This was prompted, firstly, by a Slack conversation in which the team was discussing favorite foods and also what was in peoples’ fridges or what our go-to ingredients are. Secondly, this was prompted by ME specifically wanting to know what famous-cook-Kayla had in her fridge, but — joke’s on us — she was moving during this time period so the answer is…not that much!
I know that I take food pretty seriously, and so do a lot of our team members. What you’ll find in this roundtable is a largely unarranged, unbothered look into our fridges (except for Heather’s and Carmen’s fridges which are enviably organized). I asked folks to showcase some of their favorite things, if they wanted, and to tell us about their fridge setup. What unfurled were notes about the ways we organize our lives, our relationships to food, and our relationships to refrigerators and home and the ways food was intertwined with how we were raised.
Content notes: this roundtable contains discussions of food and eating, but we don’t discuss anything in terms of restrictive diets (except for things that are disability / chronic illness related or that have to do with allergies / intolerences / being vegetarian or vegan). However, if it’s not helpful for you to see content like this at this time, please do navigate away.
Thank you so much for being an A+ member, for literally feeding us, for keeping us here.
xoxo,
Nico
i love this so much more than i even thought i would when i received the prompt. to me, this is so much more intimate than anything we’ve ever shared about sex or breakups or love or even our firsts… food is so important to me, and (as i mentioned in my response) i’ve been having such a hard time feeding myself lately, but this is like… idk it’s really beautiful! also i want viv’s baguette lunch right now tyvm.
It is SO intimate, you’re right. Thank you so much for being so open and what you shared Vanessa 💜💜💜
Bless you 🙏
same!
And I got so much more out of reading this than I thought. Thanks, all!
I envy the sight of beautifully organized condiments.
I love this so, so much, Vanessa is right it’s so intimate. Also I love the idea of turning. stickers into fridge magnets! Our old place the fridge was in a wooden cupboard so I don’t have any magnets, but this has unleashed me.
also, what if there was one of those group autostraddle reader photo shoots (very excited for the autumn one) off this idea? It made me want to show off my fridge!
Yes! Seconded!
everyone has such beautifully organized fridges and i am envious! not enough to actually do anything about mine, but ya know. i’m so grateful for these opportunities to get to know everyone a little better in an atypical kind of way.
Aw, thanks for sharing, everybody! I didn’t think there’d be that much variation in people’s fridges but there’s tons!
Vanessa, I hope you feel better soon ❤️
thank you <3 <3 <3
I am astounded at people who have organized and/or enoty fridges!! Who knew othe humans could be so different than me!
Also, Heather you keep bananas in the fridge?? Don’t they go brown?
Oops *empty, obviously
Oh! The fridge actually slows the banana ripening process! So if they get as ripe as you want them to be but you haven’t had a chance to use them yet, you can just pop ‘em in the fridge until you’re ready to smoothie them to smithereens!
i do this too and do the same thing with avocados
I love all of this, but especially the glamour shot of the item from Kalustyan’s. Wandering around there makes me unbelievably happy!
the inside of my fridge, eh, she’s mostly beverages and aspirational produce, but the outside is a beautiful and ever-evolving collage of photos, art from preschoolers at work, and various reminders from physical mail that leave my brain the second i magnet them to the fridge
Wow this timing my long distance friend group chat just had this chat after one friend moved and was like got a bigger fridge what do y’all even have in yours
Loved learning about everyone in this way and getting ideas!
Friends…. I’m 36 yo and sitting here with my mouth gaping bc I didn’t even consider that I could shop for two weeks at a time.
Which makes me sound dumb but most of my adult life has involved being poor and or having a miniscule fridge.
Our current fridge is still half the size of a standard American one (can’t change it, thanks Ikea kitchen layout) but if we plan and check dates carefully I feel like this is doable and dear lord would it be nice to not have to squeeze it in the schedule every week.
This isn’t about intelligence at all! Also, full disclousure, I think part of my shopping this way is influenced by being paid 1x a month, so by the time payday rolls around (once every month), we’ve been getting creative for a minute! It’s definitely a different way of budgeting than when I got paid twice a month and I don’t always do a good job with it. But yes! Stretching shopping trips so that I can shop every 2 or 1.5 weeks is a bit of a time saver if it’s possible and I think with planning around major meals and a kind of meal plan that uses most perishable items first, it can work. I do utilize a lot of frozen veggies, though, so if you have limited freezer space, it might be harder!