Let's face the truth folks, there's always a trade off between quality and quantity: in friendships, in sex, and yes, in food. When you've got less to spend on grass-fed, free-range, organically raised beef, you probably won't have it twice a week.
Maybe you only get that perfect bavette once a week, or once a month. But a tighter food budget doesn't mean you have to lower your standards. It just means you change your grocery pick list and find ways to make that yummy beef become a flavor in larger quantities of other, less expensive, complimentary foods.
I've recently been laid off, so this posting isn't just editorial much about nothing; I practice it day to day, like I would practice meditation if I had the patience...or yoga if I could get past all the hemp clothes and chanting. Here's my top seven ways to squeeze blood from my stoney wallet.
1. Coffee--Use that over priced, thermal sippy cup you bought out of guilt for the environment. Get a large french press and double your morning recipe. Have your normal cup, then drink the other one later from your stainless steel wonder. You'll be saving a few bucks a day as well as getting a spiritual lift by reducing your carbon footprint.
2. Vodka--Stop adding premium vodka to your cocktails. Nobody but nobody can realllllly tell the difference between vodkas once blended with Ocean Spray (or what have you). I personally hate vodka and cranberry, but I know a lot of people who drink it like fishes. For strongly camouflaged cocktails, switch to Smirnoff. It won the New York Times blind taste test a few years ago against brands like Ketel One, Grey Goose, and other premiums. Seriously! Save the good stuff for when it counts, like on the rocks with a twist of lemon peel.
3. Granola--Make your own granola. I know how that sounds, and while 18 Rabbits is fab, at almost $8 a pop, it's not worth it. The good news is that you can make something very, very comparable yourself in about 20 minutes that will last two weeks (my own recipe coming soon). Deborah Madison has a few good ones, too.
4. Reconsider the Bean--I know how lame this sounds, but wait! There's more to beans than those dusty vegetarian chili recipes from your Mooseweed cookbook. First, check out the delicious bean varieties available from one of my favorite local purveyors, Rancho Gordo. Their beans aren't the cheapest, but they've got an amazing array of unique heirloom varieties, their product is always freshly dried, and they've got flavor you won't believe possible in dried beans.
I like beans for soups, pozole, and even for making appetizers like Cannellini Spread to replace those pricey little jars one normally reaches for when friends come over. Big BIG Hint: If you don't have a pressure cooker, get one! It virtually eliminates all the soaking and par-boiling nonsense you normally have with beans, AND it destroys the sugars that cause...ahem...GI troubles. Pressure cooking makes beans easy and practical: it shortens cooking time to 20-30 minutes and lets you forget about buying Beano. Even more savings!
5. Friends--No, you don't eat them, but you do eat with them. Swallow your pride and tell them you've been axed. They'll honestly pity you, and many will buy you lunch! (Isn't that just so wrong??) OK, this isn't a long term, or even tasteful, strategy. But I was pleasantly surprised by the number of free sanwiches I got out of it! Thanks again, friends!
6. Chocolate--Sorry chocolate haters, this one isn't for you. But for the rest of the normal people, I've got great news! A piece of really good, premium chocolate has a very high satisfaction to price ratio. In other words, maybe you won't be having a rack of lamb every night, but you can have that square of amazing chocolate. It makes up for lot in my book, and it's worth the money. Please, people, don't buy Hershey's... it's just not right.
7. Canned Tuna--Learn how to use tuna as a flavoring and condiment, not as the main course. Canned tuna is only a few dollars and there are many ways to use it as a flavor component rather than the main event, and I'm not talking tuna casserole.
Here are a couple of my favorites: salade nicoise and pasta con tonna. Nicoise is a classic, and according to Julia Childs, the only way to go is canned tuna. She rejected, as I do, fresh or seared tuna in this wonderful salad. Canned tuna has a texture and flavor that's unique: it's pungency balances with vinaigrette and it's texture adds bite and chew to crunchy greens and tender boiled eggs.
My second favorite tuna dish is so simple you'll be embarrassed about your laziness when you make it. Simply boil a nice pot of any multi-faceted pasta like rotini or farfalla (not penne or capellini) that's been generously salted. Break up a can of drained tuna with a fork into little shards and toss in with a few tablespoons of good, aromatic olive oil, several grinds of pepper, and a healthy grating of Parmesan cheese. It's fast and amazing. Your evening meal will never be more inexpensively or rapidly prepared.
Check back soon for an exclusive look at my granola recipe. You'll love your cereal bowl, and wallet, for using it!
Friday, November 7
Tuesday, October 7
6.5 Ways To Find Time To Cook
It may feel free and spontaneous to come home and let the cupboard speak to you, but most of the time, it's got nothing much to say. Then what happens? It's the takeout menu, the chinese food delivery, or a quick run to the store for prepared food.
Quality cooking time can feel like a luxury you can't afford, but if you make a plan weighing the costs against the benefit of free time to cook, there's a way to make it work. Fair warning, this plan is basically not really a plan as much as lifestyle adjustments around food...you could use the time you save to do almost anything.
1. Buy Lunch
It may be counter intuitive on a blog dedicated to quality eats, but seriously, do you have time to make lunch every day? I don't. Sock away the time you save for making relaxing meal at the end of the day. And there are mor benefits: buying lunch gives you an excuse to walk, the chance for variety, and makes cooking for fun at home feel much less like work. If you're budget conscious, follow number 5 and plan in a couple of lunches a week.
2. Learn to Love the Cardio Machine Everyone Else Hates
You work out to be able to eat what you want, right? Maybe that's not a totally healthy attitude toward fitness, but am I far wrong? You'd be amazed how much time you save by loving that sad machine nobody else wants. Think of it as cuts and do your workout already. You'll never have to wait, and trust me, your heart rate will go just as high.
3. Shop Like a Librarian
I know you're not a list person, but just add a little discipline to your process and make one for shopping. You'd be amazed how much time you can save by eliminating just one trip to the store every week. By the time you're done getting there, buying, paying, getting home and unpacking it's at least an hour. So keep a pad of paper and one of those half-pencils in the kitchen, and make a list as you go.
4. Get a CSA Box
First, a CSA is Community Supported Agriculture box of produce delivered once a week to a neighborhood spot near you. You'll not only feel good about the organic, lovingly raised produce you're eating, it's delivered! So you want to save time on shopping and figuring out what to eat? Let the box be your guide. And let the spoiling, overabundant produce be the necessity that spawns inventive, just in time cookery. Every meal's a nail biter.
5. Be Open to Leftovers...In fact, Plan Them
There's no shame in eating day old food. Go ahead and make extra pasta, dose the spare noodles with olive oil and refrigerate. On day 2, repurpose with feta, black olives, chopped organic CSA tomatoes (or whatever you've got that you can quickly blanch and chop) and fresh ground pepper. Ya, it's pasta salad, but it's quick, delicious, and it's ok to slide the scale toward efficiency once in a while.
6. Don't Skimp on Prepared Food
You may think prepared food is for sissies, but when used judiciously, it can pump up a meal from flat to phat in next to no time. Buy a few grilled prawns, your baby greens mix will love you fot it. If you're not into paying your hard earned cash for a grilled chicken breast, be your own prepared food provider by following number 5 and making extra to fuel the next couple of meals.
6.5 Buy Wine by the Case
If you find a wine you like with what you're likely to eat on a week by week basis, buy a case and stop wringing your hands over how many other wines are out there. It may feel painful to drop a hundred and something at the wine shop, but if you add up the cost of sourcing and choosing individual bottles, it's a lot. For your weeknight ham sandwich wine, you're better off finding a reliable go-to. If you don't drink wine, rejoice, you've already saved yourself hours and hours.
Quality cooking time can feel like a luxury you can't afford, but if you make a plan weighing the costs against the benefit of free time to cook, there's a way to make it work. Fair warning, this plan is basically not really a plan as much as lifestyle adjustments around food...you could use the time you save to do almost anything.
1. Buy Lunch
It may be counter intuitive on a blog dedicated to quality eats, but seriously, do you have time to make lunch every day? I don't. Sock away the time you save for making relaxing meal at the end of the day. And there are mor benefits: buying lunch gives you an excuse to walk, the chance for variety, and makes cooking for fun at home feel much less like work. If you're budget conscious, follow number 5 and plan in a couple of lunches a week.
2. Learn to Love the Cardio Machine Everyone Else Hates
You work out to be able to eat what you want, right? Maybe that's not a totally healthy attitude toward fitness, but am I far wrong? You'd be amazed how much time you save by loving that sad machine nobody else wants. Think of it as cuts and do your workout already. You'll never have to wait, and trust me, your heart rate will go just as high.
3. Shop Like a Librarian
I know you're not a list person, but just add a little discipline to your process and make one for shopping. You'd be amazed how much time you can save by eliminating just one trip to the store every week. By the time you're done getting there, buying, paying, getting home and unpacking it's at least an hour. So keep a pad of paper and one of those half-pencils in the kitchen, and make a list as you go.
4. Get a CSA Box
First, a CSA is Community Supported Agriculture box of produce delivered once a week to a neighborhood spot near you. You'll not only feel good about the organic, lovingly raised produce you're eating, it's delivered! So you want to save time on shopping and figuring out what to eat? Let the box be your guide. And let the spoiling, overabundant produce be the necessity that spawns inventive, just in time cookery. Every meal's a nail biter.
5. Be Open to Leftovers...In fact, Plan Them
There's no shame in eating day old food. Go ahead and make extra pasta, dose the spare noodles with olive oil and refrigerate. On day 2, repurpose with feta, black olives, chopped organic CSA tomatoes (or whatever you've got that you can quickly blanch and chop) and fresh ground pepper. Ya, it's pasta salad, but it's quick, delicious, and it's ok to slide the scale toward efficiency once in a while.
6. Don't Skimp on Prepared Food
You may think prepared food is for sissies, but when used judiciously, it can pump up a meal from flat to phat in next to no time. Buy a few grilled prawns, your baby greens mix will love you fot it. If you're not into paying your hard earned cash for a grilled chicken breast, be your own prepared food provider by following number 5 and making extra to fuel the next couple of meals.
6.5 Buy Wine by the Case
If you find a wine you like with what you're likely to eat on a week by week basis, buy a case and stop wringing your hands over how many other wines are out there. It may feel painful to drop a hundred and something at the wine shop, but if you add up the cost of sourcing and choosing individual bottles, it's a lot. For your weeknight ham sandwich wine, you're better off finding a reliable go-to. If you don't drink wine, rejoice, you've already saved yourself hours and hours.
Saturday, August 16
You call it fresh corn buzz-kill, biologists call it peroxidase and catalase
No matter what you call it, be sure to refrigerate, cook or blanch and freeze your cobs allowing the least amount of time to pass following picking. If you don't, enzymes in the corn will eat it for lunch.
Corny Story
Once corn leaves it's stalk, nothing good happens. Enzymes (see title) in the corn get to work converting the delicious natural sugars into starch. After just a few hours, your corn could be well on its way to what my dear old grandma used to call 'horse corn'. Yummmm!
Refrigeration slows the process, but the easiest way to stop it entirely is the boiling point. So if you find yourself with an armload of freshly picked corn, blanch the excess and freeze it rather than leaving of in your crisper drawer (or worse on the counter!)
Blanching Method
Drop shucked and cleaned cobs into boiling water for five minutes. Reomove the corn to an ice bath, cool completely to arrest cooking, then dry, wrap in plastic, bag on a zipper bag and freeze.
Once you've gotten your freezer packed, and whenever you're hankering for the fresh flavor of corn, drop into boiling water for 2 minutes or bring to room temperature and shave off the cob with a knife for fresh kernel flavor. You may be tempted to dekernelize your corn before freezing, but don't, it won't keep nearly as well as freezing it right on the cob.
The Slightly Whackadoo Chemical Method
There's a plan out there for food geeks who don't see the point in freezing when chemicals can do the job. According to Alton Brown in an episode of Good Eats, by adding some lime and a tiny bit of bleach, you can effectively deactivate starchifying corn enzymes right in your kitchen sink. That's all I'm going to say about that for now.
Corny Story
Once corn leaves it's stalk, nothing good happens. Enzymes (see title) in the corn get to work converting the delicious natural sugars into starch. After just a few hours, your corn could be well on its way to what my dear old grandma used to call 'horse corn'. Yummmm!
Refrigeration slows the process, but the easiest way to stop it entirely is the boiling point. So if you find yourself with an armload of freshly picked corn, blanch the excess and freeze it rather than leaving of in your crisper drawer (or worse on the counter!)
Blanching Method
Drop shucked and cleaned cobs into boiling water for five minutes. Reomove the corn to an ice bath, cool completely to arrest cooking, then dry, wrap in plastic, bag on a zipper bag and freeze.
Once you've gotten your freezer packed, and whenever you're hankering for the fresh flavor of corn, drop into boiling water for 2 minutes or bring to room temperature and shave off the cob with a knife for fresh kernel flavor. You may be tempted to dekernelize your corn before freezing, but don't, it won't keep nearly as well as freezing it right on the cob.
The Slightly Whackadoo Chemical Method
There's a plan out there for food geeks who don't see the point in freezing when chemicals can do the job. According to Alton Brown in an episode of Good Eats, by adding some lime and a tiny bit of bleach, you can effectively deactivate starchifying corn enzymes right in your kitchen sink. That's all I'm going to say about that for now.
Saturday, August 9
Lemon Cucumber
Never heard of it? Neither had I until it turned up at my local market, the Bi-rite. They're almost the size of tennis balls, and plumply shaped as slightly elongated globes. They've got some tiny black dots on the outside, and they taste like a cucumber except perhaps a bit lighter and less vegetal.
The great thing about lemon cukes is that you don't have to peel them! I know it seems like a small thing, but it's still a cool thing. The skin is very soft and fully edible. You get an nice cucumber flavor and snap, but the texture is a bit silkier and juicier than the familiar English variety.
Cucumbers with Sesame
Want something new to do with cucumbers? My dad recently went to France came back with this one for me. I made it with the very lemon cucumber shown here in less than 10 minutes. You can also do it with a regular english cucumber, just be sure to peel.
How to Make Sesame Wheels
Take a few tablespoons of sesame seeds and toast them in a pan until light golden brown. They become scented and slightly darker. Take care not to overdo them, once they get to toasting temperature they go quickly!
After the sesame seeds have cooled to room temperature, mix in a bit of salt and blend thoroughly. Next, slice your cucumber and simply press both sides into the sesame seeds. That's it! And it's fabulous and super easy.
Pile them up on a plate, serve with a nice chilled Sauvignon Blanc and you're set for an afternoon of relaxing, sesame adventure.
Tuesday, July 22
Two Women Who Rock
I've been a bad blogger for the past month as I took some time off and got my thoughts together about what to eat next! As I looked around, I found some very cool video podcast resources that I want to share! Disclaimer: I have not had any contact with either of these fabulous women nor their website distributor!
Cocktails
The first set of v-casts are by the Orbit Room's sensational mixologist Alberta Straub. She's no longer at the Orbit Room, and to be honest, I've been totally unable to track her down! If anyone knows of her whereabouts, please clue me. I'm into Alberta, and would love to know what's she's up to!
Here's a couple of links to some of her v-casts. Some of them are techniquey, some are recipe oriented. The thing about her podcasts, while they're somewhat uneven and confusing from a creative standpoint, you really get the sense of how she approaches flavors and combining ingredients to make something fabulous! She's the real deal.
http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/cocktails-on-the-fly
Food Science
The second set are by a ridiculously spunky food science aficionado named Dr. Kiki. She's very bubbly and funny, but all of that barely masks a seriously brainy, hard core scientist who knows what she's talking about!
She's a prof at UC Davis, and somehow did these food science video podcasts. The content is a bit roughly presented and sort of uneven in depth (she could use some better writing!), but there are some amazing gems of information and she's a delight to watch getting all serious about teflon, the maillard reaction and my favorite, how to make your own home-grown ginger ale! She literally makes fresh ginger ale in a soda bottle. I love Dr. Kiki!
http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/food-science
Check out these vids. You won't be disappointed.
Cocktails
The first set of v-casts are by the Orbit Room's sensational mixologist Alberta Straub. She's no longer at the Orbit Room, and to be honest, I've been totally unable to track her down! If anyone knows of her whereabouts, please clue me. I'm into Alberta, and would love to know what's she's up to!
Here's a couple of links to some of her v-casts. Some of them are techniquey, some are recipe oriented. The thing about her podcasts, while they're somewhat uneven and confusing from a creative standpoint, you really get the sense of how she approaches flavors and combining ingredients to make something fabulous! She's the real deal.
http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/cocktails-on-the-fly
Food Science
The second set are by a ridiculously spunky food science aficionado named Dr. Kiki. She's very bubbly and funny, but all of that barely masks a seriously brainy, hard core scientist who knows what she's talking about!
She's a prof at UC Davis, and somehow did these food science video podcasts. The content is a bit roughly presented and sort of uneven in depth (she could use some better writing!), but there are some amazing gems of information and she's a delight to watch getting all serious about teflon, the maillard reaction and my favorite, how to make your own home-grown ginger ale! She literally makes fresh ginger ale in a soda bottle. I love Dr. Kiki!
http://www.onnetworks.com/videos/food-science
Check out these vids. You won't be disappointed.
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