cooking on a trip in a rental house
inc. two helpful charts with menu ideas/groceries!
TWO QUICK ANNOUNCEMENTS
My friend Veronica Chambers is funding a scholarship at: “an amazing women writers retreat in Lisbon called Take World. It's 5 days in October and it's in honor of my friend Shay Youngblood who wrote many great things including Black Girl in Paris. She was a groundbreaking black queer writer and we are encouraging women of color and queer women writers to apply. The deadline to apply is August 1st. It covers the stay and most meals but not travel to Lisbon.” More info here: https://www.take-world.com/shay-youngblood-fellowship. If this sounds like the right fit for you, apply!!
I am very honored to be included in the latest issue of Kazoo (the magazine “for girls, ages 5 to 12, who want to choose their own path”). I LOVE this magazine and it’s such a thrill to be in it. You can find out more about the magazine and subscribe here (they’re 100% subscriber-funded which is amazing). Makes for an amazing gift. I’ve subscribed for my niece and my BFF’s daughter! And they’re on social media @kazoomagazine.
Okay, back to today’s newsletter:
I recently got this note from a reader:
Hi Julia! Went on a trip recently to Yosemite and we booked an Airbnb nearby. I wanted something with a full kitchen so we could cook instead of eat out every night. I didn’t have space in my luggage to pack spices or olive oil or any of my pantry staples. The kitchen at the Airbnb was not stocked with any of these but it had all the necessary and basic tools. Would love to hear your thoughts on cooking in this type of scenario where you’re trying to save money and be efficient. I also didn’t want to be wasteful and tried to use up everything we bought at the grocery store. I tried to plan meals with leftovers that would serve as another different meal. I found it pretty challenging! I actually looked through your posts to see if you had already written something about this since it seems like you might write about! I can totally see this sketched out in a chart! Seems timely with your recent post about campfire meals. Thank you!
I loved getting this note (and just a reminder that I love notes with prompts for newsletters — send ‘em my way!). So I went ahead and made two charts, one if you love seafood and are lucky enough to be renting a house somewhere near the ocean, and the other with just really good, easy summery food. I hope they’re helpful even if you’re not going anywhere.
On each chart I suggest three simple-but-great dinners that I suggest cooking lots of so you can take the leftovers and turn them into a great lunch the next day. I listed the groceries needed for each dinner/lunch combo, too, plus listed some basics that you’ll use throughout cooking. Amounts/recipes will vary — it depends on how many people you’re cooking for, etc. But below each chart I’ve given some more detailed notes.
Obviously take all of this as suggestion, not prescription. Make what you like to eat! Don’t shy away from the simplest, most affordable stuff: grilled hot dogs, potato chips and watermelon is a perfect summer meal.
Remember that rental house cooking is most fun when you keep things simple and aren’t afraid to riff based on what you have. No balsamic for a tomato and mozzarella salad? Just squeeze some lemon on top. Rather not buy all of the ingredients to make homemade cornbread and deal with leftover flour, cornmeal, etc.? Buy a box of Jiffy! You get the point…
DINNER/LUNCH #1:
For the grilled fish, keep it simple! See here for a great tutorial on grilling whole fish and here’s another for grilling fish fillets/steaks. For the corn, you can soak the un-shucked corn in water and then grill in the husks so they steam/grill at the same time. Or shuck the corn, rub with oil, and grill. Or microwave the corn to make shucking super easy (see here!) and then just mark on the grill (or leave as is!). Serve with butter and salt. Dress salad greens simply with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper so you don’t need to get more ingredients. If your bread is great, no need to do a thing. If it’s subpar, slice it, grill it, and drizzle with olive oil before serving.
For tacos the next day, cut corn off the cobs and mix with chopped tomatoes, chopped cilantro and minced red onion. Season with lime and salt. Heat tortillas, fill with leftover grilled fish, top with the salsa and enjoy!!
DINNER/LUNCH #2:
See here for helpful info for steaming lobsters. Serve with melted butter! For the baked potatoes, serve with butter, sour cream + chives. And for the salad, just do romaine and Caesar dressing (either homemade or store-bought and this is a great thing to make at home before you leave and bring with you in a cooler!)
For lobster rolls, coat leftover lobster in mayo and season with salt and pepper. Some minced celery is nice. You can also warm lobster in melted butter and just season with salt and pepper. Griddle hot dog buns in butter before filling. For the potato salad, cube leftover baked potatoes and combine with chopped celery, chopped chives and dress with extra Caesar if you have it and/or mayo. Season with lots of salt and pepper.
DINNER/LUNCH #3:
The best seafood dinner! I do something like this. Brown sausages, add water and/ore wine, then onions + potatoes, then tons of shellfish (corn, too, if you want!). Let it all cook until the potatoes are tender and the shellfish is cooked. Pour onto sheet pans and dig in.
Leftovers can be turned into chowder. Sauté a little extra celery and onion if you have it (fine if not), add 50% seafood broth (available at most seafood stores — you can also use a bottle of clam juice) and 50% half-and-half (which I always have on hand for coffee anyway) and then add all of the leftover stuff from the clam bake (cut sausages and potatoes into small pieces, peel/shuck all shrimp, clams, etc.). Warm just until everything is hot. Perfect! Serve with crusty bread.
DINNER/LUNCH #1:
Everything is pretty straight-forward for the dinner — don’t think you need any notes from me!
For pasta salad the next day, simply chop leftover sausage and tomatoes and mozzarella and stir right into the leftover pesto pasta. If you need more liquid to get everything to the right texture, just add a bit more olive oil and vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Heaven!
DINNER/LUNCH #2:
Fajitas can simply be grilled peppers, onions and protein of your choice (tofu, chicken, shrimp, steak, etc.) along with hot tortillas (which I am now realizing I forgot to put on the chart — oops!). Bring a package of taco seasoning (like this one) to season the veggies/meat or tofu with if you’d like. Serve with chips and guac and salsa (make your own or buy…whatever!). You can add things like cheese and sour cream if you want, too.
For chilaquiles, cut up leftover peppers and onions and heat in a skillet with leftover salsa. Add leftover tortilla chips and cook until the chips have absorbed all of the salsa. Serve topped with fried eggs and guacamole if you have leftovers!
DINNER/LUNCH #3:
I like to season boneless/skinless chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Grill until nearly cooked and then paint with BBQ sauce (this is my fave) and cooking, flipping and painting, until the chicken is really done and the sauce is like shellac. You can make your own slaw or buy store-bought slaw. For cornbread, just do Jiffy!
For a salad the next day, chop romaine. Top with chopped leftover chicken and slaw. Cut leftover cornbread into cubes and toast in a 400ºF oven until crispy. Top the salad with those. Dress with ranch!!! While I love homemade dressing, this is a moment when a bottle of Hidden Valley is the right call!!
Also note that I shared some very helpful tips about cooking in a rental house in this from post two years ago:
^ includes a list of the must-have items I think are worth bringing with you and a bunch of thoughts on how to approach cooking with limited ingredients/tools.
Hope this newsletter helps with your vacation planning if you’re lucky enough to be going away….if not, I hope it just helps to make some of your summer meals a little easier and more fun, too. Cook a lot once so you can get another great meal out of it with little effort. Go out for ice cream after!
xoxooxox, julia
Re no room for spices in ones suitcases. Backpackers to the rescue! I found a little set of spice containers in the backpacking section at an outdoors store. The whole thing is smaller than a roll of saran wrap. I also saw a tip to use a pill kit. This one was an outer container maybe the size of a trade paperback, but flatter. & inside were 8, 12 round shallow containers that she puts spices in.
The good thing is you’re only gone for a week or so, so you don’t need much. & you know what you use in your cooking/have an idea of your menu. So you can fill them accordingly. When I did this, I knew I wanted more kosher salt (Diamond was hard to find at the time) & more herbs de provence (steven stolman’s roast chicken provencal is one of my go-to dishes, it’s in the NYT app), so I was able to find a couple bigger backpack spice/whatever jars for those 2.
I just did a cabin trip like this and very successfully used up almost all the groceries I brought. A few things:
- It was a roadtrip, so I prepped tuna salad (2 cans tuna, capers, dill, celery, kewpie mayo, mustard) in advance as well as taco salad mix (soyrizo, red onion, corn, black beans.) Then for dinner the first night we had taco salads on romaine with salsa, lime juice, avocado, and chips. And then we continued to use the romaine for two lunches worth of tuna sandwiches on hamburger buns (which I always keep in the freezer, just brought four.)
- Hotdogs on the grill with chips
- Two different easy pasta dinners that made lunch leftovers. One was just jarred sauce and noodles and the other was the NYT Cooking crispy gnocchi (with cauliflower instead of brussels.) We make this all the time so we don’t need the recipe - no recipes on vacation lol! https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020453-crisp-gnocchi-with-brussels-sprouts-and-brown-butter?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share
Then for breakfasts we had toast with PB or pancakes from a boxed mix. Plus s’mores and chips and fruit for snacks. This was all really easy! I bought those OXO leakproof bottles for olive oil and salt that Julia had recommended, and then brought chili flakes and my pepper mill. I wouldn’t fly with a pepper mill but if I am driving, I am bringing it cuz I hate pre-ground pepper. I also always bring diamond Crystal kosher salt cuz I find Airbnbs typically only have iodized table salt, and thanks to Samin Nosrat I can’t go back!
This ended up being one small cooler and three bags of groceries for reference. Another easy option we do on trips a lot is quesadillas/burritos!