Eating Well Cheaply |
| "Eating" and "Cheaply" are not necessarily two words which people who know me would figure I could use in the same sentence. Not my friends, and not those who read
my other blog, An Obsession With Food.
However, the technology sector layoff axe has swung my way, and so I find myself trying to stretch my savings as far as possible. But I firmly believe that one can eat well
on a tight budget. After all, many so-called gourmet foods had their roots in peasants trying to make their money stretch as far as possible. Of course, something like
coq au vin is only peasant food when you're actually in Burgundy, and can more easily find cheap wine for the stew.
It just takes more time and planning. But time has become much more available. And even when I get hired again, I'll keep
cooking this way since my girlfriend Melissa and I are thinking about buying a house once we both have income again. Plus, then I'll have more money to spend on the
extravagant meals I occasionally describe on my other blog.
A note on costs: in general, I don't keep track of how much things like flour, sugar, salt, and so forth cost. When I list costs, it's usually just the items I had to buy specifically for that meal. Not always, though. If I buy a bunch of some type of fruit, and use a couple pieces here, a couple pieces there, I'll try and fill in the per-fruit cost or an estimate. Also, I usually just list costs for the first time I buy something. After that point, it counts as leftovers, since I've paid the price for it for some other dish, and the fact that I get to re-use it is a bonus. |
Thanksgiving Leftovers Saturday, November 30, 2002
You can not do Thanksgiving cheaply. Well, I can't anyway. But we managed with a minimal amount
of new cash outlay. The turkey had been ordered back
in February, and while I had to buy an extra breast to compensate for the diminutive stature of my bird
when it arrived, the rebate I'm getting as a result essentially covers this cost.
Also we did it as a potluck, which helped tremendously. But while I can't do Thanksgiving cheaply, as one of the co-hosts I got lots of leftovers, and so I've been figuring out ways to use them. Oh, yes. I know one can just pop them in the microwave and reheat them, but where's the fun in that? So last night I made individual shepherd's pies, laying some diced turkey meat with a tiny bit of leftover giblet stock in the bottom of a ramekin, then covering that with mashed potatoes. I baked them at 350 for about 15 minutes, until they were warm all the way through. To finish them, I grated some leftover cheddar from the cheese course (the only U.S. manufacturer that bandages their cheddar in the true English tradition) over the top and stuck them under the broiler for a total of 4 minutes (I checked their process and rotated them every minute or so). Presentation-wise, it is hard to go wrong when you grate cheese over something, and put it in under the broiler. The cheese becomes a luscious golden-brown and tastes fantastic. I might have improved on it by putting some roasted bell peppers into the potatoes, adding some color and texture, but I was pretty happy with it the way it was.
Melissa blanched some green beans and then sauteed them with some mushrooms, all left over from Thanksgiving (though it was Melissa who had bought them originally) Buffy Buffet Monday, November 25, 2002
Yesterday we went to a friend's house to watch all the current episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season seven. People were encouraged to bring snacks
to share, and I opted for hummous.
Hummous, it turns out, can be made pretty cheaply. Because I had some leftover fennel and am still working through my bag of oranges, I decided to make an orange-fennel hummous. Were I making it with more advance planning (I thought of it late the night before), I might have a) cooked dried garbanzos rather than relying on a can and b) made a French Laundry-style of fennel oil to garnish the top. As it was, I mixed the fronds from the leftover fennel straight into the puree. I also mixed in some cinnamon for some depth, as well as some mint and garlic. I was pretty happy with it overall, but the orange was not very pronounced, and nor was the mint.
Costs: |
