The Sandpoint Eater: Stocking up

By Marcia Pilgeram
Reader Columnist

I’m getting ready for a couple of trips, and though I didn’t have a lot of time to spare, I spent the weekend prepping and cooking all the food I over-bought the past couple of weeks. If there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s wasting food. Though it was time consuming, it was not nearly as daunting as all the years I canned food in the fall for winter’s larder. I was never crazy about most of the chores that came with a ranch kitchen. Canning was only done after tending to two toddlers and feeding a dozen hungry ranch hands, all under the sharp eye of my mother-in-law. 

Instead of canning, I recently cooked and froze the assortment of produce that filled both vegetable drawers in my fridge. I love fall vegetables, and couldn’t resist all the varieties of squash, colorful peppers, eggplants found in local markets, the garden-fresh root vegetables provided by neighbors and picture-perfect tomatoes given to me by a recent dinner guest. 

I roasted the tomatoes with lots of garlic and fresh herbs and sautéed lots of the veggies. My efforts reaped a gallon of hearty minestrone, two pans of ratatouille and a generous amount of tangy caponata. As long as I was spending the day in the kitchen, I slow-roasted a pan of beef ragout to complement the ratatouille.

Right in the middle of the cooking marathon, a friend who knows me well dropped by with a weekly grocery ad. Yoke’s was holding a three-day, 50% off cheese sale (and I’d already missed Day 1). Faster than you can say cheese, I turned off the oven and stove top for what was to be a quick trip to the store. 

Turned out it was not only all the fancy cheese on sale, but, to add to my best day ever, I learned that the cured meats and gourmet crackers were included in the price cuts. I was soon surrounded by other cheese aficionados ready to lend unsolicited advice to anyone within earshot. 

“Check the expiration dates,” they counseled. 

I stocked up on all the Kerrygold cheeses, good through April 2024, sure to be a hit at my St. Patrick’s Day party. 

Checking dates, I noted that the Beecher’s Handmade Cheese (one of my favorites) would hold its own until next June, so I added several chunks to my cart, along with Beecher’s Original Crackers (crispy and delicious). 

Some cheeses do well in the freezer, so I loaded up on those, too: mozzarella balls and logs, and grated and shaved Parmesan. 

Halfway through the cheese-a-thon, I realized that with a few ice packs, I could also load up on snack cheeses for our long plane ride (Alaska Airlines won’t be selling any Tillamook cheese to the Pilgerams on our Thanksgiving getaway), so I added all the varieties of Laughing Cow and Babybel cheese to my dairy-laden cart. 

Once home, I fired up the oven and stove top again, and began reorganizing my still-too-full fridge to make room for my heavenly horde, sorted by genre and shelf life. 

Once my project was nearly complete, I realized that Pacific Northwest cheese and crackers would make perfect additions to the temiyage (a Japanese word for small gifts of greeting to friends, akin to aloha) that I was taking to our Japanese-Hawaiian hosts. So off went the heat, and back to Yoke’s I went, perusing the cold cases for PNW products. Now, everybody has cheese! 

I’m nearly all packed for Saturday’s departure, and hopefully, my TSA clearance will help me explain the dozen snack packs I’ll have in my carry-on to feed a lot of hungry teenagers.

Speaking of hungry (and hunger), don’t forget the needs of the Bonner Community Food Bank. My friend, Executive Director Debbie Love, does an extraordinary job organizing fundraising efforts, logistics and volunteers to ensure every family in need has the dinner they deserve for Thanksgiving (they’re still looking for protein-packed turkeys).

Thinking beyond packaged staples, I’ll be hitting up the supermarket sales before I leave, picking up side-dish items Debbie recommended: fresh potatoes and butter (I think I’ll add some cheese to that delivery, too).

I won’t be cooking a turkey this year — for the first time in 40-plus years — but if I were, you’d find a colorful side of ratatouille at my table. It’s easy to prepare and partners well with poultry. It’s a great main dish if you have vegetarians at the table.

Happy Thanksgiving. Be well. Eat well. And share well.

Ratatouille

A delicious and pretty side dish for your holiday table! It’s also a great main dish for vegetarians, served over creamy polenta. When choosing vegetables, try to use uniform diameters and slice them all to the same thickness (I recommend using a sharp knife or a mandoline slicer, if you have one). Serves 6.

Ingredients

(Feel free to vary vegetables for taste and color preference.)*

• 2 zucchini

• 2 yellow squash

• 2 small eggplants

• 5 small, round tomatoes

• 2 small round onions 

• 1 tbs olive oil

• 1 yellow or red bell pepper, finely diced 

• 26 ounces of Italian tomato puree 

• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme leaves

• Small handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped fine

• 2 tbs fresh Italian parsley, minced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced 

• Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

• 4 tbs of olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Slice each of the vegetables into thin slices of even thickness and set aside separately.  

In a skillet, sauté diced bell pepper in one tbs olive oil over medium heat. Once soft, add the sauce and reduce heat to low. Take off stove, and pour into the bottom of a 10-12 inch round or oval oven-proof dish (cast iron works well).

Next, layer the vegetable coins in an alternating color-spiral pattern around the skillet, working from the outside in.

Prepare the topping drizzle by combining the minced garlic, chopped thyme, basil and parsley with 4 tbs of olive oil and salt and pepper. Mix well and evenly pour over the top of the vegetables.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 15 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Chilled leftovers will keep for two or three days.

Freezes well (after baked). 

*If you have leftover vegetables, roast for stock.