Pete's Log: Parameterizing?

Entry #1446, (Life in General)
(posted when I was 28 years old.)

I've been thinking that some of my recent goals need some parameters in order to better judge success. Take the cooking goal, for example. I made myself a nice Spaghetti sauce last night. Now I have cooked more at home than I had before writing that post. Did I accomplish the goal?

I hope not. So what I need to do is transform my kitchen into the den of iniquity it was always meant to be. Primarily, I think this requires that I invest in a deep fat fryer. But while that can be a prerequisite milestone established as a part of an overall project plan, the purchase of a deep fat fryer is not in and of itself a measurable achievement that will accurately reflect progress made towards my goal.

So here's what I'm thinking. At a minimum, I need to pick a few staple ingredients that I should always plan to have on hand in my kitchen. Success will then be defined as follows:

Over the course of the year (excluding longer trips out of town), I will:

  1. Always have the chosen ingredients available
  2. Never throw out any of the chosen ingredients
  3. Never find the chosen ingredients growing things or going bad in other ways

This seems to me to be a measurable, achievable goal. I'm thinking my ingredients should include potatoes, onions, garlic, and maybe a few others. They last long enough that I can get away with not using them for a little while, but still have a shelf life that is limited enough to force me to use them regularly.

To this end, I yesterday bought a decent sized bag of potatoes and intend to start cooking them up soon. Wish me luck.

Want to visit me? Apparently, Google Maps has straightforward directions for getting to Munich from the States.