Potatoes, Potatoes and Potatoes!!

Super Simple Basic Recipee #2 Mashed Potatoes, Baked Potatoes and Oven "Fries"

OK, Laura and I seem to be moving forward on a potato thing, but you cannot get much thriftier than basic potatoes. There are a good source of complex carbohydrates and vitamin C (especially if you eat the skins). Here are some super good, super simple ways to make them.

Homemade Mashed Potatoes (makes 2 very large servings)
*1 pound potatoes (any non waxy type such as russets, idaho, yukon gold etc. Not small red potatoes which are better for cold potato salads). Peel skins and cut in quarters. Place in lukewarm water in a medium saucepan with about 1/4 tsp of salt
*Boil on the stovetop about 25 minutes...maybe a bit longer until a fork easily goes through a potato chunk
*While the potatoes are cooking, get the rest of the ingredients together:
1/3 cup milk, 1 tablespoon butter and salt (to taste..add last). Get something to mash the potatoes with initially and your hand held mixer out.
*When the potatoes are done, quickly drain the water (you don't have to be religious about every drop), add the milk and the butter and smash the potatoes a little to break up the big pieces. Then beat them with your hand held mixer until smooth. Add 1/2 tsp salt initially, more later if you want.
*Serve immediately

This is just the super simple basic recipe. You can easily double, triple, quadruple this recipe. You can add a bit more milk or butter. You can replace the butter with a tablespoon or so of cream cheese (this reduces the saturated fats by quite a bit) or you can add several tablespoons of shredded cheddar cheese. You can add a tablespoon of shallots, fresh chives, parsley or green onions at the end.
You can use this basic recipe to refill Laura's hollowed out skins for twice baked potatoes. Carefully remove the insides leaving 1/4 inch of potato and skin and use the mashed potato recipe to refill the skins. Rewarm at 350 F. for 20-30 minutes.


Baked Potatoes
This is why we always eat the skins!!
*Scrub the outsides of a baking type potato (non waxy types) under cool water
*Dry them well, poke several holes in the potatoes with a fork
*Pour a little canola oil into your hand and oil the surfaces of the potato, then roll in salt (I really like coarse or kosher salt)
*Bake for 50-60 minutes in a 350 F oven
(This is also a special way to make twice baked potatoes)

Oven Fries
*Allow a medium sized potato per person, minimum
*Scrub the outsides of your potatoes under cool water
*Cut in half lengthwise, then cut the halves lengthwise. You will now have four pieces which you will slice lengthwise in half again.
*Place in warm water for 10 minutes (this makes the outsides crispy)
*Remove from water and dry with a clean towel
*Toss with 1/2 tablespoon or so of canola oil per potato and lay out in a single layer on a cookie sheet.
*Sprinkle with salt (I really like coarse salt)
*Bake 400 F for about 15-20 minutes

I love these. They have no artificial preservatives, no saturated fat and taste divine. Coarse salt really does taste better on these and can be found in your grocers , usually labeled kosher (least expensive) or specialty (most expensive) Many times, it's the little things that make the difference!!!

Potato Skins

For this I have to thank Simply Recipes.  Without the beautiful photography on that blog, I may not have made these and that would have been a shame.  I, of course, had to put my own spin on these.

Here is what I did:

1.  Bake some potatoes - I usually use Russet potatoes, wash them, dry them and smear them with a tiny bit of butter.  I have found the easiest way to do this is take a baggie on my hand, pinch off a bit of butter and proceed to rub it all over the potato (or pan - if I need to grease a pan).  I know that many people pierce their potatoes with a fork to keep them from exploding, but I come from a potato growing family and we have never had that problem.  I bake them at 400 for about 45-60 minutes, or at 325 for as long as I feel like it.  :o)  It is completely possible to over-bake potatoes, and I have done it a few times, but the insides are fine, it is just the skins that aren't so tasty anymore. 

2.  Serve as baked potatoes.  My family doesn't usually eat the skins of their baked potatoes anyway, so this doesn't matter.  You could also cut them in half and scoop out the flesh for mashed potatoes, or hash, or a number of things.

3.  Scoop out any remaining flesh, and save for another purpose.  I scoop almost all of it out instead of leaving a 1/4 inch or so like most people because I like the skins to be crunchy.  My skins also don't look nice and neat like Simply Recipe's, but they are still very tasty! 

4.  Heat up the oven to 450 degrees.  Place skins on a rimmed cookie sheet.  Brush or spray with olive oil - or whatever oil suits you - on both sides. 

5.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crunchy, flipping halfway through.

6.  Take out of oven and top grated cheese and if you want, some crumbled ham, bacon, chicken, whatever you like.  Put back into oven until cheese is bubbly - a couple of minutes.

7.  Remove and serve with sour cream and BBQ sauce.  At least, that is what I like to have it with!

8.  Enjoy the oohs and ahhs from your family and friends.

Super Simple Recipe #1 ..Medium White Sauce for Mac N Cheese and More

White Sauce for Mac n Cheese, Chicken Pot Pie and More


Medium White Sauce
2 Tbsp butter …….Melted in a medium saucepan over medium heat until just bubbly
2 Tbsp flour ……… Add and stir quickly to blend…Cook one minute
¼ tsp salt
1 cup milk………….Whisk in with a wire whisk or a fork ¼ cup at a time
Cook until thickened….about 3-5 minutes stirring occasionally

This is a very easy basic recipe that can be altered easily as long as you keep the ratio of flour and fat the same. To reduce saturated fats you can successfully replace the butter in a white sauce with 50% olive oil/50% butter. You can use skim milk, 1%, 2% or whole milk. You can also replace up to half of the milk with half and half or cream but do NOT boil it after as the cream will curdle. Warm the half and half/cream on the stove top or in the microwave (carefully!) then add to the rest of the sauce after it is thickened. I often use the cream variation of this sauce in making creamed soups. So with this basic recipe, you can make super simple Mac N cheese( see below), the inside of a Chicken Pot Pie(see below), or with some minor variations, creamed soups, gravies, Alfredo sauce and other delectable goodies. You can even make your own cream of mushroom soup to replace the stuff you by in cans!! Although, honestly, it probably won’t get as far as the casserole…it’s just that good. Creamed soups in a later post, Mac N Cheese for now!


For Homemade Mac N Cheese:
*To the medium white sauce recipe, stir in ½ to 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or cut up into thin pieces if you don’t have a shredder) until it is melted and the sauce is smooth. Then add…….*8 ounces of cooked and drained macaroni noodles (either whole wheat or regular. Any noodle that has some body; shells, spirals, wagon wheels etc). You can begin boiling the noodles right before you make the white sauce and they will cook for 5 minutes while the white sauce is cooking. It’s better if you don’t overcook the noodles

THAT”S IT, that’s all. My kids always called this Mac A Cheese……. It was a favorite for lunch or a super fast easy supper. Your kids will love it, especially if they are not used to the highly salted, over processed stuff AND...you can actually pronounce all of the ingredients in it. You can add a bit more salt if you think you need to, some course ground pepper , a little onion (like a tablespoon or so) or some leftover cut up ham, but you don’t have to. You can vary the cheeses in it. ( If you use strongly flavored cheeses like Parmesan or Romano, use less than a cup.) You may also put this in a casserole and bake it topped with crumbled crackers and a little cut up butter over the top, but again, you really don’t have to.


For Chicken Pot Pie (Chicken A La King as my mother called it)
To the white sauce, add 1 cup cut up leftover chicken, a chicken bouillon cube (I use a package of George Washington Seasoning..it boosts the flavor), 2 -3 Tbsp chopped onion cooked in a little oil for 2-3 minutes with one peeled and chopped carrot and ½ cup frozen peas (add them last because they cook really fast)

TA DA!!! THAT’S IT, that’s all. Serve over toast (easiest) or mashed potatoes (next easiest) OR if you want a real treat, divide into four oven proof bowls and place a square of puff pastry over the top. (super easy, but not super thrifty) Bake in your oven according to the puff pastry directions. If you are ambitious, place inside a pie crust. Now we are not talking easy, but we are talking good.

Mmmm. Soup.

This is the first time I have made this particular soup and it is wicked good.  Seriously.  I got 'yums' from my picky eaters (and don't tell them this, but it has lots of veggies in it).  It is called 'U.S. Senate Bean Soup' and I got it from "Joy of Cooking".  It said something about how it has been on the menu at the Senate since dinosaurs roamed the earth.  There is a reason for that.  Gooooooood.  It called for a small ham hock, but there was nothing small about our pig and I have shanks which include the hock.  Another good reason to have an inventory - I was convinced that I had a hock in the freezer and without an inventory I would have been out in the freezing garage cursing and searching through the freezer.

So, I used the pork shank that I had, and after boiling it for a couple of hours I picked off the meat and only added a cup and a half of shredded meat back again.  This left me plenty of meat to work with for future recipes, one of the bones went to my dog with the rest in the freezer for to distract him when we really don't want him around.  Yay!  I also saved the fat off the shank.  I will use it instead of butter (cheaper too!) when I need to saute something and want the ham flavor - potatoes for example.  Keep tuned!

Here is the recipe for the U.S. Senate Bean Soup (slightly adapted from "Joy of Cooking"):

Bring the following to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer together for a couple of hours or until meat is very tender and falling off the bone:

7 cups water (I needed 14 cups of water to cover my pork shank -so when the meat and bones were ready to come out I just took out 7 cups of water and then froze it to use when I want to make this soup again - without the hock/shank)

1 small ham hock 

1 1/4 cup white beans (I used navy beans - and they were too pretty not to take a picture of)

Remove ham hock and pick off the meat.  Add back to the pot. Add:

1 large baking potato, peeled and finely diced (I actually used the inside of a baked potato leftover from last night - reserving the skins for potato skins of course!) 

1 large onion (or 2 small ones!), diced

3 medium stalks of celery with leaves, chopped

2 (or more!) cloves of garlic, minced (this means cut up really fine)

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

Whenever I have more than one thing that needs to be chopped/minced I use my food chopper (as seen in the picture) or my food processor.  It makes it worth washing if I am going to chop a few things with it and it makes the food prep go so much faster.  I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to be one of those people who can slice and dice and make it look effortless - plus they always seem to be able to do it evenly! I have a relation who can and I am always jealous when I see him smoothly cutting up veggies in the kitchen.  He is pretty handy with teeth too - he just opened up his own dentistry practice in Madison.  I, however, have grown to be content with my food chopper and processor along with my mediocre slicing abilities.   

Cook until potato is soft (about 20-30 minutes), then mash with a potato masher to make soup slightly creamy.   Stir in 2 TBL chopped fresh parsley.  I didn't do this, b/c I didn't have any fresh parsley.  Serve with bread.  Yummy!

This would be an easy one to do in the crock pot too.  I would put the beans and hock/shank in the crock pot all day on low, and then add the other ingredients 20-30 minutes before I wanted to eat.  Happy cooking!
 

Chili Mac and Beyond

So here ends the saga of the second pile of taco meat.  Hooray!  Actually all of these were pretty good.  I was just a little tired of the taco seasoning taste by the end.  First up is a variation on chili mac.  I just cooked a package of elbow macaroni (in retrospect, I should only have cooked half the box).  Then I put those in a 9x9 cassarole dish and topped with the leftover salsa and taco meat.  Then I grated some cheese, sprinkled it on top and baked it for about 25 minutes in a 325 degree oven.  That was pretty good, but I sent it in Jake's lunch - so I had to come up with something different for supper.  (Remember the two meals in a row rule?  BTW - Jake says he wants to be recast - he says he sounds too picky in my blog.  I told him that if he wasn't picky he wouldn't be portrayed as picky.)  Anyway.  I fried up some potatoes and then took the meat/cheese/salsa cap off, broke it up and sauteed it for a few minutes with the potatoes.  I forgot to take a picture of the final produce, but you get the idea. 

I still had the noodles to deal with.  I intended to make some kind of noodle pancake, but the elbow macaroni didn't want to stick together nicely like spaghetti do.  It still turned out fairly well though.  My five year old loved it.  I mixed a couple of eggs in with the noodles and broke up a couple of pieces of bacon that we had leftover from our waffle weekend.  Then I just sauteed the whole thing in some butter (or maybe bacon fat - I don't really remember).  So that was the last of it, and I don't think that I will be making tacos again for a while...

Laura's Laws of Thrifty Cooking #7

THIS IS A PROCESS!

There is no way that you will be able to implement every thrifty practice into your life overnight.  If you try, you will get overwhelmed and stop.  There is absolutely no shame in taking things slow and incorporating things one at a time, as you feel comfortable.  I am still working on many of my own "laws" and it has taken me years to get this far.  Literally.  Years. Please keep in mind that it takes time to form new habits, and learn new techniques, but it does get easier.  Lots easier.  I hardly have to think about making bread anymore.  My little girls do most of the work now - for some reason they love bread dough, and I guess that motivates them.  :o)  When I first started cooking, I found that cookbooks had a lot of assumed knowledge, and so do most cooks.  We are trying here to help with that.  Please ask us questions about anything and keep in mind that this is a process!

Turkey Soup

So, I was faced with a dilemma this week. I had to find something that I could bring for supper for some friends. They live about 45 minutes away and have two small children, one of whom just had heart surgery (at 2!). Anyway, I needed something that would be quick, easy and kids would eat. Of course I called my MIL (mother in law). She is an awesome cook and always has great ideas. She suggested using up the last of our Christmas turkey for soup. Fantastic! I adapted a recipe of hers to the situation and made it the day before - fed 4 adults and two kids and then brought the remainder, fed 4 adults, two kids and still had a lot of leftovers. I forgot to take a picture until after we all ate, but you can still get the idea. (By the way - it was a hit!)



Turkey Soup

1 Turkey carcass (I always pick off pretty much all the meat that I see to use for other things, and still usually have plenty of meat in my soup - this time I added some extra meat because I wanted it plenty meaty)

Place in a stockpot and just cover with water. Add some vegetables - a carrot, a celery stick, an onion. Or, you can save vegetable peelings and use those to flavor your stock. That is what I do. When you peel vegetables for other things, stick them in a bag in the freezer for future use.  I have one bag for onions, one for carrots and one for celery.  Then, whenever I make a stock I just bring out the bags and dump them in. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. I usually cook at a simmer for about 4 hours or so. Then strain out the stock, let the carcass cool for a little while then pick the meat off. You may be surprised how much you get off! I always am.

Add the meat back to the stock. Add peeled carrots cut into about 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Add sliced onions. I usually cut my onions into quarters and then slice them. Add cut up celery, cover and cook at a simmer for about an hour. Then add amish type noodles (you can buy these in the noodle section of your grocery store) or make homemade - recipe following. After noodles are cooked add dumplings.


Dumplings

1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
flour

Mix beaten egg and milk together. Gradually add flour until the consistency of pancake batter, about 1 1/2 cups. Dip the spoon into the liquid before dropping dumplings to prevent dough from sticking Drop teaspoon into boiling broth to form small dumplings. Cook for about 5 minutes.


German Egg Noodles

1 beaten egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBL milk
1 cup flour (approx)

Combine egg, salt, and milk. Add enough flour to make stiff dough. Roll very thin on floured surface. Let stand 20 minutes. Roll up the dough and cut into 1/8 inch thick strips. Spread on paper to dry. Drop into boiling soup and cook 10 minutes.

This soup was really good. You can add some seasoning if you want. My MIL uses "Orrington farms chicken flavored ( as directed with water)". I am not really a bullion person, but hers is fantastic too. Sometimes, I taste the soup and then smell some of my spices. If they smell good, I might add some. Trust your senses. You can always take a cup of soup and just flavor that to try it out if you don't want to risk your whole pot of soup. Have fun!

PS - I often freeze my leftover soups and then pull them out for a quick meal when I am super busy.

Apple Crisp

My parents were here over the weekend, and I made apple crisp. This is one of my absolute favorite desserts. I got the recipe from a friend many years ago and have tweaked it just a bit. I meant to take a picture when it got out of the oven, but Jake and I were bringing supper to some friends, then I forgot, and now it is gone (inhaled would be more accurate). I needed to use up some apples anyway (they are starting to look a little wrinkly aren't they?) These are windfall apples, so they are great for baking, but they shouldn't be eaten raw because of E. coli concerns. Here is the recipe:

Fill a 9x9 pan with sliced apples almost to the top. Sprinkle with:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a medium bowl cut 1 stick butter into:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour

with a pastry knife until it forms coarse crumbs. You could use a food processor too, it would probably be easier. Mix in 1 cup regular oatmeal. Sprinkle on top of apples. Bake at 325 for one hour.

Eat and Enjoy!

NOTE:  I messed up once and forgot to sprinkle the 1/2 cup of sugar over the apples, and it was still very tasty, so skip that 1/2 cup of sugar! 

Pancakes verses Waffles

Every weekend my five year old and my husband argue about what is better. Pancakes or waffles. Both contest that their favorite absorbs more syrup and is therefore superior. This weekend was Waffle Weekend, much to my husband's delight. This is a great way to make the weekend a little more special, without going out to eat. Every few weekends we eat half a pack of bacon from our pig. This bacon is fantastic and is still meaty and wonderful after it has been cooked. I like to put apple butter on mine - it is less expensive, tasty and something I can easily make myself.  This Apple butter recipe is close to what I make, but you really don't need Jonathon apples and you could just chop up the peeled and cored raw apples in your food processor before adding directly to the crock pot and enjoy a chunky apple butter or blend afterward to make it smooth.

Anyway, here is my go-to waffle recipe from the Joy of Cooking:

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl:

1 3/4 cup flour (I use 1 cup wheat and 3/4 cup white)
1 TBL baking powder
1 TBL sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Mix in another bowl:

3 large eggs, well beaten
4-16 TBL butter, melted
1 1/2 cups milk

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix only until just blended (should look like muffin batter - pebbled). Pour into the center of a heated waffle iron (yours may need to be greased or sprayed with cooking spray. You will need to pour in less than you think - the batter rises quite a bit while cooking. It usually takes about 4-5 minutes to cook. If your iron does not open easily after this amount of time - give the waffle more time to cook. If you force it the waffle will come apart and you will have a big mess on your hands.

Waffles. Thrifty and fun!

Love Those Two-fors!!!!

Love Those Two-fors!!!
I love my grocer’s specials and coupons. You can easily save 25% and more on your monthly grocery bill by taking advantage of two-for-ones, buying staples in bulk and using coupons. Realistically, most manufacturers’ coupons are for toiletries and junk food. A better find are your local grocers ‘deals of the week’ on dairy, meat, vegetables and staples. Many grocers now offer items labeled organic, although these are less often ‘on sale’ (as opposed to ‘for sale’). Spend 5 minutes at the beginning of the week checking out the advertisements in your local newspaper. Find where the specials are, then plan your menu for the week accordingly. Be a little smart about ‘the math’ as ‘sale items’ are not always a good deal. Make a list or circle the items on your flyer; this helps you to stick to your budget when you are in the store. It’s a smart idea not to grocery shop when you or your kids are hungry. Sometimes a trip to more than one store is an advantage, but this may not be feasible if the transportation costs outstrip your savings. If your finances and space allow, take advantage of the specials of the week and purchase a bit more to freeze or store in your pantry. Remember the lemons? I bought those at the end of the summer 5/$1.00. Two are still in my freezer waiting to be enjoyed.

TIP: Defrost lemons whole in the micro wave (careful they get really hot!) or on your countertop in a small dish. Use the juice in place of bottled…it’s much better tasting. One lemon has approx 2 Tbsp juice. The zest or peel is easiest to grate frozen and is delicious in baked goods.

The Tacos and What Became of Them

Well, you might remember that I had to mix up some venison with about 20% pork for hamburgers. Of course that gave me much more meat than I needed, so I froze half (in 1 1/4 pound packages), used 1/4 for burgers, and used 1/4 for tacos. I made my own seasoning this time, because I ran out, and it was really tasty. It needed a little salt, and I think that after this taco seasoning runs out I am going to make this taco seasoning instead, since I like a little more zip. This gave us more taco meat than we needed, so after serving tacos a couple of times, I knew I needed to come up with something different (remember, my husband "can't" eat the same meal three times in a row). A quick internet search and: Taco Eggs! I used toasted english muffins instead of pita pockets and I cooked my eggs ( in a bit of butter) before adding the meat. Then I sliced some cheese. My husband loved these, I think he ate three. After this, I had a bit left over, but I felt that I had reheated this particular meat enough and it wasn't safe to eat anymore, so, much to my dismay, into the trash it went. Oh well, I won't overestimate the number of eggs my family can eat next time.

The funny thing is, that my parents were visiting us this weekend and they agreed to watch the kids for us one night while we brought supper to some friends. I knew that the kids like tacos and that the folks like tacos (sometimes they are not so crazy about some of my more creative dishes), so I made them tacos to eat while we were gone. Of course they couldn't eat all of that meat either, so now I have leftover taco meat. Again. What to do? What to do? Another search for leftover taco meat and I came up with: Chili, mixing it with tomato sauce for a spaghetti bolognese kind of thing, chili mac or all kinds of other ideas. I am thinking about either the spaghetti or chili mac. I will post pictures, along with a recipe if any of these come to fruition.

Love Your Freezer

I love that I live in an age where I can freeze stuff....all kinds of stuff. Did you know that you can freeze lemons? (and then have fresh lemon juice or zest in winter....in Wisconsin..... without paying exorbitant prices!?!) Yep, I freeze lemons, extra chopped onions, all kinds of herbs, vegetable peelings for vegetable stock, ham bones, bread, cookies (!) as well as the more usual things that normal people freeze....like meats that go on sale, vegetables and an occasional pizza. Judicious use of your freezer is unbelievably convenient. You can take advantage of sale items and freeze some for later use, thus saving cash and your time. You can make extra black or pinto beans for chili, an extra pot of soup, an extra lasagne (if you are making one, why not two?) or a sauce base like a curry or a creole to freeze now and pull out later for a fast dinner. If you have a garden, you can preserve home grown vegetables (you know if chemicals have been put on it and how fresh it was when you froze it). There ARE a few items that do not freeze well....noodles being one but for the most part, anything you freeze can be an ingredient to a cooked dish. You may want to keep an inventory of sorts so you don't find interesting food-like substances in bags lurking in the far recesses of your freezer. I still find an occasional surprise, but......... I love my freezer!!!!!

Thrifty Snacks

I have to admit to some snacking. I try not to do it too often, but I have small children who are always hungry and it is hard not to snack along with them. However, I used to buy crackers and chips, and while we have those things around sometimes, we really don't eat them very quickly anymore. For one thing, they are expensive, for another, well...have you looked at most of the ingredient lists? Yuck. Anyway, one of my all-time favorite thrifty snacks is popcorn. I can buy gourmet popcorn from a local farmer around here for $1/lb. I usually buy 20 lbs in the fall, and that makes a LOT of popcorn. Between eating it and sharing it that usually lasts us all year, sometimes I get carried away and give too much of it away, but generally we don't end up short. It is yummy and thrifty and the kids love it. Our favorite is a blend of black popcorn and baby rice. It may take a bit of searching to find it for a good price, but it is possible. We buy ours from a stand out in the boonies - basically all of their business is word of mouth.

Another favorite snack around here is peanut butter. I usually buy this, but when I went shopping the other day they were out of the kind that is just peanuts and salt (what else do you need in peanut butter?). So...I have been meaning to try this for a while - I made my own. This is NOT complicated. I bought some unsalted dry roasted peanuts, put them in my food processor with some salt and pressed ON. That was about it. At first I took out a couple handfuls, when they were just lightly chopped, because I like crunchy peanut butter, and I intended to put them back in at the end, but my husband announced that it wasn't creamy enough... so I ended up making the whole batch creamy. Oh well. This was, by the way much cheaper than buying the peanut butter that I usually get, and I was able to adjust the saltiness and creaminess to what I like. That reminds me - I once heard someone say that the only right taste is the one you like. There is a lot of truth to that. There are many experts telling us what wines, foods, cheese etc are the best, but if you don't like it, it doesn't matter. Trust yourself.

Another great snack is dried fruit (or fresh fruit - in season - or stored - such as apples), I dry a lot of the fruit that I get for free, and we eat it all winter. I dry strawberries (slicing these with an egg slicer works great), apples, pears, and anything else I can get my hands on. I keep some with me in my purse for when hunger suddenly strikes the kids...or me. Healthy, yummy and very thrifty!

Bread is a fantastic snack. I love to make bread. I use the No-knead or the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day method. Usually the former, just to conserve space in my fridge. Caution: if you are using whole wheat flour, use gluten to insure a good rise. I have found 1 TBL/cup of flour to work well for me. Bread gives you a few snack options: slice and eat with butter, jam, peanut butter or whatever floats your boat. Toast. Or, one of my favorite things to do when the bread is starting to get a little stale: slice very thinly, place on a baking sheet and spray both sides with olive oil, sprinkle a little garlic salt on, bake at 350 until browned and you have little snack crackers. These are great with cheese, salsa, or even on their own. I sometimes like to break up a couple and use them like salad croutons.

There are many snack possibilities that are thrifty, local, sometimes organic and best of all - you know exactly what the ingredients are. Use your imagination!

Tonight - Hamburgers, Guac and Deviled Eggs

Hooray! I used to hate hamburgers, I now love them. Of course, tonight what we will actually be having is burgers made with ground venison and about 20% pork. There isn't enough fat in venison to keep it from drying out if we didn't add the ground pork, but they taste delicious! My dad hunts in the fall, and we reap the benefits. We have 2/3 of a deer this year (we split it with some other people) and I am very grateful. My brother and sister in-law also gave us some of the stuff that they don't want from their CSA including some avocados which I don't normally buy, but I am looking forward to some guacamole! Now most recipes call for tomatoes, but those are a little scarce in February in Wisconsin and I found this recipe: http://www.guacamolerecipe.net/ - I have plenty of salsa that I made last fall in the freezer, and I am thinking that salsa would be a good addition to the hamburger toppings as well as the tacos I am planning to make tomorrow night with the leftover ground venison/pork. And I have an in with an egg-lady so free-range eggs all around! What a feast - and thrifty too!


NOTE:  I was at my co-blogger Marty's house recently and she served guacamole in a dish with the pits on top.  She said that it stopped the guacamole from browning.  We were there for hours and it didn't brown at all!  She had made it in the morning and it still looked perfect.  Awesome tip!




Laura

Laura's Laws of Thrifty Cooking #6

BUY IN BULK - GET SOME FRIENDS!

This is important. I hear people say all the time - well, I just don't use that much flour, beef, pork, whatever. Get some friends then! We split a pig with my in-laws every year which is much cheaper than us each buying a half. It is also much, much cheaper than buying all of those cuts in the grocery store. I have also learned to cook a lot of cuts of meat that I wouldn't have otherwise and not only have these become some of our favorite meals - they are often some of the cheapest cuts of meat! I never knew what a Boston butt cut of pork was before, but now I love it. Of course, the pork chops, hams and bacon are absolutely fabulous, but my cooking repertoire has increased dramatically and I like it that we only have a certain amount of everything. We honestly enjoy our ham roasts so much more because we know that we only have a few. We look forward to eating them and spread them out more. Of course, I could buy more bacon, or hams, and sometimes I do, but I have found that limiting ourselves this way helps us discover even more favorites.

I use a lot of flour. A lot. But I still don't use enough to get wholesale prices. - Hello friends. - I was able to organize a bunch of my friends so that we were able to get wholesale prices on local, organic flour. Honestly, I would have never have been able to afford this flour otherwise - their retail prices make me swoon. You can do this on a number of things, and it doesn't even have to be something that you use a lot of. Maybe you know someone who does. Maybe you can't eat even a quarter of a beef - split it with someone, split it with a couple of people! Save some money! Get some friends! :o)

Laura's Laws of Thrifty Cooking #5

USE WHAT YOU'VE GOT!

This applies not only to leftovers, or food that you have that will not be good if you don't use it, but also to the area you live in. Local food availability. I live in Wisconsin. I am grateful for that in many ways: milk, awesome cheese, butter, yogurt, sour cream etc as well as some of the fantastic livestock and produce farmers that we have around. However, we don't live near the ocean and we have long cold winters. I love shrimp, and most other seafood, but it just isn't as fresh or as good around here, and I have been making a conscious effort to eat closer to home. I do a lot of canning, drying, juicing and freezing in the summer and fall so that I have some of those great vegetables during the winter, but I also eat more 'winter vegetables' during the winter. I have a closet in my house that is always cold and I keep potatoes, turnips, carrots, onions and so on in there. In some other places in my house I keep squash and apples - all from Wisconsin. I bought several pounds of onions at the farmer's market last fall and they should hopefully last me until my spring onions are ready. I do have to buy other vegetables during the year, but they are much more expensive than you can get them for when they are in season, so every year I end up storing more food when it is plentiful and using it throughout the year. Now, not everyone will have a place to keep food cool in their house or have the equipment, time or interest to can, but you can even take advantage of seasonal items in the grocery stores, in Wisconsin, in the winter. All of the 'storage vegetables' are cheaper here during the winter, but zucchini is outrageous. Look around and see what kind of great foods your area has.

Take advantage of other opportunities in your area too. This fall I was able to pick, pears, apples and plums just by asking. If you don't belong to freecycle, join. I just posted that I was looking for these kinds of fruits when I knew that they were in season and people were grateful to get rid of their surpluses. It is hard to imagine how much food goes to waste just because someone has a fruit tree in their yard that they have no interest in picking. I picked and picked and then shared the surplus with friends (more on that soon). Someone didn't have to pick up near as much fallen fruit off their yard and a bunch of people got free fruit, what could be better? You could always ask at your local farmer's market too. They may have a bunch of vegetables or fruits that aren't nice enough to sell, but you may be able to get them at a discount. You never know until you ask. Eating local is far from the elitist activity that it is sometimes portrayed as. It is very thrifty and once you get to know your area, very fun!

-French Toast - Bread made from a Wisconsin flour, local eggs and local maple syrup (another great reason to live in Wisconsin!). Very local and very thrifty!

PS - Powdered sugar - not so local- but pretty!

Cooking as a Craft

Learn to Cook, we should. It's that simple. It is important for us to learn this basic craft for our health and for our pocketbook. I have recently been thinking about the lost art of craftsmanship in so much of our current hurry-up, throw away society.. Many of us think about woodworkers, silversmiths or artists as craftspeople, but there is craft involved in anything you attempt to do well, including cooking. Most importantly, there is a great deal of personal satisfaction in the process of becoming good at something. Notice how I said process. Cooking is a craft, and can be an art. The amount of time that you spend teaching yourself how to make basic foods becomes an adventure and improves your cooking craftiness. If you don't know where to start, get a book on basic cooking from your library and read the recipes. Reading recipes teaches that certain cooking techniques and processes can be lumped together. It helps you organize your thoughts and understand the processes involved in cooking. This is the craft. If you don't like to read, ask a friend who cooks to show you how to make a white sauce, boil noodles or saute vegetables. Anything you cook that does not come out of a box or a package can improve your health and improves your process; your personal cooking craft. Who knows, your cooking may even turn into your art!

Marty

Learn to Make a Chicken

My family situation has changed dramatically in the last five years as children have moved out and are fending for themselves. When my oldest son moved to Los Angeles,he figured he could survive on Ramen noodles (yech!) on the cheap. Yes, they were cheap, but certainly not healthy and a steady diet was becoming monotonous. A room mate decided she was going to help him out by teaching him to make a chicken. Bless Miranda! Even at age 21, she had the right idea. So here are some thoughts on chicken making. If you roast a chicken, you have a very nice dinner and leftovers. Leftovers turn into a variety of meals such as chicken in a white sauce, chicken casserole, chicken tostadas, Caesar salad with chicken etc. For a 6-7 pound chicken, 1-2 meals for 4 are possible from the leftovers. AND...don't forget about the rest of the chicken. Homemade chicken stock from the carcass is a thousand percent better tasting than from a can. Making a stock is not rocket science. You add water to cover the bones in a large pot with a stalk of celery, a chunked carrot and a half onion. Bring it to a simmer and let it go for an hour or two. Strain out all the bones and vegetables and what you have left is chicken stock; a very healthy, homemade delicious base for soups. You can even freeze the stock, (or the carcass for that matter) for another time. So, from Miranda's chicken, we have a fancy weekend meal, two 'leftover' meals and a big pot of soup! Certainly better than Ramen noodles and probably less expensive.

Marty

Laura's Laws of Thrifty Cooking #4

INVENTORY!

Seriously. Do this. I just did it recently and it helps immensely. I don't wonder anymore if I have oregano hiding in the spice cupboard. I know. It makes planning meals so much easier and it saves a TON of money. I always hated cleaning out my freezer only to find food that would have been great a few months ago, if we had only eaten it. Aargh. Now I can sit down with my cookbooks, planner and inventory and come up with meals based on what we have, and what needs to get used up. Perfect. I don't need to hunt around in my cabinets or dig around in the freezer in order to make plans. It is all in front of me. I personally find a checkoff list to be the most helpful. I use graph paper and check things off as we use them - usually this means checking them off when I plan my menu so I don't have to worry about doing it all week.  Then, if I ended up not using something for some reason, next time I plan my menu, I just cross off the check mark (or use it for that week's menu).  This keeps my inventory up to date easily. An inventory makes grocery shopping a breeze too. I know exactly what I have run out of. I also use it for motivation. I have some weird things in my freezer that I don't know how to cook yet. Normally, I would not plan those things into my menu, both because I find them intimidating, and because I just wouldn't think about it. With an inventory though, they are are always in my line of sight, and once I cook them, they usually become regular and favorite items. Remember - THIS IS A PROCESS!  I still don't have all of my cupboards inventoried, and it will take me quite a while to do it.  Start with wherever you tend to waste the most food.  An inventory could quickly become one of your best money and time saving tools in the kitchen. Try it!

Laura's Laws of Thrifty Cooking #3

PLAN YOUR MEALS!

I can't tell you how much stress this little rule has prevented. I used to fly by the seat of my pants and it was incredibly stressful to try and decide what we were going to eat only an hour or two beforehand. We ended up eating out more, or ordering in because I just didn't have the energy to make a decision. We had plenty of food, but the motivation was lacking. This cost us way more in monthly food costs than was necessary. It also cost me a lot of time. Rather than taking time once a week (or every two weeks even) I was pulling out my cookbooks every night, and then giving up because it was so much work. Now, I sit down on Sunday night to plan out my menu. It usually doesn't go according to plan, and some days I am still too worn out to cook, but overall it works very well. It allows me to take things out of the freezer a day or two in advance, and I am not rushing to defrost. I don't need to spend any energy during the day, worrying about what we are going to eat, and I am much more efficient and effective in the kitchen. I also enjoy cooking more, it isn't so much of a hassle, and I have more energy for it and so I am more creative. Planning your meals also allows you to come up with more ideas for leftovers (see Law #2). I love the internet in this regard. Type in "leftover noodles" and Voila! Tons of ideas. Try planning your meals and see how much better it is for your budget, your life and your cooking!

Rule # 1

It's true, if you ENJOY your food, you are satisfied with less and it is easier to maintain a healthy weight. Have you noticed how much better a meal or a snack tastes when you take the time to eat it? Slow down......sit down at a table...with a plate....and a napkin. It becomes an event in time and allows you a chance to appreciate the food you eat. Although I do not always follow my own very good advice, I am always reminded of the importance of sitting down to eat when I visit my parents. Even though they do not eat very much anymore at age 83, they sit down together for each meal at their kitchen table. I am fortunate to have such healthy role models!

Marty

Laura's Laws of Thrifty Cooking #2

LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS!

I hate to waste food, but I also have a husband who absolutely refuses to eat the same meal more than twice in a row. This has allowed me to become very creative in the kitchen. I enjoy the challenge of creating new and different meals out of the same ingredients. It saves a lot of time in the kitchen and money too. I recently created three different meals from a venison roast. We had the roast the first night with plenty of veggies (carrots, potatoes and onions) and yogurt biscuits. Venison meat can get fairly dry, but we had cooked bacon that morning and I was able to sear the roast in the leftover fat and then drizzle the remainder over the roast to keep it lubed up while cooking. Caution: This will not work with the watery stuff that you get from typical supermarket bacon. That is injected with a brine to speed curing. You need some real bacon from a farm-raised pig (more on this in a future post). You could put uncooked bacon over the top of the roast too, but I prefer eating the bacon for a separate meal. The next night, I cooked some rice, sauteed the venison and some of the onions with a red pepper and some fajita seasoning, served with sour cream, some salsa (or relish) and cheese and Ta-da! Fajitas!

The third night I put the bone from the roast, some meat (reserved when I cut it up the night before), the leftover veggies, a bit of flour and we had a wonderful venison soup. It was supposed to be a stew, but I wasn't really paying attention and added too much water. I crumbled the leftover biscuits from the first night over the top, and served it with fresh bread and a mixed salad. And, if I do say so myself, it was wicked good.

This combo of meals actually served us five suppers and five lunches, but my kids are pretty small yet, so it may not last you quite as long. I still have leftover rice that I am going to do something with tomorrow. Probably fried rice?

Anyway, the point is: it is completely possible and makes excellent sense in terms of both time and money to make meals that taste very different, and yet still use the same basic ingredients. By varying the meals, you can keep your family happy, and your pocketbook too!

Laura's Laws of Thrifty Cooking #1

ENJOY YOUR FOOD.

This, I think, more than anything else is what is missing from mass American food culture. We feed ourselves junk, and we are so busy that we shovel it in without any thought. Enjoying your food not only helps you realize that you are full before you overeat (which means you eat less - saving $), it also makes you realize exactly with what you are fueling your body. Another great benefit is, it makes you a better cook - it really does - you start to realize what flavors you like together, or what exactly is missing from the meal. I made a risotto a couple of days ago with turkey, turkey broth and mushrooms, and it just wasn't what I expected. I kept thinking that it was missing something - the next day I was reheating it for lunch for the girls and looking into the fridge for something to make it less ho-hum and Ah-ha! Thai Sweet Chili Sauce! Now, not everyone will have that in their fridge, because not everyone likes Thai food, but I would bet that if you start listening to your taste buds that you will discover what flavors you like, and will be able to turn that so-so meal into something delicious!

Beginnings

I didn't always love to cook and there are many days when I still don't love it. But overall, I have have too much fun cooking not to enjoy it immensely. I didn't learn to cook while growing up (which was a mistake) and that has made it much more difficult to learn as an adult trying to feed the hungry mob. There are many things that have learned, and many more to be learned, but I wish to share this because I think that now is a time when many people have lost the art of cooking and if my fumbling attempts can help even one person out, I have succeeded. By the way, my cooking will be vetted by my always opinionated husband, and my two little girls - the five year old is Queen of the Carbs, and the two year old is Queen of Changeability. I have also invited one of my best friends, and one of the best (and most frugal) cooks I know to blog along with me. And so it begins...