Best laid plans

Earlier today I put together a menu plan for next week and a corresponding grocery list. Thanks to the cook once, eat multiple times reality of cooking for one, the supply list was pretty short. In fact, most of what was on it was stuff for the pizza rustica for tomorrow.

It was late afternoon by the time I finally went to the store, and dinner time by the time I returned home. A huge mess of barley, veggies and chicken had been simmering in the crock pot all day (dinner tonight and tomorrow, lunch Monday and Wednesday), so I sat down to eat.

After dinner, it was time to do some of the prep work for tomorrow's company lunch. The crust for the pie could be mixed ahead and chilled. I measured the flour and sugar into the food processor (it's a different, sweet pie crust) and reached for the baking powder.

Only to realize there wasn't any. None. Nada. Zilch. I had on hand the apricot preserves I needed for a pork chop recipe later in the week (and since I never eat toast or anything else with preserves or jam, that in itself is a miracle), but nothing as basic as baking powder.

I'm not about to go out to get any at this point in the night, so the time between when I get home from church and the guests arrive just got a bit more hectic. So much for planning ahead. I'd use a regular pie crust, which I can make in my sleep, but the sweeter crust is supposed to be a nice contrast to the ricotta/mozzarella/prosciutto filling. Gah.

There is hope that if I keep having people over for meals, eventually I'll have a handle on where I've put everything in the kitchen, in particular exactly where I'm keeping the staples. In a normal week, I generally only cook three or four meals (see the cook once, eat multiple times reality of cooking for one theory), so it's not as if I'm spending a great deal of time in the kitchen. While I'm used to the layout (and like the efficiency of the galley kitchen - I can reach everything within a step or two), where things are stored keeps slipping out of my mind.

I may have to resort to post-it notes with content lists stuck to the cupboard doors to keep things straight.