Because I begin and end each day of my life, no matter the living arrangements, with my stomach and the planning of things with which to fill it, I thought I’d share some details of our winter food. This year is different than years’ past, since our provisioning was not done at the always-stocked and usually lovely various Publix along the Stuart corridor, but rather very piecemeal in small shops and groceries over the course of a dozen little islands. Because the organizational nerd within likes a good list to work off of, I had developed a full provisioning chart, one that would keep us in dry goods, paper and cleaning supplies, toiletries and snacks for two months, only having to shop for meat and produce as our original supplies dwindled. That meant the good portion of a day spent at the grocery store (and nearby liquor store, lest I forget that important piece!), a small fortune spent, up to four carts filled (that was my max cart-age one year, I believe), and the rest of the day organizing it and stowing it. Our provisioning fits and starts this year mean that we never really stuffed our holds like we’re used to. Even when we find ourselves in larger stores, it’s much harder to stockpile things when we’re schlepping by foot from store to dinghy, etc. (Nothing like four grocery carts to the back of a large vehicle for the assist!) The angst it’s given me to not be stuffed to the gills with stores has put a lot into perspective; this is not food insecurity, this is my own semi-neurotic needs not fulfilled. Either that or it’s me, secretly planning to turn away from shore and to be prepared to keep on going…
Meal planning for our dinners, as I loosely define it here, has a lot to do with what produce we have or find, and which meat is closest to the top in the freezer. We use our pressure cooker a lot; it cuts down on our propane usage (stews in 20 minutes!), and now that I’ve honed timings for various cuts of meats and grains so as not to blast them to death, it’s amazingly simple. Less simple is finding something that we all love to eat, but I’ve never been a nice enough mother to be a short order cook: if the kids don’t like what we’re having, they either express discontent and eat it anyway (Lily), or eat two bites and complain about being hungry, which falls on deaf having-just-made-an-acceptable-meal ears (Violet). One day V will get there I’m sure, but this year in particular has been rough. One day she’ll like something, the next she wouldn’t consider it passing her lips. It’s like a rollercoaster over there in her 9 year old brain/stomach experience.
This many weeks in, Violet is finally onboard (pun not intended, but pretty on point!) with the majority. She’s either resigned herself to keeping any kind of food in her belly, or has finally gotten just tired enough of all of us saying “Just try it! How do you know if you don’t like it if you’ve never even tasted it?” (I’m sure this phrase has never been uttered by any other parents.)
Not to make it falsely sound like we are having new and rare items every day, I should point out that we generally rotate through about ten or twelve meals, with something new thrown in as often as island-side shops allow for variety, which is never that often. Romaine lettuce is something that you really need to get behind if you’re going to spend any time here- it’s the only lettuce usually available. Always a bag of carrots, sometimes a bunch of broccoli, and rarely, if you get there on a maillboat day, cucumbers, peppers, scallions and apples. In Nassau earlier this winter I bought a box of arugula, and was so happy to have a different green that I stuffed handfuls of it into my face three meals a day to ensure I got as much as possible before it wilted away. The girls were like kids in a candy store to see a grocery store again that had a whole produce section. (As always, cheap thrills for SALVio!)
We’ve collected our own little playbook of Chickadee favorites over the years- a collection of recipes we’ve come up with (rosemary skillet flatbread is our favorite), things that are easy to make that we all enjoy, and most importantly, those made of ingredients that we can actually find.
Now that I’ve written all of that, I’m hungry, naturally, so it’s time to figure out the next meal!
