All Alone Again

Out running errands Friday, I found myself actually in the mood to shop for an inspirational magazine to go with this project. I figured I'd probably wind up with something in the Cooks Illustrated family, or something with a close resemblance. No surprise that I'm partial to the CI/America's Test Kitchen model - yes, it's foodie fare, to some degree, but it's straightforward, pragmatic, Yankee foodie fare. It's full of "this is the best way" decrees, but they come out of weeks of rigorous testing, unadorned with hipster cred. And they acknowledge and assess such shameful shortcuts as bottled ketchup, rather than implying with an arched (and pierced) eyebrow that, of course, you'll be making yours from scratch.

And, of course, I'm totally into the public broadcasting connection. In my imagination, CI editor Chris Kimball and Rick Steves are in fierce competition for the title of Nerdiest PBS Host. It's sure to be a photo finish.

Anyhow, what I found was the current Cooking for Two special issue. I bought it despite noticing that the introduction to the recipe for hamburgers begins with the statement, "Grinding your own meat sounds like a lot of work for two burgers, but a food processor makes the job easier." And really, that's too funny to be offensive.

More useful, I noticed an emphasis on one-pan, stovetop type techniques, which is where I'd already identified I need more practice and/or ideas. When I noticed it contains a recipe for shrimp and grits, of course I had to have it for CT. Two pages farther on is a recipe for a shrimp risotto which I'd already considered for my "cook something new and not scary" recipe for this week - I'll probably do it with peas, as Anne suggested when Wende was going on about vegetables. I'm comfortable enough with the concepts, but I've never bothered to do it. I'm even going to go out and buy proper rice. More on that when it hits the pan.

The editorial was interesting - Mr. Kimball speaks as a recipe editor who, of course, is more and more asked for recipes to serve fewer and fewer diners.

I have to admit to a bit of philosophic hesitation. After all, isn't cooking about feeding the multitudes, the modern version of loaves and fishes? Sure, but the reality of the home kitchen is that kids grow up and move out, or, for a variety of other reasons, many home cooks are preparing supper for themselves and one other. It's cozy, to be sure, but it raises a multitude of culinary issues.

A host of issues indeed - I'm charmed by the fact that he specifically names my #1 quandry about solo eating, that is, "What does one do with half a head of cabbage?" (Seriously. Shredded, one little head yields way, way more cole slaw than any of my bowls can hold. I'd eat it more often, except that to buy a head is effectively to swear off the possibility of eating any other vegetable for the next ten days.)

Dining by one is obviously similar, in most technical respects, to dining by two, but I'm almost surprised that Chris's inquiries would be limited to the latter. As of 20042009, the U.S. Census Bureau says that 28% of American households are single-resident (up from 26% in 2004). 32.2 million individuals live in these households, which by my calculation is just under 15% of the adult population.

Solo cooking (and dining) is definitely one of those first-world problems. But, we're first-world people, so it's only fitting that we'd have to deal with them, yes? Otherwise we'd have no problems, and that wouldn't be fair, would it? (Where are my sarcasm tags?)

Notable Problems Associated with Cooking and/or Eating Alone

• Many dishes are difficult to cook in small quantities (e.g., lasagna, which my magazine solves by baking it in a loaf pan).
  
  
• Some people don't like leftovers.
  
  
• Some people just don't like that many leftovers.
  
  
• Some things don't make good leftovers.
  
  
• And even what does has a limited lifespan.
  
  
• What does one do with half a head of cabbage?
  
  
• Or 3/4 of a can of chicken broth?
  
  
• Because if I just kept cooking other things until I'd used it all up, I'd have a month's worth of food.
  
  
• Sometimes, it can even be hard to buy chicken breasts fewer than 6 at a time.
  
  
• And that's before you even address the fact that each breast is 3 times bigger than it needs to be.
  
  
• They sell lots of products in multiple sizes of containers - why hasn't anyone figured out how to sell a half-size loaf of bread?
  
  
• And why doesn't yogurt come in pints? It's either the little 6-ounce individual cups, or a giant quart tub.
  
  
• Cooking only for oneself, it's dangerously easy to fall into dietary eccentricity - the phenomenon I call oatmeal-and-carrot-sticks. In this respect, cooking is not substantially different from other aspects of living alone.
  

So...what am I missing?