Running low, but filling up.

These past few days we have been low on groceries, only because tomorrow is shopping day. I go food shopping every two weeks, but you can really get creative when you are working with little. For our side dish salad for supper;-), I cut up ripe and ready pears and added mandarin orange poppy seed dressing, and come to find out, I could have eaten this all night. And then on a whim (not necessarily because we were low on milk, but just because) I decided to dip an Oreo cookie in some hot, strong coffee, and I came out of the situation smiling. I rarely eat Oreo's now, but, let me tell you, there was a time I had to give them up for Lent. We had pasta the other night, traditional, nothing fancy. Marinara with added basil, fresh from my porch planter, and then sauteed onion, along with turkey Italian sausage. The meat goes the quickest when it comes to any pasta I serve, because as most Americans my husband is a big believer that meat is the entree. So, to stretch this pasta out for his lunches, I added meatballs when we were low on sausage. A true makeover:-).
Whenever I need to juice up my recipe repertoire I head to the library. The library is a fantastic place to test out, be inspired, dive into a collection of good food ideas. I recently picked up The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift. The Splendid Table is also a radio program on National Public Radio. I have listened to Lynne for many years while also receiving her many email recipes. I turn the pages of this cookbook like I'm reading the Dead Sea Scrolls:-). I am very particular about the cookbooks I choose. I don't want lists and lists of ingredients, I'm not that fussy. I do want pictures for almost every dish. I do love a back story on an ingredient, recipe, meal. I do love name dropping other chef's in one cookbook, so I can explore more recipes in another. Lynne and Sally provide all of it. And it is so much fun!!!
Another good place to turn when running low on meal ideas are fictional stories. It is now very fashionable to include recipes on cakes, pastas, meatloaves in writing a fiction book, BUT before this trend came to be, I hopped on with one of my all-time favorite novels. It is in Chaim Potok's The Chosen. I have read this book three times. The meal shared among his character's is this: thick soup, fresh rye bread, onion rolls, bagels, cream cheese, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon. And for dessert, chocolate pudding. YUM!!! So simple I can smell it. Potok, I do not believe, was as intentional as some of the author's now who include recipes in their stories, but i just loved this meal, so I had to write it down. Adriana Trigiani and Jan Karon are also two authors that toss in great food pairings and recipes amongst their character's and stories. Both of these women also have their own cookbooks out.
Anyways, when low, be inspired!! There are, oh, so many good places to gain from!