what's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

thank you, elvis costello, for getting this question out on to the airwaves. it's been bothering me for years now that people think there's something odd about three of the five of the things I stand for (the other two would be fairness and community).

when I heard this song on the radio this last night, I happened to be enjoying some of the delicious pasta I made on tuesday night with some friends. I'd give you the recipe but we don't "do" recipes, and that's kind of where I'm going with this - bear with me. OK, you really want to know?
- roast some walnuts
- and some green beans
- mix some feta with some olive oil, lemon zest, salt and pepper
- boil some linguine and throw it all together.

delicious. at the last minute we also threw in some leftover spinach from an equally delicious, and equally recipe-free spanakopita. that one is way too complicated to describe. it's all up here (imagine me pointing at my head). OK, so anyways, back to "where I'm going with this."

I have two super-awesome friends, Craig and Lydia, with whom I have three big things in common: 1) love of homemade food; 2) love of pooling resources, being communal, etc.; and 3) more-or-less abject poverty. One night a month or two ago, I looked into my fridge and nearly shed a tear when i saw it was full of once-appetizing food that was on the brink of going bad. I have two roommates with very enigmatic eating habits. One isn't around much and the other, I'm led to believe, just doesn't eat. So I'm always buying fresh fruits and vegetables but I rarely get around to eating them before they go bad. and although I do love to compost, I don't have the kind of disposable income where I can be wasting much food.

so I called Craig and Lydia and said, "Hey, I've got a bunch of crap that's about to go bad. Want to come over and help me cook it?" They came over with their crap that was about to go bad, and the rest is history. We've made some delicious food, including but not limited to various spanakopita renditions, meat pies, spinach pies, breads and pies, chicken stir fry, the aforementioned pasta thing, etc. etc. The first spanakopita we made, inspired by a bitchload of ground lamb I happened to have on hand, lacked nearly every single ingredient that's normally in spanakopita, except for the phyllo dough and eggs. It had a ton of ingredients, just none that are actually used in regular spanakopita recipes. Frozen asparagus? yeah, i'm never going to cook that shit - let's throw it in! spring mix? why not?

I just can't say enough about the virtues of our "cooking crap that's about to go bad" tradition - it's the manifestation of everything I live for - frugality, cooking, sharing, improvising, and making something out of nothing. I highly recommend that everyone find some friends who share these passions, and get a "cook crap that's about to go bad" club going. It's immensely satisfying and I think, getting back to the Elvis Costello song, it makes the world a little bit of a better place.