It's been raining heavily here for several days now, and while it's not impossible to walk to a near by store for provisions, I'm not so inclined to venture out into the cold, wet lashings and lake-sized puddles. This has given me the opportunity to dig a little deeper into my pantry and see what I can create from what's at hand. This has also necessitated a slightly different approach to meal time. Instead of asking my usual question what do I want?, I begin by asking what do I have?
This has lead me to thinking about resourcefulness, a quality I much admire. A resourceful person, in my mind, can make a decent if not delicious meal from a few turnips, a scrap of onion and a tin can. They never hesitate to extend a impromptu dinner invitation, knowing that whatever they have on hand can be worked with. They're the people you want around when the earthquake/hurricane/tornado/flood hits, or on a camping trip or visit to a remote cabin. Whatever the circumstances, a resourceful person can make it work.
I've been thinking, then, of what qualities help a person to become resourceful. Fearlessness comes to mind. Or more particularly, a willingness to to not give into fear and uncertainty. Resourceful people are also a bit impatient. They do not wait for the perfect situation to be handed to them; they plunge in and create the perfect situation, or the best situation possible given the circumstances. They have a bit of daring, too, a dash of confidence that keeps them from hesitating and holding back. And finally, they admire utility and are therefore practical. They understand the importance of acquiring a few basic skills. And of course, they always carry a pocketknife (except maybe on an airplane).
These are also excellent qualities in a cook: boldness, creativity, a dash of confidence (or recklessness), all grounded in basic skills and utility. As a resourceful person in training, I strive for these qualities but I also hedge my bets by stocking my pantry full of things I know I can easily transform into a meal. Cans of tomatoes, white beans, and chickpeas; boxes of pasta and bags of rice; storage onions and fresh garlic; a few pots of herbs on the front stoop (or windowsill.) A few good oils, a few good vinegars; frozen peas and nuts in the freezer; a couple of serviceable bottles of wine stashed on their sides in the lower cupboard.
I still hesitate with that spontaneous invitation and can worry too much about making an impression. But I'm working on it. I like this notion of switching my focus away from my wants and onto what's already here. I have found over and over again that when I do this, there is no sense of sacrifice, and I never go wanting. This, then, is the secret that's not a secret, the home territory of resourcefulness and a peaceful heart: what is needed is always right at hand. What we want is here.
Related: Weekend Meditation: Confidence
(Image: Dana Velden)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
TW Salt Mill by Wil...
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Marisa and Peter's Playfully Eclectic Home
This post is wonderful, as usual! To me, making a delicious meal out of odds and ends I already have on hand is much more satisfying than making a meal that follows a recipe exactly. This is how you really learn to trust your senses. Thanks for the reminder!
I have to do this sometimes too-- and usually I end up with a lovely meal! I appreciate what you said, 'what we want is here'. So true, and its good to be reminded of that.
I'm sure you can make something edible out of almost anything. But if it's to be really good, you need at least a couple of good ingredients or many mediocre ingredients that add up to something interesting.
i love the concept of "what do i want vs what do i have." if i take it a step further and think about what do i NEED vs what do i WANT it puts my wants & needs into perspective. i WANT that fancy new kitchen gadget. do i NEED it? probably not. i can make do just as easily without it for today.
this column is so wonderful because it always gets me thinking about something beyond the food, something larger in my life, but i love that it starts with the food as a catalyst.
this is so well written! I was a depression baby, back in the war years, and it was a case of what you had! When I finally went to school, I was so impressed that the other kids all had the same material for thier clothing, as mine! YEP, the sugar and flour sacks.
Raised under those conditions, I always felt what ever was on the table was good! Might not throw roses now, but as a child during the war years, I see that my mom did a great job! it was always what do I have, not what do I have.
Thanks for the article, and it meant a lot to all of us in a personal way.
Hugs, Pat
When I cook that way, using what I have in the pantry/leftover in the fridge and usually at the last minute, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I love feeling like I can always provide a simple meal for my family.
Thank you! Of course this was about my kind of day, dinner wise...and it was the best soup i ever made :) I feel the same as the above writers as well about the feeling of accomplishment and using what I had.
Herzsprung, you really don't need any particular "good" ingredient. But you do need some understanding of how to make stuff taste good -- like how an earthy food like beans or stewed meat can become so much more yummy with a little something acid brightening it at the end. The acid can be lemon juice, white vinegar, a spoonful of juice from a pickle jar... If you know what to do in general, you can work with what is available to make it taste good.
Indeed, and this goes for what's in the freezer too. That means the spaghetti sauce you had made several months ago, and froze, that bean soup you also made, or got a container from a friend, that kind of thing.
That said, I've been known to whip up stuff by simply buying what looked good, and on sale at the store, and cobbling up something yummy at home, like Rockfish, or Soul and simply cooking it until it is opaque and flaky, adding I think lemon juice, some capers, a pinch of salt, pepper, perhaps some herbs and serving it as is, with a side and/or a veggie.
I've also been known to modify recipes, and a recent example of that was simply a few months ago when I finally tried a recipe I got from a blogger in 2009, but had not tried. It was Sweet Fennel Sausage with Bowtie pasta.
It had lots of fresh sage, heirloom tomatoes, the sausage, goat cheese, and I think something else or two additional.
Could not find fennel sausage, so used sweet Italian sausage instead. Bought Brandywine Heirloom tomatoes (and they were expensive, but well worth it) and decided NOT to buy fresh basil in a plastic container as it was nearly $4, so used dried whole sage instead that I had on hand, and had plenty of it too. The dish got modified right off the bad, and it was delicious, but rich, thanks to the goat cheese (may have put in a bit too much for starters). The second time, I added fennel seeds to the dried sage, and eliminated the goat cheese, both times I drained the browned sausage so it was not so greasy, and both times it was yummy, with the second time much less rich, but replaced the goat cheese with shredded parm cheese instead. Part of the recipe is taking part of an heirloom tomato, rough chopping it, adding it to a food processor, adding the sage and fennel, and just enough olive oil while the processor is running to make a thick paste, and add it to the rest of the tomato/sausage mixture in the pan on the stove to thicken. I now keep a container of ground sage and fennel seeds mixed together to add to dishes as I see fit. I have a coffee grinder I keep for just such a purpose, to grind spices and have another one for the coffee only, and both are vintage Brauns from the 70's.
But I've also been known to do simple pasta dishes as that's what I often have on hand,sometimes it's nothing more than cooking penne pasta, adding some ranch, or blue cheese dressing, some herbs and pepper and parm cheese, and calling it good.
Part of it for me is keeping what is inexpensive (read, cheap) and tasty on hand and sometimes that is a bit limiting but it fits the budget.
So timely and so timeless.
I say to the timid cooks and timid diners: It's only ONE MEAL out of the thousands of meals of your life. If it doesn't turn out perfectly, or as you expected, or if you don't like it all that much, so what! It's only ONE MEAL!
I'm down with the sausage/sage/goat cheese, but penne with ranch dressing? Dear God, no!
This is great, thank you! Once, on the day before payday while we were in grad school, my roommate and I had walnuts, carrots, rice, olives, and half & half. We made some kind of carrot & olive stroganoff... or something. It wasn't even as good as it might sound. But we didn't starve and it still makes me laugh more than fifteen years later!