Here's where we share real solutions, through design success stories in the homes of Food52 team members.
Today: Kraft paper saves the day.
A few weeks ago, I found myself with the happy task of having my boyfriend's mother over for dinner (Hi, Leah!)—which wouldn't have been a problem, but I didn't have any plates. My boyfriend and I had just moved into our new apartment and the options were limited—the two of us had been eating out of ice cream bowls (priorities) since the move and serving a feast on paper plates just didn't feel right. Somewhere in the middle of my (slightly frantic) last-minute meal planning, it hit me to use the kraft wrapping paper I had stashed in the closet as "plates" and to serve the pizza directly on top of it (with Caesar-Style Kale Salad in our trusty ice cream bowls).
To do it, I simply rolled out the kraft paper, which I bought at a paper shop but is available at any office supply store, and weighted down one edge with a marble block and the other with wine glasses. Some of the grease from the Shrimp Pizza did leak through, but it was an easy clean-up—especially when doing the dishes meant tearing the used paper off and gathering it up to recycle.
And while this won't work with every meal—particularly those that involve a knife and fork—it's a great solution for anyone moving into a new place, for kids, and for dinner parties. I've been keeping a roll by my dinner-table-butcher-block in case the inspiration for a last-minute pizza night (or even clam bake!) strikes.
What are some of your last-minute dinner fixes when you're in a pinch? Tell us in the comments below!
Written by: Leslie Stephens
Popular on Food52
13 Comments
If you have access to a compost bin, then most of the Kraft paper can conceivably end up in that bin, the soiled sections should go in the trash.
The Kraft paper sure looks swankier than the newspaper at crawdad boils though. :-)
P.S. Our "greenwaste" service provider (picks up all food waste for composting by the city) says that any food-soiled paper is fine. I read somewhere (Mother Earth News, I think) that the biggest problem for community compostable waste services is the little sticker with the UPC code on it that you see on bananas, avocados, etc.
Your greenwaste service provider is still doing a triage between compostable and landfill items. Human beings do the separation, so they are mostly looking for grease/meat stained paper to remove from the compost pile.
The stickers on grocery store produce are plastic, and yes that's a problem. I buy all of my produce at my town's farmers market, so I'm not contributing to the problem. If you buy grocery store produce, remove the sticker and toss it in the trash. The stickerless food scraps are now compostable. My guess is that your greenwaste service provider is tossing anything with a sticker into landfill.
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