Saving at the Supermarket

The past month, using specials and coupons, I've been saving between 20 and 45 per cent at the supermarket. There's 3 pounds of butter in the freezer (yes, butter freezes, and no, I wouldn't even consider using margarine for holiday baking.) No how, no way.

We've been loading up on "winter stores," because here in the New England a blizzard may surprise us, and we want to have 4 days food in the house. I've got a plastic bin full of good stuff to eat, and in April, when all danger of storms are past, we eat it up.

We're been buying BOGOS (buy one get one) and specials like flour, sugar, and raisins for the holiday baking. I began it yesterday with some shortbread with cocktail nuts roasted, chopped and pressed into the dough. The sweet-salty combo is really good.

I splurged and got some phyllo dough on sale, to make some cheese twists to take to a party. Hoping the recipe will make many, as they can be frozen.

What I've been busy with mostly is upgrading my computer--transferring the data from a dying Dell to a sparkly new Mac Mini. And Christmas shopping on Craig's list. By the way, magazines, which can frequently be got quite reasonably. will be a yearlong gift.

Finding supermarket sales and using a coupon will save you big. And of course you recycle your grocery bags and take the reusable ones you buy for a dollar. And shop places like Building 19 and the Ocean State Job lot--these are Boston area stores that have Good Stuff Cheap.

If a few days, I'll scare up the shortbread and cheese twist recipes. It's always nice to take something homemade to a party if you're any kind of cook at all. If you aren't, pick up a bottle of wine. The newspapers always have articles about good buys in good wine. Clip the article.

Be frugal, but don't sacrifice good taste. If nobody eats it, then you haven't saved nuthin'.

Happy Holidays,

The Cheeseparer

Salmon Croquettes

I came to eating in diners in adulthood, and to my surprise, one of the items of diner food I found delicious was salmon croquettes. There are no diners nearby, and sometimes I get a hankering for salmon croquettes.

This week's were the best. The one pound can of salmon came from Ocean State Job Lot, and it cost around $3.55. I found an old powdered Hollandaise sauce in the spice drawer and made it. Didn't exactly taste like fresh-made Hollandaise, but it tasted o.k.

Here is the recipe. Best I've ever eaten. Note: I used more salmon than the recipe called for.


Salmon Croquettes
Yields 12 Servings 8 oz Canned Salmon
1 small Onion, Chopped Fine
1 1/2 Cups Cooked Potato, Mashed
- Salt
- Pepper
1 tsp Curry Powder
1 Whole Egg, For Glazing
2 Tbls Parsley, Chopped
1 Egg Yolk, Lightly Beaten
1 Tbls Lemon Juice
1/4 Cup Milk
- Dry Bread Crumbs

Drain the salmon.
Remove the bones.
Flake the salmon into a bowl.
Add the chopped onion, mashed potato, curry powder, parsley, lemon juice,
lightly beaten egg yolk, salt and pepper.
Mix thoroughly.
Refrigerate until firm.
Mold the salmon mixture into croquette shaped (1" x 2") ovals.
Combine the whole egg with the milk.
Dip the croquettes into the mixture.
Dip the coated croquettes into the bread crumbs, press on firmly.
Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oil in the deep fryer.
Deep fry until golden brown.
Drain on paper towels.
Serve hot.


This recipe is from New Zealand. The web site is: http://www.binary.co.nz/salmon.html#1

Mega yum. The curry adds a je ne sais pas. I use a hot curry powder, so I only added 1/2 teaspoon. It was perfect. I also used part panko, part regular bread crumbs. The only down side of the recipe is that the house reeks from the cooking oil. Tonight I opened the kitchen window, so maybe tomorrow will be better. I used Instant Mashed potatoes made with butter and low-fat milk. The potato gives them a lightness not ordinarily associated with croquettes.

Serve with Hollandaise or a white sauce. A bit of bechamel would be nice.

Way to go, New Zealand! Serves 4 people with leftovers or 4 very hungry people.

The Cheeseparer

Frugality Fatigue and some recipes

Today, a Boston Globe writer discussed something called "Frugality Fatigue" and how it seems to be creeping up on a lot of us. Tired of cheese paring? Me, too. However, we have been coping quite well with our little strategems, and I would hate for them to fall by the wayside and for DEBT to read it's ugly head.

Have you noticed that people who sell goods and services are nice these days? Isn't that nice?

I have devised a way to get a free meal. We are now buying chicken breasts with the skin and bone on them. I poach them with aromatic vegetables (onion, celery, carrots) and fresh herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme!!!) When the breast is cooked, I remove it, let it cool and return the skin, fat and bones to the cookpot. I cook the broth down somewhat to let a flavor develop. When I remove the bones again, there's always a bit of meat here and there. I save these bits. Sometimes it's almost a cup. Strain the broth. By now, it's lovely. Now you have the makings of chicken soup. Saute an onion, some chopped carrots, more celery and herbs and add your chicken broth. Voila! This week I had some mushrooms and spinach to toss in. It's kind of a clean-the-veggies-out-of-the-fridge before they become past prime. A sun dried (not in oil) tomato enriches the broth. At the end, I cook some small pasta, ditalini or orzo will do. We usually get dinner and a lunch. Costs practically nothing. Nourishing, tasty.

Yum!

Brunch and other meals

Feeding houseguests always presents a challenge if you have to deal with food dislikes, time in the kitchen and budget considerations. We did this recently with a fair amount of elegance. Main courses were tortilla soup, pot roast, and seafood marinara. The pot roast covered two meals, and no one ever complains about leftover pot roast and gravy. I cooked fresh vegetables each night. Root vegetables: carrots, parsnips, potatoes and onions are cheap, as is celery. Loads of parsley from the garden. All you need is a salad.

The seafood marinara (pictured) had limited quantities of seafood and was served over pasta, so that worked out well. I went to a first rate fish market and bought scallops untreated with chemicals and large (not giant) shrimp.

Below is the brunch dish I served. Notice it calls for bread, milk, eggs and sausage, none of which break the bank. Neither are prunes gold-plated. It serves a lot and tastes great. We buy maple syrup at the Ocean State Job Lot and use it sparingly. Enjoy!

Raisin-Bread Strata with Sausage and Dried Plums

8 – 10 servings

1 pound bulk breakfast sausage ( I used pork, turkey will work)
8 large eggs
4 cups whole milk
1 ½ t. salt
¾ t. ground black pepper
1 16 ounce loaf sliced raisin-cinnamon swirl bread, each slice halved on the diagonal. (Pepperidge Farm makes a good raisin cinnamon swirl).
18 dried pitted plums (prunes) each cut into 3 pieces

Pure Maple Syrup

Sauté sausage in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until brown and cooked through, breaking up with back of fork, about 6 minutes. Using slotted spoon, remove sausage to bowl; cool.
Butter a 13 x 9 x 2 inch glass baking dish.
Whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper in medium bowl. Arrange half of bread in bottom of prepared dish with bases of triangles facing in same direction. Scatter half of sausage, then half of plums over bread. Arrange remaining bread in dish with triangles facing in opposite direction. Scatter remaining sausage and plums over. Pour milk mixture over; press on bread to submerge. Cover and chill overnight.
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Place strata on rimmed baking sheet. Bake uncovered until strata is pulled and golden and knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let stand 10 minutes. Cut strata into squares and serve with maple syrup.

From Bon Appetit

Salpicon

We've been on a two-meals a day soup/salad binge with occasional "regular" meals. Last night we cooked a roast beef (not prime rib, not sirloin, just a plain 'ol roast beef like your old fashioned mother might have served for Sunday dinner) on the barbecue.

This was an inspired way to cook. First I marinated in red wine, olive oil, onions and garlic for 12 hours. Then I dried the meat off and sprinkled it heavily with Penzey's Barbecue of the Americas rub. Yummo!

My Significant Other prepared the grill, half hot, half less so. On the hot side over the coals he browned the roast on all sides, then rolled it over to cook on "indirect" heat for the remainder of the cook time. We took it out when it was medium, a thing of beauty.

http://www.penzeys.com/

This was way beyond your mother's Sunday dreams. We also grilled zucchini and summer squash along with a red pepper. In the oven, I baked some thick (unpeeled) potato slices in olive oil and chopped fresh herbs from the garden.

It was one of those meals where extreme discipline was required so as not to make a pig of oneself.

Tonight, I took 1/2 pound of the roast and cut it into small cubes and made salpicon, a delicious south of the border salad, that alas, you won't often find on a menu.

Here is a recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Salpicon-Spicy-Mexican-Beef-Salad-65156

I took a short cut with the meat, (see above) and added finely chopped cucumber, green onion, tomato, jalapeno and Colby Longhorn cheese and Monterey Jack cheese (4 oz. each).

Mix together the juice of one lime, 1/3 cup salad oil and plenty of salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the other ingredients. Serve on a bed of lettuce dusted with good quality chili powder and more minced scallions.

It's a winner. We ate it with some corn tortillas I fried up. You only eat corn tortillas, right? Flour tortillas are a tasteless abomination and belong with astroturf and the wave.

Note that the Salpicon uses only inexpensive, easily found ingredients!
Paring more cheese,

The Cheeseparer

Tasty Vegetarian

Chances are, meat, produce and dairy are your biggest expenditures at the grocery store. By cooking vegetarian once or twice a week, you can cut out the meat expense. Last week, mozzarella and cheddar (already grated, yet) were on sale, as was broccoli and eggplant.

This week, we're having Eggplant Parmegiana and Cheddar-Broccoli soup. Both entrees are heary fare that only needs a salad and perhaps a soupcon of dessert to make a complete meal. The cheese is full of calcium and also has protein, and the soup uses milk as well.

Some homemade French bread would be fantastic. The cool fall days and nights call for something hearty, but hearty doesn't have to always be meaty. I'm thinking chili weather will be here soon.

I'll give you my two fave chili recipes. Chili is economical, too, and you can make it so many ways. I like both beef and chicken. White chili rocks. I ate it for the first time in Wisconsin and it was such a revelation.

It is true. Travel is broadening. With the sour cream and cheese, that statement is true in multiple ways.

The Cheeseparer

I Love BOGOS

Buy one, get one! That's the long way of saying, BOGO!

Today Roche Brothers had a BOGO on beef roasts. I got two, and cut one in half before I froze it. We'll cook one (indirect heat) on the grill sometime this fall. It will easily feed four or maybe more if we don't make pigs of ourselves. Served with lots of grilled vegetables, it's really tasty.

The other roast, the free one, if you will, I cut in half. I'll make bouef bourgignon with one half and goulash soup with the other. That should provide 8 servings. So if we figure 14 servings for $13.00, that ain't bad. And for lean, good quality protein. Plus unlike tofu, it actually tastes good. Have you ever noticed that tofu doesn't really taste like much of anything. You have to just season the hell out of whatever you're making. Szechwan peppercorns do well. Beef only needs salt and pepper, but the wine stew and the goulash soup will be loaded with flavor and veggies and the heartiness that we usually omit for summer main dishes.

I'm making a "diet" chicken pot pie this week, and I'll let you know how it turns out. The "Pie" part is potatoes mashed with low-fat Greek yogurt. The remainder is chicken breast and veggies and sauce. It came from either Gourmet or Bon Appetit, so you know that it's good. Well, we hope.

Onward. We're going to a neighborhood barbeque this evening, and the fare will not be diet. Yum! Licking my chops already.

The cheeseparer

I dreamt I went to Moscow with my cast iron skillet

Dreams are just incredibly weird. A few nights ago, I dreamt I was to take a bus to Moscow. I arrived at the bus stop carrying my big (heavy) 12-inch cast iron skillet. But no pocketbook, as we say in New England. I ran home to get my pocketbook, but instead, mysteriously arrived at the bus stop with my small non-stick skillet. The bus looked like a two-car MBTA trolley, and the first car was crammed to the gills with a bunch of standees, but the second car was half-empty.

I guessed the standees were friends who wanted to stay together. I ran home again to get my pocketbook, and that was the end of the dream.

A cast iron skillet will last your lifetime and the lifetime of your kids and their kids. It is one of the best investments you'll ever make. Sometimes you can find them at tag sales or swap meets. A cast-iron dutch oven isn't bad either.

Nothing fries a chicken or makes corn bread as good as a cast iron skillet. Once you get it seasoned, you're in business, and never heed the twaddle about not washing it with detergent, blah-blah-blah. I use soap in mine all the time and it never needs reseasoning. It also doubles as a wok and can withstand high heat.

The heaviness of the skillet works your arms, never a bad thing.

No wonder I was taking mine to Moscow. Sears used to sell them, maybe still does, as do hardware stores. The iron that leaches out of the skillet is also good for you.

A frugal find!

The Cheeseparer

The Ingredient Trap

An old Bon Apetit had a yummy sounding summer main dish salad using spinach, grilled chicken and tomatoes.

In spite of the blight here in New England, there have been some good tomatoes. We are always more or less on a diet, and main dish salads are a wonderful treat in the summer.

I found the chicken on sale, and the tomatoes on sale, too. So far, so good. I got a shell of baby spinach, a red onion and waltzed over to the cheese department to get some feta in olive oil and herbs. I mean, it was feta. How much could it cost?

The recipe called for 10.5 ounces. 5 ounces were $5.99. Ooops! I bought one container, not two, and poured some of its oil into some plain crumbled feta from the fridge. It occured to me that I could use my own olive oil, herbs from the summer garden, garlic and peppercorns to make the pricey feta in oil.

The salad was delicious, even with half the cheese. Eat it with breadsticks and enjoy. Tonight for dinner, we're having a banana clafouti for two. Guess what? Bananas were on sale.

I find that by careful shopping and planning with the weekly specials, I can save between 20-30 per cent on my trip to the supermarket.

Cucumbers were also on sale, and we have several salads with cukes, tomatoes, dressing and chopped cilantro and parsely. Nothing beats having herbs in the garden. The green beans have been good, too. Cherry tomatoes ripening at last.

I had a disaster last sprint with the cherry tomatoes, and in bringing them home I broke off the plant from the root. Eeek! I rerooted the plant. Tried to grow the old root, too, hoping it would send out shoots. It didn't, but the plant rerooted nicely, just a month or so behind schedule.

Our Joe Pye Weed has been blooming like crazy. It's a tall perennial with purple blossoms that the butterflies and the hummingbirds love. I got a new hummingbird feeder that uses old water bottles, so I've been saving them.

Pretty soon, I'll bring in the geraniums and the rosemary and root some coleus. In the spring? Free plants. My big hanging geranium has been going in and out for six years now.

Cheese paring looks smart when the garden has lush blossoms that didn't cost a dime. The packet of nasturtium seeds also seems like a good buy.

Yours in frugality, beauty and good taste,

The Cheeseparer

The best summer dessert ever

I have been making this for at least three years. It's a free form tart that you make with a purchased pie crust (the kind from the dairy case), or if you are really into cheese paring, a bottom crust you make yourself. I do it in the food processor, and aside from getting the food processor and a couple of measuring implements dirty, it's fast, fast, fast.

After your bottom crust is made and rolled out (about the size of a well, a pie crust) take some ripe fruit and mix it with a little sugar and a little (approx. 1 T) tapioca. You need 1 1/2 to 2 cups of ripe fruit. Yesterday, I did blueberries and nectarines, but just about any in season fruit will do, and don't be afraid to try a mixture of 2 compatible fruits. Season with a little cinnamon or nutmeg or even a soupcon of almond extract depending on the fruit.

Place the bottom crust on a rimmed cookie sheet. Dump the fruit in the middle of the crust and fold up the crust (crimping attractively) until only 2-3 inches of fruit are showing. Brush the crust with egg-yolk mixed with a little water.

Put in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350-375 degrees. Bake another 20 minutes or until golden brown. My oven is on the cool side of the temperature gauge, but yours may be accurate.

This tastes like a fancy dessert, and even if you make your own crust it takes just minutes. Serves 4.

Berries and stoned fruit like peaches, apricots and nectarines are good. Pretty much anything. Thin slices apples with a few raisins or dried cranberries would work. Use your imagination.

The Cheeseparer

Chicken Green-Chile Casserole + Cherry Caflouti

This is a great recipe to serve a crowd. Toss a salad, and you're all set. I made my own chicken broth and added a little chile in adobo sauce for extra heat.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=550015

Tonight for dessert I made a cherry caflouti with in season cherries that were on sale this week. I caflouti is like a thin pancake batter with fruit. Pears, bananas--almost any fresh fruit will work in a caflouti. Cherries are classic. Again, serves 8. Cheap ingredients. I made the "lighter" version without cream and butter. It is rich enough. We can eat the leftover for breakfast. Yum! This dish is a French peasant dish! Egalite! Fraternite! Why is peasant food always so tasty?

http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/CherryClafoutis.html

We decided we were the only couple in Foxborough eating the Mexican main dish and the French peasant dessert, then we decided we were the only couple in the entire universe eating this meal. Diversity in the kitchen, as well as in the work place and the classroom, is a good thing.

The Cheeseparer

Blueberry Sauce

It's blueberry season and if you buy the frozen ones (on sale), then it's always blueberry season.

That means blueberry desserts, waffles, pancakes, and your very own blueberry sauce served on pancakes, waffles or even ice cream.

In a saucepan with a heavy bottom, stir 1/4 cup sugar and 1 T. cornstarch. Slowly add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup orange juice. Grapefruit or cranberry juice will also work, just something fruity. Grate in a little citrus zest. Orange or lemon are good.

Cook over medium heat until thickening, and keep stirring.

Add 1 cup of blueberries, more if you like, and continue to cook and stir until the sauce is the color of blueberries. The berries should be cooked but not mushy. You may add a pat of butter if you like, but it's not necessary.

I read the ingredients on a bottle of supermarket syrup, and just about gagged. Artificial crud to the max. Yech!

You can make orange, strawberry or even apricot sauce or syrup at home. So tasty. Adjust sugar as necessary.

Serve warm, and bask in the compliments.

Folks, on my last two supermarket trips, I have saved a total of $75.00. Not too shabby, huh?

I'm finding I do more and more shopping at Walmart, now, not just for cat supplies, but more household items and food items.

Yours in frugality and savings,

The Cheeseparer

Minestrone with Sausage

A few weeks ago our supermarket had a special on Italian sausage. It was $1.00 per pound or some ridiculously cheap price so I tossed a pound into the shopping cart and then into the freezer.

This week, being the end of the month and the money running out, I thumbed through my soup recipes to see what looked good. Keep in mind it's been cold and rainy here in New England, so hearty soup in June is not as weird as one might think.

I found a recipe from Penzeys spices catalog, Minestrone with Italian Sausage. The only things I had to buy were a can of tomatoes and a zucchini. Pare that cheese.

Listen, the soup was fab and I made my food processor bread, because you need to float a loan to buy good bread and this recipe makes two loaves. I used the new oven stone and it came out really well.

We have the remainder of last night's blueberry tart for dessert. Blueberries on sale, and again, too cheap to spring for the Pillsbury crust, so I made my own from the food processor cookbook and was it good! The tart looked and tasted scrumptious. Blueberries on sale this week, natch.

What more can I say? You don't need a lot of money to eat well. We had a salad of spinach from the garden, artichoke hearts from Ocean State Job Lot, and an on-sale tomato. Home made dressing again.

Yeah, I've had to spend some time in the kitchen, but the results have been spectacular. This is not fancy cuisine, just food. But it's tasty and mostly healthy.

By the way, what happened to rhubarb? Our store doesn't carry it this year, and the (young) clerk at another supermarket did not know what it was. She charged us the wrong price, too.

Have you noticed your groceries have not been, like properly bagged for years? The baggers are careful not to put the heavy food on the squashable food, but they load up our bags with two big bottles of cranberry juice, a half gallon milk and a half gallon of o.j. in one bag. I just about get a hernia taking it out of the trunk of the car. Even the manager does it. We said something once and got a VERY dirty look.

I would wring my hands and ask what are things coming to, but I have chores before the Red Sox game. Got to run.

the Cheeseparer
W

Cheap Trick

On Saturday, I saved $48.57 on a $93.36 grocery bill. 21 of the items were on sale. The savings broke down at $1.60 for coupons, Sales items $26.55, and BOGO savings $20.42.

Saturday's shopping involved several challenges. I only had $97.00 left in the grocery budget for the month. The store had some specials I needed to stock up on for houseguests arriving th second week in July. We needed meat for two meals.

I didn't buy any specials that I didn't need immediately or else for the guests. The guests have difficult to meat eating requirements. We don't even want to go there.

What we are eating. I had a package of chicken breasts, and we ate chicken piccata two nights, one night with grilled zucchini and lettuce from the garden, and the second night with corn on the cob and organic romaine hearts on sale at a good price. With the romaine, I could plan that I would use all the lettuce before leaving for the 4th of July weekend.

Last night we had petite sirloin on the grill, and I saved one of the steaks and a portion of a 2nd for steak salad (remember the romaine?) tonight. Cluster tomatoes were also on sale. Tomorrow I'm making a minestrone with Italian sausage, on sale two weeks ago. I bought zucchini and coleslaw mix for the soup, and one can of tomatoes.

Eating cheap does not mean forgoing food pleasures. Remember the steak! Cherries and blueberries were also on sale, and we had blueberry waffles yesterday morning and blueberry pancakes this morning. Sale bacon, of course. Some of the cherries went into a ricotta dessert last night. Tonight I may use the rest of the blueberries for a freeform tart. I'll be making the crust myself and baking some food processor bread tomorrow to go with the soup. I do hate to pay $4.00 a loaf for decent bakery bread. I can make the bread while dealing with the soup.

Thursday, en route to the holiday weekend locale, we're packing a lunch of chicken sandwiches on home made bread, cookies (on sale two weeks ago), chips, plums and coke on special last weekend. We'll eat better and faster.

Remember, eating cheap(er) doesn't mean yucko margarine and boiled cabbage. We had a delicious salad last weekend of cucumber, dill from the garden, and a dressing of plain yogurt and sour cream.

Menu planning and keeping a well-stocked pantry are your greatest helpers on the road to supermarket savings.

For instance, after the chicken piccata, we need capers. I'll haunt the job lot for a nice big jar at a fab price instead of paying through the nose at the grocery store. Capers (if you like them) add zest and flavor to a lot of dishes.

Everything is a balancing act between time, money, health and taste. It's a lot to consider, and you do have to plan ahead.

Yours in frugality,

The Cheeseparer

A summer salad: Tasty, Healthy, Cheap

This recipe makes a huge bowl, so tasty and good and even good for you. Fresh veggies add mouth and eye appeal, and a home roasted chicken adds even more taste and flavor.

I give it three stars!

Southwestern Chicken and Pasta Salad

Dressing:
2/3 cup vegetable oil 2 limes, juiced
2 TB. Southwest Seasoning 2 tsp salt (I used a little less)
1 ½ t. minced garlic

Salad:
16 oz. rotini pasta (any tubular pasta will do)
1 ½ cups whole kernel corn (I used 2 ears fresh and cut it off the cob)
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup red bell peppers, diced (1 medium)
¾ cup green onions, chopped
1 cup tomatoes – any kind of fresh will do

Recipe calls for 4 boneless, skinless breast halves sautéed in olive oil and sprinkled with the Southwest seasoning, but I used a roasted chicken (the breast, thighs and a little bit of other meat from the bones). Tear or chop chicken into bite sized pieces.

Mix dressing and set aside.
Cook pasta in lightly salted water. Drain and set aside. If you are using fresh chicken breasts, sauté them in oil with Southwest seasoning while the pasta is cooking. Otherwise, remove meat from bones of purchased roasted chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, combine pasta, corn, beans, bell pepper, green onions and tomatoes with the cooked chicken. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Prep time 15 minutes.
Cooking time: 20 minutes (for the pasta)

Serves 6-8 as main dish.

Southwestern Seasoning is from Penzeys. Mix your own Tex-Mex spice mixture if you like or order the original from www.penzeys.com

Yours in frugality and flavor,

The Cheeseparer

Paring Cheese in the Summer

So, we've revved up the smoker for salmon and kielbasa, a BOGO. This weekend we're entertaining, and I'm grilling a pork roast with a special slaw.

The lettuces, spinach and herbs from the garden have been paying big dividends, and the tomatoes are growing like weeds.

Corn is getting cheaper. Potatoes were on sale and I made a bistro potato salad with yukon golds and some onion. My husband gave me a slicer (Mandolin) that makes ultra thin slices and it's fab for onion and cukes. Makes the salads so suave looking. And thin slices use less of the vegetable.

I'm going to make Cuban sandwiches with he leftover pork. You need pork, ham, swiss cheese, crusty bread and pickles. A little garlicky mayo.

Ocean State Job Lot had all manner of picnic stuff today, so I bought paper plates, napkins, toothpicks, and plastic platters for another party. Water, too. The table will look lovely and summery with cheap stuff.

The Job Lot always has a lot of customers these days. No wonder. If you pick your recipes, and buy the store specials, you can always eat well at home. Grow your garden. The rewards are not just cheap produce, but the joy of gardening, and the relaxation of this kind of work. Believe me, it's so worthwhile.

Do It Yourself Mother's Day Steak House Dinner

Ruth Chris' steakhouse has recently offered a three course meal for $99 for two people. Add the $40 for drinks, the tip and the tax and the transporation and parking and you've topped off at $195.00. And this is the bargain meal.

Mother's Day, like Valentine's Day is the worst possible time to go out to eat. Too may people, bad service, screaming kids--what's to like?

Have yourself a wonderful feed for $30.00. I kid you not. Rib eye's were on sale this week, and I got two BIG ones for $11.35. This morning I used a Pillsbury pie crust ($1.69) filled with blueberries and blackberries to make a lucious dessert ($6.97 for the fruit.)

Baking potatoes purchased a while back, a big bag for $3.00, so figure $1.00 for two big potatoes. That includes butter, bacon bits and sour cream (all bought on sale). Add another $1 for incidentals, and the total comes to $30.00.

We are eating like kings, and Mom just has to cook the asparagus in the microwave and toss a salad. Potatoes bake themselves and Significant Other grills the steaks. The dessert took about 5 minutes after breakfast. It is a free form tart with the berries, sugar, lemon juice, apple pie spice and a bit of instant tapioca thickener. Looks lucious. Actually, if the two of us went out for this it would probably cost closer to $250.00. But these days, we wouldn't.

I washed 8 sweaters and a pair of good slacks, thereby saving $46.00, which will be more than enough to get all my winter coats cleaned. The sweaters look great. I wash them on hand wash and block on towels to dry. I due these two each and dry them on the washer and dryer.

One has to be a little clever and a little creative and pare a bit of cheese. By the way, Trader Joe's has great prices on cheese, and some of their crackers, esp. the flax seed ones are sooo delicious. Discover your inner cheese parer.

When I was a young woman, a couple got married and the wedding reception was in the hotel basement or at the bride's house. Talk about cheap! Weddings, birthday parties, all sorts of events have gotten out of hand. We can still have fun and enjoy our friends while we spend a fraction of the money we formerly did. Build frugal habits for a lifetime.

The Colonel's Beer Butt Chicken- With Attitude

Whole chickens were 99cents a pound this week. It's grilling weather. Read on.

The Colonel's Beer Butt Chicken
1 - 3 to 5 lb. whole chicken3 - 12oz cans of beer (Your favorite kind)Seasonings: Any, All or None of the following
· Salt
· Pepper
· Garlic
· Soy Sauce
· Cajun Seasonings
· Hot Sauce
· Lemon
· Seasoned Salt
· Lemon Pepper
· Poultry Seasoning
· Cayenne Pepper
· (Basically use what you like.)
Open one of the cans of beer.......DRINK. (Fun already, huh!) Wash chicken well andremove giblets. Drain. Now rub your choice of spices inside and out. Open the second canof beer.......and insert it into the Southbound end of a Northbound chicken. Youknow, where the chicken's sun don't shine. The beer and the chicken will beable to sit upright on your grill, and that's the position you want. Cover and barbequethe chicken over a low flame (about 350 degrees) for 2-3 hours.
Wiggle the joints of the chicken's leg to check doneness. When the leg wiggleswithout any resistance, the bird is done. Remove the can of beer from thechicken. The beer should be evaporated down to a half a can of beer or less.
Enjoy your dinner with that last beer (if you're not driving) and BBQ sauce onthe side. Also goes great with baked beans and potato salad. Yum!!
Copyright © 1997, Colonel St. James

The Colonel's Homepage

Road Warriors

No doubt about it, travel isn't cheap, but there are always economies, large and small that will pare some dollars off your trip.

We're driving from Boston to NYC on Tuesday. For two, with the price of gas down and an economical car, driving is still the cheapest. We park on the street and observe the NYC rules.
We also stay with a friend, which will shave at least $600 off the trip for hotels. If we had to pay for a hotel, we probably wouldn't go. Our friend also serves breakfast and one dinner. We take her to dinner one night and split the meal on the third night. She has a museum membership, so we get into MOMA for $5.00 each intead of the regular rate.

We'll also save $20+ dollars taking our lunch. I'll broil/bake a chicken breast on Monday. We make sandwiches, take potato chips, cookies, fruit and something to drink. A commuter cup brimming with coffee. The chicken, chips, cookies and fruit were all on sale. We have soft drinks in the fridge left from a house guest.

You get the idea. A trip that would cost over $1000.00 is accomplished for a couple hundred. I take busses or the subway whenever possible in Manhattan. More savings. If the distances aren't too great, walk.

When you're looking at the weekly specials, consider what you may already have in the freezer/pantry and plan your meals. This cuts way down on the weekly groceries. You do shop the specials?

I found a cheap pizza stone at the Williams Sonoma outlet which will make doing our own pizzas even easier. Homemade pizza rocks. It's not dirt cheap, but if you shop for sales in the grated cheese section, you'll do all right. Italian sausage is on sale frequently. Pepperoni can be purchased in SMALL quantities at the deli. No need to buy huge amounts. Tomatoes and broccoli were on sale today. Hey, that's a good topping. You keep pepper flakes on hand, don't you? Spices, while costly, add so much interest and flavor to food.

I buy ALL my spices on line at http://www.penzeys.com/. Once you're a good customer, they send freebies with each order. You can also order very small or very large amounts, depending on your level of use. I grow sage, chives, oregano,mint,dill, cilantro,parsley, and basil. Nothing beats tomatoes with thin slices of fresh mozzarella and chopped basil with a little EVOO. Once tomato season is here, all you buy is the EVOO (from Ocean State Job lot) and the fresh mozzarella. Yum!

Can hardly wait for summer. It's 72 degrees south of Boston today, and I'm going to plant spinach and beets today. Get that garden going. Create your own compost. Coffee grounds encourage earthworms, something my mother taught me.

Pare that cheese!

23 Houseplants

How did I ever accumulate so many houseplants? I just counted twenty-three. We are wintering the geraniums over, which I've done for five years now. Saves buying new ones in the spring. I started with a beautiful hanging geranium which I couldn't bear to part with when autumn and the frosts came, so I hung it indoors. Cut it back and kept it fed and watered. It even surprised me by blooming a bit. The next year I either rooted cuttings or brought all the geraniums in. To a plant, they lived.

This year a friend told me to take cuttings of his coleus. I now have a great plant to put outdoors this spring, bushy and colorful. I kept the scented geranium indoors for two years. Houseplants attain sentimental value, particularly when one arrives on the heals of illness. I have a sansevaria that came that way and is 27 years old. It even bloomed once.

One Christmas cactus is even older. I rescued plants from offices when people left or were laid off. Maybe you can tell where this is leading. With a little (but not much) work and forethought, you can have lots of cheap plants, free plants. And this blog is all about cheeseparing.

Another thing I do is take some of the plants outdoors in the summer and put them on the porch. They really thrive in the moist New England air with some (not full) sun and frequent waterings.

This week I'll divide my dianthus, and I've already found a home for some of the divisions. A tray of seedlings are growing in the kitchen window. Last year we had the most fantastic heirloom beets. This year the garden will be geared more toward veggies except for a few big pots of flowers. A seed packet of nasturtiums always pays dividends.

It's always interesting to see what reseeds itself from year to year. If you aren't doing some gardening, even indoors in pots or containers, you're missing the boat. Food, flowers, nuturing and relaxation. What could be better?

The Cheeseparer

Cheap Vacations

The Cheeseparer has been paring cheese, vacation-wise. First in Washington, DC and then in Europe? Europe, you say? How can you pare cheese in Europe?

You can use frequent flyer miles if you have them, which is what we did. We flew off-season, and enjoyed some nice spring days in Germany. Who knew?

You can visit relatives if you have them, which is what we did. You can limit purchases to stuff that is cheaper in Europe, which won't be much, but we can home with a few treasurers: jam, mustard, plastic notebook sheets. Well, that's about all.

You can find hotels out of town where you can stay for 79 Euros including breakfast. No hair dryer and "Tricky Ricky" soap and shampoo (I am not making this up) but a big room and a good breakfast with the chickens crowing and the sheep bleating. How cool is that?

We found good buys on meals, too. A bratwrust in Thuringer on the street fills one up for the rest of the day and is cheap. If you need a bouquet to take your hostess, that is even more reasonable.

Of course if you have no miles or relatives, it would be best to stay home or whatever. We're having chicken and vegetable soup tonight. There are numerous good quick breads that can be made from Bisquick. We will also eat a fruit salad which is moderate and healthy. Don't ever discount your health.

I do hope you're going to plant a garden this summer, even if it's only a few patio tomatoes and some pots of herbs. We'll discuss this in more detail in a few weeks.

By the way, I actually stood in the kitchen where the photo for this blog was taken.

The Cheeseparer

Use What's On Hand

Do you have ingredients on hand leftover from your Christmas baking? You do bake for the winter holidays, don't you? I will be really upset if you buy store bought cookies loaded with everything but flavor. Get thee behind me, transfats.

I was in a mood for dessert last week, and we didn't have any cookies. Thought I might bake some, but I told myself I couldn't go to the store. Thumbing through the cook books, and guess what I found? Chocolate pecan pie?!

Zowsa! I had everything or I could do an easy no-brainer substitution. It was soooo good. And we were good, too. We sliced it into ten slices and had 5 days worth of desserts. At no cost. The chocolate and pecans were still on hand from Christmas. It was rich; it was delicious and the price was right. If you have butter, sugar and flour on hand, you can always make shortbread. A few nuts or raisins or dried cranberries and your options expand.

So: stay away from store-bought and bake cookies or pies. Life will be good.

Paring Cheese Tonight

The supermarket had breakfast sausage links for $2.89 a pound. I found a BOGO on cherry tomatoes. Two nice-sized potatoes left from the 5 lb. bag I bought a while back. We're on for dinner!

I make cherry tomatoes fines herbes. I still have my rosemary growing in the living room window, and I dried oregano from the garden. Add to that, dried chives, thyme and chervil with a couple of finely chopped scallions and some olive oil and we're good to go. The tomatoes brighten any table and are even good for you. What's more amazing they have FLAVOR!

The sausage I fried in a non-stick skillet.

For the potatoes, I chop a small onion and a clove of garlic and put that to soften in some bacon fat. Then I chop up the potatoes and add them to the hot grease. At the end, I beat up two eggs and pour on top the potatoes and cook until done.

This is a tasty meal and we have enough sausage and tomatoes for breakfast tomorrow, along with the English muffin I forgot to toast tonight.

This week the New York Times had an article about how people have gone back to such stalwart old favorites as cube steaks. Remember cube steaks? They had a recipe and I was salivating. I used to cook cube steaks when my kids were little. Hey, the kids are gone, but the idea was tempting.

Today, Shaw's in Mansfield had cube steaks--a generous package and it was a manager's special with $3.00 off. Couldn't resist. Looks like it will make two dinners. They had mushrooms for a dollar, so I grabbed a package of those, too, to saute and serve on the cube steak.

Cheap eats can be both quick and tasty. The cherry tomatoes would also be great with the cube steaks. And we have a nice acorn squash which wasn't cheap.

It's hard to save on produce, so one has to bite the bullet sometimes. I'll let you know how the cube steaks tasted.

We're been getting adequate beef (and therefore zinc) all winter, and so far, no one has been sick although we've been exposed plenty and we take public transporation. (see prior post)

Friday night the Green Line of Boston's MBTA was packed so tightly that if someone had sneezed, twenty-four people would have caught cold.

Wash your hands and eat some beef. It doesn't have to be a lot and it can be nice and lean.

The Cheeseparer

Cook At Home versus Eat Out

Before the economy tanked, we ate out about once a week, everywhere from The 99 to upscale downtown Boston haunts. Now we eat out half as often, and we're very choosy about where we drop our dimes. Would they were only dimes!

Of course for the cook, fewer meals out means more work: shopping, food prep and (Yuck!) clean up. However, the right attitude and compiling the savings can work wonders. Instead of our weekly meal out, we have a nice, FAST dinner at home.

Last night we had scallops, and I have to tell you that instead of paying $120.00 (food, 2 glasses of wine, tax and tip), we spent about $20.00 for everything. The most expensive item was 3/4 pound of scallops for $12.07. I could have eeked by with 2-3 ounces less. We had scallops provencal (from the Food Network recipe of the Barefoot Contessa), fresh buttered broccoli, herbed rice, and mesclun salad with cucumer and tomato. We each had a glass of red wine. I calculate the whole meal cost less than $20.00.

The whole dinner went together in a half hour, and I had two pots, a skillet and the salad bowl to clean up. Not too bad.

Steak is another option, especially when it's on sale. Asparagus is on sale this week. I buy Basmatic rice in five pound bags, and it lasts for ages.

We would have had leftover valentine's day port wine ice cream, but the scallops were really filling. All that lean protein. Great herbs in the rice. Yum!

A roast chicken is also a good option, as is shrimp. All can be low cost healthy fare.

I believe in red meat twice a week winter and summer for keeping your immunity high. This is my RX for getting through winter, especially. That and a flu shot and washing one's hands regularly. Sleep a lot. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and veggies.

When oranges are on sale, we stock up. An orange sliced on a bed off lettuce with a drizzle of dressing makes a great salad. Add a few slices of avocado and yowza! I don't buy avocados when they are 2 bucks a pop.

Avocados were 4/$5 at the supermarket yesterday. We get two meals out of one, which puts it into the cheap range. Healthy oils, too. Do not neglect healthy oils.

If you have an ice cream maker, you can enjoy premium ice cream, sherbet, ice milk and frozen yogurt for half of what you pay in the store, and so much better. It makes a very special dessert.

Tonight I am taking a lemon poppyseed cake to a potluck. It will cost less than $2 to make, and serves 12. Pick your recipes.

By the way, I am very big on Penzey's Spices. http://www.penzeys.com/ Penzey's has a great web operation, catalog and some stores. The best thing is that you can buy spices in all sizes from minute amounts to big jars depending on your individual use. Or without jars. They have some great rubs and mixed blends for marinades and grilling.

Once you're a customer, you get a free sample in each order. The vanilla and peppercorns are soooo reasonable, and the prices make up for the postage. Be really smart and split an order with a friend or two or some folks in the office.

Living cheap is living creatively. It can even be fun. And definitely tasty.

I'm making cauliflower soup with a curry flavor. We eat it an lunch with some breadsticks. Cauliflower was on sale. Buy chicken broth on sale and some good curry powder from Penzeys. You can also make your own curry powder if you have a fully-stocked spice cabinent. Remember, creative is the operative word. Pare that cheese

Bon Appetit!

The Cheeseparer

Winter is the Time for Cheap Eats

Along with snow, cold temperatures, icy roads and sidewalks, wet boots and mittens, winter offers possibilities for eating on the cheap.

First there is soup, made-from-scratch soup: pea soup, bean soup, lentil soup, chicken and noodle soup. Soup with sausage, soup with cabbage. Dark chili, white chili. Yum! Don't stop there, think of hearty stew! Nourish yourself and your family.

Beef stew, pork stew, goulash, coq au vin, and my god, there's pot roast! And ribs! When meat is on sale, stock up, especially the BOGOs. The Russian dish, bigos, is a winter dream as is the Russian soup, Shtshi. (google it!) Those Russkies know a thing or three about hearty winter fare.

Most of these dishes make a big pot or casserole and won't break the bank if you consider the number of portions and the fact that all you need is maybe a salad and some homemade bread. If you feel lazy, make biscuits out of Bisquick. Be creative. Corn bread is great with chili. Find the 300 year old recipe with no white flour and no sugar. It rocks!

Shop the specials! The photo is Boeuf Bourgignon, AKA Burgundy Beef, an excellent and reasonable choice for a dinner party. I cut up a roast that was on sale instead of buying the more expensive cut of meat. A dish for 8 cost about $20.00 including the wine. I only needed noodles (cheap) and a salad (red leaf lettuce and home made dressing) to complete the meal. Dessert was a home made mocha cake that I only had to buy a small bar of chocolate and some yogurt to make. Look around the pantry and use what is on hand.

Appetizer was bacon-wrapped breadsticks, another cost-paring choice. We have noticed that the burgundy cheese balls coated with almonds are almost always cheaper than anything else at the cheese counter. They're tasty, too.

Eating well is the best revenge. Cook from scratch. Less salt, less chemicals and better taste.

The Cheeseparer

Teach Frugality

Seen on the web:

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/01/12/2009-money-moves-teach-people-to-bake-bread/

I bake a no-knead food processor bread that requires only a bit of measuring and a thermometer for the warm water. It rises, it bakes and you eat. Makes two loaves. In the rare instance, that it becomes stale/hard you can make French toast or bread crumbs or croutons. Waste not, want not.

The Cheeseparer

The Ham Bone, Symbol of Eternity

Is it weird to blog a ham bone? Not the dance, but the real thing? The photo shows the ham bone just beginning to cook in the pot of bean soup. This is a frugal meal. Note large sprinkling of black pepper. Zowza!

We had a ham for Christmas instead of the prime rib roast beef that we usually cook. Actually, it was half a ham. Cost $14.00 instead of the $40+ dollars the beef would have set us back.
2 main meals for 3 people, then a few sandwiches, then ham for breakfast. After a few days, there was a big meaty bone and I removed enough for a ham and broccoli casserole--made with a cheese sauce and quite yummy.

Cooked the ham bone with some pea beans, lots of onion, garlic, some carrot and celery and a little fat (my bad!) and broth I'd saved from the baking of the ham. Add more chicken broth and a few springs of fresh rosemary and some dried thyme from the garden. Lots of black pepper. Yum! Cut the meat off the bone (ate some in the process) and had so much I put some aside for ham and eggs (2 meals as things evolved) and back went the chopped ham into the soup.

Died and gone to heaven. 8 servings, plus two breakfasts, and the casserole still to come. 4 servings there. Have we lost count? That $14 just keeps on giving. Double zowsa!

I think I've counted 32 servings here, folks. I've also got a good ham, potato and broccoli casserole recipe, but since we are in quasi-diet mode, I'll skip the potatoes.

So living it up with the ham has been a cheeseparing activity.

A wag once described eternity as "two people and a ham." My mom never saw the humor in that. She thought two people and a ham was great.

As ever,

The Cheeseparer

Couponing

Today's Boston Globe had beaucoup coupon sections in the Sunday supplements, but out of 4 sections, I only glommed on to 10 - 12 coupons. Most of them are not for food. Lots of vitamins and health "stuff," cosmetics, weird things I would never buy. And the food coupons are invariably for the most processed of foods. No one ever has $1 off on a bag of carrots, although I did have one tomato coupon this fall.

Sometimes you find canned soup or cleaning products, and some paper and plastic. Yogurt is often available by coupon. Haven't seen cat food for ages. It's not on sale either, but we did buy 24 cans and get $1 off on Fancy Feast. Such a deal. One kitty is diabetic and we try to buy cat food without glutins. It's weird standing in the cat food aisle looking for specific flavors (each with its own color). Kitty doesn't care.

The best deals, food-wise, are the BOGOs. Buy One Get One in retail parlance. Chickens and pork tenderloin are particiularly coveted, but just about anything I regularly buy is welcome. Of course bottles of Tabasco would be useless. We are entering a 5 Tabasco bottle marriage. That's a lot of years.

Most weeks I'm too lazy to shop the 3-5 supermarkets and cherry pick specials. I stay with my main store and bop into the others if I'm driving by or in the neighborhood.

We had a half-ham over Christmas and the bone with plenty of meat clinging to it will be utilized for bean soup this week. From scratch with the soaking of the beans. I add lots of onion, and some garlic and carrots. Always yummy. Don't forget the herbs.

Some recipes call for a Parmesan Cheese rind, but that implies that you buy a big mother of a Parmesan Cheese, not exactly a frugal purchase. (See Photo).

The Cheeseparer, paring away