Ask the Frugal Counselor a question and win her recipe book!

[Looby]

Hi Mary

My question is regarding frugal entertaining- specifically dinner parties. I'm fine with casual buffet style events and bbqs but I have no idea what would be good frugal dishes for a three course sit down meal?

Thanks,
Looby

[1michele]

Hi Mary,
I am a single mom of three with one in college and one getting ready to go. I am always clipping coupons and shopping clearance at Target for teen clothing. I try to save some each month but don't seem to have the saavy to really invest well. I was wondering what tips you might have for a teacher income?
Michele

[khorrell]

Hi Mary,

I guess you can see that we're glad to have you. My biggest concern is about feeding my family of six...we're fortunate that I don't have to count pennies, but we also can't afford to overspend. We tend to rely on convenience foods way too often, and the healthier convenience foods tend to be extremely expensive. Unfortunately, my young ones thing that anything out of the crockpot is the enemy. Sometimes I think that I could pull McDonalds out of the crockpot and they wouldn't eat it.

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas!

[Myscha Theriault]

Wow, this is so awesome! Loads of questions, and I'm dying to see the answers. Looks like you arrived just in time, Mary!

[Rane2knight]

Hi Mary,
My husband and I are doing a garden for the first time. We have beets, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, basil, and tomatos. Oh yeah, and turnips. We would like to enjoy the "fruits" of our labors all winter long but don't want to can (don't have time, too much work, ect). How about some suggestions for things we could make ahead and freeze for winter? Thanks!

[Mary Webber]

Originally Posted by jdp

I'm all over the frugal thing. I really enjoy finding old sources of wisdom and applying them to today. I'm a super re-user and frugal fanatic. Most of the time just because its not cheaper but EASIER (getting to the store for some greens because mine went to mush is more of a pita to me than grabbing some from a growing trayful in the yard). But I have to admit I seriously lack any 'style'.

I recently received the most wonderful housewarming gift - a jar of strawberry freezer jam. My strawberry freezer jam is blah. This little jar of strawberry freezer jam had a cute little piece of scrap fabric twined on the lid with a little note tied to the twine.

That gift-giver is frugal-with-style. Would i have thought to add those still frugal little touches? Probably not. I'm a bumbling frugal person I suspect.

Do you have any resources or recommendations for sprucing up one's frugalness?

There's the question but may I also add - I'm so excited you're going to be here!

Oh, boy, that keep-thirfty-from being-dull-dreary-and-drab question!

The first thing is to personalize any frugality. What on earth do I mean by that? Good example is the gift of jam you were given. ALWAYS include a personal tag or note with any gift. (I take the front off any cards I get and save them just for this.) If the gift is food, consider giving the recipe too (especially in this day of food allergies), including a little story about where the recipe came from or even a suggestion for a different use for the gift. In the case of the jam, maybe you'd suggest making jam-stuffed French toast with it. It's those little touches that turn frugal into fancy.

But beware! You've got to be just as careful about spending on the extras...what sense is there in putting together a nifty, thrifty basket of homemade bread and a couple of kinds of jellies if you had to buy a basket to put it in, and that basket cost!

I've just addressed the one area here, gift-giving. So let's quickly take a look at one other area of this idea. Say you're serving a pretty straightforward supper - meatloaf, potatoes, green beans and carrots - but you want to dress things up a bit. Dress the table with an old doily, or even some of the very inexpensive small paper ones set under each glass. Or add a strewing of seashells, a few candles, something whimsical or anything that fits the seaon. Four Fourth of July, I had a whole bunch of sparklers set in a bud vase, and of course we lit those sparklers after suppers.

Add a few garnishes such as lemon pepper to the top of the potatoes or the raisins with the carrots, anthing that catches the eye and says a little extra thought/effort went in this. My favoirte thing is to always have one extra on the table, be it popovers with honey or apple-apricot sauce.

PHEW! Didn't mean to take up your whole day reading this, but we've barely scratched the surface here. Have a great day, and don't forget that fancy CAN be frugal!

[Mary Webber]

Originally Posted by Looby

Hi Mary

My question is regarding frugal entertaining- specifically dinner parties. I'm fine with casual buffet style events and bbqs but I have no idea what would be good frugal dishes for a three course sit down meal?

Thanks,
Looby

Well, now, assuming people come to your dinner party for the company as much as the food, what would be a good menu for that sit-down meal? Start as I always do, with presentation, remembering that we eat with our eyes first! Little things like fancy-folded napkins (usually shown in the party section of a good cookbook), two wine glasses at each place, one with a few blossoms in it, or even one the those birthday snap-crackers or a fortune cookie on each plate as a way to start the meal.

Your main dish? If you go with plain meat, a steak, roast, chops, fish fillets, that'll be more expensive. But a casserole-type dish at a more formal party may strike you as...well, not quite elegant enough. In The Frugal Family Kitchen Book is a recipe for a haddock newburgh, a very elegant fish dish with a spash of sherry in its rich sauce. All you need is a fancy chafing dish to make that easy, inexpensive and do-ahead dish worthy of center stage.

Baked or double baked potaotes go well with this casserole and while the casserole sauce is wonderful on the potato, it's nice to have several other options on the table too including perhaps a fiery chutney. You want foods on the table that people will sample, comment on, ask about. For another vegetable, you'll want something bright and colorful, your choice, maybe something sweet and something savory, and always, some tasy, aromatic breadstuffs.

I've found that people don't even notice the rest of dinner if there's fresh bread on the table. Yeast rolls are so easy to make and they can be made ahead of time. If we're having a large group for dinner, I make one recipe of white bread and one of oatmeal then turn those doughs into rolls. Biscuits, scones, pull-apart breads,an herbed foccacia... I'm getting hungry here! An herbed butter is good, or my very favoirte is a citrus-honey butter.

WOW! And we haven't even talked about dessert. The main dish, the meat dish, is where you'll spend your money so that's where you want to look for your greatest savings.

[Mary Webber]

Originally Posted by khorrell

Hi Mary,

I guess you can see that we're glad to have you. My biggest concern is about feeding my family of six...we're fortunate that I don't have to count pennies, but we also can't afford to overspend. We tend to rely on convenience foods way too often, and the healthier convenience foods tend to be extremely expensive. Unfortunately, my young ones thing that anything out of the crockpot is the enemy. Sometimes I think that I could pull McDonalds out of the crockpot and they wouldn't eat it.

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas!

Oh, dear, you need a new crockpot cookbook! One that shows the dessert recipes you can make in one, and then see if your little darlings will eat that crockpot cookery!

When it comes to a family food budget and meal planning, the first things to consider are how much everyone contributes to that menu planning, those choice-making decisions and how much everyone contributes to the cooking, serving and cleanup of meals. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, should be, must be, involved at some place in the process.

One thing I stress in The Frugal Family Kitchen Book is that you need a list of possibilities, those same meals your family goes back to time and again. And yes, every family has their own repertoire of repeats. List your family's favorite chicken, fish, veggie, hamburger, other beef, pork, etc dishes, and keep that list posted and handy. It's bound to include some soups and stews that can be made in the crockpot.

Ask who's willing to cook what meal what night. Have a guys cook night, a girls cook night, and encourage some cookbook reading for new ideas. There'll be varying degrees of excitement - and yes, resistance - but you HAVE TO HAVE the stakeholders/steakholders! involved in order to save money!

And then the snacks... same approach... fruits and yoghurt, veggies and healthy dips, popcorn with special toppings, homemade anything. I absolutely love the little electric ice cream/frozen yogurt maker we got several years ago as we can whip up healthy, very inexpensive and decided experiemntal goodeis very quickly. Kids CAN cook, and many love to, so if at all possible put them in charge of snacks, give them a few healthy parameters, and give them a budget to work with. You'll be amazed at the results!

Hope this gets you thinking perhaps in a different direction and that it helps a bit at least.

[Mary Webber]

Originally Posted by Myscha Theriault

Wow, this is so awesome! Loads of questions, and I'm dying to see the answers. Looks like you arrived just in time, Mary!

Thanks for the welcome Myscha. My visit here is all due to your interview with me earlier this spring, so double thanks for that!

[Mary Webber]

Originally Posted by Rane2knight

Hi Mary,
My husband and I are doing a garden for the first time. We have beets, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, basil, and tomatos. Oh yeah, and turnips. We would like to enjoy the "fruits" of our labors all winter long but don't want to can (don't have time, too much work, ect). How about some suggestions for things we could make ahead and freeze for winter? Thanks!

What a great question and one I'm going to love answering, IF, b-i-g IF, I can do it in less than a million words! I so love to garden and it is incredibly important to me to be stocked up for the winter, just to know there's all that good food in the freezer and root cellar to share.

Of the things you're growing, beets, carrots, and turnips can be winter stored meaning put in a bin, stung up, or packed in a medium such as sand(for the carrots especially) and kept at a constant low temp and stable humidity through the winter. You really need a good, cool cellar area for this but believe me, there are tons of ways around that. Some folks even bury their produce in sawdust-filled bins to access during the winter. We hang our onions in the mesh bags oranges come in, and the copra onions we grow -they are perfect for winterkeeping - last until we use them up, well into spring.

We winter-keep the above veggies plus our potatoes, squash, even apples, as this is the least expensive, least equipment and labor intensive way to preserve foods for winter. I'm not going to give you specifics here, but for good info and guidance go to your library, your local university extension service, or search out your local garden guru. The two classic books for all manner of food preservation are Stocking Up and Putting Food By, both carried by www.Amazon.com and both worth every cent.

I only can tomatoes, everything else is winter-stored or frozen. While I definitely dry lots of herbs, you can also dry a number of things such as peas and blueberries, but I've never found those worth the time, energy and aggravation.

I hope this gets you started in the right direction. There is no better feeling in the world than greeting the first harsh winds of winter with a well-stocked larder!