#43 - I don't know if this out of the question for you because of circumstances but 3 miles is less than (or about - depending on how speedy you are) an hour's walk. If you can genuinely save a significant amount of money shopping a little further away could you not incorporate the walk into your daily routine? That way you can shop regularly, buy small amounts (less food waste) more frequently, save money, get free exercise & reduce your carbon footprint.
When I walk home from work (about 3.5 miles) I go past 3 supermarkets (varying sizes) and a fresh produce market. I do live in a reasonably large city in the UK so I appreciate it may be different for you. However, it is probably worth investigating as it's likely there are some shops around that you didn't know about!
#22 - I'd suggest that if you're eating Caesar salad from a bag then you're probably not too worried about cost or fat content! :)
Thank you for having the courage to write this. I tire endlessly of hearing the "party line" regarding how women are not given equal this and that. At the end of the day, it is up to US to pursue what we not; not up to anyone else to give it to us, simply because we lack a penis. It's nice to see studies are finally being done to debunk this popular myth.
For many years, we had a bay tree in a pot in our kitchen. Since we had an essentially unlimited supply of free bay leaves, we tended to put them in anything where it seemed remotely plausible--soups, sauces of all kinds, lasagne, rice dishes, etc.
It's kind of hard to describe the taste--it's a sharp flavor, but it tends to meld with the other flavors in food, adding complexity without really standing out.
(Our tree died a couple years ago, but we still have a large supply of dried bay leaves.)
Yes, if your goal is to learn about cooking, then you definitely want to start by reproducing the original recipe and then producing variations on it. I'd argue, though, that, once you have a good bit of experience doing that, you can often skip the first step--unless there are strange ingredients or unfamiliar steps, you know well enough what you'd get if you followed the recipe exactly.
In my case, I'm kind of past the point of trying to learn what happens when I change this or that. I'm no expert, but within the range of things that I like to make and like to eat, I know well enough what I'm doing. If you want to produce a cheap, tasty meal, there's no need to produce an expensive meal first, just to have a reference point from which to judge its relative tastiness.
Bayleaf is used a lot in Indian cuisine. It has a really nice aroma. I have to have it when I am preparing chick-pea curry (Hindi: Chhole) and I also use it to flavor rice dishes. It is that legendary ingredient that tells neighbors that something's cooking...and its good. So try it at least once, its very difficult to not like it.
I would prefer following a recipe as is first time around, and then slowly nudging the ingredients to my preferences. If I never cook it the way author describes, I would never know what the original recipe would taste like and how far my improvised version is from the original. Not that the other version won't taste well, its just that if I want to prepare Humus, I would cook it the mediterranean way first before Indianizing it.
As a friend used to put it, "If you substitute everything with something else in a recipe, you'll also end up with something else not the dish that you set out to prepare originally"
I would rather clip a thousand coupons than scrub a tub. I also have a cleaning lady (bless her) who comes twice a month to do the hard core cleaning. This is an absolute must for me if I am going to be a working mom.
I abhor emptying the dishwasher. I have no idea why but I hate it. So I wear a tiara when I do it. For some reason, it makes the act just a little more bearable.
I'm queen of the repurpose. I keep a lot of things around that my friends laugh at me for not throwing away. Until, that is, they see those objects reincorporated into something else that's fun/fabulous/awesome. Most of the people I know look to me to be the "what's a cheap and creative solution for...." guru.
These are great tricks, I sometimes make up or create a dish, mostly a casserole depending on whatever I have in the fridge. Plus cooking home saves me a ton of money.
It's a bottle of JW Dundee's Original Honey Brown Honey-Flavored Lager. (It's not very honey flavored; it's a lot like a nut-brown ale.)
I'm more of an ale drinker than a lager drinker, but just lately there have been more cheap lagers out there than cheap ales. Happily, this has gone hand-in-hand with a surge in "ale-like" lagers, of which this is one example.
In my experience, being raised in a fat and "poor" (yet educated) family, it had to do with two things. One, starches/carbs like pasta, rice, beans, are cheap and filling, but also make you gain weight when eaten in excess. In addition, when you eat a lot of carbs, your blood sugar will drop, making you hungry for more, and so on. It becomes a vicious circle. The other main reason, and even more importantly, is that eating cheap starches to excess can help combat anxiety. It's like a drug, and makes the eater sleepy, too exhausted to worry about paying the bills or dealing with low self-esteem, etc. Not a good way to handle problems, but a common one.
1. Make cheaper substitutions that often aren't listed in recipes. I often use dry milk for cooking. If we plan ahead, we can use dry beans, too. In many cases it is also feasible to reduce the amount of cheese in a dish--e.g. grate it finer for homemade pizza.
2. Add "details" to take cheap but boring dishes up a notch. For example, starting with http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/blackbeansoup2.htm I ended up adding a fair amount of cumin and a little cayenne, cilantro, and cinnamon.
3. Adopt techniques that add flavor. D has slowly been getting it through my head how wonderful deglazing is; it really adds to dishes like http://www.recipezaar.com/58823 . I'm also trying to learn a little more about using the crockpot. I hear that marinades are also excellent for this.
I'm trying to figure out what the bottle in the picture is: honey brown something. The piggy is sure eyeing it....
I like your do-it-yourself suggestions and certainly understand we don't all want to turn our lives into full time arts-and-crafts/menial labor...I'm a big fan of division of labor, but doing some things for yourself is a big part of life. For children, it can be a great character builder, so losing some time to inefficiencies or replacing other things you want to do might be worthwhile.
Seeing that you can use your mind to do things on your own, and that we make conservative resource allocation decisions is a great thing for children. Personally, I really like your bread baking advice!
Frankly, even the old pressure cookers were pretty safe. Everyone's grandmother had a story about the pressure cooker blowing up, but the explosions were of the "make a mess of the kitchen" variety, not the "one dead two in hospital" variety.
that was a great breakdown on how to use a recipe, not be a slave to it. people don't realize that once they have some experience, recipes can be used for *ideas*, substituting what's on hand.
for me, pressure cookers feel/are dangerous, most don't feel that way. a crock pot can be used if you want to save fuel.
yesterday I finished a pot roast and used leftover tomato sauce/water and my own spices, tasting repeatedly. that's why we have a lot of teaspoons!
Well what about the oh so beautiful women that make you feel like a slob in real life. I'll admit I almost always make a beauty impulse buy after leaving the gym and seeing all those perfect fitness model types with perfect skin and tans prancing away without a drop of sweat on the treadmill next to me. I can't blame photoshop for them looking perfect when they're right there next to me
Huh, I never noticed the water tower, which is odd, since I usually crane my neck to look at the sky. That's got to be a really awesome view.
I was going to mention going to Dick's, but, well, I really don't like their food. Cheap, yes, but definitely not something I recommend to visitors. I know it's a Seattle institution, but I've not been impressed with it so far. They are known for their fair wages, though, so if you need a greasy burger late at night, Dick's is a good place to go.
We modify recipes all the time too, but it is amazing how many people just don't feel comfortable doing that. Great way to break it down with a strategy session, Philip.
Kate, I love the quote! I find the "I don't have time" attitude really annoys me in some of the comments on Wisebread articles -- but my sore spot is the environment. Seriously - are our lives so busy that we can't manage to recycle a phone book or put yoghurt or berries in reusable snack size containers ourselves?
My answer is no. It's not a lack of time, it's sheer laziness. I don't think we should skimp when it comes to things that affect the environment.
I cook a lot, I garden a lot and I try to be frugal in general. So yeah, I get that, "I'd never have time for that" response on a fairly regular basis.
Then I came across this fantastic comeback in Nigella Lawson's, Nigella Express cookbook:
"I don't wish to sound unsympathetic. Obviously, the fact that I am writing a book expressly concerned, as it were, with good food that can be pulled together quickly, establishes, I hope, my bona fides in this regard, but I have to own up to some degree of impatience. The thing is, whenever people, perhaps showing a slightly patronizing amusement at how often I cook (and maybe it's that which irks), claim that they themselves never have the time to cook, it makes me feel uncharacteristically aggressive. What I want to point out is that they are hardly using the time they save by not cooking writing War and Peace."
and as they're cheaper, why not?
Do generic brand colas work as good as the real deal?
#43 - I don't know if this out of the question for you because of circumstances but 3 miles is less than (or about - depending on how speedy you are) an hour's walk. If you can genuinely save a significant amount of money shopping a little further away could you not incorporate the walk into your daily routine? That way you can shop regularly, buy small amounts (less food waste) more frequently, save money, get free exercise & reduce your carbon footprint.
When I walk home from work (about 3.5 miles) I go past 3 supermarkets (varying sizes) and a fresh produce market. I do live in a reasonably large city in the UK so I appreciate it may be different for you. However, it is probably worth investigating as it's likely there are some shops around that you didn't know about!
#22 - I'd suggest that if you're eating Caesar salad from a bag then you're probably not too worried about cost or fat content! :)
Thank you for having the courage to write this. I tire endlessly of hearing the "party line" regarding how women are not given equal this and that. At the end of the day, it is up to US to pursue what we not; not up to anyone else to give it to us, simply because we lack a penis. It's nice to see studies are finally being done to debunk this popular myth.
For many years, we had a bay tree in a pot in our kitchen. Since we had an essentially unlimited supply of free bay leaves, we tended to put them in anything where it seemed remotely plausible--soups, sauces of all kinds, lasagne, rice dishes, etc.
It's kind of hard to describe the taste--it's a sharp flavor, but it tends to meld with the other flavors in food, adding complexity without really standing out.
(Our tree died a couple years ago, but we still have a large supply of dried bay leaves.)
Yes, if your goal is to learn about cooking, then you definitely want to start by reproducing the original recipe and then producing variations on it. I'd argue, though, that, once you have a good bit of experience doing that, you can often skip the first step--unless there are strange ingredients or unfamiliar steps, you know well enough what you'd get if you followed the recipe exactly.
In my case, I'm kind of past the point of trying to learn what happens when I change this or that. I'm no expert, but within the range of things that I like to make and like to eat, I know well enough what I'm doing. If you want to produce a cheap, tasty meal, there's no need to produce an expensive meal first, just to have a reference point from which to judge its relative tastiness.
than what meets the eyes.
Myackie's question is a good example:
Bayleaf is used a lot in Indian cuisine. It has a really nice aroma. I have to have it when I am preparing chick-pea curry (Hindi: Chhole) and I also use it to flavor rice dishes. It is that legendary ingredient that tells neighbors that something's cooking...and its good. So try it at least once, its very difficult to not like it.
I would prefer following a recipe as is first time around, and then slowly nudging the ingredients to my preferences. If I never cook it the way author describes, I would never know what the original recipe would taste like and how far my improvised version is from the original. Not that the other version won't taste well, its just that if I want to prepare Humus, I would cook it the mediterranean way first before Indianizing it.
As a friend used to put it, "If you substitute everything with something else in a recipe, you'll also end up with something else not the dish that you set out to prepare originally"
Henceforth I shall wear a tiara during all my least favorite household tasks.
I would rather clip a thousand coupons than scrub a tub. I also have a cleaning lady (bless her) who comes twice a month to do the hard core cleaning. This is an absolute must for me if I am going to be a working mom.
I abhor emptying the dishwasher. I have no idea why but I hate it. So I wear a tiara when I do it. For some reason, it makes the act just a little more bearable.
I'm queen of the repurpose. I keep a lot of things around that my friends laugh at me for not throwing away. Until, that is, they see those objects reincorporated into something else that's fun/fabulous/awesome. Most of the people I know look to me to be the "what's a cheap and creative solution for...." guru.
These are great tricks, I sometimes make up or create a dish, mostly a casserole depending on whatever I have in the fridge. Plus cooking home saves me a ton of money.
I always leave out the bay leaf. I'm not even sure what a bay leaf does for flavor...does anyone know?
All neat ideas and simple to do list. I'll be sure to take advantage of this. Haha. Now I just need to get my lazy butt off the couch.
I often alter recipes for taste, cost or convenience. I think of a recipe as a starting point, but little else.
My MIL, as much as I love her, is just the opposite. She won't even alter the cooking time of a frozen pizza from the directions on the box!
It's a bottle of JW Dundee's Original Honey Brown Honey-Flavored Lager. (It's not very honey flavored; it's a lot like a nut-brown ale.)
I'm more of an ale drinker than a lager drinker, but just lately there have been more cheap lagers out there than cheap ales. Happily, this has gone hand-in-hand with a surge in "ale-like" lagers, of which this is one example.
In my experience, being raised in a fat and "poor" (yet educated) family, it had to do with two things. One, starches/carbs like pasta, rice, beans, are cheap and filling, but also make you gain weight when eaten in excess. In addition, when you eat a lot of carbs, your blood sugar will drop, making you hungry for more, and so on. It becomes a vicious circle. The other main reason, and even more importantly, is that eating cheap starches to excess can help combat anxiety. It's like a drug, and makes the eater sleepy, too exhausted to worry about paying the bills or dealing with low self-esteem, etc. Not a good way to handle problems, but a common one.
1. Make cheaper substitutions that often aren't listed in recipes. I often use dry milk for cooking. If we plan ahead, we can use dry beans, too. In many cases it is also feasible to reduce the amount of cheese in a dish--e.g. grate it finer for homemade pizza.
2. Add "details" to take cheap but boring dishes up a notch. For example, starting with http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/blackbeansoup2.htm I ended up adding a fair amount of cumin and a little cayenne, cilantro, and cinnamon.
3. Adopt techniques that add flavor. D has slowly been getting it through my head how wonderful deglazing is; it really adds to dishes like http://www.recipezaar.com/58823 . I'm also trying to learn a little more about using the crockpot. I hear that marinades are also excellent for this.
I'm trying to figure out what the bottle in the picture is: honey brown something. The piggy is sure eyeing it....
I like your do-it-yourself suggestions and certainly understand we don't all want to turn our lives into full time arts-and-crafts/menial labor...I'm a big fan of division of labor, but doing some things for yourself is a big part of life. For children, it can be a great character builder, so losing some time to inefficiencies or replacing other things you want to do might be worthwhile.
Seeing that you can use your mind to do things on your own, and that we make conservative resource allocation decisions is a great thing for children. Personally, I really like your bread baking advice!
I wrote a post about pressure cooking last year that addressed the safety issues:
http://www.wisebread.com/save-time-money-energy-and-eat-great
Frankly, even the old pressure cookers were pretty safe. Everyone's grandmother had a story about the pressure cooker blowing up, but the explosions were of the "make a mess of the kitchen" variety, not the "one dead two in hospital" variety.
that was a great breakdown on how to use a recipe, not be a slave to it. people don't realize that once they have some experience, recipes can be used for *ideas*, substituting what's on hand.
for me, pressure cookers feel/are dangerous, most don't feel that way. a crock pot can be used if you want to save fuel.
yesterday I finished a pot roast and used leftover tomato sauce/water and my own spices, tasting repeatedly. that's why we have a lot of teaspoons!
Well what about the oh so beautiful women that make you feel like a slob in real life. I'll admit I almost always make a beauty impulse buy after leaving the gym and seeing all those perfect fitness model types with perfect skin and tans prancing away without a drop of sweat on the treadmill next to me. I can't blame photoshop for them looking perfect when they're right there next to me
Huh, I never noticed the water tower, which is odd, since I usually crane my neck to look at the sky. That's got to be a really awesome view.
I was going to mention going to Dick's, but, well, I really don't like their food. Cheap, yes, but definitely not something I recommend to visitors. I know it's a Seattle institution, but I've not been impressed with it so far. They are known for their fair wages, though, so if you need a greasy burger late at night, Dick's is a good place to go.
We modify recipes all the time too, but it is amazing how many people just don't feel comfortable doing that. Great way to break it down with a strategy session, Philip.
Kate, I love the quote! I find the "I don't have time" attitude really annoys me in some of the comments on Wisebread articles -- but my sore spot is the environment. Seriously - are our lives so busy that we can't manage to recycle a phone book or put yoghurt or berries in reusable snack size containers ourselves?
My answer is no. It's not a lack of time, it's sheer laziness. I don't think we should skimp when it comes to things that affect the environment.
I cook a lot, I garden a lot and I try to be frugal in general. So yeah, I get that, "I'd never have time for that" response on a fairly regular basis.
Then I came across this fantastic comeback in Nigella Lawson's, Nigella Express cookbook:
"I don't wish to sound unsympathetic. Obviously, the fact that I am writing a book expressly concerned, as it were, with good food that can be pulled together quickly, establishes, I hope, my bona fides in this regard, but I have to own up to some degree of impatience. The thing is, whenever people, perhaps showing a slightly patronizing amusement at how often I cook (and maybe it's that which irks), claim that they themselves never have the time to cook, it makes me feel uncharacteristically aggressive. What I want to point out is that they are hardly using the time they save by not cooking writing War and Peace."