Little Boxes
not on a hillside but in the fridge
I’ve been mulling over the conundrum of the cottage cheese container.
I eat a lot of cottage cheese. Not because I’m a protein hound but because I grew up with it and I like it. I go through at least one container a week. That is a lot of empty plastic containers. I tend to repurpose them to store leftover food. And yes, I’m aware of all the reasons I shouldn’t do this. On any given day I might open the fridge door and be greeted by 3 or 4 containers of identical size. Good and Kalona are my current faves. Since I can’t see through them, I’m constantly lifting the lids to see what’s inside. It’s like my own personal whacked out advent calendar. Sometimes I hit the jackpot, sometimes I find a collection of distateful molds and occasionally I’m surprised by actual cottage cheese. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I apologize if my chaos offends you. This morning I was delighted to find a cup of rapini braised in olive oil with garlic and Calabrian chile pepper in perfect condition that I had completely forgotten about. I broke a couple eggs into the container, added a hefty tablespoon of cottage cheese (why not?), beat it all up and made a scramble. My version of serendipity. A delicious and nutritious breakfast not beautiful enough for a photograph.
This is where I could give you a recipe for what to do with the cottage cheese in your fridge but don’t we all have our own ways? I eat it on toast with an avocado and chile crisp. I stir it into oatmeal and top with chile crisp. I nearly always add it to pancake batter. Have you ever added a couple tablespoons to your tuna salad mixture? It’s very good, the fresh curds of dairy kind of lighten and sweeten the tuna. And of course on occasion I’ll pretend it’s ricotta and add it to pasta with tomato sauce for a lazy lasagna-ish bowl for dinner.
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Isn’t this a lovely surprise? Thank you.
Thank you for normalizing the repurposing of these containers. I always have many dozens of Knudsen 3lb containers on hand, as I too consume an inordinate amount of the curds. These containers make excellent keepers for chopped onions of all varieties in the refrigerator.
I always have white/yellow/green chopped onions at the ready. I've found the ridged lids do a much better job of containing odors than any commercially available container. Best of all, when the containers themselves become overwhelmingly oniony, they are easily replaced.
I'm addicted to the "GOOD" cottage cheese.