Ice, or No Ice

This coming Monday, I'm going to be participating in an "Eating Down the Fridge" challenge, courtesy of Kim O'Donnel and The Washington Post*. For one week, I will buy no food items, and simply eat down my fridge, i.e., use up whatever I have in my house already. This should be a good one, since 1) I only have a half-size refrigerator, which 2) has very little freezer space, and 3) has very poor temperature control, so that my choice therein is either well-tempered food but no ice, or ice, but frozen food.

("You need a new refrigerator," Chef said when I told her my raspberry tart was like hard candy after one night in the twisted cooling system.

I tried to explain to her that that was my new fridge, courtesy of my very hands-off landlord, who apparently doesn't realize one can buy pretty much anything on sale now, including a well-designed refrigerator. But don't even get me started...)

And 4) I live in New York City, not Obamaland, and I'm always editing down the contents of my tiny apartment, so there's actually not much of a backlog of food here. Maybe some vegetarian baked beans or old Progresso soup (did you know their chicken soup has MSG but the veggie soups don't?), or Presto cake flour, or Jiffy Pop popcorn. I think I've got a few leftover cans of tomatoes, which the L. man must have left here; pumpkin puree, from the Maple Pumpkin Pots de Creme I never made last Thanksgiving (shout-out to Gourmet); cherry brandy for my once- or twice-yearly Gourmet-informed (again!) 1960s cheese fondue; and lots of teas and almost-empty pasta boxes. Oh, yes, and way too much Star anise, in a variety of different forms, because someone once told me Star anise was a good remedy for anthrax poisoning.

Tomorrow is puff pastry day, and will bring real apples for use in filling, as opposed to the canned fruit options available at school, since I'll still be eligible to buy food.

*http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2009/02/eating_down_the_fridge_save_th.html?hpid=features2