rules would have to be set. Obviously we could go in for things like Tampax and Kleenex and Windex and other things containing an ‘x’, but all the bread would be baked at home or bought at Acme or Model or wherever. I can get milk and eggs and butter, coffee and pork products at work or at the Oxbow or the Ferry Plaza. I can get limes and lemons and other vital staples from the Oxbow. Distilling is ILLEGAL AND I’D NEVER DO THAT (okay, I would, but I don’t have a still), so going to BevMo for gin would be cool. (Nathan has a CO2 cylinder, so we can make our own soda water, and we already make our own tonic syrup.) I get my cat litter and stupid expensive-ass lamb liver picky motherfucker cat food from the Pet Food Express (or the local feed store) - that seems okay. Anything else? Ideas?
I think we might do this. I’ll keep you posted. We are having a party in a couple of weeks, for which I think we’d need brief project amnesty, but otherwise I have confidence that this could work out. Of course, then I’d be woefully unaware of what those Jon and Kate people are doing, but I don’t actually know who they are anyway so that might not be so bad.
Pasta is easy enough to make and also delicious. Make an initial outlay at the start of the month - for staples - and I think you could definitely do it.