The Ice Man Cooketh

Beans and Rice

2010-04-21T10:14:00.005-04:00

Not much to this staple food, but it's tasty, low in fat, vegetarian and super frugal.

Ingredients:

2 cups red beans (dry)
1 cup rice (uncooked)
1 packet of taco seasoning
1/4 cup ketchup
1 32 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 diced onions
2 tbs oil (corn or peanut)

Directions:

Cook beans until very soft (I use a slow cooker)
Cook rice (I use a rice cooker)
Place 12" skillet or Dutch oven on medium hear, add oil
Saute onions in skillet, add taco seasoning
Add tomatoes and deglaze pan
Add everything else
Cook until heated through and reduced to desired consistency
Taste and add extra seasoning if desired

Frugal Factor:

I buy my beans and rice bulk, so not sure how much, probably under $2. The tomatoes can be found for $1.50. Let's say $0.50 for the onions and ketchup. That's $4/6 servings, or $0.67/serving.

Savory Bread Pudding w/ Ham, Spinach and Cheese

2010-04-06T16:25:00.006-04:00

So I baked some whole wheat oatmeal bread from a '70s cookbook that called for far too much yeast. What to do? Savory bread pudding, one of the original frugal foods back before mass-market bread. This is potentially a pantry dish too and substitutions abound.

Ingredients:

1 loaf stale bread, cut into 3/4" cubes (no, don't measure)
6-8 eggs (start with 6)
2 120z cans evaporated milk (have some reg. milk in the fridge just in case)
10oz shredded cheese (I used Havarti, because it was on special at Aldi, plus a leftover hunk of Gruyere)
1 lbs ham, diced 1/4" or so (you could also use cooked bacon, sausage, or no meat at all)
2 boxes chopped frozen spinach
3 leeks, white parts only, chopped and cleaned thoroughly (substitute yellow onions to save $)
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350
Saute leeks in olive oil until golden, add garlic and cook 1 more minute
Cook spinach and drain of all water (I nuked it and then squeezed it in a clean kitchen towel)
In large bowl, combine the milk, eggs and seasoning and whisk thoroughly to combine
Add all the other ingredients except the bread and combine
Toss the bread in until all liquid is absorbed. Test a couple bread pieces. If not soaked through, whisk together some more eggs and milk from the fridge and add (sorry, bread varies too much to be exact)
Place in a large, oiled casserole dish. I used a 9x13 plus two individual-sized ones to take over to Sharon's place. The mixture should fill to about the 2" mark in whatever dish you use.
Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes. It should rise a little and brown in spots on the top, but careful not to burn the bottom.

Frugal Factor: Bread, aprox. $2 worth of ingredients. Ham, $3.50 at Aldi, spinach $2, leeks, $3, cheese, $3.50 at Aldi, milk and eggs, $2 (est.). That's $16. I made 8 generous portions, so that's $2/portion. Still frugal. As much as I love them, the leeks really do some damage. And of course, truly leftover bread has already been bought or left at your house by party guests or something.

Pork Roast Marsala

2010-04-05T16:31:00.000-04:00

This recipe is so easy it's barely a recipe at all. Tasty though.

Ingredients:

3 lbs pork roast
8 oz mushrooms, chopped
2 onions, halved and sliced
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1 tsp. dried rosemary
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp ground pepper

Directions:

Put everything in a slow cooker
Cook on medium ("auto shift" on mine)
When pork falls apart with a fork, stop cooking
Pour through a sieve, collecting liquid in bowl
Reduce liquid in a saucepan over high heat, whisking in 1 tbsp. flour until thickened
Cut meat into bite-sized pieces
Mix everything back together and serve.

Frugal Factor: Sorry, I lost my receipt so this is a guestimate. The pork was about $3.50, the mushrooms were too. Add $1 for all the other stuff. That's $8. I got 6 portions out of this. That's $1.33/portion. Serve it over rice for a more filling meal if you want.

Mexican Bean Bake with Cheesy Corn Souffle (Vegetarian)

2009-12-29T16:34:00.005-05:00

This recipe has a lot of steps, but it’s a tasty, vegetarian, protein-packed meal that costs almost nothing to make.

Ingredients

For the beans:

1 lbs dry pinto beans (or some such bean) or 4 cans
1/2 cup rice
1 onion
2 cups (16oz) of tomato salsa (whatever’s on sale)
3 tbs cumin
2 tbs cayenne pepper (I used chipotle powder though)
1 tbs. oregano (Mexican if you have it)
2 tbs. garlic powder
Salt and additional seasoning to taste.
Some sliced green olives if you want them. I did, but they work better with meat.

Topping:

1 cup frozen corn, pulverized in food processor
2 cups milk
4 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp flour (Wondra works best)
8 oz shredded cheese (colby, muenster or jack)
6 egg whites
3 egg yolks
1 tsp salt

Directions:

If you are using dried beans, cook them. I just put them right in the slow cooker, cover with water (plus 1”-2”and heat on high for several hours.
Cook the rice
Add all the bean ingredients together. You could sauté the onions first, or don’t. See if care.
Put it all in 2 9x13 baking dishes (or one really big one like I did).
Melt butter in saucepan
Stir in flour to make a paste
Whisk in milk and keep under medium heat until thickened.
Add cheese, corn and egg yolks and turn off heat
Whip egg yolks until soft peaks form
Fold yolks into cheese sauce slowly and carefully
Pour over beans and bake at 400 for 1 hour or so (until topping is set)

Frugal Factor: $2.50 for the cheese, $1.50 for the beans, $1.50 for the beans, $2 for the salsa, $2 for everything else. Serves 12. That’s $0.75/serving.

Vegetarian Lima Bean and Cabbage Cassoulet

2009-12-21T16:11:00.009-05:00

I love the French dish cassoulet, but it requires finding just the right sausages, cooking a duck or goose (and reserving the rendered fat) and roasting some lamb. I made mine vegetarian out of laziness, especially because there we got two feet of snow and I didn’t feel like going out for any food not already in my house. Cooking the beans is probably a weekend thing unless you have a timer on your slow cooker and have tested it before. However, you can make the rest any time.

Looks-wise, this rather monochromatic dish, especially because I was out of carrots. You could probably use kale instead of cabbage and get a nicer color, but cabbage is what I had, so that's what I used. (I also overcooked the beans because I was out at the pub drinking beer.) No matter how it looks, it's a super-frugal winter meal.

Ingredients:

1 lbs (aprox. 2 cups) dried lima beans (or any other white bean)
1 stalk celery
1 tbsp. thyme
1 tsp. rosemary
1 head cabbage
2 carrots
2 onions
2 cups bread crumbs
2 tbs. garlic powder
1 stick of butter
Salt to taste

Directions:

Rinse dried beans and place in slow cooker with 4 cups water and the dried herbs and one diced onion
Cook on high for about six hours (really depends on your make, model, age of beans, etc), until beans are soft but still firm to the tooth (al dente). Add water if needed. Drain and reserve cooking liquid
Dice up a head of cabbage and carrots; steam until al dente, set aside
Dice remaining onion into half-inch pieces, toss with some herbs and olive oil, and roast at 400 for 20 minutes or so
Melt butter in saucepan and add bread crumbs, garlic powder and salt to taste. Mix until all crumbs are coated
Toss cabbage, roasted onions and beans. Add cooking liquid until mixture is very loose (like a thick stew)
Salt/pepper/season to taste
Coat a 9x13 baking dish with half the bread crumbs.
Add the bean mixture
Top with remaining bread crumbs, spreading evenly and as flat as possible
Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Frugal factor: Off the charts. Dry beans and cabbage are two of the cheapest forms of nutrition. This made eight portions. Figure $1.50 for the beans, $2 for the cabbage, $1 for the bread crumbs, $0.50 for the butter, and $1.50 for everything else. That's about $0.82/portion.

Carmelized Pot Roast w/ Gorgonzola Cauliflower

2009-11-23T14:55:00.004-05:00

It’s not every day I discover a better way to cook meat, but that’s exactly what happened this weekend. I set out to make a slow-cooker pot roast. In the past, the meat ended up swimming in its juices, so I propped it up on top of potatoes. In this manner, the potatoes cooked long before the meat was fork-tender, so I drained the juices for gravy, removed the vegetables, and placed the meat in the dry crock and set the temp to high. Hours later, an amazing thing happened. As the fat and connective tissue cooked away, the beef was now slow-frying in its own fat. The entire outside of the roast browned like Carnitas, yet as I broke apart the roast with two forks, the meat was hardly dry at all. Once I tossed the chunks of meat in the gravy, I had a perfect freezer entrée.

Served here with a baked cauliflower casserole consisting of a steamed and mashed cauliflower mashed with 1 cup of béchamel w/ 1/4 lbs gorgonzola and baked at 450 until browned. Yum.

Frugal Factor: 2 lbs. bottom round roast, $4, cauliflower, $2, potatoes, $1, mushrooms $2, milk and butter, $1. $10 for 5 portions is $2/portion.

Chicken Marsala w/ Escarole and Potatoes

2009-11-20T12:46:00.004-05:00

Chicken Marsala may be a staple of catering hall buffets, but it’s one of my favorites. Marsala is a sweet fortified wine with a long shelf life, so I always have it in the pantry. On the side, I chopped and sautéed one head of escarole in garlic with a dash of chicken stock.I also nuked a couple russet potatoes, removed the skin, chopped into chuncks and sauteed in olive oil and herbs. Easy.

Ingredients:

8 Chicken Thighs, skinned, de-boned and pounded flatFlour seasoned with salt, pepper and dried herbs – Wondra works best.

1/4 cup olive oil

8 oz chopped mushrooms1 finely diced onion

6 cloves garlic

1 cup marsala wine

1-2 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Dredge the chicken in the flour.

Pour olive oil in 12” skillet and add whole garlic cloves and chicken, then turn on medium heat (trust me)

Brown chicken on both sides and set aside.

Stir about two tablespoons of the dredging flour into the olive oil to create a loose paste (roux).

Add mushrooms and onion and stir until cooked through.

Add marsala and scrape and fond off pan.

Crush up those garlic cloves.

Add chicken and enough stock to half cover the other ingredients.

Continue cooking until sauce thickens and chicken is cooked through, adding more stock or flour to get the desired gravy consistency.

After turning off heat, stir in a few tablespoons of butter to enrich the sauce.

Frugal Factor: 2lbs chicken at $1.89/lbs, $3.78. Mushrooms, $2, onion, garlic, wine, stock, oil, butter: $1.50 (est.). I made four servings, so that’s $1.82/serving not counting the sides, which would probably add $0.75/serving, for a total of $2.47/serving.

Balsamic Chicken with Eggplant and Roasted Vegetables over Polenta

2009-11-09T15:10:00.009-05:00

As the local growing season ends, I’m back to getting my veggies at the supermarket. One way to make supermarket produce shine is roasting, which concentrates the flavors and brings out the sweetness. This recipe also uses canned roasted peppers, sundried tomatoes and capers – essential pantry items for the winter. This recipe has a few make-ahead steps, but is well worth the effort. The chicken is optional, but as always, dark meat is best if you plan to freeze and reheat.

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant

1 red onion

6 portabella mushrooms

1/2 cup sliced sundried tomatoes, soaked in hot water until soft and drained

2 cans roasted red peppers

1 bulb garlic (preferably North American)

1 lbs chicken thighs, sliced

2 tbsp capers

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 tbsp. dried Italian herb mixture (fresh works too, but it’s winter)

Parmesan cheese – to taste

1 cup balsamic vinaigrette (see below)

1 6x9 dish of polenta (see below)

Marinate chicken strips in half the balsamic vinaigrette for one hour or overnight.

Peel eggplant and slice into quarters and the slice into ½ inch pieces.

Lightly salt eggplant and layer on paper towels for 1 hour or overnight (rinse and pat dry

Slice onion in half and then into slices

Rinse the mushrooms and cut out the black gills and discard.

Slice the mushrooms into bite sized pieces. If stems were included, chop off the duty end and discard, and slice the stem into thin pieces.

Toss each vegetable separately in some olive oil, herbs and pepper flakes and put on roasting pans (keep veggies separate in case their cooking times are different.
Place veggies, as well as whole bulb of garlic, in a 450 degree oven until browned but not burned. 20-30 minutes on average.

Open cans of peppers. Drain the first can and and slice into bite sized pieces, set aside. Run the other can, liquid and all, in a blender until smooth.

Pat dry the marinated chicken and sauté under high heat.

Add all the veggies

Squeeze roasted garlic cloves into mixture.

Add a dash of the vinaigrette, the pureed peppers, and the capers

Serve over warmed polenta squares with grated cheese. Fresh parsley might be nice too.

For the balsamic vinaigrette: 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, 2/3 cup olive oil, 1 tsp prepared mustard, 2 tbsp lemon juice, salt and Tabasco to taste. Put it all in a blender and blend until opaque and emulsified..

For the polenta: Bring two cups water/stock to a boil, lower heat to simmer, whisk in 1 c cup cornmeal and stir slowly for 30 minutes, until mixture pulls away from pan (add water if it gets too thick to stir). Pour into greased casserole, cool, and cut into squares.

Frugal Factor: This makes six servings. $2 for the eggplant, $4 for the mushroom, $1 for the onion, $4 for the chicken, $1 for everything else. That’s $2/serving. A little high – darn those mushrooms.

Mexi-Mac

2009-09-14T16:24:00.010-04:00

A ridiculously easy recipe. I made two batches, one with ground beef and one with texturized vegetable protein. Like many things in life, it is better with meat, but it’s a great way to use TVP too. This is the kind of Middle American recipe you see on those little booklets in the supermarket checkout line. But it's mighty tasty. I only had penne but it should really be made with elbow macaroni.

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef (or 2 cups of TVP, rehydrated)
2 packets of taco seasoning (or bulk from Penzey’s)
1 lbs macaroni, cooked
2 jars mild salsa
2 cans pinto beans
1 8 oz block of cheddar or jack cheese, ½ shredded, ½ in quarter-inch cubes
1 cup sliced green Spanish olives

Cook the ground beef or TVP according to the taco seasoning directions
Add everything but the shredded cheese, mix together.
Top with cheese.
That was easy.

Frugal Factor: Made with beef, $5 for supermarket beef. $2 for cheap macaroni, $5 for two jars of salsa, $1 for the seasoning mix. Thats $14 for 9 portions, or $1.55/portion

Sauerkraut, Ham and Kasha (slow cooker)

2009-08-26T23:20:00.004-04:00

This isn't a complicated recipe, but it was delicious. Buckwheat groats, a.k.a. Kasha, are one of the healthiest and filling things you can eat, loaded with protein. Only this is, while I have had wonderful Kasha at Russian restaurants in the Far Northeast, mine always tastes like socks. However, toss it with sauerkraut and the flavor is much better (assuming you like sauerkraut).

Ingredients:

1 Bag Fresh Sauerkraut, rinsed
1.5 lbs. smoked meat (I used the remannts of a ham and three smoked turkey drumsticks)
1 tsp. caraway seeds and
tsp. thyme
1.5 cups buckwheat groats
2 cups stock
2 tbs. butter

Directions:

Toss the first four ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low until meat is falling off bone. Remove bones.
Put the groats, stock and butter in a saucepan, cover, bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes
Add cooked groats to kraut and meat slowly (until it's about 1/3 kasha and 2/3 kraut.
Season to taste.
Eat.

Frugal Factor: Ridiculously cheap. $1 for the groats, $1.50 for the kraut, $2.75 for the turkey legs. That's $5.20 for four portions, or $1.31/portion.

Risotto w/ Scallops, Saffron and Fava Beans

2009-08-26T23:17:00.002-04:00

Fresh green fava beans have been showing up on American menus a lot lately. I use frozen ones, sold as Broad Beans by Goya. One benefit to the frozen beans is that if you just run them under hot water for a minute, the inedible shells thaw while the beans stay frozen, so it’s easier to remove the shells without crushing the bean.

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped scallops (chopped if big, whole if small)

2 cups shelled fava beans (you could use peas too)

1 chopped white onion (leeks would be great here)

2 chopped garlic cloves

2 tbs. olive oil

2 cups Arborio or Sushi Rice

4-5 cups Stock (I used Better than Bouillon lobster stock, which works well here but is generally disgusting. If you don’t have time/constitution/ventilation to make your own fish stock, chicken or vegetable stock will do.)

Pinch each of saffron, white pepper, marjoram, and cayenne pepper

1⁄4 cup heavy cream (optional)

Lightly sauté onions in 1 tbs.olive oil. Add rice and brown the rice a little. Add garlic. Add half the stock and stir. Set to simmer, and add fava beans when rice is half-cooked. Slowly add rest of stock. When rice is a just a bit harder than al dente, add the spices and scallops. Keep stirring until a creamy, loose consistency had been achieved. Finish with cream and 1 tbs. olive oil and serve immediately.

For the portions you freeze, add a little stock to help with reheating in the microwave.

Frugal Factor: I bought the main ingredients so long ago I am a little lost. I think it would be $4 for the scallops left over from a big bag I got on sale, $1.50 for the fava beans, $4 for the Arborio rice at the overcharging supermarket price, $1 for everything else. I got 6 servings out of this recipe, so that’s $1.75/serving. A restaurant would sell this for $15!

Swedish Meatballs over Kluski Noodles

2009-04-22T21:37:00.012-04:00

	The Jan/Feb issue Cook's Illustrated had a recipe for Swedish Meatballs. I always like getting them at Ikea, so I gave it a try. The recipe called for heavy cream in both the meatballs and the sauce. I used evaporated milk - it's cheaper, lower in fat and won't separate when reheating like cream often does. The recipe called for half a pound each of ground pork and ground beef. I doubled the recipe so I could use the whole package of each. I meant to add some fresh dill or thyme - that would have made it better. And I needed lingonberry sauce. Doh!
	In my mixer bowl, I made a panade of 4 crustless slices white bread soaked in ½ cup evaporated milk, two eggs plus a half tsp. each of allspice and nutmeg, 2 tsp.each of baking powder, salt and brown sugar plus two grated onions. I gave it a quick mix to form a paste, added the meat, and mixed on medium for 45 seconds until everything was incorporated. Forming 55 little meatballs took forever. I wonder if Swedish Salisbury Steak would be just as good.
	The recipe called for pan-frying, but I split the batch between the frying pan and the broiler. Frying takes a lot more attention, stinks up the kitchen and adds extra fat. The fried meatballs were a bit more crispy and fluffy but they also tended to fall apart. With the sauce it was hard to tell the difference. Broil. Just remember to put some water in the bottom of the broiler pan so the drippings don't smoke and stick to the bottom.
	The sauce is pretty basic - two cups of broth thickened with flour and enriched with 1/4 cup evaporated milk. The recipe called for chicken broth but I used Better Than Bouillon beef base. It tasted like that was a mistake at first, but once I added the tbsp. of brown sugar 2 tbsp. of lemon juice, the sauce had a bright sweet and sour flavor. I added a little allspice and white pepper too. I tossed the meatballs right in the finished sauce to keep warm while I boiled some Kluski noodles and finished cooking some squash for the side dish.
	Frugal Factor: I used the last of my ground pork from the 1/4 pig I bought which worked out to about $4/lb. The ground beef from Shop Rite was $2.19/lb. 12 oz bag of kluski noodles, $1.79; evaporated milk, 12 ox can, $0.89. That's $8.87. Let's round that up to $10 to cover the pantry items (bread, onion, spices, sugar, etc.) Yielded 55 meatballs - 8 portions plus the ones I sneaked while finishing the sauce and such. That's $1.50/portion. (the side dish was a butternut squash I bought for $2.50 - so add $0.42 for that for the meal)

Scallops Lo Mein in Black Bean Sauce

2009-04-10T18:50:00.020-04:00

	I had some Chinese yam noodles, leftover cilantro, and some scallops in the freezer from the 5 lbs bag I bought on sale for $20 at Shop Rite a while back.
	I made a double-portion of fermented black bean sauce from an earlier post and threw half a bag of frozen spinach in the sauce once it was done cooking. drained the liquid from the thawed scallops (added it to the sauce) and tossed them in some soy sauce.
	After searing the scallops, I added the sauce w/ the spinach, deglazed the pan, tossed in the cooked noodles and some chopped cilantro and dinner was served
	Frugal Factor: $5 for the scallops, $1 for the sauce ingredients, $1.50 for the frozen spinach, $3 for the noodles, $1 for the cilantro. Let's round that up to $11 for four portions - $2.75/portion. Not ultra frugal but cheaper than takeout and way tastier.

Fish in Packets

2009-04-10T17:21:00.008-04:00

	Fish in packets is an easy dish as long as you can fold the packets of parchment paper. If you can't, well-oiled foil works too. I used 11 lbs Mahi Mahi but any white-fleshed fish works
	Julienne one leek and one carrot and toss veggies in bowl with a dash of salt, pepper, thyme, olive oil and vermouth
	Preheat oven to 350. Divide fish into four portions. Wrap each of the fillets in parchment with the vegetables. Bake 10 minutes, unwrap and serve.
	Frugal Factor: $1 for the leek and carrot, $0.50 vermouth, $6.50 for the fish. Serves 4, $2/portion, not including those mashed potatoes

Fish Cake Sandwich w/ Slaw

2009-04-10T16:08:00.005-04:00

This was an easy little recipe to use stuff I had in the fridge. I had some leftover broiled mahi mahi which I supplemented with a can of mackerel. I like to use masa harina, the processed corn flour used to make corn tortillas and tamales, as a coating for fried fish.

Ingredients: 1 can mackerel, a few slices of stale bread pulsed in a in the food processor, 1 egg, 1 tbsp. smoked paprika, 1 tbsp. dried chives, 1 grated shallot, 1 cup masa harina

Mix all the ingredients except the masa harina together. Form into patties. If it falls apart, add a little of the masa. Once formed, dredge in the masa and fry in a pan with 1/2 inch of oil (I like peanut oil for pan frying - it's light, a litttle nutty, and you can get it very hot.

I shredded some cabbage and a carrot and tossed it with some tartar sauce to make a fish slaw, put it on a crusty roll with the fish cake, and had a tasty sandwich.

Frugal Factor: Mackerel, $2; egg, $0.25; cabbage, $0.50. Let's say $3 for four portions, or $0.75/portion plus whatever the cost of the roll you choose.

Fisherman's Pie

2009-02-24T23:37:00.009-05:00

Thanks to Crash Kitchen for this idea, although I made no effort to actually follow their recipe. I was skeptical of an English fish pie but this creamy concoction of smoked and fresh fish was a huge hit. It's basically a shepherd's pie but with fish and a bechamel. For the topping, I tried the latest "perfect mashed potatoes" method from the OCD folks at Cook's Illustrated. You steam the peeled, cubed potatoes for 10-15 minutes, rinse them in cold water, and then steam them anotgher 20 minutes until mashable, then rice them. The result really is some insanely light, fluffy mash that's perfect for a dish like this. This method is also fasterand easier - the riced potatoes incorporate with no effrt and you don't have to wait for a pot of water to boil (just a feew cups in the steamer). Any fish will work as long as some is smoked. In fact, using pimenton (smoked paprika) in the sauce might even make up for having no smoked fish.

Ingredients: 8 med. potatoes (about 2 lbs), 1/2 stick butter, 1 15 oz can of mackerel (large bones removed and "dark meat" fed to Marcel), 1 lbs smoked fish (I smoked some whiting fillets out back and used a can of Trader Joe's smoked trout I had opened earlier for a snack), 1 leek, 4 shallots, 3/4 lbs of peas or green beans, 2 cups milk, 3 tbsp. flour (Wondra is best), Worcestershire sauce, paprika and pepper to taste

Make mashed potatoes with 1/4 stick of butter; set aside
Melt 1/4 stick butter butter on low heat in saucepan
Whisk in flour and add leeks and shallots; saute a while
Add milk and seasoning. Some people say to use warm milk, but I just crank up the heat and whisk it to death
Add a 10 oz block of frozen vegetables such as peas or green beans (I used blanched fresh green beans because they were already in the fridge) and the fish (if your fish is raw, dice it and throw it in. If cooked, simply break apart.
Pour sauce in greased casserole dish. Top with mashed potatoes
Bake at 375 for 30 minutes
Eat right away or somebody else will

Serves 6-9 (depending on whether Dave and Heather are over and have seconds and thirds)

Frugal Factor: As prepared, this is a really frugal dish. You could go all out with cream instead of bechamel and something other than the two cheapest fish at the grocery store, but I'm not sure if it could get much tastier. 15 0z can mackeral, $1.10; 1 lbs whiting, $3.00 (plus the cost of some wood for smoking); frozen peas, $1.25; $0.35 for 2 cups milk; $0.35 for 1/2 stick butter ($2.79/lbs at TJ's - wow); $1.60 for 2 lbs potatoes; $1.50 for the leek, shallots and spices. At $9.15 for 6 servings, thats $1.53/serving.

Stuffed Acorn Squash w/ Quinoa, Dried Fruit and Nuts

2009-02-13T20:49:00.009-05:00

If you have been reading this blog from time to time, you know I'm no vegetarian. But sometimes a meatless meal is a nice change from ham, sausage, pork chops... Anyway, I came up with this recipe as a vegan entree for festive holiday meals. Quinoa is a superfood of sorts in that it has a very high amount of complete protein, so it's all you need. This recipe does have that 1970s Rodale Cookbook feel, but it's a great winter dish anyway. Just don't serve it with steamed brown bread.

Ingredients: 2 acorn squash, 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/4 cup dried fruit (apricots, cranberries, currants, cherries are all good), 1 diced onion, pinch of sage, pinch of thyme, cinnamon stick, 1/4 cup chopped pecans, 2-3 tbsp. shredded unsweetened coconut.

Halve each squash and scoop out the seeds (The truly frugal will roast those for later snacking. I will not).
Slice just a little bit off the bottom of each half to make a flat surface
Roast open side down at 375 for about 45 minutes or until soft but still structurally sound
In a rice cooker, combine quinoa, fruit, onion, herbs, cinnamon and 1 cup vegetable stock or lightly salted water (you can of course make it on the stovetop, but maybe w/ more water)
Scoop out 1-2 tsp. of squash flesh and stir into the quinoa pilaf (this helps it hold together)
Sprinkle the coconut and pecans - you can spray a little oil to make it stick, and press the nuts in a little.
Bake at 375 for 30 minutes

Serves 4

Notes: The pre-roasting of the squash and the cooking of the quinoa pilaf can be done a day or two ahead. This is also good with curry powder. The natural sweetness of the squash and fruits may make you want to go all out and make this a sweeter dish. I haven't tried, but I will warn you that unsulphered apricots can get a little bitter and when cooked this way, so taste the pilaf before you stuff.

Frugal Factor: Hard to estimate on this because most of the ingredients are pantry items I usually buy a lot of. The squash were $3 for 2 at the discount produce; at $4/lb bulk, the quinoa would be $0.70, everything else was maybe $1.50. That's $1.30/serving.

Spinach Feta Endive Poppers

2009-02-09T23:20:00.005-05:00

I may have created a new appetizer. Well, it needs dome work but it's getting there. I like Belgian Endive cooked, like in a gratin, but I didn't have any melty cheese. I has feta though. And spinach. I like spanakopita, but I had no filo. I did have panko though, and I finally got around to fixing my deep fryer a while back. (Ugg, that was a pain. I had to buy a special scredriver just to take apart some kind of switch with a broken spring.) Anway, the pictures tell the story. No frugal factor, because endive is expensive because it has to come all the way from Belgium.

Liberty Cabbage (Ham n' Sauerkraut)

2009-02-09T21:41:00.010-05:00

When I was a kid, my dad used to get a whole bunch of wursts and pork from the German butcher and cook them with sauerkraut in a Romertopf - a semi-porous clay roasting pan and lid. Today, I use my slow cooker. It's pretty much the same idea.

Any collection of pork products will do, particularly the large or fatty pieces that need slow cooking like shoulder, hock, etc. Cured sausages and franks are great too (uncured ones will dry out). In this case, I used some ham that's been in the freezer since Thanksgiving (to make way for a new ham) and some German-style franks that were getting a little freezer burned.

I also added potatoes and a few herbs and spices which really add to the flavor, mainly coarse mustard, caraway seeds and savory. The latter two are rumored to reduce the social liabilities of cabbage. I don't know if that's an issue with a fermented product like sauerkraut, especially after six hours of cooking, but they are mighty tasty.

I'm not much for these raw food people, but raw sauerkraut is loaded with vitamin C. Canned sauerkraut is not, so I suspect cooking reduces the vitamin. That is why I reserve 1/4 of the kraut to stir in after slow cooking the rest with the pork. At minimum, it adds a little crunch that is lost in the cooking. If it wards off colds and improves your digestion, even better.

Ingredients: 1 32 oz. bag sauerkraut, 2 lbs diced potatoes, 1 sliced yellow onion, 1-3 lbs of pork, 1/4 tsp. caraway, 1/2 tsp savory, 1 tbsp coarse grain prepared mustard.

Put potatoes and onions in bottom of slow cooker
Drain sauerkraut and put 1/4 aside for later
Layer kraut with the meat and herbs and spices
Cook on medium (autoshift) for 8 hours or so
Stir in reserved raw kraut.

Serves 6

Frugal Factor: Hard to say. The kraut was on sale for $1 (that's why I bought it) but usually it's $1.50. I went lighter on the meat - 3 franks and 1 lbs ham. That's $5 or so. The mustard, savory and caraway would probably be about $0.50. Potatoes about $1.60. So you're looking at about $8.60 for 6 servings. That's $1.43/serving. You could do it for less or more.

Note: One nice variation if you have more time is to make buttery mashed potatoes separately instead of cooking the potatoes w/ everything else. If you really want to go nuts, fry up some crispy diced bacon and sprinkle on top. That's how you change this from a weeknight meal to Das Sonntags-Abendessen. And hey, if you have a Romertopf, break it out (just remember to soak it in water and put it in a cold oven).

Going Whole Hog. Well, Quarter Hog Anyway.

2009-02-01T22:02:00.007-05:00

Because I think pigs are lovable but delicious, I have been trying to avoid factory farmed pork. It's unspeakable cruel to animals, workers, neighbors and the environment. Also, supermarket pork shops taste like crap. But buying from farmer Tom at the Saturday market is, A) Expensive, B) I overslept, C) Not possible until the market starts again in April, D) All of the above.

Lucky for me, my uncle is a member of the Winter Harvest buying club and has a freezer of his own. So we split a half pig, pasture-raised on a Pennsylvania farm. For $300, you get approx 70 lbs; cuts include (approx weights): chops with bone 12 lbs; ham 16 lbs; 2 shoulder roasts 6 lbs total; bacon 6 lbs; country sausage 12 lbs; scrapple 10 lbs; ground pork 8 lbs. So I have half that in my freezer. Well, less than half that. I ate some bacon and scrapple for breakfast, gave away a pound of scrapple (5 pounds is seriously more than I will eat in a long time) and I made pork chops stuffed with apple stuffing in a cider sauce.

So, needless to say, stay tuned for lots of pork recipes soon. I may even attempt The Bacon Explosion.

Frugal Factor: To buy all this a' la carte from the buying club would have cost me $245 and possibly even more at the farmer's market. Well, to be fair, I would have bought less scrapple. I love scrapple and all, but c'mon. But let's just say $245. I spent $150. That's 39% off. So for the ham, usually $8/lb, I spent only about $4.89. I paid $3.99 for a Smithfield on sale around Thanksgiving, so that's not too much more to pay for something much more delicious and less cruel.

Of course, the some of the other stuff is much more expensive either way. Supermarket pork is often only $1-$2/lb for chops or sausage. But really, meat should not be that cheap. It's a little obscene in this country that a pound of pork costs less than a pound of broccoli. No wonder everybody's on Lipitor.

To further alleviate my omnivorific dilemma, I also made a donation to Heifer for three shares of a pig for a family in some country nobody wants to visit. Holy man that I am, I'll still have a heart attack if I eat that bacon explosion.

Beef Barley Soup

2009-01-31T21:24:00.004-05:00

There is something about barley in a soup. It provides this thick, buttery texture to the whole broth. In fact, if you want to get really crazy, start a barley soup with a butter roux. The barley will incorporate the butter and make something truly awesome.

I made this soup with venison because it was in my freezer, but it is actually even better with ground beef. It is also really good with no meat at all and more vegetables. In fact, years and years ago when I was working at a restaurant, we got a huge bag of jicamas delivered by accident. They are usually eaten raw in a salad or in a stir-fry, but we used them in a soup with barley. Wouldn't you know, we actually had to start ordering jicamas because people went wild for the soup. And this was Bel Air, MD in 1996. Ceasar salad was considered ethnic food.

Ingredients: 3 quarts broth, 1 lbs 1/2 inch cubes of beef or venison, flour to coat, oil, 2 diced carrots, 2 diced celery spears, 1 diced yellow onion, 1/2 lbs chopped mushrooms, 3/4 cup barley, 2 tbs. thyme, pepper to taste (after it's done)

Toss meat lightly in flour and brown in a hot oiled pan
Remove meat and put aside, throw in vegetables
Cooke vegetables until soft
Add meat, barley and broth
Bring to a boil and then cook on low for 2 hours (or overnight in slow cooker, as I did)

Serves 8 (1.75 cup portions)

Note: Especially with the slow cooker, browning the meat and sauteing the vegetables is not so crucial.

Frugal Factor: I would pay $4.50 for grass fed beef or $2.25 for supermarket beef, $2 for the mushrooms at discount produce (maybe $3.50 at the supermarket), and I'm guessing $0.75 for the carrot, onion, celery, and barley. So that's $5.00-$8.75 or $0.63-$1.10/portion. Either way, it's cheaper and better than a can.

Red Beans and Rice

2009-01-24T15:11:00.008-05:00

First thing I ate in New Orleans after a 20-hour drive w/ Gene during spring break of 1998. Went to some place Adrienne took us to by Tulane where they didn't card me for the Turbo Dog. Nothing tastes as good a spicey food and cold beer after a 20-hour drive. This actually tastes pretty close to the real thing. It's not a hard dish to make and it's pretty forgiving as to the specific ingredients, as long as the beans are red and the cayenne pepper pours freely. I might just have to go to the distributor for a case of Dog and listen to Tom Waits*

Ingredients: 1 lbs dried kidney beans, 1/2 lbs diced smoked sausage , 1/4 lbs diced ham, approx. 3 cups stock (ham is good), 1 diced onion, 4 diced celery stalks, 5 diced or pressed cloves garlic, 2 tbsp paprika, 1 tbsp thyme, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp sugar, hot sauce, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper to taste (I like lots), 2 cups rice (cook separately), 1/2 bunch scallions

Soak beans and cook until soft (I put them on high in the slow cooker for a couple hours)
Drain beans, place back in slow cooker or pot
Add all the other ingredients (except the rice and green onions), pouring in stock to cover about an inch over the beans (more if cooking on stove)
Cook on medium (auto shift on mine) overnight in slow cooker or for a couple hours on stove, stirring often.
Blend 1/3, either in a blender or by just lightly using an immersion blender.
Taste, season if needed. Add stock if it gets too thick.
Serve with cooked rice and garnish with green onions.

Serves 6 (not 5 for once)

Notes: I like to do the presentation shown above with the beans in a shallow bowl w/ a 1/2 cup mould of rice on top, but when I freeze portions I just throw them together because you end up just mixing it all up anyway. If you don't want to deal with the blender, another method is to season a little more heavily and use a little more stock and add a can of unseasoned refried beans to get the right consistency.
I used your basic smoked sausage or kielbasa at the supermarket because I had some in the freezer, but to do this right use andouille would be authentic and Niman Ranch has one but the only price I could find online was $10/lb - maybe cheaper in Whole Paycheck store or something at TJ's. For the ham, tasso is authentic but I don't like it. Dry hot Capicola sliced extra thick from a deli would actually be great.
This can also be a good vegan dish too, but that's a completely different recipe I'll offer later on. If you want to try and let me know, I would think you would want to use a chipotle pepper for the smokey flavor, double the onion and celery and slow-cook it, maybe with some red peppers for texture, and use some extra spice

Frugal Factor: Beans, $1.50; Sausage, $1.50 as prepared but maybe $4 to get good stuff; Ham, $1 as prepared but $2 if using capicola from Shop Rite or something; Rice, $0.50; onion, celery, scallions and spices, $1.00. So, $5.50 as prepared or $9.00 as recommended. That's $0.92-$1.50/serving.

*I'll drink you under the table, be red-nosed, go for walks,
The old haunts what I wants is red beans and rice
And wear the dress I like so well, and meet me at the old saloon,
Make sure that there's a Dixie moon, New Orleans, I'll be there

Italian Meatballs

2009-01-24T14:07:00.008-05:00

I hate nasty factory meatballs, with their spongy rubber ball texture. I know I said in my last recipe not to worry about making everything as authentic as an ethnic grandmother. When it comes to meatballs, I take it back a little. There is an art to meatballs that you shouldn't mess with too much, and it took me many failed attempts to arrive at this technique.

In image of meat in the bowl below, I photographed the meat mixture with the garlic and onion on top so you could see the consistency of all three but usually I would mix all together at the same time.

Ingredients: 1 lbs ground beef, 1 lbs ground pork, 2/3 cup bread crumbs, 1 cup milk, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp Italian seasoning, 5 cloves of garlic, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp. salt coarse/kosher salt, 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, 1 red onion or a few shallots.

In a small bowl, combine bread crumbs and milk and let rest (this is called a panade)
Wrap garlic in foil and roast at 350 for 30 minutes. Squeeze garlic from cloves and make a paste with the salt and olive oil (the coarseness of the salt helps grind up the garlic) - I use a mortar and pestle but a bowl and a wooden spoon would work too.
Grate onion on a cheese grater - the one you would use to grate cheddar. Place in bowl and soak in vinegar and water for 15 minutes to reduce the onion burp factor and then rinse in strainer
Wash your hands
Combine everything in bowl and work it gently into a uniform texture with your hands (see, aren't you glad you washed them?). Don't overwork these or they will become bouncy balls
Get out your broiler pan and spray the top insert. Put a little water in the bottom part - this keeps the grease from burning and the steam helps the meatballs cook on the bottom faster so they lose their shape less. Preheat your broiler.
Make meatballs. I like them medium size, which is 2 tbsp of meat mixture, or 36 meatballs in this recipe.
Place pan on a rack one up from the middle and broil 15 minutes (as always, broilers vary so keep an eye on them)
Remove and flip over to brown other side.
Break one open and see if it's done. If it's fully cooked, go ahead and eat it.

To freeze these, put them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper so they don't touch and pre-freeze, then put in bags. This way, they don't stick together and you can grab just a few for soup, spaghetti dinner, sandwiches, etc. To reheat, just toss in sauce and cook on the stovetop.

Note: Frying meatballs in olive oil is mighty tasty but it's a pain and not worth the effort and extra fat in my book. If you do choose to fry, lightly coat the meatballs in flour first. These are great not only in tomato sauce (aka gravy) but in my favorite food in the world, Italian Wedding Soup, which is basically a chicken soup to which you add escarole (found w/ the lettuce in some supermarkets), little meatballs (these are a little big but that's okay), cooked rice and plenty of grated Parmesan on top.

Frugal Factor: I spent $4.50/lb for the local grass-fed ground beef. I am not buying factory pork due to the horrendous cruelty and environmental impact, so I would pay $4.50/lb for that too if I hadn't had some pork chops from an Omaha Steaks box I got for Christmas and a meat grinder. Shoprite sells 85% lean ground beef for $2.59/lb and ground pork for $1.62/lbs. The cheese is probably $1/worth, and figure $1 for everything else. So that's $6.21 w/supermarket meat or $11 for local pastured meat. I think 4 meatballs is a nice portion (a little light for some), so that works out to 9 portions @ $0.69 - $1.22/portion.

Ham and White Bean Soup

2009-01-24T09:35:00.006-05:00

When I divided up a spiral ham into portions to freeze a while back, I wasn't too stressed about getting all the meat of the bone. I froze that too. Used it today in this super-simple soup. Sorry, this is more eyeball than recipe. ALERT: TWO DAY RECIPE (as written - if you are a better fat skimmer than I, maybe not)

Ingredients: 1 ham bone w/ lots of meat on it, 1 32 oz can diced tomatoes, drained, 1 halved onion, 1 diced onion, 2 spears celery, 1 lbs dried white beans (cooked separately to a slightly al dente state), 1 shredded cabbage, 2 russet potatoes, 1/2 tbsp. each of rosemary, sage, thyme, and savory (savory is optional but helps in the digestion of beans and cabbage, which is helpful if you don't live alone in the woods)

Put ham bone in a pot and submerge in water with the halved onion
Cook on medium low until meat has fallen off the bone
Pour into another container through sieve. This is your stock
Separate bones from meat and refrigerate meat (throw bones away)
Refrigerate stock overnight, remove fat from top and discard (or save it it that's your thing)
In pot, pour defatted stock over all the other ingredients (if you have more stock than you need, save some for something else... like red beans and rice)
Cook until everything is tender. Add more salt, a hit of better than bouillon or whatever to taste. You can scoop out some of the beans and potatoes and mash them up for a richer texture.

Serves 12

Frugal Factor: Off the charts but here's my best estimate: $4 for the ham bone (prorated from the whole 3.99/lb ham); $1.50 for the beans; $1 tomatoes; $1 cabbage; $1 for everything else. $8.50 total, 12 servings $0.71/serving.

Money Saving Tips? Maybe

2009-01-23T18:06:00.006-05:00

Even Epicurious is getting in the frugal bandwagon. Their top-10 money saving ingredients is both obvious and limiting, largely indicative of the diet that already puts poor people at risk for obesity and diabetes.

Here's the list:

Potatoes - Duh, everybody knows it's cheap.
Rice - See potatoes
Pasta - Okay, we get it - load up on raw carbs. Diabetes takes years to develop.
Chicken - Sure it's cheap, as long as you don't buy white meat trimmed tenderloins. You might as well pay someone to chew it for you at that point.
Beans - Duh, but with a better glycemic index. One note though - every time I get dried beans from the supermarket - usually Goya brand - they never get soft after hours of cooking, probably because they are too old. Perhaps I am just the only person who buys them. I have had much better luck with the ones from the discount produce store that appear to be packaged locally.
Apples - They quote $1.50/lb for Red Delicious, but the recipes they list call for more expensive apples that are actually edible and might stand up to cooking something other than apple sauce. Red Delicious apples, bred for their unnaturally red skin rather than taste, represent everything that is wrong with the last 50 years of the American diet and food system. Supermarkets sell the better apples for $2.50/lb or more, but Trader Joe's has honeycrisps and other great varieties, $4 for a 3 lb bag.
Canned Tuna - Canned tuna, like Spam, is convenient but it's not actually all that cheap, especially considering a can of tuna is half water. Obviously Starkist paid to be listed in this list. But it is tasty, and you know you don't get enough mercury in your diet. Cheaper, however, is canned salmon. It's half the price of tuna by weight, and much lesswater. Some bones though, which they say you are supposed to just eat. I can't bring myself to do it though.
Eggs - Yup, eggs are cheap.
Cheese - Cheese is not all that cheap these days. $5/lb for cheddar is optimistic.
Flank Steak - Yum, flank steak, and also skirt steak, are delicious and one of the main reasons to visit Whole Paycheck (better if I ordered from a CSA, but I am lazy)

They are all fine ingredients, but they are mostly basic staples that can form the basis of expensive or cheap dishes. Better advice would be listing cheap nutritious vegetables that are a good value in winter, such as cabbage, broccoli, and squash in all its varieties.

One thing I did find interesting was that they got prices for these ingredients from the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey. The bureau seems to be finding good deals on dry beans, but $7.29/lb for flank steak is a little high - Whole Paycheck sells if for $6.

Bhindi Masala w/ Chick Peas and Kidney Beans

2009-01-22T22:26:00.010-05:00

Great, authentic Indian food is hard to come by. Horrible Indian food is everywhere from West Philly buffets to cans and pouches in the Co-Op or Trader Joe's. Happily, "pretty good" interpretations of Indian favorites are easy to make at home.

I made this vegan dish entirely with things from my pantry and freezer. It was light, tasty, healthful and frugal. Many recipes will explain that for truly authentic Indian cooking, you must collect a variety of fresh, exotic whole spices, grind them by hand and fry them up in a paste of ghee, a type of clarified butter.

Maybe that's true, but they sell a ground garam masala spice mix at the Indian grocer and I bought it. In fact, I bought it years ago. Any good chef would tell me to throw it out. But it was delicious. I did fry it into a paste, but I used corn oil.

Don't hold yourself back from cooking something just because you can't cook it like someone's grandmother. Authenticity is a wonderful thing, but cuisine also changes all the time. Cooks from Italy to India make authentic dishes with tomatoes and beans, neither of which were available until Columbus pillaged the Americas. To paraphrase Duke Ellington, if it tastes good, it is good.

Ingredients: 1 14oz can diced tomatoes, 1 16oz can kidney beans, 1 16oz can chick peas, 1 cup chopped okra (frozen is fine and more is fine too - okra, aka bhindi, is tasty in any language), 1 diced onion (I used a sweet vidalia), 3 cloves crushed garlic, 2 tbs corn oil, 1 tbs masala spice mix, 2 tbs Goya Recaito (optional), and fresh cilantro to finish (optional - I didn't have any).

Start cooking 1 1/2 cups of basmati rice to serve with the meal (don't you hate when they save that part for last?)
Heat oil in skillet, stir in masala and cook for 30 seconds on high
Add diced onion a stir in to combine with spice paste
Add garlic
Thoroughly drain diced tomatoes, reserving the juice
Add the tomatoes and okra to the pan. Stir and cook for a couple minutes - you want everythingcarmelize just a little
Add the reserved tomato juice and deglaze the pan
Drain the beans and add them too, along with the recaito if using
Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes
Serve over rice. If you have cilantro, chop some up and toss it on. If you have chutney, serve it on the side.

Serves 5 (why do all my recipes always serve 5?)

Frugal Factor: Hard to say. I actually used dried beans that I had cooked previously and okra I forgot to put in a stir fry a few months ago and threw in the deep freeze and ancient spices. But at today's Shoprite prices, here goes: All three cans, $1.50 (wait, is the can can sale still on?); 1/2 bag cut frozen okra @ $1.67/bag, $0.83; 1 oz recaito @ $2/12oz jar, $0.16; 1 1/2 cups basmati rice (12 oz) @$6/4lbs bag, $1.08. If a supermarket sells garam masala, it will be in a $5 jar that holds 1.25 oz but a spice store or Indian store will have it waaaay cheaper. Let's just say $1. That's $4.57 for 5 servings, or $0.92/serving.

Turkey Tamales w/ Red and Green Salsa

2009-01-19T18:03:00.008-05:00

When I visit friends or family back in Maryland, I often come up Rt. 1 to save the $9 in tolls. Of course, I usually spend that $9 by stopping at El Sobrero in Avondale, PA, a fantastic Mexican restaurant on Rt 41 just off the exit. They sell the most wonderful tamales frozen in packs of a dozen.

When I found a pound of cooked frozen turkey leftover from Thanksgiving, I decided use it to make my own tamales.

For the dough, I followed this recipe for a crockpot. I didn't have any corn husks so I used parchment paper. I didn't have any Crisco or lard, so I used peanut oil. Maybe that's why my dough didn't float no matter how long I beat it. For the filling, I just reheated the turkey w/ a can of supermarket enchilada sauce and mixed in leftover creme fraiche (a suitable substitute for Mecican creme).

I was a little worried because turkey was dry after reheating w/ the sauce but after cooking inside the tamales, it was moist and delicious just like the ones from El Sombrero. The tamale dough wasn't as good as theirs, I think because they must use something some coarse cornmeal in addition to the regular masa. However, these were a lot better than the ones at Trader Joe's.

I was not so sure about the crockpot part - usually tamales are steamed, which is a lot faster. However, on high for several hours, these got a little bit caramelized and crusty around the edges, which I liked a lot. And I have to to assume that helped the dry turkey end up tasting like somebody's abuelita cooked it from scratch.

I froze portions topped with grated mozzarella cheese I had left over from something and red and green Mexican salsas. They tasted great reheated, which is good because I have 8 2-tamale portions.

Frugal Factor: Everything in this dish has been in my pantry or freezer forever, but it must be insanely cheap. Definitely under $1/portion

Meat Loaf Muffins

2009-01-17T20:33:00.005-05:00

Meatloaf is delicious, but mine always falls apart when I try to cook it, whether I use a loaf pan not. Cooks Illustrated claims to have the perfect solution, involving gelatin and a panade of fresh bread crumbs and milk. Sounds like a pain. Instead, I solved the problem by making meatloaf muffins. Easy to portion, fun to eat. However, halfway through they were bobbing in watery grease so I had to take them out of the tins and finish on a cookie sheet, which was good because then I could fully glaze them in BBQ sauce instead of just doing the tops. Next time I'll try just molding them w/ my hands or these little silicon prep bowls I have and bake them on a broiler pan.

Thanks again to Marquita for sending Rudy's Original BBQ Sause from San Antonio - a light-bodied sauce rather than the thick sludge sold in supermarkets seemed to be a good fit in this recipe. The best thing about using a really tasty bbq sauce is that it provides all the needed seasoning, but feel free to add stuff too.

Meat Loaf Muffins

1 1/2 lbs ground venison (or other lean meat), 1/4 lbs pork breakfast sausage, 1 cup BBQ sauce plus 1/4 cup set aside for glazing, 1 cup dried bread crumbs, one finely diced onion, 1 tbsp thyme, 1 egg

Mix everything together.
Scoop into muffin tins. Mine filled 10 of the 12.
Bake at 400 for 15 minutes
Transfer meatloaf muffins from muffin tin to a foil-lined cookie sheet and brush them liberally with BBQ sauce.
Put cookie sheet on middle rack and switch to broil. Keep an eye on them - in five minutes they should done, with just a few tiny burn marks on them. But gas broilers vary and I've never used an electric, so your results may vary.

serves 5 (two muffins each)

Serve with mashed potatoes. Really, that's the only acceptable way to enjoy them. Or maybe mac n' cheese. I made my mashed potatoes with buttermilk, which cuts down on the fat. But that's hardly a recipe, so I'll leave it to you to figure out. The only vegetable I ghas was a block of frozen chopped broccoli I was saving for a casserole, but sauted over incredible high heat in garlic and olive oil, it tasted okay.

Notes: I made these with venison and pork sausage, but you could substitute any ground meat- lean meat with sausage or fatty meat with no sausage (or fatty meat and fatty sausage - go nuts). Different meats may yield different results but all will be delicious. Definitely don't stress about equal parts veal, beef and pork or whatever - those pre-packed meat loaf mixes at the supermarket are often overpriced and tend to stick around on the shelves past their prime.
If nobody sent you any Rudy's BBQ Sause, the closest thing widely available in supermarkets is Stubbs. You could try using Kraft or something, but the liquid smoke might be overpowering. Or make your own: equal parts vinegar, molasses and tomato paste (one can) w/ a pinch or two of , paprika, cayanne, thyme, salt, pepper, garlic powder, mustard powder, celery seed and allspice would work great. Ketchup

Frugal Factor: Again, the venison was a gift, but for comparison, ground buffalo is $5/lb so this is $7.50 worth of meat. BBQ sauce also a gift, but Stubbs brand is $4/bottle and I used 1/3 so $1.35 . Onion and bread crumbs, $0.50. Total, $10.25 for 5 servings or $1.87 per portion (two muffins). Not really all that frugal, especially since the mashed potatoes and frozen veggie add another $0.75 per portion for a total of $2.62/portion.

Dried Lima Bean Casserole w/ Ham and Potato

2009-01-17T09:42:00.005-05:00

This is a winter meal if I ever had one, and beans are the most frugal of foods. It doesn't look like much and at first, I wasn't even going to blog about it, because it was too dry and bland. However, I thinned the leftovers out with some water and portioned them for freezing and, when I ran out of most everything else, I ate some. It was good. It just needed some more time, water, and reheating. Stewed things are like that sometimes. Borrowing a little from a French cassoulet, I made the beans in a crock pot, microwaved a potato to slice up and stir in, and baked in a skilled w/ some torn-up bread tossed in butter. I used a bouquet garni of leek, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary and whole peppercorns but the directions below just call for throwing in the herbs and grinding in the pepper at the end.

Serves 5.

Ingredients: 1 lbs dried Lima beans (or any white bean), 1 leek, 1 onion, 1 spear celery, one carrot, 1/4 lbs ham, 1 12 oz can chopped tomatoes, 1 tbsp. fresh thyme (or 1/2 dried), 1 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary (or 1/2 tsp dried and crumbled if whole), Add salt and pepper and olive oil to taste after beans are cooked and one baked/microwaved potato, sliced w/ skin removed.

Pick through beans in case of rocks (I really did find a rock once), rinse and place in a pot.
Pour in enough water to that there are two inches above the beans (if possible, use filtered water - the minerals and such in tap water can make the beans harder)
Bring to a boil, turn off heat and rest one hour.
Drain beans, rinse and return to the pot (or transfer to a slow cooker)
Dice all the other ingredients and add to pot (except salt, pepper and potato)
Add 1 cup filtered water to pot
Cook on medium heat until beans are soft, stirring when neccesary and adding a little more water if needed*
Add potato
If desired, top with fresh bread chopped finely or pulsed in food processor and tossed with melted butter and/or olive oil. If you used a dutch oven or a shallow slow cooker insert to cook your beans, you can transfer it right to oven. Otherwise, use an ovensafe skillet, pie plate or casserole.

*Beans may soak up more or less water depending on exact heat, the tightness of the lid, humidity and age of the beans.

Note: Slow cookers have apparently come a long way and have all sorts of settings and timers. Mine is from the 70's, however (I found it its original unopened box in a South Philly Goodwill years ago) and has three settings: low, high, and "autoshift". The latter gets to the highest temp than cycles to low so you don't have to stir. The low setting does not work for dried beans.

Frugal Factor: $1.50 for the beans, $1.25 for the ham (I bought a whole spiral sliced bone-in ham for $3.99/pound at Thanksgiving and froze individual portions of ham), $1 for the leek, $1 for all the other vegetables. The herbs I grow, but dried would be about $0.25. That's $1/serving. Yup, beans are cheap. I like beans.

Product Reviews: The Almost Perfect Travel Mug and Water Bottle

2009-01-16T22:23:00.009-05:00

I have been waiting 14 years for the world to develop a travel mug that can be sipped, then sealed securely in a backpack filled with important papers and electronics. They finally did it.

When I started high school, the bus came at some ungodly hour. 7 a.m., I think. Thankfully my bus driver let us bring our travel mugs on the bus. It always frustrated me that you could not just throw your plastic 7-11 coffee mug in your bag. Even when I thought it was empty, my homework still ended up stained in Lavazza (this was before a couple years before Starbucks arrived in Bel Air. After the weird German store closed in the ghostly wreck of a mall, you actually had to go "to the city" for whole bean Arabica.) I had a traditional Thermos with the little plastic cup that clicked on the top, but try drinking that at 7 a.m. on a school bus, especially when the usual one was in the shop and our bus driver had to remember how to clutch.

I have been crushed by false hopes before. There was the Nissan, which claimed to be leakproof, with a nifty little toggle button you clicked open or closed. It worked okay for a while, but then the button wore out and coffee went everywhere.

Now the good folks at Target, the BoBo Wal Mart, are selling the Thermos E5 Travel Mug. It is an elegantly simple solution to a problem that has vexed overthinkers for decades. Unlike other pretenders, it has no moving parts. The sippy lid screws on and off is just like a regular old thermos lid. However, it has two silicon gaskets instead of one. If you unscrew it halfway, one gasket is released and coffee can be come out of the sippy holes in the middle. The second gasket seems to keep the coffee from dribbling out the side when you sip. You can sip left handed or right handed - the sippy lid is 360 degrees of flavor. Genius! Once you close the lid tight, you can shale it, hit it, drop it or put it in a bag with your laptop with no worries.

In fact, you can keep it in the bag for hours, because this thing keep jot beverages hot. I made a mug for a drive from Philly to a suburb of DC and even with the lid in the sip position, the coffee was too hot to drink until I passed through Baltimore.

There are a few downsides: The opening to pour your coffee is too small to stick a standard ice cube to cool things down a little. The mug does not fit in a standard automotive cupholder and it looks like something you should probably not try to pass through a security checkpoint. Overall, however, the best mug ever.

Notes: The Thermos E5 line also includes a 20-oz container that is NOT a travel mug, just a traditional cup-on-top model that also happens to looks like WMD. Also, upon further research it seems the Nissan brand might be using this lid design too, and in a much less bulky product but as they say, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice er... won't get fooled again." Of course, some Nissan mugs are co-branded with Thermos of vice versa, so I don't know who owns who or if it's just a licensing thing. But whatever is out there was not on sale at the City Line Target, so I dunno.

Frugal Factor: $20 is a lot for a mug. But you could spend more for a worse one (I have). Frugal isn't always about cheap. If you use this mug 15 times instead of hitting up the coffee shop, it pays for itself and if it keeps you from spilling coffee on something (or someone) important, it's priceless.

Thermos must be on a role, because they also have what I think is the world's best water bottle. Unlike the crude simplicity of the mug, this "Intak" bottle (the a has an accent I can't type so it's ponounced "intake") is more like an iPod - stylish and innovative in its design. The plastic one is BPA-free, and there is a stainless steel version too. One-handed uperation and no nipples to suck on. I was so impressed with this product after finding one at Goodwill (I know - eww - that's the last thing you want to buy there, but bleach and boiling water takes care of that) that I bought all my coworkers their own for Christmas.

It has this little clicker on it to count how many times you have emptied it into your thirstly gullet. I thought it was stupid, but my coworker Kristin, a military wife and a bit of a control freak, loves it. She also read the directions. Do you know anyone who reads the directions on a plastic water bottle?

Rant: A Beef with Bittmann

2009-01-07T23:03:00.004-05:00

I'm sure I'm not the only one who read "The Minimalist" Mark Bittman's relatively stupid column in the New York Times. It's bad enough this guy gets paid to show you how to stir fry a vegetable in oil and garlic. He also has to make you feel bad about not being able to spend the day finding that vegetable at your local farmer's market in season. I share some of his philosophy about simple food from scratch. After all, that's what this blog is all about. I even agree you should stock your pantry, but many of his recommendations are odd, particularly what he thinks you should throw out. The whole point of a pantry is to have stuff you need in a pinch.

He wants you to get rid of your packaged bread crumbs and make your own. Well, sure. If I happen to have a stale loaf of bread, I do in fact make bread crumbs. However, it's pretty likely I'll need bread crumbs more often than I have uneaten bread. Therefore, I always keep a can of unseasoned bread crumbs in the pantry.

Out with canned broth or bouillon cubes? Well, sure, those are worse than water but I've already discussed Better than Bouillon, which, while not better than a fast homemade broth, is in fact a lifesaver - and takes up very little space.

No more canned beans? Again, in principal I would like to use dried beans and save a big pile of money, and I often do. But really, in a pinch (such as the time I added one CAN of chipotle peppers instead of one canned pepper and had to quadruple the recipe), you should always have canned beans.

Bittman says "out with bottled lemon juice." Last time I checked, lemons were up to $1 each and go bad in a couple weeks in the crisper, while lemon juice is $3 for a quart and lasts for a year. Fresh lemons are nice, but when you suddenly want a light salad dressing, lemonade, or whatever, you need a jug of lemon juice in the fridge. Of course, that means I'm more or less with Bittmann on avoiding pre-made salad dressing, except sometimes I'm lazy so I have some of that too. It also keeps for a year.

Mr. Minimalist says dried basil and dried parsley are "worthless." He's absolutely right. But then he says dried dill is great. I've tried it... it's not. I keep some frozen dill in the freezer. It keeps pretty good, and imparts wonderful flavor. As for rosemary and thyme, they are indeed useful dry, but rosemary grows indoors in a pot (albeit in strange shapes) and my thyme is still going strong in the garden.

Out with imitation vanilla? Well sure, just the real vanilla extract for me. But no, Bittmann, I am not buying vanilla pods in bulk.

Out with tomato paste in a can so you can use it in a tube? I'm with the guy in principal - it's a pain opening a can when you only need a tablespoon. But in reality, a can of tomato paste can be had for about $0.33 while those tubes cost $4 for half of what's in a can. You're better off throwing away the rest of the can than using the tube. Better bet though is to freeze tablespoons of tomato paste on a piece of wax paper, then put them in a bag to save.

Okay, rant over. I agree with Bittmann that you should always have real maple syrup, bacon, whole chunks of Parmesan (although Regiano has been a bit steep lately), anchovies (to his "in olive oil, please" I will add, but the ones that are rolled up in the jar, since you can't close those weird cans), and winter squash.

Rant over, back to recipes. I'll have to come up with my own pantry list soon.

Black Bean Stir Fry Sauce

2009-01-06T22:04:00.004-05:00

I love black bean sauce. No, not like Mexican black beans, I mean the stir fry sauce made with salty fermented soybeans found in those Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants that are authentic, upscale or both. The recipe below is enough for one four-serving dinner, but I like to quadruple the recipe and freeze portions in little containers (or zip lock snack bags) so I can make a quick stir fry any time.

That's what I did the other night. I had some frozen chicken breasts and green beans, so I fried them up and threw in a frozen cup of black bean sauce. I had to thin out the sauce with a little more water and soy sauce.

Here is the recipe for one portion of the sauce:

2 tbsp peanut oil, 2 tbsp fermented black beans (rinsed and drained), 1 tbsp garlic (minced), 1/2 cup chicken or veg. broth (or sub. soy sauce for half the water), 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp rice wine, 1 tsp sugar, 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Heat a wok or heavy skillet over medium-high heat (or, if making in bulk, use a saucepan).
Add the oil, the black beans and garlic. Stir-fry about 12 seconds.
Dissolve the corn starch in some of the stock then add it and the rest of the ingredients
Bring to a boil, sauce will thicken.

Makes about 3/4 cup sauce.

Notes & Substitutions: If I don't have rice wine, sherry or vermouth do the job. Fermented/Preserved Black Beans are sold in small jars and cans at most Vietnamese/Chinese Groceries but I've never managed to find them in the Korean supermarkets, even though the Korean soft tofu restaurant I go to includes them among their many pickled specialties. Sometimes I can only find them mixed chili peppers, which can be too spicy. However, if I get them without any chili peppers, it's not spicy enough and I add pepper flakes or chili sauce. Here is a place to buy them online, although I have never ordered from them: http://ww w.yesshopnow.com/item.asp?ItemNum=10172

Venison and Butternut Squash Stew with Dried Cherries over Quinoa

2009-01-05T19:49:00.010-05:00

I haven't posted here for a while as I have been eating through the last few months of frozen food to make room for the 1/2 hog that I am splitting with my uncle (so that's 1/4 hog... good thing Marquita mailed us BBQ sauce for a Christmas present). So as a heritage hog somewhere in Lancaster County whiles away his last free-ranging days (perhaps occasionally looking over his shoulder) I'm back with some more recipes.

Speaking of free-range, my uncle also recently brought over a few pounds of venison from his wife's nephew in Virginia. Some people may blanch at eating Bambi's mother, but hunted meat is probably the most humane solution to "the omnivore's dilemma." I won't subject you to further ranting on the subject (that's Ted Nugent's job) but I will share an easy slow-cooker recipe.

The ingredients, if not the preparation, are based on a wonderful meal I had in New Orleans in November of 2004. My wife and I got tip from a staffer at Tipitina's to go up the street to this Dick & Jenny's. We arrived at the tucked away clapboard restaurant just as they were opening. Jenny led us to a pine table with mismatched wrought-iron chairs. Dick was in the kitchen. They had a few New Orleans-themed dishes on the menu but it was a cold night and I ordered the special, a seared venison loin over acorn squash with a cherry wine reduction.

Our meal arrived on mismatched plates with a cruet of wine, and I was so engrossed in my meal's surprising melding of flavors that I did not notice the crowd forming in the waiting area, a shed/indoor patio packed with folks on lawn chairs drinking wine and having a good time. Apparently Dick and Jenny's was a poorly-kept secret among the locals and they didn't take reservations, so we were lucky to get there early. Dick and Jenny apparently sold the place soon after the flood. Some say the magic is lost. (For all you Philadelphians, think Django).

Recipe: Venison and Winter Squash Stew over Quinoa (six servings)

Long hours in the slow cooker make the venison fork tender and the squash nearly falls apart. That, along with the dried cherries and spices, makes the dish reminiscent of a Moroccan tagine, so I served it over quinoa, a super-healthful whole grain that cooks up very similar to cous cous and stands up to a heavy sauce better to boot. Those without a slow cooker can instead use a dutch oven or a deep skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Just put it in the oven at 225 and check it a few times and add some water if needed. Even more than other stews, this tastes better the next day. In fact, I got a late start so the meat in mine was still a little tough at bed time Sat. night. I was too tired to let it cool long enough to put it in the fridge, so I just left it in the pantry overnight (this being winter, my unheated shed pantry was 34 degrees).

Ingredients: 1 1/2 lbs. venison roast, 1 butternut squash, 1 red onion, 1 apple, 1/4 lbs. raw sage breakfast sausage; 1/4 cup dried cherries, 1/2 cup port; a 2" cinnamon stick, 2 tsp. dried thyme, 1 tsp ground allspice, ; 1/2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp. salt.
1 1/2 cups quinoa, cooked with dried fruits (cook like rice - use 1:1 ratio of quinoa to water on stovetop, 1:3/4 in a rice cooker)

Peel squash, cut in half, scrape out seeds and slice into pieces about a half inch thick and one inch long and toss in the crock.
Slice onion coarsely and toss that in too, along with the cherries, port and seasonings and toss .
Cube the venison and place on top of the vegetables. Break up the sausage and put it on top
Chop venison into 1" pieces and put it on top of the squash (don't stir it in).
Break up the sausage and crumble over the venison and. Cut the apple in half and put both halves on top, skin up.
Cook for 6 hours on low, 2 hours on your slow cooker's highest no-stir setting (the long, slow heat cooks the meat, while the squash requires higher heat). When done, the squash should be almost falling apart and the meat fork-tender
Salt to taste and serve over cous cous or quinoa. When cooking either one, toss in a few more dried cherries for added yumminess.

Notes and Substitutions:

If nobody has hunted you some venison lately, you have two choices. You can spend a little extra to buy some from a tempermental man with antelope blood on his apron or you can use stewing beef or lamb from the store. In either case, if the meat you buy has fat, you may want to then omit the sausage - it's needed to provide to baste the venison, which is quite lean from running around the forest, not often a problem with farm-raised meat. Add some more of the herbs and spices to compensate for those in the sausage though.
If you don't have any port, any light-bodied red wine (like pinot noir or Beaujolais) will work with a tsp. of sugar. You could even use Manischewitz (without the added sugar!).
Dried cherries are hard to find and rather pricey, but their deep flavor and tart nature are worth it. However, you could substitute other dried fruits such as prunes, currants and raisins.
Many slow-cooker recipes ask you to brown the meat and sometimes saute the veggies before placing in the slow cooker. However, simply keeping the meat on top of the vegetables in the crock serves much the same purpose without dirtying another pot.
By the way, although it would be a very different dinner, a can of chick peas (liquid and all) could actually substitute for the meat and make this vegetarian.

Frugal Factor: The venison was free for me, but supermarket chuck roast is running $3.29/lbs at the right now so let's say $5 (I have no idea what Sonny's charging). The squash could have been got cheaper but it was $2 at the co-op where I also spent $5 on a bag of cherries and used about 1/4 of the bag, so that's $1.25. Everything else I already had, but I would overestimate the cost at $2.50 for the apple, onion, port, quinoa and spices. At six servings, that's $1.79/serving (or $0.96 with the free meat).

Greek Moussaka w/ Ground Lamb and Eggplant

2008-12-23T19:51:00.012-05:00

When I made last week's lamb stew, I ground some of the trimmings and extra meat to make moussaka, the custard-topped mixture of spiced meat and eggplant that I loved as a child, when my parents would take me to one of the Greek restaurants on Eastern Avenue in Baltimore (my favorite one closed decades ago but Ikaros is still open - the link is worth following for the intro alone).

The recipe I followed (although halved) did not quite give me the results I wanted. I was able to salvage the meat filling by adding more allspice and cinnamon, plus lemon juice and oregano, but the real problem was the tomatoes. Upon further research I have found that more authentic recipes call for the tomato paste but not the fresh or canned tomatoes. I have written a revised recipe below.

Note: Moussaka has four steps and, from start to finish, will take you several hours and dirty 4 pots or pans. Luckily, you can either do the first three at the same time or each can be done separately and refrigerated prior to assembling and baking the final product.

Moussaka:

Ingredients: 2 eggplant, 1 pound ground lamb or beef, 2 onions, 4 tbsp. tomato paste, 1/2 cup red wine (I actually like marsala for this), 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice, 1 tsp. oregano, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 cup grated cheese, olive oil, 4 cloves garlic
2 Cups Bechemel: 1/4 stick butter, 4 tbsp gravy flour, 2 cups whole milk, 1/4 tsp nutmeg (if grating fresh, use only 1/8), dash Worcestershire.

Equipment: 1 saucepan, 1 frying pan or dutch oven, 1 whisk, 1 spoon, 1 casserole dish, 1 cookie sheet

Step 1:

Peal eggplant and slice into 1/4 inch slices.
Salt eggplant slices, wait an hour, rinse
Toss eggplant in olive oil and roast under broiler until browned (15 min or so)

(meanwhile...)

Step 2:

Warm 4 tbsp olive oil in 12" pan on med. heat and add all spices and herbs (borrowing from Indian cooking here)
When spices become fragrant, add meat and brown, then break up as much as you can
Add wine and tomato paste and lower hear, stirring and continuing to break up meat.
Preheat oven to 350 and keep stirring occaisionally while you continue to the next step ( Eventually, you want a relatively dry with meat broken up almost to a paste.)

(meanwhile)

Step 3:

In heavy saucepan on low heat, melt butter.
Whisk in flour and nutmeg and stir until flour mixture pulls away from the pan (or starts to burn)
Add milk, whisk furiously and crank up the heat, continuing to whisk ever minute until mixture begins to summer (many recipes want you to warm the milk first and slowly whisk it in a 1/4 cup at a time. It takes longer and dirties another pot, but otherwise has no noticeable effect)
When thick enough to coat edge of a spoon, take off heat and wait a minute
Then, whisk in three egg yolks and a dash of Worcestershire.
If it gets too thick, whisk in a little bit of milk but don't put it back on the heat after yolks are added
Add grated cheese

Step 4: Assembly

Oil casserole dish
Layer half the eggplant slices on the bottom (some recipes call for bread crumbs to line the pan first but I would rather have more sauce than pasty bread crumbs in my food)
Spread meat evenly
Layer the rest of the eggplant
Spread bechemel over top
Place in oven on 350 for 45 minutes or until browned. You may need to rotate
Allow to cool - when no longer warm but still hot, cut into squares and serve.
(an arugula salad tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, pepper and feta cheese would be nice)

Frugal Factor: Good thing this recipe is easy to freeze because it takes forever to make it. As for money, It was 1/4 of the leg of lamb I bought for $19. Let's just say $5. Tomato paste, $0.50; 1/2 cup wine, $1; eggplant, $2 at discount produce place, $4 at supermarket; milk, $0.50, butter, $0.25. Flour and spices are pantry items; let's say $0.50. This recipe made 8 portions so that's $1.22-$1.46 per portion.

Jewish Stuffed Cabbage (Vegan)

2008-12-16T22:37:00.019-05:00

This is the first vegan recipe I have posted here so far, because I had a pack of tempeh in the fridge. Usually I use cooked lentils. Of course, any ground meat would work too, but in that case you would brown it, drain the fat and remove from the pan before sauteing the other ingredients. In either case, for a firmer texture, add a beaten egg to the finished rice mixture before stuffing the cabbage. Also, I use vegetable juice rather than the traditional plain tomato juice here. It's mostly tomato anyway but it's a little more flavorful and it has extra vitamins, both especially important in a vegetarian dish. If you're a vegetarian though, make sure not to get "100% vegetable juice" not "vegetable juice cocktail" which has beef broth in it.

Stuffed Cabbage Recipe

Ingredients: 1 cup rice, cooked (not a cup of cooked rice), 8 oz coarsely diced mushrooms, 1 8-oz tempeh block crumbled, 1 savoy cabbage, 3/4 of a 48-oz vegetable juice (or plain tomato, either way drink the rest), 1/2 cup lemon juice (or vinegar), 1/2 cup brown sugar

Cook 1 cup rice
Cut core from lettuce and boil in a pot 15-30 minutes until very tender and cool under the faucet
Combine 32 oz vegetable juice with 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup brown sugar
Saute onion, grated carrot, diced mushrooms and crumbled tempeh. When tender and browned a little, add the cooked rice and 3/4 cup of the vegetable juice mixture
Pour half remaining veg. juice mixture into large casserole dish.
Break apart cabbage into the large (and small) individual leaves
Place 1/4-1/3 cup of rice mixture in center of leaf. Tuck sides over, then roll. You can press it together a bit to form it into a roll. Place in casserole, and continue until done. At some point you will realize you have too many cabbage leaves for the remaining rice or vice versa. Deal.
Pour remaining veg juice mixture over cabbage rolls and bake uncovered at 350 for an hour, checking to make sure they don't burn (they won't).

Frugal Factor: 8 oz Tempeh; 2.99, 48 oz bottle/can vegetable juice; $1.49, 1 cup Jasmine rice; $1 (est.); carrot ($0.25?); onion, $0.30; 8 oz mushrooms (I spent $1 at the produce discounter but at Shop Rite it's $3); 1 savoy cabbage, $1.00; 1/2 cup brown sugar, $0.22; 1/2 cup lemon juice, $0.22 (based on the 32oz bottle, which at $1.79 is $0.40 cheaper than the little 7 oz one the looks like a lemon). $8.17 for 7 servings or $1.17/serving ($1.45 if I had bought the shrooms at the supermarket). As is sadly the case, using meat in place of healthful, sustainable tempeh and mushrooms would likely reduce the cost.

Stewed Leg of Lamb with Fava Beans and Fennel

2008-12-15T21:44:00.008-05:00

I found boneless leg of Australian lamb at Shop Rite for $4.49/pound. That’s not much more than ground beef, so I bought a 4-pounder for $19. That was a little more than I needed to serve dinner for four, but when I started looking for recipes, I found one in the Silver Spoon that called for dividing a leg of lamb into boneless portions.

I adapted my recipe from their method. Chopping up the leg of lamb into chunks allowed me to cut away some of the fat and muscle membrane that give lamb the strong flavor that some find offensive. After discarding about 1/2 pound of that, I had one bowl of 10 large chunks, each about the size of a pear. This was about 2 1/4 pounds.

I also had a bowl with about 1 1/4 pounds of small or oddly-shaped chunks and a bunch of little bits of meat. These would have been great for Mongolian stir fry or something, but because I have a meat grinding attachment on my mixer, I ended up packing one a 20oz Ziploc container with ground lamb to use later.

Stewed Leg of Lamb with Fava Beans and Fennel Recipe

The rub: 3 tbsp fresh thyme; 2 tbsp olive oil; 2 tbs. salt; 2 garlic cloves; 1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper; 3 anchovies.

The rest: More olive oil; 2 1/4 pounds lamb in pear-sized chunks (8-10 pieces); 1 bulb fennel, julienned; 1 chopped leak if you have it, 1 cup fresh frozen fava beans (thawed and shelled from tough outer pod); 1/2 cup vermouth; 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar; flour for dusting; 3 tbsp. lemon juice (or juice from one lemon)

Combine the rub ingredients and smash them into a paste in some way. I use a mortar and pestle. A wooden spoon in a bowl or a food processor will do the trick. Toss lamb chunks in rub. You can marinate them for a while if you choose.
Toss chunks with some flour, just to lightly coat. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven over high heat. Brown lamb chunks on all sides. Deglaze pan with vermouth, scraping brown bits off bottom of pan.
Add a half cup of water, cover and place in 350 degree oven for 1/2 hour.
Check on meat. If the liquid has evaporated, add a little more water. Toss in the fava beans and sliced fennel.
Cook for 1/2 hour more. If sauce needs to be a little thicker, ladle it into a small saucepan and reduce over high heat, then pour back.
Stir in add lemon juice and some more fresh herbs and serve.

Optional: For a one-pot meal, add some thinly-sliced potatoes and some extra water when you first put in the oven.

Ingredient/Equipment Notes: Fava Beans are a staple of the Mediterranean diet . Their smoky flavor lends itself well to lamb and many other things. In season, Iovine's sells them freah but for mucho dinero. I have been a happier person since I discovered that Broad Beans are exactly the same thing, because First Oriental Supermarket sells four brands in their freezer case for $1.50/bag.

Rolled anchovies in a jar are superior to canned, because jars have lids. I keep a jar in the fidge. It lasts me about a year, as long as I keep it topped off with olive oil. Vermouth is the same idea; unlike wine it keeps opened for months (at least for cooking purposes), and cheap vermouth is also more consitant than cheap wine.

If you don’t have a dutch oven or another pot with a lid that can go from the stove top to the oven, this one from Ikea looks pretty good. I have another one of their cast-iron enameled pans and it's quite nice. Or, for four times the price (and maybe 10 times better), visit Fante's. I love my very un-frugal (it was a gift) Le Creuset more and more these days, but I have never tested it side-by-side with my trusty old cast-aluminum one.

Frugal Factor: At 4.5/pound I used 2.5 pounds of lamb here, tossed 1/2 pound of fat, and saved the rest. So that's $11 for the lamb. Frozen Fava/Broad Beans, $1.50, Fennel bulb, $1, Vermouth, $1, other items from pantry est. $0.75. Total, $12 for 4 portions, or $3/portion for the lamb, which I served with leftover squash, leek and turnip which was $0.55/portion. So that's $3.45/portion total.

Chicken Waffle Pie w/ Yeasted Multigrain Waffles

2008-12-15T21:21:00.010-05:00

Ever since I got an old waffle iron at Goodwill (since replaced with a new retro Black & Decker) I have been disappointed with the waffles I made. The ones from a mix were passable but never had that crispy crust and tender interior I loved from the make-your-own Belgian waffle station in my college dining hall. My attempts to make them from scratch were even worse - rubbery and bland. Then, while researching my pretzel project, I came across a recipe for yeast-risen waffles which promised the qualities I was looking for.

They were the perfect foil for a fave of mine, Chicken Waffle Pie. Basically a chicken pot pie filling served over waffles. As much as I love chicken pot pie, pastry dough is fattening and time consuming (plus butter is $3.50/pound). Waffles can also be toasted separately, which makes for a more freezable recipe.

Waffles.

I followed this recipe, but I replaced 1 cup of white flour with 3/4 cup of whole wheat and 1/4 cup of multigrain flour. Actually, I didn’t have multigrain flour but I did have some rye, oats, barley and wheat hot ceral I don't care for, so I ground it by hand with my mortar and pestle for a couple minutes (you could use a mini food processor but mine’s a pain to clean). I also added 1/4 cup of some Mexican malt milk powder I had around.

These are supposed to be “overnight” waffles so I was worried about making the batter at 11 p.m. and then using it the next day at 7 p.m. (that’s 20 hours in the fridge) because some recipes said “no more than 16 hours” but it all worked out. I had to add a 1/4 cup of milk to the batter to thin it out a little. Otherwise, they came out great.I used 1 1/2 tsp. of instant yeast.

Optional: If you want to make waffles only for the chicken as opposed to saving some for breakfast, adding “better than bouillon” to the milk in the recipe and throwing in 4 tbsp. of thyme, dill, parsley etc. or even some cayenne can really kick it up a notch.

A few caveats: These rise in the waffle iron more than regular waffles so use a little less batter per batch. With my old-school 4-waffle iron, I had to spread no more than 1 cup of batter – I did 1/3 in each of the four compartments and had a waffle volcano. Also, they cook fast so the old waffle-making trick about waiting for the steam to stop will result in overcooked waffles. Use your nose.

Chicken Pie Filling

3 pounds chicken thighs, trimmed of fat and cut into bite-sized cubes; Flour for dusting; 2 onions, chopped; 1 20-oz bag frozen mixed vegetables; 1/2 cup white extra-dry vermouth or white wine; 2 cups chicken stock (better than bullion works great here), 2 tbs. fresh thyme (or 1 tsp. dry), 1/2 tsp. cayenne, 1/4 stick butter, 1 small can evaporated milk or heavy cream.

Toss chicken cubes in flour (season flour with salt and pepper if you wish) to lightly coat. Heat butter in 12” skillet and add chicken carefully un one layer. Brown and flip. When browned on all sides, remove chicken from pan and put aside.
Sauté onion in pan over medium-low until soft, ass vermouth to deglaze pan, scrapping brown bits (unless using a nonstick pan)
Add vegetables and chicken and half the chicken stock and heat on med-high until boiling, stirring frequently (but don’t use metal spoon on a non-stick pan). Mixture should thicken; keep adding the rest of the stock in 1/4 cup increments until thick enough to stay on a waffle but just a little gloppier than you would want to eat. Then, off the heat, stir in evaporated milk or cream
Serve over two waffles. Freeze separately from wrapped waffles so that filling can be nuked and waffles toasted.

Notes: This recipe calls for dark meat for several reasons: White meat is easy to overcook and that’s even truer when freezing and reheating. In fact, when people say they don’t like dark meat, it’s usually because dark meat tends to be undercooked, leaving it chewy and gross. In this recipe, you cook it long enough so that it is tender. It’s also cheaper. I use vermouth here in place of white wine because an open bottle keeps for a long time. This recipe works for a reg. pot pie or biscuit-topped casserole too, just add a little more water for a thinner consistency since baking will further thicken.

Frugal Factor: Readington Farms Free Farmed chicken thighs, $1.89/pound at Shop Rite ($5.67); 2 onions, $0.60, frozen veg, $2.00; 5 oz can evaportated milk $0.60; 2 cups chicken broth, $0.80 (better than bullion, free if made from leftover bones after cutting up chicken); vermouth, $1.25 (1/3 of a $4.00 355 ml bottle); 3 cups flour (2 2/3 cups for waffles and rest for dusting chicken), $1; 1/2 yeast packet, $0.25; 3 cups milk @ $4.00/gallon = $0.75; 2/3 stick butter @ $3.50/4-sticks, $0.58 (waffles and chicken) = $13.50 for 8 generous portions, $1.69/portion.

Product Review: Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base

2008-12-13T13:43:00.009-05:00

Truly, there is nothing like a homemade chicken stock or broth. It fills the room with the smell of home and holidays, and when I debone some chicken, I always throw the bones in a pot with some water, carrots and celery and a bay leaf.

However, there are many times when I need just a little broth for another dish or some extra flavor in a dish that already has enough liquid. That's when I reach for Better than Bouillon, a concentrated chicken stock base. I first used concentrated soup base when I was cooking at a bistro/coffee shop. It's a restaurant staple, even in supposedly high-end joints. No, it doesn't have the same flavor of homemade, but it's a lot better than the pre-made cans or cartons of stock in the store, which are a waste of time, money and space. It is a bit too heavy on the celery and vegetal notes to use in a noodle soup or something, but in most recipes you won't notice.

The same company makes an absurd number of other flavors. The vegetable soup base is nasty, but I may try their "vegan chicken" or mushroom bases for vegetarian recipes. I am interested in/terrified of the lobster base.

Frugal Factor: One $4 jar makes 41 cups of broth, or $0.10/serving. Ready-to-use "College Inn" Chicken Broth is $3 for 4 cups (32 oz), or $0.75/serving, and is nasty to boot. Of course, making your own from the remnants of a roast chicken or other unused bones and stuff is free, and better, if you have the time.

Pumpkin Seed-Crusted Goujons of Chilean Hake w/ Butternut Squash, Leek and Turnip Saute

2008-12-12T23:05:00.010-05:00

One reason I started freezing some meals in quantity was because other dinners are not even good reheated at lunch the next day. Fish, particularly fried fish, is one of those. Generally awful reheated, plus your coworkers will hate you for stinking up the kitchen. After consuming a lot of heavy stews lately, I was really needing to cook and eat something a bit more delicate.

I had a butternut squash that My Uncle and his wife grew in their community garden plot at the Schuylkill Center. I consulted the Silver Spoon cookbook, which has a recipe for every possible animal and vegetable. There, I found a recipe for pumpkin, leek and turnip w/ thyme and sesame seeds sauteed in olive oil. Since a butternut squash is pretty much the same thing as a pumpkin, I gave it a go. I didn't follow the recipe though - that book isn't long on detail. They wanted you to roast sliced squash in a foil packet. I gave it 90 minutes in the crock pot instead, and followed the recipe from there. I also saw a recipe for some kind of fish fried with crusted almonds. I had some kind of fish but I did not have almonds. I did have some tamari-flavored pumpkin seeds a bit past their prime, which actually worked with the theme better anyway.

I served it all with some fresh spinach salad.

Butternut Squash, Leek and Turnip Saute (serves 6, so I am serving it again tomorrow)

1 Squash, 1 turnip, 1 leek, olive oil, fresh sprigs of thyme, some sesame seed (optional)

Peel Squash, cut in half, scoop out the junk and slice 1/4 inch thick.
Toss squash with tsp olive oil, the leaves of one sprig of thyme and some salt.
Precook squash in one of the following ways: wrap in foil packet and roast in oven at 350 for 30 minutes, place in slow cooker on high for 90 minutes or steam until just softened.
Julienne turnip (cut into matchsticks)
Slice white part of leek from the green part. Discard green part. Separate layers, wash them a lot, and slice thinly.
Heat 2 tbs olive oil in hot frying pan on high heat. Toss in veggies. Allow to brown just a bit underneath and then toss a few times and cook until the turnips retain just a bit of crunch.

Pumpkin Seed-Crusted Goujons of Chilean Hake (serves 2)

A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but there is a lot about cuisine, especially seafood, in which a name can make a $5 meal into a $20 entree. Such it is with my title of this dish. Hake is a fish I had to look up when I saw it in Silver Spoon. Turns out it is what people in England call the fish we call whiting (they have their own fish called whiting). Whiting is a dirt-cheap fish caught off the coast of Chile, sold frozen and filleted, $6 or less for a 2# bag.

1/2 pound hake/whiting filet (or other white-fleshed fishie), 1/4 cup soy sauce (preferably thick style, sold in Asian stores but nearly impossible to ID as such), 1/2 cup hulled pumpkin seed snacks (or almonds. pistachios might work too).

If filet has skin on the bottom, take it off or leave it on. Up to you. I took it off, somewhat mangling the delicate filet in the process. That's how the filets became goujons, which is like a chicken finger, only with fish. In fact, some of them became nuggets. It's all good. So slice your fish into goujons if you haven't mangled it into them already.
Coat fish with soy sauce, put on a plate
Crush the seeds to a course texture (pieces smaller than rice). I used a mortar and pestle, but a small food processor or blender is just as good. You can use a chef's knife if you've got all day to chop.
Coat fish in the crushed seeds, pressing firmly to adhere.
In a non-stick pan, add oil to a depth of just under 1/4 inch and heat to almost smoking (peanut oil is best because it is great with high heat. Apparently grapeseed is too, but I'm too frugal to buy it).
Carefully transfer fish to pan and fry for 2 minutes. Flip, cook for 2 more minutes. Remove fish to paper towel to absorb excess oil. Serve.

Frugal Factor: The fish (2 servings) was $5 for a 2# bag w/ 4 fillets. I used only one fillet. The pumpkin seeds were in my pantry for a year, but roasted shelled ones are sold for $2.29 for a 10oz bag. I used 1/2 cup (4 oz), so that's $0.92 (plus I ate some, so $1). Add .25 for the oil and soy sauce I guess. Price per portion: $1.25

Leeks are sold three to a bunch for $3. I used 1 (the rest will be used later). Turnips are $1/pound and the one I used was 1/3 pound. The squash was a gift but would have cost $2. This made 6 portions, at $0.55/portion.

The bag of prewashed baby spinach was $3.30 and I used about 1/3. $1.10/portion.

Total: $2.90/portion.

Buffalo Chili n' Waffles, Taco Night

2008-12-10T23:22:00.009-05:00

Every now and then, I like to regress and have a good 'l fashioned middle American taco night. No fresh corn tortilla, braised tongue, lime and cilantro (although now I'm craving just that from Taqueria Michocana - scenic Norristown here I come). No, I'm talking about ground beef with pre-mixed spice packet, crunchy taco shelves, grated jack cheese, iceberg lettuce, etc.

The other night I had a pound of ground buffalo meat I wanted to stretch in to a base for chili. Instead of just cooking the meat with the spice packet, I sauteed it with two onions, then added half a can of refried beans. (For the vegetarians out there, this method is a great way to use TVP, which will benefit from being mized with stuff.) It was just as good, and I had lots of leftover meat mixture.

CHILI TIME! And what could be better with chili than cornbread? How's about cornbread WAFFLES? Waffles are great with savory meals because they catch all the sauce/gravy.

The Chili:

I use my 70's "Crock Watcher" for this but if you only have a pot on a stove, cook it on low for an hour.

Into the crock pot goes: The leftover taco meat mixture, a big 28 oz can of tomatoes, the rest of the refried beans and two 16 oz cans of beans (I like black beans. Your taco meat mix provides the seasoning, although I also add a tablespoon of cocoa and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Cook on high 2 hours or low 8 hours.

For the cornbread waffles, I used this recipe, found online at random. I used milk instead of buttermilk, subbing 1/2 cup of sour cream. I wasn't so crazy about it, so after the first batch, I added a quarter cup of honey to the batter. That helped a lot, as did waiting 10 minutes for the batter to set. I still think I'll try another recipe next time though.

The finished product looks great on a plate (above) with a dab of sour cream and some freeze-dried chives. Just don't reach for the syrup (or who knows...?) For the freezer portions, I filled my containers halfway and froze them solid. Then I wrapped the waffles, put one on top of each portion and put the lid on. That way, I can grab a portion and go, and toast the waffle while nuking the chili.

Frugal Factor: For the chili and waffles, I got 10 portions. The half of the meat left over from taco night was $2.50, $0.50 for half a spice packet, $0.25 for the onion, $1.50 for the refried beans, $2 for the tomatoes, $1.50 for the canned black beans. Let's say $1 for the waffles. Maybe $1.50. That's $9.50, or $0.95/portion. Use TVP or cheaper meat in place of the buffalo, mix your own spices and cook your own beans, I bet you could cut that in half.

Lentil Loaf: Trying a Much-Maligned 70's Hippie Staple.

2008-12-09T19:11:00.005-05:00

On several occasions, I have read articles on vegetarian food that said something like "These days, vegetarian cooking is about more than lentil loaf." Well darnit, after years of seeing lentil loaf badmouthed in the media, I decided to actually make it. It's actually pretty good. (Tastes better than it looks.) Shown here reheated from the deep freeze in my office cubicle, served with mac n' cheese w/ broccoli.

Lentil Loaf:

1 bag dry lentils (2 ½ cups)
½ cup dry TVP (texturized vegetable protein) (optional, use less water if omitting)
5 cups water
½ cup smoked almonds (hulled sunflowers or pumpkin seeds work too)
4 eggs or 5 egg whites or egg substitute
2 cups dry bread crumbs
1 onion, 1 carrot + optional: 1 spear of celery, ½ Green pepper, ½ cup mushroom stems
2 tbs. sage
2 tbs. garlic powder
2 tbs. hot paprika 9or sweet paprika + ½ tsp cayenne)
¼ cup ketchup or BBQ sauce
¼ cup soy sauce

Combine lentils, TVP, half the garlic powder, sage (no salt!) w/ 4-5 cups water and cook covered on med heat until very tender (45 minutes) checking several times to make sure there is still some liquid in the bottom of the pan so they don’t burn (water absorption can vary)
Meanwhile, finely chop veggies and sauté in some olive oil on low heat – add garlic powder or fresh chopped garlic after they become tender.
Chop almonds in food processor, blender or by hand until finely chopped.
Drain lentils, reserving cooking liquid. Pulse lentils and ½ cup cooking liquid in food processor so that there are still some whole lentils.
Preheat oven to 350
Pour lentils in mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients except the eggs and bread crumbs. Taste mixture and add salt and/or extra herbs and spices to taste. Add eggs and stir until combined. Slowly add bread crumbs until mixture becomes more firm but still very moist (like watery mashed potatoes). If it gets to thick, like clay, add some reserved cooking liquid to loosen)
Spray loaf pan with oil. Line bottom with parchment paper. Fill with lentil mixture leaving ½ inch at the top, spread ketchup on top. Cover with foil.
Bake at 350 for aprox. 1 hour, until center has domed up some (it will collapse again later).Refrigerate overnight or eat now but risk some crumbling. If eating now, make gravy in step 10 while loaf is in oven.
Run knife around edge of pan and turn over on cutting board. Slice and serve (If chilled, reheat in microwave or in nonstick frying pan)
Serve with gravy [sauté pint of thinly sliced mushrooms and one finely chopped onion, add two cups vegetable stock (wine or soy sauce optional), bring to boil and stir in 2-3 tbs. flour (or 1-2 tbs. corn starch) dissolved in ¼ cup cold stock.]

Substitutions: This is a versatile recipe. Go wild. Go nuts. Wild rice for ¼ lentils or the TVP. Pistachios instead of smoked almonds. Cooked rice or quinoa for some or all the bread crumbs. Omit all herbs and spices and soy sauce and use a taco seasoning or vegetable soup packet in step 6 instead. Cook in muffin tins instead of loaf pan.You can't go wrong - worst case you turn it into sloppy joe's.

Frugal Factor: This is a great budget food item - the recipe below is about 10 good servings and costs maybe maybe $4 for ingredients. That's $0.40/portion - cheaper than a potato.

His breath reeked of beer and pretzeled bread!

2008-12-08T23:11:00.003-05:00

Like all good Philadelphians, I love soft pretzels. When I was a kid, whenever we drove to Philadelphia to visit family, my dad would always buy a bag of pretzels from the vendor at the end of the Cottman Avenue exit. In recent years I have come to love Fisher's in the Reading Terminal and their bastard cousins in every mall, Auntie Anne's, which are a very different experience.

Fisher's has a breakfast pretzel strudel, full of sausage eggs and cheese. It is mighty. I thought I would try to replicate it in bulk as a freezable breakfast item.
It turns out that despite the profusion of recipes on the web claiming to replicate Auntie Anne's, it is tough to get that Mennonite mojo, which comes basically from more butter and sugar than people who do not plow without tractors should eat.

Here is how I made these delicious Egg, Ham and Muenster Pretzel Buns

This pretzel dough recipe is very nice. I made mine in my Kitchenaid w/ the dough hook. You know you have added enough flour when it all holds together in one ball. I added a quarter stick of butter and an egg yolk for the dough. I also borrowed a trick from other recipes and added 1/4 cup baking soda to the water the raw pretzels are boiled in, which as a non-caustic alkaline is a stand-in for the lye used by professionals.

While waiting for the dough to rise:

Beat 6 eggs w/ 2 tbs corn starch dissolved in 1/4 cup milk (this keeps the cooked eggs from getting all nasty when frozen and reheated).
Dice four slices of deli muenster and about 1/4 pound of ham.
Distribute ham and cheese evenly in a greased 12-muffin tin.
Fill muffin tins with egg mixture (about halfway on each)
Bake eggs at 350 for 10 min or so, until they are cooked through but still a bit runny.
Turn out baked eggs and let cool.

Assembly:

Break off a piece of pretzel dough and roll flat with baking pin, very thin. Place an egg muffin on dough and fold to overlap, then twist each end like a tootsie roll until it breaks off (you can roll these together later). Once you have them all done, boil a pot of water and add some baking soda. Boil your pretzeled eggs a few at a time for five to ten seconds, remove with a slotted spoon and place on a cookie sheet (oiled and pref. w/ parchment paper).

With a sharp knife, score an X in the center of each one, sprinkle with salt and bake until browned (about 10 min). I deviated from the pretzel dough recipe and baked at 375 because my wonderful wife Shoshanna was cooking my favorite morning glory muffins at the same time. It worked okay, but I was using a cast iron griddle in the oven so you might need to up it to 425.

If you will be reheating these later, take them out when they are still pale like in the photo. If serving immediately, you can let them get darker.

To reheat from a non-frozen state, place unwrapped in a 400 degree oven for 25 min. Yum.

PS If you have extra dough, as I did, you could make pretzel hot dogs, sugar and cinnamon pretzel bites, or, uh, some pretzels.

Frugal Factor: 1/2 doz eggs, $1.25, 1 cup milk, $0.25, ham, 1/3 pound ham, $1.33, yeast packet, $0.50, two slices of muenster, $0.25. Baking soda and corn starch - I buy those once a year, so let's say $0.25. 12 portions, $0.32/each.

The Freezer

2008-12-08T22:21:00.001-05:00

Introduction: Welcome to my new blog, The Ice Man Cooketh, devoted to cooking and eating food with a focus on all that is frugal and freezable. Just the thing for these troubled times, but I've always been a cheapskate gourmet. Origin story below:

For years I stressed out about what to cook for dinner. If I didn't make enough to have leftovers the next day or went out to eat, I would have to buy lunch. I knew the answer was freezing large quantities, but my freezer was overstuffed already.

Enter... the chest freezer. My memories as a child involve being sent down to the basement where my father kept a GE chest freezer stocked with meat from the butcher (Pepi's, to those who have ever lived in Bel Air) and bluefish my grandfather caught. The freezer was ancient and I don't think it had been defrosted since my parents moved into their house in 1980 and I assume it still hasn't.

I opted for a smaller chest freezer, a 5 cu ft model from Home Depot. All the chest freezers on the market seem to be made in the same Chinese factory. This one is labeled Magic Chef, a dead brand that, when it was alive, produced the 1965 stove in my old house which I loved until my contractor destroyed it. That's another story and this is not a kitchen renovation blog.

I looked all over for some stackable storage containers that fit in it, since otherwise food gets lost in the bottom. Milk crates didn't work but I found these tubs at Ikea, Trofast, that are actually part of a children'a furniture set. They are also the perfect size and shape to brine a turkey. Wonders never cease.

Anyway, I'll be posting at least once a week. Stay tuned for my series on savory waffles.

Frugal Factor: Retails for $189 but I got one somebody drove a lumber cart into for $134.