Cooking for One

Yes, I was one of those who had a large dining room table and came up with dinner party recipes for six, eight, or ten of us.  I had a fine collection of cook books and enjoyed plowing through them for tasty combinations.  (All on an electric stove and no dishwasher.)  Of course, I also fed the family three meals a day for I don't know how many years.  I made sourdough bread, zucchini pickles, yogurt cheese.  We grew our own tomatoes, green beans, lettuces.  Even then (the '70s and '80s) we were concerned with eating as organically and locally as possible.

Then things shifted and I found myself cooking for one.  Over the years, bit by bit, I've gotten rid of most of my cook books.  On yet another downsizing roll, I've now discarded even more.

Here's what's left.

In fact, they no longer fit my life style.  I no longer give dinner parties.  Nor do I know anyone here in my age group who does.  If people do happen to get together, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas, it's potluck or take-out.  (Mostly, we opt for lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant.)

But cook books have two main flaws for the single cook.  All the recipes serve 4-6 or 8-10 or 10-12.  Not simply one!  Of course, I can cut the recipes in half or in quarter, but then, if it calls for cream, say, I'm using such a small amount, it doesn't pay to buy it and have it go bad in the fridge while I'm thinking what else to do with it.  Or, a recipe calls for 5 egg yolks.  (Which makes a cake I can't possibly eat by myself ... and I don't really know anyone who eats that sort of thing anymore.)  Then there are the egg whites to deal with.

Another example:  I recently re-read Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift From the Sea in which she mentions making biscuits.  Ah, biscuits, I thought.  They sound good.  So I got myself a quart of buttermilk and made a good dozen.  But I only needed 2/3 c. of the buttermilk. It never much works to freeze buttermilk ... and I don't like drinking it.  As for the biscuits, I had two for breakfast and put the rest into a container which I suppose will end up in the freezer.  Can you imagine the French (my role models when it comes to food) taking a biscuit out of the freezer and eating it?  They like things to be fresh!  

Then, too, by the time I've adjusted a recipe to my single-status needs, I've left out a lot of ingredients I don't even get because I can't use them up--which means the final product only half-heartedly resembles the original recipe.  So, why even bother using recipes anymore?  Or keeping cook books?  We can always go on-line to hunt something up.

There's also the seasonal issue.  When it's tomato season, I can't remember where that tomato recipe was that I once saw.  Or, later, that acorn squash dish that looked possible. 

What I need is someone to come up with The Single Person's Seasonal Cook Book.  Small amounts.  Listed by season.  Not requiring ingredients that are only sold in prescribed amounts that will just spoil before I can think what to do with them.

As you see in the photo above, I am still keeping my favorite cook books but probably more for sentimental reasons than anything.  I do still enjoy sitting down and paging through them.