Erik Reuter wrote:
>
> On Sun, Aug 03, 2003 at 05:48:45PM -0400, Kevin Tarr wrote:
>
> > Along those lines, there are things that just aren't made for single
> > people, or even families. I was making tacos, the package called for
> > a pound of hamburg and the usual cheese and lettuce. There were no
> > hamburg packages less than 1.31 of a pound. Not a big deal, but even
> > cooking for more people I couldn't have made combinations that would
> > give me two or three pounds. Cooking for one I can't use a loaf of
> > bread, head of lettuce, other vegetables, a package of cheese or other
> > things before they go bad.
>
> Some things, like hamburger, can be frozen for a long time and then
> thawed. Cheese keeps for weeks in a sealed bag in the fridge. I don't
> know about lettuce.
Why, just this past week, my mother took 1 lb. of hamburger meat,
divided it in 4, fried up one of them, and froze the other 3, so now she
can fix herself a 1/4 lb. burger any time she wants. (And I can buy
packages that are 1 lb. exactly, in various fat percentages, at the
grocery store I go to the most.)
Taco mix will keep for a week or two, at least in a plastic bag around
the pouch after you open the pouch. If you're just making tacos for
one, ask yourself if you might like it spicier, and use half a pouch for
one-quarter the recommended amount of meat, and do the same a week
later.
On the cheese, don't buy it shredded -- buy the smallest block you can
(I can get 6 oz blocks of some cheese or another) and grate it yourself;
the block keeps longer after opening than the pre-shredded stuff does.
Get the smallest loaf of bread you can. Freeze half of it if you need
to. It doesn't taste quite as good frozen and then thawed, but at least
it's not being wasted, right?
If you want tomatoes with your tacos and can get loose cherry tomatoes
(as in, there's a big bin of them, you don't have to buy a whole pint),
just buy a few of those and cut them up. (A few of those are less
tomato than a whole larger tomato, in my experience.)
The head of lettuce won't keep. But I can get a bag of salad that's
mostly iceberg lettuce that's only 6 oz., and what you don't use for the
tacos can be used for an actual salad the next day.
What you might consider doing in the winter if you have the freezer
space is to do up a big batch of soup that someone assures you freezes
well, and just freeze yourself a lot of soup. Then all you have to do
later is pull some out, defrost it, and heat it up. If we've got a full
batch frozen, we can fix soup for any number of people from 1 to
probably 8 or so that way. (I use 24-oz containers for freezing. That
seems to be about the right amount of soup for either Dan or myself.)
Julia
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