Yesterday I went to lunch with a dear friend of mine, who is a brilliant doctor and everybody wants a piece of her, so lunch was a wonderful gift. She is also the mother of a newly enrolled freshman at Dartmouth. She never shed a tear at lunch, I can’t imagine being so brave. When Richard went to college the first time I was a basket case. I cried for 3 days solid, and then I cleaned his room; a sobering experience which, may I say, I needed at that point. This would be the appropriate time to mention that Richard moved 10 minutes down the street, while her son is a plane, train and automobile ride away. Anyway, my friend is one of those people who always says the right thing at the right time, so when someone made the comment that her grocery bill must be much reduced, she said, “No, it’s the same, one of us just isn’t living at home.” Well duh, I spend a fortune trying to keep my college kid fed.
The first part of my cookbook for Richard lists the basic cooking tools that you would need as a new kitchen owner, and also a first time ”stock your pantry grocery list”. The kitchen tools were acquired by a visit to my attic, several friends’ attics, the Goodwill and the Dollar Tree. That’s a good thing because the “stock your pantry grocery list” was a $350 experience involving a trip to both Target and the grocery store. You may think Target is an interesting choice, and I would agree, but my very intrepid sister Mary insisted on it. My sister knows how and where to shop. Whether I need a bottle of vanilla or a new purse, she can always name the spot to get the best quality item for the best price. So I took her advice and ran with it. We found most of our essential spices for $.59 each, paper products at a cut-rate price and canned goods that made the regular grocery story seem like a Mercedes Benz dealership!
Then we went to the “real” grocery where I discovered that I had created a cooking snob. The basic list began to morph into something that you would expect in the Iron Chef’s pantry. I mean yes, I do use whole nutmeg and a nutmeg grater, but is that really a kitchen essential? We had to cut back and revise, but eventually we had what seemed like enough food to take Mario Batali through a dry spell. My next “gift” was to put everything up in Richard’s brand spanking new kitchen. I acted like it was hard work, but really it was just dreamy to have an empty kitchen to play around in. The following morning, I set out with my own grocery list to fill my own much neglected pantry and fridge. Imagine my surprise when I hear, “Hey Mom, where are water chestnuts?” There he was at the end of aisle three. I guess we all have our own idea of what a grocery staple should be!
