"pantry" news and stories

• Have a spot of sherry -- it's making a reentry on the cocktail circuit.
• Pastry chefs around the country offer their tips for a well-stocked baking pantry. (Hint: Chocolate is a must.)
• Truly transformative: Peel some oranges, add some red wine and let the magic happen.
• Ming Tsai offers this recipe to unleash your inner [year of the] tiger on Valentine's Day.

• Ever wonder how goat's milk stacks up against cow's milk? Take this quiz and learn a thing or two.
• Capture tastes of the Spanish coast with a recipe for Smoky Tomato and Seafood Soup.
• A review for Whisk in Coral Gables, a tiny eatery with fare including buttermilk fried chicken and churrasco (Brazilian-style grilled beef).
• 'Roadfood' warriors Jane and Michael Stern reveal South Florida faves.
  
• Ever sampled Cuban-Thai fusion food? You heard right. Find it at Izzy's Cubi Thai.
  
• Some sage advice for limiting the pantry budget: Don't buy food if you don't know what to match it with.
• Domaine Chandon offers new wines sine sparkle -- chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier -- that garner high praise.
• Tasting the South with a recipe for Grits with Greens and Shrimp.
• A chat with Bryant Terry, who mixes veganism and comfort food in the new cookbook 'Vegan Soul Kitchen.'
• Bulldog Barbecue (Top Chef Howie Kleinberg's restaurant) and Bash earn good reviews.
  

I have found that the more storage space I have for the food, the more food I'll keep socked away. For example, we got a new refrigerator last summer. I was giddy with excitement when we bought it, thrilled that I would finally have a fridge that wasn't stuff to the gills. However, in very short order, it was just as packed with food as the previous fridge had been despite being a full 1/3 bigger.

Recently, I've been trying to be more diligent about using up the things we have instead of purchasing food on a whim, and this week, there are a number of home cooks and food bloggers specifically endeavoring to do the same thing. A Mighty Appetite's Kim O'Donnell is keeping things organized and she has more than 100 households across five countries participating in the Eat Down the Fridge Challenge (there's even a honor roll and a Facebook group devoted to the effort).

If you've got a number of things tucked away in your fridge, freezer and pantry, consider playing along this week and see how many meals you can make from the food that you already have.

Source

Scanned from Time to Entertain by Charlotte Turgeon (1954)

Fifty-four years after this printing, I'm hard-pressed to argue with Ms Turgeon on the import of having a few staple schmancy things tucked around the house, should mid-week meal boredom encroach or a party break out. Can't say I'm especially aligned with her specifics, but that could easily be a function of the 5+ decade divide.

I pride myself on being able to entertain at a moment's notice, due to the presence of these just-slightly-left of my central (olive oil, stock, Parmesan, fish sauce, double-black soy, tomato paste, rice/red wine/balsamic vinegars, fresh herbs) everyday ingredients.