Dolores Greshaw's Rhubarb Bread

We were in New York on Long Island last week, and the rhubarb was up and thriving in my friend's garden.  It is expensive in the stores, but maybe you, too, have a friend or some plants or can find it at a farmer's market. 


I like to use it in a compote of red fruits.  Yesterday I mixed it with cranberries and blueberries from the freezer.  Add sugar to taste, a bit of liquid (I used water and orange juice) a grating of orange rind, and simmer until the fruits are cooked.  We like it with a dollop of whipped cream.  This works well with any red berry, and especially currants.  Use your imagination. 


With the rest of the rhubarb, I made Dolores Greshaw's Rhubarb bread which is an old recipe I got from the Boston Globe, maybe even the Chicago Tribune.  My guess is the Globe.  I couldn't find the Greshaw recipe on the web, but here is one with the exact ingredients.  I think it makes a slightly larger loaf.  


Rhubarb Bread  


Enjoy!  Tonight I'm making Enchiladas Verdes.  The grocery had tomatillos on sale yesterday.  I had part of a roasted chicken in the freezer and some cheese and tortillas, so this is a cheap dinner for two nights.  I'll  let you know the outcome.    Enchiladas Verdes are one of my favorite Mexican foods.  Refried beans were also on sale, a dollar per can, such a deal.  Eating cheap  doesn't mean eating poorly.   Avocados were also on sale for a buck.  Ole!  


The Cheeseparer

Supermarket Sticker Shock

This morning's Boston Globe heralded the bad news that anyone who has shopped for produce already knew.  Prices are up!  Lettuce and tomatoes are outtasight!  


Rising Food Prices  


You may want to consider making slaw or carrot salad for a while.  Vitamin C is in cabbage and potatoes and orange juice is still a good buy.  I always loved the carrot salad with raisins and canned pineapple.  Root vegetables are still reasonable, i.e. carrots, rutabagas, turnips (yech!)  potatoes and parsnips (yum!).  Carrot soup is delicious, so think outside the box.  Lettuce is a quick crop and should be back in the stores at a reasonable price in a few weeks. 


Oh!  Did I say "cool weather crop"?  Now is the time to think GARDEN!  You can do lettuce, peas, and spinach while the temperatures are still cool.  Of course February is waaayy to early in New England.  We had more snow last night.  But consider. 


Soup and stews are an excellent way to cook cheaper.  Chicken and dumplings anyone?  Our supermarket had whole chickens for 99 cents a pound.  Consider eggs and the main dishes of frittata, omelet and strata.  Some wonderful soups use cabbage as an ingredient.  Look up the Yakisoba recipe on prior posts.  Onions, Carrots and Cabbage, all cheap.  And use one pork chop instead of two.  


There are always ways to economize, and with oil and food prices rising and the instability (understatement) in the Middle East, it may be time to hunker down.  Again.  


Read your supermarket flyer and plan a week's menus around the sales.  But you already do this, don't you?  Make  your own muffins.  So easy.  Spend the weekend cooking and baking and week nights won't be such a madhouse.  Get the kids involved.  Make Mexican or Indian.  Try some vegetarian dishes, like curried chick peas.  So good, so cheap.  Instead of a salad serve slice carrots and cucumbers.  Be creative.  Be cheap.  

Make your own pizza and save!

Dinner is served

We finally had a dinner party, and it was kinda, sorta frugal and totally delicious.  I found some fresh wild Atlantic salmon at Whole Foods for $10.99 a pound.  Cheap for what it was.  I made a lime butter sauce for the fish (limes were on special).  We grilled corn along with the fish (over oak) and I cooked up some green beans, likewise on sale now as was the corn.  I made a fab gazpacho with tomatoes from the garden, as was the garlic and the herbs.  So delicious.  For desert, we had homemade berry (raspberries and blackberries) ice cream.  Berries were on special, too, as was the wine. 

We had enough salmon left for lunch, beans for another meal, and the ice cream lasted for nine servings.  Being in diet mode, we didn't exactly heap it into our bowls.  Which was fine.  What I liked about the ice cream was that it wasn't so sweet that you couldn't taste the tartness of the berries and the creaminess of the cream.

The meal was not a lot of work, especially with my better half doing the corn and the salmon, and making the ice cream the day before and the gazpacho in the morning so it would be well chilled. How much would this meal have cost at a restaurant?  I don't even want to know! 

Now, the rains have come.  We had a chicken salad on spinach tonight, with heirloom tomatoes and feta.  As good as it gets.  Had to cook indoors due to the weather, but I have a grill pan, and it was no big deal.  We decided to make another ice cream over Labor Day.  Maybe a gelato or an ice milk. Something delicious.  As always.