I’d be willing to bet that even Martha Stewart orders takeout food for dinner every now and again. I don’t care who you are or how much energy you have, some days you’re just too darned tired to cook….or to open a can or to microwave something. And thats perfectly acceptable.
Everyone deserves a night off now and again. When I was a kid, my mother designated the kitchen as “closed” on Fridays. These days, JiT and I tend to order from our favorite Thai restaurant, sushi joint, or even (dare I say it) the occasional Domino’s Pizza about once a week. Tonight is one of those nights (I visited my sister in Charleston over the weekend; got up at 4am for my flight home, then worked a full day at the office — the kitchen is CLOSED).
That said, as much as I look forward to someone delivering a hot meal to my doorstep, I do NOT look forward to rooting around in a drawers, piles of mail, or even the internet in search of restaurant menus. Therefore, I suggest a couple of solutions:
– BUY a Takeout menu organizer: Believe it or not, someone’s actually invented a menu organizer, complete with tabs for different types of cuisine, sticky notes and all sorts of other paraphenalia to justify a $20 price tag. This would make a great gift idea for a new neighbor or friend that’s recently moved (especially if you’ve already stocked it with local menus).
–CREATE a Menu File: If you’re simply looking for a way to liberate all of those wadded up menus from the back of your kitchen junk drawer, an easier solution may be a simple 3-ring binder or accordian folder (one of which is bound to be laying around the house already). Organize as you wish (alpha order by restaurant name, type of cuisine, favorite places, etc). Whether you store it with your cookbooks (ahh, the irony), on a bookshelf or sitting by the phone, at least their out of the junk drawer.
– SEARCH the Internet: Many restaurants obviously offer their full menu right on their website, but if that search is a bust, sites folks living in urban areas may want to check out Menupages, Foodle, or Gotham Menues (NYC only), all of which offer menus from a variety of smaller restaurants that may not already be online.
With all that said, I’m getting hungry, so I think I’ll head home and place my order. But I promise I’ll be back in the kitchen and posting some new recipes and JiT photography soon (got some great ideas during my Charleston trip — spicy southern shrimp!!). Stay tuned!
That organizer is a good idea. I might have to get that for my parents. I won’t tell you what the menu drawer looks like.