Feeding the [Post-] College Student

For Christmas this year, one of my brothers wanted kitchen essentials. He's a college student living off-campus and responsible for his own nourishment for the first time. This is a difficult time nutritionally... and bugetarially. I lived on PB&J, mac&cheese, and scrambled eggs for far longer than I'd like to admit once I left the cozy cafeteria. There are still days when, two years into marriage, my poor husband has to make himself a sandwich or fry up an omelette for dinner, so we are by no means experts. I thought, however, with more of my siblings heading out on their own and even well-established cooks looking for new ideas, that it might be a good idea to post some practical, modern survival-cooking tips and recipes.

Cookware Essentials (all ideal for housewarming and showers)(assuming possession of stove, microwave, and fridge/freezer)

• Basic bakeware (cookie sheet, bread pan, muffin pan, pie plate, 9x13" nonstick metal and glass casserole)
• Basic stoveware (small and large saucepans with lids, small and large frying pans with lids, and flat griddle)
• colander/strainer
• measuring cups (for liquid and dry ingredients)
• measuring spoons (recommend 2 sets)
• can opener
• pizza cutter
• silicone whisk and spatula
• plastic (nonstick-safe) flippers (spatulas, technically)(recommend 2) slotted and non-slotted spoons
• wooden spoons (2)
• knives (two paring, one santoku-type, and one bread)
• slow cooker
• glass leftover dishes with lids (safe for oven, microwave, dishwasher and freezer)(the dishes; lids can't go in oven)
• wooden chopsticks or nonstick-safe tongs

Non-essentials, but super nice to have:

• rice cooker
• toaster/toaster oven
• chopperchopper (the thing that you put onion or garlic in and whack repeatedly to chop)
• hand and stand mixers
• blender

Pantry Essentials (things to ALWAYS have on hand)
Non-Perishable/Long-lasting

• parchment paper
• Ziploc bags (quart and gallon size)
• flour (keep in airtight containers or freeze)(sacks from store are NOT airtight)
• sugar
• rice
• olive, vegetable, and/or canola oil
• Crisco
• pasta
• garlic and onion powder (so useful that we buy the large canisters)
• oregano
• salt and pepper
• baking powder and soda
• vanilla
• plain bread crumbs
• seasoning salt
• Italian/garlic salt blends (we like garlic blends for bread and Chef Paul Prudhomme's Herbal Pizza & Pasta Magic)
• potatoes
• garlic
• onion
• peanut butter
• marinara sauce (we like Francesco Rinaldi, the No Salt Added variety. Cheaper and healthier than most.)
• pesto
• 2 cans of favorite condensed soup
• active dry yeast

Perishable

• butter
• eggs
• milk
• chicken breasts (buy a lot when they're on sale, then bag individually in Ziplocs and freeze up to 3 months)
• hamburger (ditto; bag in individual pounds and freeze)
• favorite salad dressing
• bread (we prefer to make our own; it disturbs me that a loaf from the store can last a month in the fridge)
• healthy (ie, high-protein/fiber, low-sodium) snacks (we always have yogurt, almonds, whole-wheat crackers, cheese, and fruit)
• shredded cheddar
• shredded mozzarella
• Parmesan cheese (grated)
• green peppers
• baby carrots
• favorite cheese in sliced form for sandwiches
• lunchmeat
• fresh cilantro (freeze)

Having these items on-hand provides for most of our quick, easy lunches and weeknight meals. Planning those meals once a week (or month) means fewer trips to the store and a well-stocked pantry and can save a lot. For example, there will often be bags of salad or just spinach marked down to $1 because they expire within a day or two. If you have planned your meals to use the more fragile grocery items sooner, you can get the clearance salad and use it before it goes bad. I do our grocery shopping on Mondays, so Monday night might be tacos with the fresh lettuce and still-thawed hamburger; then Tuesday would be taco salad to use up some more of that lettuce and the leftover meat. We love chicken parmesan; we'll have that one night and I'll make enough to have leftovers to put on homemade pizza the next night.

Read labels! We use turkey bacon and turkey pepperoni because a) it's healthier, and b) it's usually pre-cooked so it lasts longer.

When you try a recipe and like it, copy it out onto an index card and file it in an index card holder. That way your favorites are easily accessible and easy to prop up and cook from.

A few helpful links

• USDA fact sheets on safe food handling and freezing: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FACTSheets/index.asp
• Awesome recipe-search service: allrecipes.com (I like the comments and ratings; makes it easy to find tasty food fast)
• Great tips on cooking for one or two: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/easy-coooking-for-one-or-two-recipies-and-tips
• A word on Pinterest: we've had about 50% success with Pinterest recipes. People rarely try a recipe out before repinning. Some look amazing but taste awful. Be adventurous, but be warned.

Gingerpalooza 2012

Ginger Bag End, 2011

Last year we created Ginger Bag End. ---->
It was very simple; we just baked a slab of gingerbread over two glass bowls and attached the front later. Nick created Gandalf and Frodo out of marzipan supported by pretzel rods and "clothed" in colored royal icing.

Nick's first attempt

This year, we settled on Tom Bombadil's house from The Fellowship of the Ring. It was either that or a dalek. We figured we'd be able to bake a slab over a glass bowl with a smaller bowl on top. We planned to add dormers afterward. However, I found two gingerbread recipes in my archives and couldn't remember which one was the architecturally awesome recipe and which was the one that expanded alarmingly and remained soft after baking. I went with the one that didn't call for nine cups of flour and more molasses than I had on hand.

Nick constructs Old Man Willow around a thin vase.

[[Can't... flip... grrr...]] Old Man Willow before the oven.

Unfortunately, I picked the wrong recipe. We give you... GingerBoob. It threatened to envelope everything else on the baking sheet, as you can see by the poor little gingerbread peoples' legs as the GingerBoob ate them.

GingerBoob.

Sooooo, after a new batch of *the correct* dough was whipped up, we revised our design so it could be cooked flat and assembled later. 

Pieces prepared to be assembled.

 Unfortunately, at this point the camera got buried under the decorations so there is no photographic record of assembly. Basically, we connected the four rectangles to the four window sections and the half-parallelogram roof pieces and left them to dry overnight. Nick created Tom and Goldberry out of marzipan and decorated them. This afternoon I assembled the octagonal base and four-dormer'd roof while Nick made the four Hobbits.

Tom's house from the front.

Marzipan hobbits. Frodo is the one with the gold ring near his neck.

At some point while waiting for structures to set so I could continue, I tried to create the base for a new Old Man Willow using chunks from the first attempt at the house. I used some of the icing used for Tom's pants and left it overnight. This morning I realized it looked like a... very scandalous portion of anatomy. No photos, sorry. Needless to say, it did not end up part of the display.

Tom and Goldberry.

"Thatched" roof and such.

We have no idea what we're going to do next year, but we're sure it will be fun!

Gingerbread for Eating, NOT building (gets very puffy; does not hold shapes super well)

1 C butter

1 1/2 C white sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp orange zest

2 T dark corn syrup

3 C flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves.

1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well. Mix in orange zest and corn syrup. Separately combine remaining ingredients, mixing thoroughly with wet mixture. Chill at least two hours. Preheat oven to 375F. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick, cut out cookies. Bake AT LEAST one inch apart for 10-12 minutes until firm and lightly toasted on edges.

Gingerbread for Building (still tasty, but very hard)(we used half this recipe and had the perfect amount for our house) (From Ask.com)

1 1/2 C whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 C brown sugar, packed

2 T baking soda

1 T ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/3 C molasses

9 C flour

Whip the cream and vanilla. Whisk the sugar, soda, ginger, and cinnamon separately, then add to wet mixture with molasses. Add flour gradually while mixing. **This killed my stand mixer last year. Plan to stir the last few (maybe even half) cups by hand. Preheat oven to 275F. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch and cut shapes. Bake 1 and 3/4 hours, removing after 30 minute to refine shapes, as dough will have expanded slightly, then continue baking. 

Royal Icing (from Ask.com)

1 pound confectioner's sugar (about half the larger bag)

3 lg egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar.

Whip egg whites and cream of tartar. Add sugar slowly until icing reaches desired consistency.