Christmas was a cooking extravaganza, to put it mildly.  I was in fresh and bulk food paradise.  When it was all said and done, we ate leftovers for a week, which were absolute yum. The last 2 weeks have been spent using up the remaining odds and ends: crostini bread, polenta, dried porcini mushrooms, cannellini beans, fresh sage and rosemary and mint, random veggies…you name it, I had it.  I used the trusty Epicurious.com: put in an ingredient and find plenty of recipes with which to incorporate it.  I cannot stand for high quality food to go to waste.  Halloween candy?  I’m happy to toss that junk out on November 1st.  Well…not ALL of it…

The crostini became breading for fried chicken.  The polenta…always good for fried veggies.  I used it a different way which failed, so we’ll skip that story for now.  I turned the mushrooms into a powder and sprinkled them on herb roasted baby red potatoes, which I didn’t hate, but didn’t love.  And cannellini beans?  Oh heavens…just cook those things in sage and they are good in everything.  Pasta e Fagioli, with sausage, with tomatoes…you name it.  Granola is no longer a “remainder”, but now a “staple”.  All the leftover nuts got mixed together, along with the M&Ms Santa left in the stockings; in went the dried fruits as well, and voila, you have yourself a trail mix.

Whole foods cooking presents a storage challenge: lots and lots of baggies.  They don’t store well, and make it quite difficult to see what you have, and how much of it is left.  Last week I caved and bought these glass containers at The Christmas Tree Shops, which, incidentally, carries very little Christmas merchandise.  The idea of buying anything the month after Christmas makes me ill (because really…who needs anything after getting such lovely presents?), but my pantry was in total disarray.  I coughed up the $26, and I’m very glad I did.  These take up half the room on my pantry shelves as those baggies.  I never use baggies in my fridge: the produce goes bare into the veggie drawer or in a porcelain bowl on a shelf (always keep your tomatoes separate from other veggies…they let off a gas that your other produce won’t like).

The idea came to me while Kelly and I were standing in the bulk food aisle.  She pointed at darn near every bin and said, “I want that, I’ll eat that, can I have that?”…and it hit me…healthy food is as fun as junk food if you can SEE it!  Put it in a pretty container, and the kids will come.  OH YES, they will eat it, especially if it is their only snacking option (ha ha ha, says evil healthy Mom).  You tell the makers of those high-sugar, preservative-laden, brightly-packaged kids snacks that I win this round.  I am deaf to the cries for Dora snacks and Princess Cereal, and so were my parents.  I simply turn to the girls and tell them, “Dora did not make that food.  She is not IN that box. Moving on…”  They’ll thank me later.  Maybe.  Hopefully.