Sunday, January 26, 2014

My Refrigerator, My Soul

I love it when bloggers get real about their lives - not about what they think, because at this point I take it as a given that I'll read honest words, but about how they actually live.  We see so many styled bedside tables and curated jewelry trays that it's easy to think you're the only girl who has a small collection of dried contacts next to her alarm clock and who sometimes throws her silver earrings into the gold side of the box.  It's incredibly comforting when a blogger shares her personal space as it usually is, unprepared for a photo shoot!  That's why Whitney got so many enthusiastic responses to her real house reveal last January and why Real Simple's #rsgetreal week on Instagram earlier in January was so popular - I don't know about yours, but my "OMG so busy" desk more often looks like this than this or even this.  Aspirational living can be invigorating but it can also be exhausting, and it's nice to relax for a bit in the realization that there's nothing wrong with not constantly striving for neater or prettier.

It might seem strange to those of you who aren't big cooks, but the best way I can show you how I actually live is by opening my refrigerator.  You've all seen my hauls from the farmers market, heavy laden with fruits and vegetables, and I've Instagrammed my lazy night Kraft mac & cheese dinners, but the way I usually live is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.  Because I love cooking (and I unapologetically cook what I enjoy making and eating, like this chocolate chip breakfast loaf and this feta/spinach soufflĂ©, even when I'm actively trying to lose weight), giving you a peek into my fridge is like glimpsing my soul.

The topic of today's post was a spontaneous decision so, in case you were wondering, I didn't have time to edit the contents at all; it was inspired by tomorrow's post, which is all about leftovers. Ironically, I don't have many leftovers in the fridge at the moment, but I thought it might be revealing for you to see what I work with on a daily basis anyway!  I'm tempted to give you lots of explanations and excuses as to what I bought for which recipe and why I keep it wherever it's living at the moment, but that sort of defeats the purpose of a candid post, doesn't it?  So, without further ado, I open my refrigerator to you, dear readers.






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26 comments:

  1. Minced ginger? Wow, I really need to get my hands on some of that! for some reason, my grocery store no longer carries fresh ginger. what a bummer!

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  2. Well, now you've gone and made me want to load up on Brussels sprouts again. Is it just me, or are they having a major comeback this year?

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  3. things get lost in the back of the fridge, so I try to keep everything visible! it helps :)

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  4. I have fresh ginger in the freezer (is that a contradiction?) but sometimes I am just TOO LAZY and I need the pre-minced goodness.

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  5. What a fridge! What endless possibility! I love this, and i was just thinking about how "styled" homes are completely unattainable.

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  6. Lol at the dried contacts next to the alarm clock! Guilty...

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  7. I miss minced garlic, makes cooking with is so much easier! What a fun way to get an insight into your life. Growing up our fridge was always full of random things and leftovers and now as an adult I like having a full fridge it reminds me of home.

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  8. I wish my fridge was this tidy, that's all I'm going to say...

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  9. What is sparking ginger, is like sparkling apple cider because that sounds good!

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  10. I forgot a word! oops :/ it's Belvoir ginger pressé - basically fancy ginger beer! I got a pack when I was experimenting with wedding cocktails last summer and one lone bottle remains :)

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  11. believe me, when there's more in the fridge it's much messier! but things cycle in and out relatively quickly so I guess that helps keep it tidy as well?

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  12. so true! whenever I go to my grandparents' in New York, I always check their fridge - they have a few (unusual) things always in there, and I know that all is right with the world when I see those items on the shelves!

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  13. HAHA thank you - so glad I'm really not the only one :P

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  14. that means a LOT coming from you - hope you're not thinking too poorly of me for my packaged ricotta! maybe you can give me ideas for my THREE jars of sundried tomatoes... no idea how I managed to amass such a collection haha

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  15. I find looking in people's fridges fascinating! And now I'm craving Chinese food and a good bagel.

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  16. I like this idea, and I read your post, and then I linked to Whitney and Joelle and another person! All showing your "unstyled homes". And you know what these photos reveal? An immense privilege. Beautiful linens and unstained furniture, so many clothes they are falling out of closets, and in this case, a normally-stocked refrigerator full of fresh produce and fresh meat. So even it they're not as "glamorous" as perhaps "styled" shots, they still communicate your incredibly rich (in more ways than one) lives. And it's still totally aspirational.

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  17. This was fun. Your spontaneous fridge opening is WAY more organized than mine is. For real. Right now my fridge is pretty sad, actually. Time to go to the store, but I'm hoping to hold out until the end of the month! Our grocery budget cap is on, so what's a girl to do?

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  18. that's valid - I'm lucky to be able to afford fresh produce and fresh meat when others can't. privilege is relative, after all. I suppose aspiration is in the eye of the beholder? something to think about, certainly.

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  19. Wow, very neat! And looking very yummy. Adorable post, as usual!
    xoxo
    CoverGirl + Converse

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  20. oof, that's tough! being limited (by finances or availability or anything else) forces creativity... or it forces yet another can of Italian wedding soup (my favorite, but still) to be opened for dinner. I have a memory of you blogging about weekly meal plans? that helps me stretch my groceries when I need to plus spend more productively at the store :/

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  21. Wow what a lovely organised fridge - mine is terribly ramshackled with regards to what is on the shelves and normally works around cheese, veg, beer, far too much of the husbands soda and ketchup!

    Great idea for a post though - you can tell a lot about a person by their fridge I think!

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  22. I can't wait to get back to the States and get my hands on some Crisco!

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  23. I love this post - and the way refrigerators give an insight into people's souls. A different definition to "you are what you eat." I think there was a fine art photographer a couple years back who went around New York taking "portraits" of the inside of people's fridges in an effort to get some insight into who they were. It was a great study - I'm going to have to go dig that up!

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