Tuesday, September 22, 2009

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

Monday, September 14, 2009

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

Saturday, September 12, 2009

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

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

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