Storing It Up

I have come by a rather annoying habit that I came by biologically. I am somewhat of a pack rat.

Don't let your imagination get the best of you...there aren't stacks of old newspapers piled along the edges of my room, but I do have credit card bills, and old CD cases, and rather ugly pottery that I made in years gone by.

Mostly I like to blame my father for this tendency. Just yesterday he pulled out a pair of brand new tennis shoes and it's hard to know how long they had been buried at the bottom of his closet.

That said, my father also does most of the grocery shopping in our house. He loves finding deals and stocking up on anything and everything. We have an unknown number of cans of kidney beans and closets that contain layers upon layers of who knows what.

So last night, as we sat down to dinner, we decided to challenge ourselves to only eat what's in our cupboards from now until Christmas.

There a few exceptions for what we can shop for - produce, dairy products, bread, essentials (which in this house means baking products). Otherwise, we are supposed to subsist entirely on food that already lives in our house.

Who knows what will really happen, or if we can do it. But it'll be interesting to watch us try.

And let me tell you, you are definitely going to be missing out on some gourmet food.