Living Large In Lean Times

The New York Times today has a review of Clark Howard's book, Living Large in Lean Times.     Lots of advice to hanging on to your money, and according to the review, some good, some weird.   It's been on the best seller list for a while, so you should have no trouble finding it, and maybe you can even get it used on Amazon, a practice I resort to occasionally, because I see MY book out there for sale, especially in MA where we live.   Sauce for the goose.  If  you have intimations of "saving money" as a New Year's resolution, you might want to dip into this book. 


We returned from the grocery store with the Christmas roast, an expensive business to be sure, but no more than the organic turkey breast.  We've having broccoli, salad, potatoes and apple cake for the rest of the dinner, so only the roast is pricey.  


I'm making rice pudding from the old Betty Crocker cookbook.  No eggs, and it cooks to a  creamy, dreaminess that is so comforting without breaking the caloric bank.  Not always easy to do.  Old Time Rice Pudding


 Every week you should be saving 15-30% at the grocery store using coupons and specials.  Try to do that.  And try not to do what I did today, and buy a roll of heavy duty foil when I had just bought a new one.   Well, it was on sale and we'll use it next summer.  Cold comfort.   Do you turn the thermostat down at right?   And also if you leave the house for the day?  I hope so.    Paring cheese is  in the details.  No bargains on cheese at all in the grocery store.  Trader Joe's is the place for cheap cheese.  You may not even need to pare it.  


Happy Holidays to all.  Here is a photo of my mother-in-law with the Christmas goose, years ago, back in Germany. 

Free Food!

I once had a colleague who stated that the most beautiful words in our language were "free food."  And all the time I had been thinking those words were "cellar door."  


Whatever. We  had an  almost free meal tonight, and it's called turkey soup.  It only takes a few minutes to remove the last scraps of meat from a turkey carcass.  I froze it for later and later arrived.  I also saved the turkey fat and have been using it in my chili and various other dishes.  Almost like schmaltz, it was delicious. 
I used old scallions, an odd shallot, and some chopped onion.  Carrots leftover from last weekend.  A celery stalk purchased today.  Some baby bella mushrooms from Whole Foods.  They left you buy however many you need, not a whole box.  I cut up a small tomato and added that with some old cilantro and plenty of herbs and spices:  thyme,  oregano and paprika.  Some dried chives.  Added to cans of chicken broth, which were part of a BOGO  (buy one, get one).  I speak retail.  Salt and pepper, of course.  I cooked some small macaroni and added it when the soup was done.  This was good stuff.  Dinner for two (with seconds) and lunch for two.  Guilt free.  Lots of veggies.   I tossed in a couple of the "on the stem" Brussels sprouts from Trader Joes.  You  dare not use too many or it will taste like Brussels Sprouts soup.  '
We ate it with a salad of red leaf lettuce topped with  yellow cherry tomatoes and some "campari" tomatoes.  Both were on sale.  Good whole grain baguette. 
I am baking Christmas cookies and make some shortbread topped with mixed cocktail nuts.  You can't believe how easy this is and how fast.  I'll try to find the recipe.  Of course the nuts were on sale, too. Mixed Nut Shortbread- fast, easy and good

I saved $36. at the supermarket today. How much did you save? 

Meatless Monday

If you're like me, you view vegetarian recipes askance.  I was pleased to find one for our vegetarian guest at Thanksgiving, and lo, the good 'ol Boston Globe published another one recently.  This was a real winner.  Curried cauliflower and chick peas


It's your starch,  your protein and your veggie all in one spicy package.  I have a very hot Madras curry powder from Penzey's, so I only use 2 teapoons and it's plenty hot.  I had used my fresh ginger up earlier, so I substituted ground ginger and this was also fine.  Nothing tastes better with curry than (get ready) fried bananas.  And nothing is faster.  Allow one banana per person.  Slice in half longitudinally, and in half again if the banana wants to break.  Saute in a skillet in a little butter.  Turn once.  They cook REALLY quickly, and brown up nicely, too.  I also had a small salad, but you may not need to, depending on family preferences. 

We've had a hot appetizer recently that we've enjoyed several times.  Our supermarket sometimes has a BOGO on pork tenderloins.  This uses just one out of the package.  It could also be a main course.  Good for low-carb diets, too.  Not real spicy, but the spice combo is good.   Spanish Pork Skewers  Good for a company meal.  I have a tiny cast iron skillet that I brown the spices in.  I also have (purchased cheaply) a coffee grinder than I reserve for grinding spices.  A mortar and pestle is good for creating the garlic paste.  


Try something new today, either meatless or meaty.  Wake up your taste buds.  Don't forget to enjoy!

Shop 'til You Drop - - - Not!

Am I the only one who find's "Black Friday" a somewhat disgusting display of consumerism?   And what is with all the incidents at Walmart?   We are indeed Walmart shoppers for the cats, some grocery products, vitamins, cleaning products, and the like.  But pepper spray?   How ugly is that?  

  One Boston woman (who said she has little money) ran out and bought three TV sets.  I have to tell  you we only have one that works, with a second in the bedroom  that is not cable ready and probably should be junked.  Obviously we are weird.  But in a good way.  Weird in that we would not dream of sitting in line on a cold New England Night to buy an $18 waffle iron when we could be snug in a warm bed.  Waffle irons are on sale all year.  Unfortunately, the waffle iron that flips over into a griddle isn't made any more.   It strikes me that the people who buy $18 waffle irons are the ones who buy frozen waffles anyhow.  Personally, I like waffles made in my no-idea-how-much-it-cost-at-Kohls appliance with low-fat Bisquick.  I dump a lot of berries in them and sometimes use part juice instead of milk and they're delicious. 

Did  you get yesterday's Turkey Croquette recipe?  It's a winner.  We are having them tomorrow, too.  I love to cook for two meals.  You get a day off with just a vegetable and salad. 

There are NO ACORNS in New England this fall, and we've been feeding the squirrels the old Halloween pumpkins, the squash seeds from the Thanksgiving meal, and some corn.   Dry bread.  A relative brought a bushel basket of acorns from Long Island, and the little half-gray half-red squirrel busied himself with carrying a lot of them off.  I hope he thrives.  So small and cute.  I have a photo but not yet on the computer.  Will you settle for a cat wearing glasses?  This cat is smarter than those people who are up all night buying cheap stuff they don't need. 

Turkey Croquettes

You probably already have the ingredients in the house this week.  These are really good and hearty.  If you don't have any turkey gravy left, buy some.  Cranberry sauce (your own or canned) is a nice accompaniment as is a green vegetable or salad.  This is an ancient recipe from The Chicago Tribune.  I've been making it for years.  Start mid-afternoon to allow plenty of time. 

Turkey Croquettes:

3 slices whole-wheat bread, crusts off

1/4 cup milk

2 1/2 cups coarsely chopped turkey, white and dark meat

1 cup coarsely chopped onions

2 eggs,  slightly beaten

1 t. dried thyme

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 cups seasoned bread crumbs (I use seasoned Panko)

3 T. chopped Italian parsley

2 T. paprika

3 T. unsalted butter, melted

Corn or other vegetable oil

2 T. unsalted butter

Turkey Gravy

1.   Soak bread in milk for 10 minutes.  Remove bread, squeeze dry and shred.  Reserve.

2.  In a separate bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups turkey, reserved bread, onions, eggs. thyme, salt and pepper.  Toss well. Place mixture in a food processor (steel blade). Using pulse action, process until mixture is well-blended but not completely pureed. Fold in remaining 1 cup chopped turkey. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.

3.  Combine bread crumbs, parsley, paprika and melted butter in a 9-inch pie plate. Stir together with a fork.

4.  Shape chilled turkey mixture into 6 patties. Coat in bread-crumb mixture and return, covered, to refrigerator for 1 more hour.

5.  Place 1/3 cup oil and 1 T. butter in a large skillet. Over medium heat, cook croquettes 3 at a time 7 minutes on one side, 5 minutes on other side. They should be golden. (Keep warm in 300-degree oven.) Proceed with remaining croquettes, adding more oil and butter as necessary.

6.  Serve hot croquettes immediately with heated gravy on top.   

World's Second Best Stuffing Recipe

Now remember:  if it's not inside the bird, it's dressing.  It's not stuffing unless you, well, stuff it!    My mother made this.  Save the recipe for next year.  If you want to make it today, you are  in trouble.   All common ingredients, cheap to make, tasty, no weird stuff like mushrooms or oysters, so the kids will eat it and ask for seconds.  I buy the el cheapo stuffing bread and slice it. 

Earla's Old Time Potato Dressing (may also be eaten as we did in my childhood, as a stuffing). Ready in one hour.  Serves six or more.  From allrecipes.com by Lauren Buckner with a few changes by moi.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped fine
3/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup (or more) butter
1/4 turkey or chicken broth.  I'm using vegetable broth.
8 slices day old white bread, cubed with crusts removed
3 cups mashed potatoes (you can cheat and use prepared dry potato flakes to make 3 cups)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 t. poultry seasoning  (I'll used fresh thyme, summer savory, and the herbs that constitute poultry stuffing).
1 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 t. ground nutmeg (I always do fresh)

Directions:

1. In a skillet, saute onion and celery in butter until tender.  Remove from the heat; stir in broth.  In a large bowl, combine bread cubes, prepared potatoes, egg and all seasonings.  Sir in onion mixture.  If mixture seems dry, add more melted butter or broth. Transfer to a greased  2-qt. baking dish.  Cover and bake at 325 degrees F. for  40 minutes.  Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the top is browned and a  meat thermometer reads 160 degrees.  You can also put a little extra butter, salt and pepper on top and place under a broiler until browned and bubbly.

Hint:  put in a shallow dish and you will have room for the stuffing AND the turkey in the same oven.  A little extra onion or some shallots or green onion would not be amiss.

Farmhouse Curry

Due to the power failure and having to cook all the defrosted chicken breasts, we missed a whole grocery shopping circuit.  This week the aim was to a) do a moderate diet week, calorie-wise and b) not break the bank.  So far so good.  Whole chickens were on sale for 99 cents a pound and I bought one and roasted it with cumin and citrus last night.  Most delicious with acorn squash and broccoli, all on sale.
Today I took the rest of the chicken off the bone, after putting aside a leg and a wing for lunch.  My curry is made with onions, an apple, fresh tomatoes, chicken broth and chicken (would you believe all on sale?) along with lots of spices including, natch, curry powder.  Our curry powder is hot! therefore I only use a fraction of what the recipe calls for.  In this case, 2 teaspoons instead of 2 tablespoons.  It still had a bit of heat.  Served with white basmati rice, sauteed bananas, and some leftover broccoli from last night.  Lots of lean meat and veggies, and great flavor with very little fat, not always the case.

This recipe is from The Artist's & Writer's Cookbook, a volume I acquired in the early days of marriage, and the particular recipe is by Anthony Powell, whom I later knew as the author of A Dance to the Music of Time.  The book is long out of print, but it turns up here and there in various used book places. Artists & Writers Cookbook at Amazon 

We have enough curry left for tomorrow, so I have got 6 entrees and 1 lunch out of a $4.00 chicken.  Not bad.  And both meals were delicious.  Later on in the week we have some lean porkchops and 2 baskets of Brussels Sprouts, then some steak tips with carrots.  Iceberg lettuce was also on sale, along with the pork chops and Brussels sprouts.  I'm trying a new recipe with toasted pecans and dried cranberries.  Sounds yummy.

In the morning when I come downstairs the house will still smell of curry.  Indian food rocks! 

The Cheeseparer

Chicken Time

Chicken Breasts With citrus Pan Sauce 

We experienced another power failure (3 days this time) due to the storm that came roaring through last Saturday night.  As usual, the food in the freezer began to thaw after a couple days.  I had a fresh flank steak to cook, and also some unfrozen shrimp.  The following night we had the chicken breasts with citrus sauce.  Very tasty.  We ate some frozen broccoli and some frozen butternut squash with it.  Formerly frozen.  Formerly frozen ice cream is a mess, but still rather tasty. This is the 3rd food disaster, and you can only do what you can do.  This time we just shoveled the snow into the cooler, but the house was 50 degrees and we burned a huge amount of wood in the fireplace.  Cats parked themselves in front of it right away.  Not so dumb.

I made chicken soup yesterday with the other thawed breasts.  Added onion, noodles, carrots, celery, the formerly frozen peas and seasonings.   We ate it with Bisquik biscuits and a nice salad.  Enough for tonight.  One breast I merely cooked and re-froze.  You can do that, you know.

This is very aggravating.  The beautiful beech trees in our neighborhood took a huge hit.  Oak limbs all over our yard.  It's not so easy to use the grill when there's six inches of snow on the ground.  At least we have the gas stove top.  Those without gas are SOL.  We had hot water, too.  Well, it's a mess and everyone is getting fed up with National Off-the Grid, out hapless utility who seem to have forgotten the old adage:  plan ahead.

Do try the citrus chicken.  I  think it rocks.  I did this w/o using the oven, but the oven does it better.   As my Significant Other always says, in an emergency, the devil eat flies.    Whatever.

We'll have good cornbread with the 2nd meal of soup tonight, and then except for one ham steak and a re-frozen pizza, we're out of entrees.    Climate change is at hand.  I think we better get used to it.

The Cheeseparer

Green Eggs and Ham

We're having ordinary eggs and ham tonight.  An 8 oz. ham steak is a wonderful thing to have in the fridge or freezer.  They are frequently on sale.  For the two of us, I just fry up the steak and scramble some eggs.  If you have more than two, chop up the ham (not too finely) and toss it in with the eggs.

To make the meal a little special, yesterday I made some bacon and cheddar muffins.  Took half to a housebound friend, and popped the rest into the freezer for tonight and the future.  We also have a "special" salad of tomatoes, avocado and artichoke hearts, all purchased on sale as was the ham, the cheddar and the bacon. 

Ocean State Job Lot, in the New England area, has a wonderful food section with  lots of cheap stuff like imported pasta, artichoke hearts, capers, ethnic foods and all sorts of delicacies.   We shop there often.   They even have white asparagus and great imported saurkraut at bargain prices.

We got our flu shots today.  Did you get yours yet?    Many of the drugstores and even Walmart  are offering them to walk-ins.  Getting the flu and spending time away from work is not what you want to do.  I know of several people who have been laid off because they got sick.  Give yourself every advantage and stay well.  That also means eating plenty of fruits and veggies.  I buy bags of frozen berries and thaw a few out every morning for my cereal or on top of cottage cheese.  That and a glass of o.j., and you're on  your way to  5 produce helpings.  You can always have a few cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks for lunch--maybe some items from the olive bar. 

Didn't mean to preach.  Don't you get weary from being preached at concerning your diet?  Some of the foods recommended for weight loss make be gag at the thought.  I am not really a tofu fan, although it is o.k. is soups and stir fry (if there is a bit of meat, too).  Soup is a great way to get some extra veggies.  So warming on a winter day.  We woke up to snow on the ground this morning, but my nasturtiums seemed unfazed.  Had already picked some  coleus to root indoors and the four o-clock seeds (from the old plants) to use next summer. 

The scrounger as well as the cheeseparer

Whither the Poblanos?

I bopped into Shaw's Supermarket to pick up the on sale butternut squash, and decided to strafe by the International Foods.  There I found the Verde Sauce, and plucked a can from the shelf.  As expected, no poblanos.  Whither the poblanos, New England?

The curried butternut squash soup was totally 100% delicious, a vegetarian delight for meatless Monday dinner.  Yesterday I assembled my chicken enchilada ingredients.  Opened the Verde sauce and tipped the spoon into it.  Disappointment!  Sort of a metallic taste but not much true flavor.  Awfully thin, too.

Cheeseparer to the rescue.  I broiled my peppers: Anaheim, jalapeno and mystery, and peeled and seeded them.  Tasted the "mystery" pepper which the supermarket guy didn't recognize (New England, again) and didn't not know how hot it was.  It was hot, hot, hot, so I only used half.

Into my trusty Cuisinart went the so-so verde sauce, a big handful of fresh cilanro, the peppers, some  fresh from the garden dried oregano, and a pinch of cummin.  A judicious amount of salt and pepper.  Whirl away.

Tasted my concoction.  Spicy but flavorful, with some resonance, which the canned sauce alone lacked.  The enchiladas had the standard preparation.  Sauce in the bottom of the baking pan.  Stuffed with chicken, Mexican cheeses and a tablspoon of sauce. Rolled and placed in pan, and topped with remaining cheese and sauce.  Ran a little short of cheese and used a bit of Parmesan.  Cooking is an inexact art, except for baking.

Baked the enchiladas covered in foil for 35 minutes.  They were delish.  Served with refried beans from the can, just heated in a skillet, and a salad of tomatoes, lettuce and avocado.  A nice Mexican meal.

 The $4.50 chicken provided 6 main course servings plus a snack(leg) and a lunch (thigh).  I already had everything in the pantry except the green sauce.  Next time, I'll hope Whole Foods has tomatillos, or try MexGrocer.com for canned tomatillos.  Still don't know what that spicy yellow pepper was. Ideas?
Tonight is the rest of the meal, a duplicate of last night's.  Looking forward to it.

Keep a well-stocked pantry of provisions purchased when they are on sale.  Like the  99 cent refried beans and the grated Mexican cheese.  It can be used on other casseroles, too.  You can eat well and frugally.  Avocados and tomatoes were also on sale, as well the lettuce.  Hot peppers are cheap.

Cheeseparing to the max, even without poblanos.

The Yin and the Yang of Home Cooking

 We all know (or should know) that eating at home is cheaper and also nutritionally sounder than eating out all the time.  Yet, why is it so hard to plan menus, shop and prepare the food?

If we had unlimited time, budget and calories, then no problemo.  But who does?  Anyone who has time and budget constraints and a desire not to increase in girth has some real juggling to do. 

At Chez Cheeseparer, we have all these limits, plus we love food.  If you “ate to live” there would be one less ball to juggle.  Here’s how we go about it the process of shopping and cooking.

First, I pore over the weekly specials in the flyer of the stores where I shop most.  This helps with menu planning and money saving, because you can center your menu around the produce and meat sale items.  This week, for example, whole chickens and chicken breasts were on sale, as well as cranberries, all varieties of squash, pears and apples.  Oh yes, and avocados. 

Southern Cornbread

Puerto Rican Rice and Beans - yum!

I decided to roast a chicken on Sunday, and save the leftover for chicken enchiladas on Tuesday.  On Monday, we’ll have curried butternut squash soup.   Maybe on Wednesday, too.  An omelet on Thursday and I can scrounge in the pantry (always well stocked) on Friday.  Keep your eye on the calendar for nights where time is short (for us that’s Monday) or you’ll be eating out.  None of the my selections are complicated, and they are all tasty.  A cinch, right?

Wrong!  The store has no poblano peppers for the verde sauce for the enchiladas.  I make some substitutions but when I arrive in the Mexican aisle there are neither canned tomatillos and nor verde sauce.  I will have to go to another store.  On Tuesday, I’ll be in Wellesley and can stop by Whole Foods which will likely have poblanos, maybe even tomatillos and/or some canned tomatillos or sauce.  By now, I am mentally committed to enchiladas verde, one of my faves in the world of Mexican food. 

Tomorrow we will trek to Walmart before my soup coupons expires.  They sell for $1.50 per can what everyone else sells for $2.38.  Plus I can save 25 cents off per can with the coupon.  We had an expiring coupon for cat food at Petco today, too.  Thisbe is diabetic and has to eat “Atkins for kitties” food, low on carbs, high on protein.  I jump through hoops to get it.  

So what we have this week is a shopping time suck, a decent budget and moderate calories.  I have done pretty well, and we have replenished the pantry after a) Hurricane Irene and b) a two-week vacation.  The larder was pretty bare when we got home.   

Tonight we are eating the pictured meal, Puerto Rican rice and beans and homemade Southerns corn bread with stone ground corn meal, no white flour, no sugar.  So good, so healthy. No problems with that meal except I almost burnt the beans.  Did not set the timer, always a mistake.  A portable kitchen time can save you endless headaches and burnt food.

Eat hearty and well,

The Cheeseparer 

 

The Ultimate Tuna Noodle Casserole

Tuna noodle casserole is a homey thing.  When I was in college,  a group of friends would all pitch in 50 cents and someone would buy a package of noodles,  a couple cans of tuna and a can of peas.  It probably wasn't very good, definitely NOT gourmet, but we liked it anyhow.

Chez Cheeseparer, we still like it, and the basic ingredients still apply, but we've added a few touches to make the whole business super tasty.  The following recipe is for 3/4 pound of noodles.  I usually use thick or medium. 

Brown 1/3 cup diced onions and 1/3 cup red or green pepper in one T. butter or oil.  If you don't have fresh pepper, I have successfully substituted dried pepper flakes, maybe a tablespoon.  When the veggies are soft, add one  T. flour and stir well. Let cook for a minute or two.  Add  3/4 cup milk (2% is fine) and cook and stir until the mixture begins to thicken.  Add 1/4 cup cream (heavy or half-and-half or whatever).  Cook until thick and then add 2 cans packed-in-olive-oil drained tuna, broken up.  Cook and stir some more, then add 3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed.  Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and a small pinch of cayenne.  Each ingredient adds a bit of resonance.  Check seasoning and if the sauce is too thick, thin with a bit of milk or cream.

Cook noodles according to package directions (make sure to add salt) until done, but they will cook some more, so they should not be overdone. Drain. 

Put drained noodles into a greased 2  qt. casserole, and stir in the tuna sauce, mixing well.  Sprinkle crushed potato chips on top the casserole, covering thoroughly.  This really adds to the whole.  If you are (horrors!) out of chips, use 3/4 cup buttered panko crumbs.  You can also mix chips and crumbs if you don't have quite enough of each.

Put this into a 350 degree oven  for about half an hour.  Serve with a green salad and a green veg.  We like both broccoli and green beans with this.  Serves 4-6 depending on appetites.  Two people can enjoy a second dinner and maybe even lunch.  It just gets better every day. 

I always buy the Italian tuna packed in in olive oil, but the cheap kind probably works as well.  The cans have shrunk and now only have 5 ounces instead of 6.  Boo!  If you are feeling extrvagant, you could use 3 cans.  We make do with two.

This recipe calls for a basic white sauce which is butter and flour in equal quantities and milk.  You should know how to make this and any cookbook can offer more details.  Do not use canned soup--it won't be anywhere near as good.   Avoid processed foods whenever possible.  This is not to suggest you catch your own tuna and make your own noodles, although the result would certainly be very toothsome. 

 Tonight I am making a peasant fave, Puerto Rican rice and beans.  Yum! 

Must Have Been Bedbugs

An Welcome Guest Just About Everywhere

Yesterday as I was dropping off the must-be-dry-cleaned vacation clothes, about  a dozen HUGE plastic garbage bags sat on the floor of the dry cleaners.  The clerk told me these bags all had to be sorted and another employee was coming in to help.  I noticed there were gym shorts and t-shirts and similar clothing items on the counter--stuff one would not ordinarily send to the cleaners and this is definitely a cleaners--the only thing they launder is shirts.


The pile was so huge that I wondered if we dumped out all the chests, closets, etc. if we would have that much stuff.  The clerk also said they had towels in there.  My writer's mind tried to devise all sorts of scenarios for leaving every piece of fabric that you own at the dry cleaners and after some really bizarre speculation, it came to me.


These folks must have bedbugs!  I mean, what else could it be?  The clerk was somewhat mum about the reason for this large dumping of everything into the bags and bringing them in.  Maybe he knew and didn't want to say. 


Of course now I'm not too keen on having our stuff in the same room at the bed buggy stuff.    I mean, what if they decide to, well, to migrate? 

It was really weird.   When I go in to pick up our clothes, maybe I will ask.  Don't expect to get an answer.


We had our own disaster, no, not the washing machine but the basement fridge.  It must have crapped out while we were gone.  The cat sitter didn't notice, nor did S.O. when he put the meat in the freezer compartment.  When I went to grab the orange juice yesterday, there was a totally disgusting smell and all the meat ($25) we bought on sale last week was rotten.  An event to break a cheeseparer's heart.  I told Significant Other that we would have to eat five vegetarian meals to make up for it.  He agreed, and the first meal will be a Spanish soup of cabbage and white beans.  Sounds good.

This is so aggravating.  I think we were so  sick that no one noticed.  A head cold can make you really dense and stupid.   Hoping no more appliance incidents mar the fall.  The fridge was at least 25 years old, but not to notice!  I mean really.  The  lemons were all rotten!  Big Clue!  


I harvested the seed from the Four O'Clocks to plant next year.  It's always great getting free plants.  They did great this year, and provided lots of late season color.  The garden is still pretty with the cleomes, morning glories, and regular flowers blooming.  We're eating the last cucumber from 2 plants that were amazing in the fecundity.   


The good stuff and the bad stuff all evens out, somehow.  But I am still exercised about the  ruined meat. 


Yours in Frugality. 

The Cheeseparer


                                

Frozen Leftovers Save Your Life

Due to Hurricane Irene, we had a bare freezer, but not for long.  I stocked up on a bit of meat, a couple frozen pizzas, and some frozen fruit.  Oh yeah, ice cream.  I also stuck a few homemade items, dinner for two into the freezer that we didn't eat.  Then we went off to Spain and Portugal for two weeks.  

Ham What Am

 Came home with bad colds, really bad colds, and did not feel like a) shopping b)  cooking or c) much of anything.  Imagine my delight  when I found some frozen Swedish meatballs, pork chops, and even some yummy chicken breasts with  a sauce of Apple Jack and apples.  Died and gone to heaven.  We had a goodly stock of canned peas and I did make it to the store for salad fixins'.  This has been a life saver.   We don't really even feel like going out and hacking, coughing and blowing our collective noses.   

Getting a big better now.   Spain and Portugal were . . . how do I say . . . worth catching a bad cold for.     We had not expected such thoroughly modern countries, with good roads, good plumbing, good infrastructure.   And the food!  Those Spanish hams can't be beat.  Wonderful inexpensive white wines.  A dish of olives at almost every meal.  The food was relatively cheap, at least where we ate.  Museums were also cheap.  At the Prado in Madrid, they wouldn't accept our senior ID's because we didn't belong to the European Union.  Alas!   

I will have more later on cheeseparing while traveling, that discusses more than taking the soap and the shampoo.    The paradores in Spain all had weird grape-scented toiletries that smelled like grape gum, the kind that drove my husband batshit when the kids were little.  I didn't take any of that.    We also noticed the breakfast buffets had cereal like cocoa puffs.  Hmmm.  I saw adults eating it.   The world is a strange and wonderful place. 


More Anon.     And I'll tell you about the most BIZARRE sight today at the dry cleaners.     A mystery inside an enigma.  I 'm  still trying to puzzle it out.                                               


The Cheeseparer, back at last with traveler's tales.

Post-Irene Food

We were whomped by Hurricane Irene.  Had made the usual prep of cooking up a couple ahead-of-time meals, and checking all the flashlights and lanterns for working batteries.  Got out the old hurricane lantern (aptly named) and filled it with lamp oil, checked the wick (new).  Put out bird food and forgot to bring in the Hummingbird feeder.

Sunday, the wind began rising at 6:30 a.m.  I got up and made a batch of pesto Geneovese (using blender) using basil picked from garden the day before.  Ran the dishwasher.  Laundry all done on Saturday.  Hunkering down.  We were watching CNN at 10:30 when the lights went out.  They came back on Wednesday evening.  In the meantime, everything in the freezers (2 fridges) had defrosted.  We ate the prepared meal by candle light on Sunday, and Monday we grilled the thawed steak as shish kebabs.  Delicous.  Ate them twice.   I cooked A LOT of defrosted chicken breasts and we had chicken pesto and also chicken parm without sauce.   The only foods ruined were a pizza that melting ice had leaked into (el disgusto) and some leftovers that I was just as happy to pitch.  Fed the once-frozen bananas, saved for banana bread, to the cows.

We have a gas stove that can be lit with a match with the electric ignition  doesn't work and a gas water heater, so we were among the lucky ones.  Those with their own wells or an all-electric (or oil) house took cold showers and went for takeout.  In 1985, during Gloria, we were among those, and cooked on a one-burner camp stove and the Weber Kettle.   One can actually do with less, dontchaknow?

A huge oak fell across the wild flower garden (boo hoo) and I won't know how bad the damage is until it is removed.  Hoping the removal doesn't do more damage than the tree falling.

During the storm, the hummingbirds swooped and flew and appeared to be having a high old time.  They drained their feeder which had no damage.   The other birds found their old feeders about four feet nearer the ground and of course some enterprising creature dragged the suet feeder off.  We have another one, which the raccoons raid often, but we have large families of flickers, downy and hairy woodpeckers, all with babies, so we try to keep the suet coming.

It is nice to have a clean fridge, and the Highland Scottish cattle received some of the contents of the freezer such as old bread and a huge package of flour tortillas (ick!) that someone left here.

I made some peach ice cream a few days ago.  Lots and lots of peaches.  We ate the  remainder of the ice cream for lunch as soon as the lights went out.   So our losses were minimal.

Now we are eating up last fall's winter stores:  Spam, tuna fish and corned beef hash.  I'll replace them in a couple of months.  The Low Salt Spam was totally delicious.  We ate it with baked beans gussied up with onion, tomato, and bacon last night.

So yours truly is feeling pretty frugal and with the power out went to the discount Tuesday movie, The Help, and the first run non-discounted movie, The Debt, both pretty good.  Only missed one Red Sox game.   We had a battery powered radio.  You are ready for a big storm, aren't you?  Having light, batteries, radio, food and emergency supplies can make all the difference.

Oddly enough, the cats were kind of freaked out by the experience, and did not spend any time in the dark basement home office but came upstairs to bask in the lamplight.  I washed the dishes as we used them, and drained them on a towel on the counter.  Worked fine.  First thing I did when the power came back on was run the dishwasher.  Yay!

We are eating a lot of cucumber salad, as the garden has an abundance of cukes.  Cukes and basil are the current harvest.  Ate all the lettuce.  Also have a huge supply of oregano, which I will dry and sage, which hangs around until the coldest part of the winter.

Onward, onward.  After the lights came back on, we had a day of respite and then the Internet crapped out for 4 days.  8 of 9 days with poor or no Internet.  We did get wi-fi at the neighboring  library and Starbucks when the power was out in our town.   So:  the tree didn't hit the house, we coped pretty well and consider ourselves lucky.

The Cheeseparer

The cosmetics counter and traveller's tales.

It is possible to spend ungodly amount of money on cosmetics and toiletries.  One thing I like is the web sites that rate these items. They make it possible to avoid an expensive mistake.  Beauty Survival is one example.  I shop off and on at a discount mall which does have a cosmetics store selling Clinique, Estee Lauder and a few other brands.  Items are about 15-25% off.  There are a lot of "testers" open which helps.  I have also become a Walmart shopper and usually buy shampoo and other sundries there.   Sales at the local drugstore and an occasional purchase on the web round things out. 


If you find a lipstick, etc. that you absolutely love, buy in quantity because you never know when these items will be discontinued.  At the discount store, I will always take the empty lipstick tube and try to find a close match.  This works pretty well. 


We were in San Francisco last fall and I ran out of moisturizer.   There was a busy, cramped Walgreens across from the hotel, and I perused the shelves for a smallish size of moisturizer that did not cost and arm and a leg.  Found Aveeno, and you know what?  It's really good and I recently bought another bottle.  It's a fraction of the cost of some "name" brands.  I also like the Jergens product that promises you give you a slight tan.  Don't think it does, but I like it anyhow.   Both of these items come in small sizes that I like to use for travel.


My parents, bless them, who always traveled by car, carried a humongous cosmetics case with giant industrial sizes of hair spray, deodorant, etc. Huge bottles of shampoo.  Of course, now every motel has the sample sizes.  When I travel, I carry ziplop plastic baggies to tote these items home in.  They are nice to give to homeless shelters and even food banks.  Or use on your own if  you're staying in frugal places like Microtel.  I do like Microtel, because they operate on the theory that a travel needs a place for everything, and I find their rooms very convenient and the prices, too.  We are more likely to carry our breakfast or find a local cafe to pick up some local color. 


The Inn where we stayed in Nantucket actually had delicious blueberry muffins, obviously homemade, and good orange juice and decent coffee.  How often does that happen?   The Brant Point Inn.  Friendly people and we got a last minute suite for 4 that didn't quite break the bank.  

I have rambled a bit.  It is possible to save on cosmetics and breakfast but not Nantucket inns in August.   We go to the Cape for one weekend in the winter and stay cheaply which evens things out.  With the economy tanking again, the staycation will resurface.  So much to do in Boston in the summer that it's not really onerous, and with restaurant week you can even eat cheap(er).  


There is a sales tax holiday this weekend.  I may buy some catfood.  It has gone up and now even Walmart wants 54 cents a can. My diabetic cat needs certain flavors in one brand and dry food I can only get from the vet.  I love my kitties but they are a definite luxury.  The ginger cat has taken to sleeping on a leather ginger pillow.  He's relentless in seeking out luxurious spots for napping.   The down duvet, mostly.   Cats aren't dumb.  

Onward, 


The Cheeseparer

David Eyre's Pancake

David Eyre's "Hawaiian" Pancake 

A while back, the New York Times Food section asked readers for their all time favorite recipes.  The response was overwhelming, and this was one of the best.  We lived in Illinois at the time, but got the Sunday Times.  I made it immediately, as apparently did many others.  The next week, there came a retraction.  4 Tablespoons, not 8 of butter. The following week, more comments, mostly to the effect that 8 T. of butter was just fine, thank  you.  This is cheap to make but today for 4 people, I made three.  Two regular size, and a small half-size (2 T. of butter).  Please use real butter--stock up when it's on sale and freeze.  Freshly grated nutmeg is best, and for heaven's sake use an honest-to-god lemon, not store-bought lemon juice.  Yuck!  I just use  generous squeeze of lemon, and also, maybe somewhat less powdered sugar.  Experiment until you find the exact right proportion for your family.  Cast iron works best.  Flour, milk, and eggs.  What could be simpler?  

Here is the link to the recipe and some of the history, etc.  Life is good.  David Eyre's Pancake

Easy Italian

I found a super-easy recipe for focaccia that is ready from start to finish in 2 hours.  My kind of bread.  Here is the link.  Tasty and Quick Focaccia   It's very forgiving.  The supermarket had "very quick" but not "instant" yeast, so I used that.    Also baked it at the wrong temperature.  I didn't have the cheese whatever or the pizza spice so I used about 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan and some "Florentine" seasoning from Penzeys.  Came out just fine.  Makes a lot but you will eat a lot.  Our entree was a pasta dish. 


Cook 8 oz of your favorite pasta.  While it is cooking. slice 4 garlic cloves thinly and put to simmer in a skillet with  2 T. olive oil.  When the garlic is golden, add 8 oz. cherry tomatoes and saute until just bursting.  When the pasta is done, drain and add to the skillet along with 1 T. chopped fresh basil.  Serve with parmesan cheese.  So good and fresh and if your garden is producing, you have a cheap meal.  Cheap does not have to mean processed food or flavorless.  Nope.  Not at all.  


The Cheeseparer

Potatoes to Die For

I  haven't posted for a while due to 1) preparing to go to camp, 2) being at camp 3) a trip to the big Apple and 4) laid up with sciatica.  If you like you can add falling behind in everything and a young houseguest to the mix. The houseguest is a vegetarian and us carnivores work around that in various ways.  The simplest way is to prepare a vegetarian meal, and here is a good one:
Southwest Potatoes 


With cilantro from the garden, grated cheddar on sale, and so forth,  this really rocked.  Today I'm making sweet corn and basmati rice salad. This is a winner that I make every summer.  Here is the link:  Sweet Corn and Basmati Rice Salad  


Corn is ridiculously cheap these days, and I have pecans from Georgia relatives.  Went to Whole Foods for the cress, as they always have some.  Other supermarkets iffy.  

Last night we had panzella, a tomato bread salad with mozzarella balls that also satisfies.  I'm going to eat the soggy remains for lunch.  


On the bad news front, the chipmunks and even the birds are eating the tomatoes.  When I left for camp, there were lots of cherry tomatoes on the vines.  None when I returned.  Significant Other professed not to have eaten any.  Somebody sure did, and it wasn't the neighbors.  I have oregano for the masses, and good basil.  Parsley has been tempermental this year, and mint is out of control.  Lots of cleomes reseeded themselves from last year, and the Four O'Clock seed I gathered in Boston's North End is doing great.    Garlic harvest sparse.  Cukes growing like crazy.  Every year is different and one learns to roll with the blows.  Some of the tomatoes got the blight, and now we may not get any unless I can find a hiding place from the critters.  Grrrrr.  So it goes and whatever.   And did I mention I gained all the weight I lost back? 


The Cheeseparer

A Mllion Dollar Berry Dessert

Whether you pick your own, grow  your own, and shop the supermarket specials, this dessert is soooo good.  It is from this month's (July, the Grilling Issue) Bon Appetit.  


Macerated Berries with Vanilla Cream - serves 6  (I cut the ingredients by 1/3 to serve only 4). 
Berries:
6 cups fresh mixed berries (scant 2 lbs., divided)
3/4 cup sugar 
1/4 cup fresh (used o.j. from the dairy case) orange juice

Vanilla Cream 
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, or 1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chilled heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar 


Berries:  Using a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon, (I used the tool to cut butter into pastry) mash 1 cup berries with sugar and orange juice in a large bowl until sugar begins to dissolve.  Gently stir in remaining 5 cups berries, let sit a room temperature, tossing occasionally until berries are juicy, 1 -2 hours.


Vanilla cream:  Scrape seeds from vanilla bean in to a medium bowl.  Add chilled c ream, sour cream and sugar.  Using a whisk or an electric mixer, beat until soft beaks form. 


Do ahead:  cream can be made 30 minutes ahead.  Cover and chill. 


This dessert has huge bang for the buck.  The vanilla cream is to die for, and the berries look luscious in the red juiciness.  Perfect end to a nice dinner party or a family dinner. 


I used an ancient vanilla bean and will have to order more.  I always go to Penzey's for spices.  They're the best. www.penzeys.com.

Retro Recipes with Chicken

These recipes never heard of the food pyramid, or the nutritional enlightment.  They remain ignorant of the food police.  Both are cheap (when chicken is on sale, as it usually is) and tasty and make delicious leftovers. 


I got the recipe for "Chicken Little" at my first job in Northbrook, Illinois in the early 80's.  I loved to make it for my family, because the little kids scarfed it down and asked for more.  Rich?  Yeah.  Simple ingredients that you do not have to shop all day for. 


Chicken Little: 


1 stick butter;1 cup uncooked rice; 1 medium onion, chopped; 2 cans chicken broth; 2 lbs.  (approx) small chicken pieces. 
Process:  Melt butter.  Pour into a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish.  Add rice, onion and broth.  Lay chicken pieces on rice mixture.  Bake uncovered one hour @ 350 degrees.  Serves 4.  
If you want to gussy it up, sprinkle with parsley or rosemary or thyme.  
Easy as pie, no, easier. 


Chicken-Cashew Casserole.  My mom made this and it always tasted so good to me as a kid.  I think it dates to the early sixties, maybe earlier--that age of Campbell's soup creation.  The only change I make is to use fresh mushrooms.  I always thought I hated mushrooms until I tried fresh ones and discovered they weren't the slimy things out of a jar/can that I found so disgusting. 


Stew 1 whole chicken.   Do not stew the little bag(s) of giblets that come inside the chicken.  No indeed.  If you don't know how to stew a chicken, look it up. 
Mix one small diced onion, a cup diced celery, 1/4 cup diced green pepper, 3/4 cup uncooked rice, 1 can mushroom soup, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 2 cups chicken broth (from the stewing will work) and 1 can whole mushrooms (substitute fresh, please!)  
Mix in  the  stewed now skinless chicken which you have in the meantime removed from the bone and cut into small chunks.  This whole business (chicken, veggies and soups)  goes into a 2 quart casserole with a lid. Make sure to stir until everything is nicely mixed.
Bake covered for 1 hour 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.  Remove from oven and sprinkle 1 cup cashews on top.  Bake 20 minutes more, uncovered.  Serves about six.  It is hard to stop eating this.  Just tastes so good.  
If you are a nervous cook, buy a rotisserie chicken and remove the skin (I recommend eating it) and take the meat off the bones and cut up.  Proceed with the recipe. 


In the midwest, these recipes would be called chicken hot dish.  And remember, canned mushrooms are the devil's spawn. 

Tacos Tonight

This is likely a repeat of the post, "The Best Tacos You Will Ever Eat."  Houseguests this week, one of  them a vegetarian, and we try to accommodate everyone, so last night I made two skillets of fried rice, one with leftover roast pork, one without.  The vegetarian ate a whole serving bowl of the stuff, so I guess it tasted good.  Tonight is tacos, with the filling in two skillets--one with peppers, onion and black beans, the other with grilled steak, peppers, onions and black beans.  Seasonings, too, of course. 


I found some $1.25 dishes at Ocean State Job Lot that have three dividers.  Bought two of them.  I always serve grated cheddar, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, avocado, sour cream, scallions, and cilantro to sprinkle on the tacos.  Also hot sauce.  These are primo.  And so not break the bank.  The only thing we have to get at the store is the avocado and the jalapeno.  Of course, I always use good corn tortillas, with the taste of Mexico, not gringo flour tortillas, the devil's spawn IMHO.  


I find much to weep about at places like the Chipotle, and Quedoba, (think I have mispelled) who only seem to have flour torillas or the pre-made crispy corn tortillas from a box.  This is the worse Californication of Mexican food, a downright abomination.  With fat and sugar and no fibre, whereas corn tortillas have  no fat, no sugar and plenty of fiber.  Nutritionally superior and the have, gasp, flavor!!!!  End of rant.  

My aunt always said, "it takes all kinds of people to make a world."  She was from Iowa, and worked on Boeing bombers during the war, a real Rosie the Riveter.  

I cook everything in iron skillets.  Good for the biceps, too.  

Hasta la vista, baby!   

A Cheap Dinner with an even Cheaper Lunch

Last night I chopped up a grilled pork chop.  Set some onion to saute in the pan, added the pork chop with a handful of diced grape tomatoes.  Seasoned with cumin, chili powder, and salt and pepper.  I added about 1/3 can of refried beans and kept the heat medium low.


Meanwhile, I cooked 4 corn tortillas in oil, and cut up the following: scallions, cilantro, radish, tomato, mild cheddar, and lettuce.   When the pork chop glop was hot, we sat down at the table and concocted our own tacos.  I also put the sour cream and the salsa out.  Boy was it tasty!


Today for lunch, I cooked 3 tortillas (two for Significant Other, one for me).  Heated another 1/3 of the beans in the microwave:  served lettuce, tomato, chopped fresh mozzarella, radish and cilantro.  Also sour cream and salsa.  It was the last bits of lettuce, cheese, radish and cilantro.  Drank a glass of white wine with the feast on the deck, admiring garden and the tuberous begonias which are blooming like crazy.  Delightful meals.


And so cheap!


In the oven right now is orange yogurt bread.  We'll eat 2 slices tonight and freeze the rest for company.  This has become one of my go to quick breads. Find the recipe on this link.  This food blogger has other good recipes, too.  Orange Yogurt Bread   I use whatever Greek yogurt is on sale.   0 % fat is fine, 2% is even better.  This bread keeps well and is popular with guests and family.


The other food item on the agenda is:  Lemon-Lime Ice Milk from Epicurious.  the Plum Streusel-pie is good too, but we really go for the ice-milk. Here is the Epicurious link.  Many of their recipes are a) easy and b) don't break the bank.  Almost always tasty.  Try it!   Luscious Lemon-Lime Ice Milk

An American Take on an old German Fave: Rote Grütze

Red Groats in a cut glass bowl on the dining room table

One of the best things about being a tourist in Germany in the summer is eating the dessert Rote Grütze, literally translated as "Red Groats."  The best is found at Leysieffer in Osnabrück, Sylt and Berlin.  You can even buy a container to take home.  
Now this delicacy is made with red currants, and maybe some currant juice as well as raspberries and strawberries.  I don't know if you have a currant bush, but we do not and the little red buggers are $4.99 for a piddling small box if you can find them at all.  Sooooo. What to do? 
I have solved the problem by devising my own Americanische Rote Grütze.   This is not authentic but it's very good.
Take a cup or more of frozen cranberries, 2 cups of rhubarb cut in 1 inch pieces and cook together in a tiny bit of water and a squeeze of lemon juice and maybe 1/3 cup sugar.  Cook until the berries have popped and the rhubarb is soft but still in recognizable shapes.  Add a cup of so of fresh red cherries and a 1 1/2 cups of fresh strawberries.  Add more sugar to taste and cook until the berries are soft.  Cool, chill and serve with whipped cream.   
This is a dessert called compote, which is high in all those good-for-us red fruits, hell, it's all red fruit except for the necessary sugar.  Don't over-sweeten.  A bit of tartness is good. 
This time of year with cherries and strawberries on sale is a good time to make Rote Grütze.  I keep cranberries frozen from year to year.  Raspberries, if  reasonable, are a tasty addition.  Antioxidants up the yingyang.  Soooo healthy.  

Soup From A Nail Revisited

We did the chicken soup from nothing again this week.  Found one lone chicken breast and a neck and a backbone in the freezer.  Made stock from the bony parts (I add carrot, onion, bay leaf and some cilantro along with salt and pepper.) While the stock simmered, I sauteed the breast in a skillet in olive oil with only salt and pepper.  


During the time everything was cooling, I peeled and chopped the two carrots and diced up the rest of the onion.  Found a few peas in the freezer.  Things were coming together.  Chopped up a dried tomato, and some more cilantro.  Think color. Sauteed the veggies for a few minutes.


Strained the broth and added chicken and vegetables.  Cooked until carrots were tender.  Added more salt and pepper.  And a can of chicken broth.  
Cooked some very fine (as in narrow) noodles in water to which a bouillon packet had been added.  When they were done, put the noodles in the soup.  It also tasted very fine, not hearty, but substantial enough for dinner.  Being on a diet, we ate it with salad and breadsticks.   I favor the skinny ones, grissini, because you can eat quite a few without blowing the carb or the calorie count. 


The old folk tail, soup from a stone, or soup from a nail, or soup from whatever charmed me as a kid.  Here is the Wikipedia link. 


Soup From a Nail

Salade Niçsoise, a dieter's dream

Tastes and colors both terrific!

Tonight, on a 90 degree day in New England, we ate a cold supper of Salade Niçoise.  I had ambition to grill some tuna, but the store didn't have any, which made me think it was probably twenty dollars a pound and this would be neither a cheap nor a frugal meal.  So I bought some nice Italian tuna in oil--it has a great flavor and I drain as much of the oil off as I can.
Procedure:  line a big platter with lettuce leaves.  In the middle, put two cans of Italian-style tuna in oil, well drained.  Surround the tuna with vegetables dress is an oil and vinegar dressing.  We had:  green beans, tomatoes, red pepper, olives, artichoke hearts and garbanzo beans.  And two hard-cooked eggs.  Potatoes are traditional, but I must have put them in the wrong grocery cart.
I served this with bread sticks, and we had guilt-free seconds and there is enough left for lunch.  All in all, a satisfying find.
 From it's name, I assume the salad comes from Nice.  We ate it many years ago on the Rivera, and it was a crazy lunch with a whole bottle of wine (yikes) and many female topless diners.  Well, you know.  France is France.

I lost another pound and must behave this week because we're having a dinner party on Saturday with a high carb salad/veg and homemade chocolate ice cream.  
We've been eating fruit salad with oranges, cherries, raspberries, and peaches and I can't tell you how good it is.  Everything on sale, of course. 
The lettuces in the garden will soon be eating size and we are already munching on the fresh herbs.  Tomatoes and cukes coming along.  Flowers pretty.  Mosquitoes hungry and plentiful.  Our little Eden does have its varmints.


Aloha! 


The Cheeseparer 

Rethinking Diets

The weight loss has been minimal.  Probably too much wine and then there's the dark chocolate after dinner.  Significant Other has lost 5 pounds, but I'm only down 2.  We had steak (leftover) and eggs for breakfast with slices oranges and blueberries.  Truly delicious, but diet?  Who knows?  Ate the first lettuces from the garden that reseeded themselves this spring.  Do not decline what nature offers. Free lettuce?  Yes! 

I'm still not ready for the spray on "I can't believe it's not butter."  I sure as hell can believe it's not.  There is a time in life when one becomes too old to believe all the lies we hear daily. 


The sun rose bright and shiny this morning, for the first time in literally weeks.  Even bad news on the scale cannot impinge on my good mood.  We'll definitely go for a walk.  I have the season's first mosquito bite and am hoping it's not one of those toxic mosquitoes bearing awful diseases.  Sprayed myself thoroughly to work in the yard, but he found a spot under the watchband.  Go figure. 


We have yummy (for them) stuff to feed the Highland cattle.  No calves this spring.  Boo hoo!  I do believe the old cows "cowed" the young bulls.  


Here is a spring tonic:  find a friend with some rhubarb and bum a few sticks.  Chop up, cook with a little sugar, a very small amount of water, and any other red fruits you can find.  Strawberries and blueberries and even raspberries are on sale here this week.  A few frozen cranberries add pop.  Some grated orange rind does likewise.  Cook until all the fruits are soft and if you added too much water, thicken with a bit of cornstarch stirred into cold water and added to the fruit.  Let cool, chill and serve for dessert.  Good over cottage cheese.   A spoonful or two even works on shredded wheat.   Or on ice cream, but we're into low-fat frozen yogurt these days.  


Onward, 


The CheeseParer

Good Diet Meals

What is a good diet meal?   For starters, it's a meal that doesn't leave you hungry when you get up from the table.  It doesn't break the bank, e.g. caviar on a baked potato.  It doesn't take all day to shop for and cook.  The ingredients will all come from your local suburban supermarket. It will be pleasing to the eye, because we eat first with our eyes.  This means some color pops out:  maybe the green of chopped parsley or cilantro or some sweet red pepper.  And, of course, it has to taste like something.  The problem with low fat diets is that low fat food has no mouth feel, and the "gum" the manufacturer puts in to replace it just doesn't do the trick.  The flavors become a bit "off."  The taste is somewhere beyond bland.  You can't put your finger on it, but it just doesn't taste very good.  No wonder you don't want seconds, but wait!  At  10:00 p.m., you'll be raiding the fridge or the pantry for something that DOES taste good.


This week, my significant other and I have both lost a few pounds.  Here's what we ate:
Sautëed Scallops with Cherry Tomatoes, Green Onions and Parsley.  Yum!  Great color, great taste!  You could eat this without being on a diet.
Oven-Crisped chicken with honey-mustard sauce.  Another winner.   The crust was made from panko and shredded Parmesan, and the honey mustard sauce from low-fat Greek yogurt, mustard and honey.  We ate this two nights, and it was so filling we didn't eat the whole breast half.  Another winner! 
Great Salad that I took to a buffet:  Cucumber ribbons with tomatoes and ricotta salata!  Great taste, color and truly delicious.  Very little left over.  Yowza!
Tuna and  Bean Salad.  I believe this is a  South Beach Diet recipe.  Many of the recipes in this diet are really extraordinary.  I substituted cilantro for the watercress, which the store didn't have.  I also used oil-packed tuna instead of water-packed and drained it extra well.  The chopped roasted red pepper was home grilled under the broiler with two of its brethern.    We ate this two nights as well.
I've been making salads of baby romaine, white asparagus, grilled yellow and orange peppers, marinated mushrooms, olives, and a bit of ricotta salata (leftover from the cucumber salad) on top.  A drizzle of Italian dressing.  We're having blueberries for dessert tonight.  Last night we had low fat fruit-flavored yogurt.  I have a fab recipe for a pudding with low-fat ricotta, orange and lemon rind, orange juice and two eggs.  Low sugar.  It was delicious, in fact almost company worthy.       Tomorrow we're having classic shrimp scampi.  And salad of course.   These meals have been filling (plenty of meat or fish) with lots of other great flavors.  I am trying to reach for a piece of fruit when hunger strikes.  It's a real balancing game,
Even food magazines like Gourmet (the late) and Bon Appetit have diet meals.  For example, this month Bon Appetit has a wonder sounding onion fritatta.   The egg is your good friend, and eat the  yolk, too. 


Onward,


The Cheeseparer, who is trying to pare some poundage, too.

The Best Tacos You Will Ever Eat

Chop up half an onion, a little less if huge.  Cook it over med. heat in a big cast iron skillet.  When the onion begins to soften, add a pound of good quality 85% lean ground beef.  I always buy mine at the butcher counter.  When the meat is almost cooked, add a chopped (seeded if you don't want it too hot) jalapeno pepper.  Continue to cook and stir.  Add a sprinkling of hot pepper flakes, some chili powder.  I also add another sprinkle of Penzey's Southwest Seasoning.  Oh, an don't forget a teaspoon or so of cumin.  Very important.  Salt and pepper well, and continue to simmer to blend the flavors.  Add a can of rinsed and drained black beans or your favorite kind of beans.  Pinto.  Kidney.  Whatever. 


Chop up the following and put in small bowls:  scallion, tomatoes, lettuce, cilantro and avocado.   Into other bowls put grated cheddar or Mexican cheese (a mixture), sour cream, wedges of lime.   Nine "condiments" in all. 


For each person, cook a couple or more corn tortillas in a vegetable oil until slightly browned but still pliable.  Keep warm in oven while cooking the rest.  




Put the condiments on the table along with the fried tortillas in a basket.  You may also put hot sauce on the table or salsa.  Bring the hot skillet to the table and serve.  Everyone creates his/her own tacos.  They are utterly delicious.  I fold mine in half and eat it messily.  My significant other dumps everything onto his plate and has at it.  This is good stuff.

I also serve orange wedges with the meal.   Refreshing. 


I usually keep corn tortillas and all the spices around, along with scallions, lettuce, tomato, cheese and sour cream, so we just have to buy the meat, the cilantro and the avocado.  Serves 4, and doesn't break the bank.  Dieters can go easy on the cheese and sour cream.  Corn tortillas are low in carbs and high in fiber.  Of course, grilled steak added instead of ground beef will also be tasty, as would chicken or a grilled pork chop or two.  Taste for seasoning as you go along.  A couple of these babies and you won't be hungry for hours.  


I have never tasted any tacos this good at a Mexican restaurant, although the fish tacos at the Border Cafe in Cambridge, MA are close.  Ole! 

Eating Cheap while Dieting: A Dieter's Dilemna

So . . . the long New England winter and some company and a couple trips to the Big Apple to say nothing of Mother's Day have all added an unacceptable weight gain to the residents of this house, which includes a hugely plump (fat as mud) diabetic cat.  Only the "new" cat is slim, but he refuses to tell us his secret.  


I am not a low-fat diet person.  I never met a fat gram I didn't like.  Just about gagged yesterday when some diet site recommended spraying your breakfast English muffin with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spray.  I sure as hell could believe it's not butter.   So, except for extreme exercise and starvation and lots of rice cakes, the only diet I've ever lost weight on is low carb, i.e. Dr. Atkins.  Now, there's this to say about me and diets:  the moment I see no caffeine and no wine, I am out of there.   When the South Beat diet recommended "Fat Free Half and Half" I just about urped.  See, the other thing is that I am into real food, the unprocessed kind where the the label says, "all natural."  


Now all this quibbling would be fine if there were unlimited food resources, like $600  a month or more.  Hell, we could do Jennie Craig for $700.00 plus extras.   The challenge will be to eat meat, fruits and vegetables  (I do like my fruit) and not break the bank.  Yesterday's grocery bill at $150.00, was not a good start, but I got meat for two weeks and lots of very fine veggies and some (on special) scallops to start off with.  We have been eating all the rest of the "bad" food in the fridge: the sour cream strawberry cake, the spaghetti and meat balls, the bread, the muffins, etc. God, was the spaghetti and meat balls tasty.  I do miss pasta when dieting.     

My idea is to buy all the weekly produce and meat specials and to shop at two stores and plan my meals around these.  The bigger challenge will be to accommodate the summer guests while we continue our diet.  I do not intend to deprive myself of modest amounts of dark chocolate, either.    Due to all these accommodations to dieting  I don't expect to lose particularly quickly, but I will be happy with a pound  a week after the initial week.  The South Beach Diet has some dynamite recipes, and I have a couple of diet desserts that are low enough cal to have once in a while.   Not big on artificial sweeteners, and only low-fat ricotta.  We use 2% milk for the coffee.  So it should be doable and I will share the results.  What works, what doesn't, and how hard it will be.  

This noon I'm having lunch at Boston's infamous 99 Restaurant (the 9's) with a friend.  The 99 has some great luncheon steak tips and you can get double veg instead of veg and a starch.  A goodly enough portion that you won't start snacking at 4:00 pm.  We bought apples to eat with our evening cheese hors d'oeuvres and some colorful peppers to grill and eat with a bit of ricotta salata.  Peppers on sale,  apples on sale.  

Let's see how it goes.    


The Cheeseparer and hoping to be the pound parer

Egg and Sausage Strata - Cheap, Nutricious, Filling

The Internet has a gazillion recipes for these sausage and egg stratas, but I couldn't find this one, which was delicious.  These assemble ahead and bake later dishes are a godsend for a busy hostess, which was me, this weekend. This serves 8.


Egg and Sausage Strata

 1 lb. bulk sausage, pork or turkey.  I used Jimmy Dean.  Beware!  Some sausage now comes in 12 oz. rolls.  
6 slices bread with crusts removed.   A white bread with some "body" works best. 
2 cups milk.  Used whole milk but believe 2% would be fine, too.
6 large eggs
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 T. Dijon (or other) mustard
1 t. salt 
1/2 lb grated cheddar cheese (I bought pre-grated on sale)
8 oz. mushrooms sliced and sauteed 
1 medium white onion chopped


Spray or great a 9" x 12" rectangular baking dish.  Cut trimmed bread into cubes and line the dish. 

Cook sausage in a skillet, breaking it up.  Drain, if necessary and spread around on top of the bread cubes.
Saute onion and set aside.  In the same skillet, saute the mushrooms.  Add to the onions and mix.  Spread the onion/mushroom mixture over the sausage. 
Sprinkle the grated cheese on top of the mushroom/onion mixture.
Beat eggs, milk, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and salt together.  Pour over the casserole.  
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.


I served this for Mother's Day brunch with sauteed cherry tomatoes and small, individual  pan fried ham steaks.  
You can freeze this after assembling and thaw before cooking.  You may also freeze after cooking and thaw and add a little milk before heating.  
I kept the assembled casserole covered tightly in the fridge for two days and it was fine. 
Omit the sausage or substitute a meatless product and you have a fine vegetarian entree.
 

Can Rotisserie Chicken Ever Be A Bargain?

You bet it can!  I bought one $6.99 for the breast meat to make sandwiches to eat on the ferry from New London to Orient Point.  Of course, two people would have never been able to buy a (decent) lunch for $6 .99.  I ate one lunch from the chicken (wings) before we left.  Two yummy sandwiches on whole grain bread with butter, lettuce and tomato.  Chips from the bag at home, a clementine and two slices of orange yogurt bread.  Water to drink  The best lunch!  3 meals so far. . . .


I had removed the remainder of the chicken from the bones and froze it.  After we returned, I thawed the chicken for. . .  ta da!!  Enchiladas verdes.  The supermarket had tomatillos!  They almost never, here in this part of New England, have tomatillos.  Made them from scratch, a labor of love, but all I had to buy was the tomatillos and a couple small (all they had) jalapenos.  Everything else was on hand, even the corn tortillas.  The recipe made two casseroles.  4 servings.  I ate another lunch from the thawed legs.   There were two enchiladas left and we ate them for lunch yesterday.  Add 'em up.  10 servings of good quality protein for $6.99.  How frugal is that?  And every meal yummy.  You can make some of the enchiladas just with the cheese for a vegetarian  child or guest.


Both the Globe and the Times have been emphasizing vegetarian selections in their food sections, but nothing sounds that great.  Maybe because I am not a huge fan of unrelieved starch.  Potato curry?  Not so intriguing.  Give me chicken, shrimp or even fish curry.  Curried chick peas are good.   I would eat curried potatoes as a side dish. 


Some days the supermarket has rotisserie chickens on sale for 5  bucks.  That would be 50 cents per serving.  Yowza! 

Here is a recipe similar to the one I used:  Food and Wine Mag Enchiladas Verdes  


We served them with avocado salad and refried beans (on sale for $1.00,) and extra cheese, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, scallions and cilantro on the side.  I had some Farmer's cheese in the freezer which I crumbled over the casserole.  Cheddar always works.  Did I mention the tomatoes and avocados were on sale?  Shop smart, shop well.  Experiment! 


Bon Appetit!