Eating Well Cheaply |
| When I first started this blog, it was because I had just been laid off, and wanted my savings to last as long as possible. So I undertook this project, trying to stretch
leftovers in creative new ways. Just reheating was a cop-out. But now I'm re-employed, so it'll have to be a bit different. The cheap meals will more likely be lunches from now on, but
I still intend to keep up my old habits. More money for the expensive dinner parties we like to throw!
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. |
More than a Week Later Tuesday, February 25, 2003
More neglect. Poor Eating Well Cheaply, suffering while its older brother thrives. But in truth,
I have to claim illness more than lack of interest.
But now I am more or less back in shape, and have been trying to exercise my creativity once again. The task is made somewhat easier when we have a dinner party; I've almost always got a nice smattering of ingredients to do fun stuff with. (said dinner party will be discussed soon over on Obsession With Food) This week, however, the theme is not just dinner party leftovers, but sausage. A week or so ago I bought a fair amount of smoked sausage from Taylor's. Smoked sausage keeps a long time, but I'm feeling guilty that I haven't eaten any yet. So Monday I brought in two links, two slices of pain de mie, some leftover wasabi mayonnaise from the party, and some leftover frisee and red chicory (which looks like a Belgian endive that is not only on steroids, but has decided to dye itself like a radicchio). I didn't have a precise idea of what I was going to do, but I more or less knew. The links would get grilled on the George Foreman grill at work, while the pain de mie toasted in the toaster oven. But it was a coworker who suggested the best part: using the chicory leaves like buns for the sausages, which I then topped with the wasabi mayonnaise and some frisee. This worked really nicely, the pleasant bitterness of the chicory making itself known but not overwhelming the smoked sausage and wasabi mayonnaise. Who'd have thought? Tuesday, Sausage Week continued. As did Wasabi Mayonnaise Week. But the veggies were well past their prime, and so I brought in an extremely ripe pear, as well as some cauliflower leftover from the vegetable stock I made over the weekend. I lightly steamed the cauliflower as best as possible in the microwave, and once again toasted my pain de mie and grilled the sausage. On the plate, I arranged two "walls" of thinly sliced pear, standing them up around the edges, and put my toast in between. I laid the sausages on top, slathered some mayonnaise on them, and filled in the gaps with the cauliflower florets. It's kind of interesting, but I can see why small plates are so much the fad among restaurants these days. I now find it harder to arrange a big plate attractively, particularly a big plate of eclectic leftovers. My design aesthetic has definitely shifted towards small courses on a big expanse of white plate, whereas four years ago I might very well have thought that very chi-chi, in a disparaging holier-than-thou kind of way.
Costs: The only thing I bought specifically was an inordinate amount of sausage, which was probably $10.
Everything else so far has been leftover from our dinner party. |
