Week 7: Using Scary Leftovers

I also recommend Panko bread crumbs.

Last week was one of those weeks where I tried to cook out of the fridge so we could clear it out before we go on vacation.  I've never taken the time to organize my fridge and pantry to have the perfect blend of goods as recommended by numerous cooks and cookbooks out there today.  Part of the reason is I simply don't have the space!  I can't have two different bags of frozen fruit, three frozen veggies, and then every type of frozen meat, a couple prepared meals, and baby food.  It just isn't going to happen.

The more I cook, the bigger the
bags of onions I buy.

So I've learned to make use of leftovers that I have while buying a few fresh ingredients.  We have learned, over the course of five years of marriage, what recipes we eat on a monthly basis.  This has enabled me to gather a few leftover recipes that make the best use of those leftovers.  For example, Zach loves lasagna and we usually make a stir fry some time during the week.  What I end up with for leftovers is spicy sausage and white rice.  With a couple tomatoes, an egg, seasonings, and a few pantry staples like bread crumbs and onions I can make fabulous meat stuffed peppers.  All I had to buy was two red peppers with relatively flat bottoms and follow the basic stuffed pepper recipe in my "Joy of Cooking".  (And I buy organic peppers because they are on the dirty-dozen list but that's a comment for another time.)

Get the recipe under veggies!

While I know that quality ingredients make all the difference, sometimes a busy cook has to keep to the basics and know what the family enjoys.  I would recommend that you start to keep track of your meals - I have a small fridge calendar that I write the meals for the week on.  This way you can look back and see what you will have for leftovers and not only save money shopping, but save time and space in your kitchen!  Some day I will find one of those recommended kitchen staples lists and put it to good use, but in the mean time I am working on finding a balance all my own.

Good luck with your leftovers!
Melissa

Week 6: Baby Food and Failures

Dear Fellow Family Cooks -

Things in my kitchen are either fabulous, bland, or horrific.  I can think of the tagine successes or the time that I accidentally pepper-sprayed the house by burning a Pyrex full of a hot spice rub on the burner.  That was fun.  Tonight I attempted southwest-style meatloaf and it was...not our cup of tea lets say.  Classic is so much better - and by classic I mean my sister's recipe!  Family food is fabulous food. And then there is baby food.  Bland, bland, bland.

I've had quite a few questions about making your own baby food.  Is it easy? Yes.  Is it time consuming? Can be.  Is it expensive? Not at all!  Here is how I make it work:

Two zucchinis, two carrots and thirty
minutes later!  Three cups of mush.

1. I buy produce from the "discount" aisle.  Like I've said before, its cheap and if you cook it right away there is no real issue with the produce.
2. I dedicate an afternoon or at least a two hour block in my day to making baby food. If I am cooking in the crockpot the prep is easy but it takes hours to cook.  Good thing is you can forget about it until the buzzer goes off.  If you are working on the stove top you have to be able to check in on things frequently.

This was twelve prunes and it made
two cups.  You have to add lots of H2O!

3. I fill a steamer basket full of chopped fruits or veggies and put 3 cups of water in the bottom of my small soup pot.  Then I steam away the fruits for about ten minutes or the veggies (root vegetables take longer) for about fifteen minutes.  Blend in my blender and then pop in the fridge or freezer.  With a whole basket full I can freeze one weeks worth of stage 1 purees and then put another weeks worth in the fridge!
4. I aim to make two weeks worth or at least ten days.  That way I can rotate through different foods by using my stock pile in the freezer.  If you don't want to make all your own baby food (I don't make meats because that's gross) then at least make prunes.  Baby food prunes are a royal rip off.  I can make two cups worth of baby prunes with just a handful of dried prunes!

Now that Micah has hit the "third stage" foods we are really trying to rotate in more finger foods.  And trying to more coarsely chop things.  And trying to add in spices.  Tonight he loved having raviolis from Vallarina's Pasta Shop - red sauce and all!  So its always an adventure.

Today I toast to your family's good eating - even if it doesn't work out or is just veggie mush!
Melissa

Week 5: Getting ready for the holidays....

Dear Friends;

Happy Holidays and Good Eating!  For the few of you that are reading and cooking this blog I hope that you find a few warm weather classics and some new favorites as well.  My dear contributors, whether on this site or in emails or in person, you inspire me to keep going!

While it has been a few weeks of silence, know that I have not forgotten you.  In honor of Thanksgiving, a season for being thankful for life's blessings, I have posted a Moroccan recipe.  This recipe reminds me of good friends, wonderful conversation, and beautiful people from a country that will always be close to my heart this time of year.  Check it out, and of course note the bibliographic information, it is well worth the time!

Many blessings and much love,
Melissa

P.S. I would LOVE for you to share a holiday favorite if you get the chance between all the joyous chaos!

Week 4: The 'Sale' Produce



BUT WAIT! Sale Produce Exists!

Part of my stash just before steaming, pureeing, and baking. 
I made loaves of cheeder zucchini bread that turned out great!



One of the things that I should share - or should have shared earlier - is my secret for produce.  I plan my meals for the week on Sunday and the grocery shop on Monday or Tuesday depending on how my LO's morning is and how organized I am.... and I only buy brand names if they are on sale and I have coupons.  With packaged foods there is often a perfect storm of sale and coupons.  With fresh foods there is no such luck.

One of the things that I learned by grocery shopping at 8am (or earlier, isn't that sad?) is that each morning the produce department goes through the shelves and stacks of fruits and vegetables to weed out the undesirables.  And then those items are repackaged and priced to sell at a raging discount.  The usual fault with the produce being how it looks or its degree of bruising.  Now you have to seek out the reduced produce shelves.  In my grocery store they are back by the "staff only" doors in the seafood section.  Not sure what they are trying to say by placing the shelves there.  You can decide.  However, with making my own baby food each week it has been like gold.  If you bought cans you would be looking at 60 cents a meal for a total of $12.60 a week.

I purchased 16 POUNDS of fruits and vegetables for $6.  Yes, you read that right.  Ok, I had to toss out two apples because they were bruised beyond what I had hoped and I was cooking for guests that week.  But that was really my only casualty.  The most expensive item was a sugar pumpkin for 79 cents a pound.  I cooked up all the baby food that afternoon and baked bread so even the zucchinis, which had a little white mold on the ends, didn't have the chance to get any worse.  

With a little extra research, which entailed talking to a very nice man in the produce department, I found out that the fresh produce comes mainly on Monday and is put out that morning.  So for the veggies I needed to last a week I bought fresh.  But who can beat 39 cents a pound for ANY fresh food??

So my cooking friends and fellow mothers, seek out your 'sale' produce and glory in your conquests!
-Melissa

Week 3: Cincinnati Chili

Spicy and sweet Cincinnati-style chili.

For some reason today I was reminded of the Powell's Superbowl Parties.  Anyone else remember those? So that lead me to thinking of chili and on this crazy weather day - even by New England standards - I decided to make some.  It also reminded me of all the little bowls of goodies around the house and made me wish I bought more Halloween candy on clearance but alas and oh well.

I add my beans straight into the chili. 
You can keep it as a topping if you want.

Using the basic outline from "The Busy Mom's Slowcooker Cookbook" and changing enough to officially not be plagiarising it by putting it on here, I made some pretty lovely stuff.  Behind the initial spice and fire of the chili powder is the beautifully intriguing cinnamon and allspice.  I eat it five-way and Zach prefers a three-way. Isn't it amazing that those phrases are perfectly acceptable in this instance?  I guess that's what happens when your chili is invented next to a burlesque theatre. 

Now retired kettle.

Unfortunately, today simply isn't my day.  I had all my ingredients set out and ready to go so I decided to grab the camera and see if I can catch a good shot of the chili.  Then, since the babe was napping, I also decided to throw yet another pot on the stove to make baby food.  If I wasn't already busy enough, I reached for the tea pot ... and down it went.  Falling on the edge of my apparently indestructible crockpot it cracked straight through the side and little pieces of green teapot scattered on my floor.  And then the baby woke up.  Domestic diva I am not.

But the chili was great.  If you like Cincinnati Chili you probably have your own recipe but I do enjoy this one!  So make a pot and share it with friends.  Think of football and enjoy a night in.

Happy Cooking,

Melissa

For the recipe check under the "Beef" tab!

Week 2: Can you plagiarise a recipe?

Dear Foodies;

My sweet husband brought up a good point.  When does a recipe share become a place of plagiarism?  In my opinion that one is tough.  When teaching, if students strung together 3 or more words from an article they had to use proper citation.  But in a recipe, what euphemisms are there for "cup" or "teaspoon"? How do you rewrite 3 cups of sugar?  Perhaps 9/3rds of a cup of sweetener?

So on to the web I went and searched out the meaning of life.  According to an article published in the Washington Post, and I quote, "The ethics guidelines of the International Association of Culinary Professionals focus on giving proper attribution to recipes that are published or taught. The association advises using the words "adapted from," "based on" or "inspired by," depending on how much a recipe has been revised." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/03/AR2006010300316.html)  So most cooks assume that if you change 2 or 3 ingredients the recipe is no longer someone else's but your own.  In one of my frequently used cookbooks it says that the commercial reproduction of recipes is prohibited.  Fair enough.  And as we are not making a dime here, sharing should be considered "noncommercial". 

So what's a fledgling cook to do?  Hence forward I will be citing the cookbooks that I use for recipes that are not changed in more than 2 ingredients.  In the aforementioned article one cook repeated an age-old adage: copying is the highest form of flattery.  Should any cook come to find their recipe on this blog, I would hope they take it as a compliment and comment on any changes we've made!

Until Next Time ...

The Reason for the . . . Season?

Hey All -

Over the last couple weeks I've noticed more and more of us are sharing recipes via facebook.  And while email and facebook are wonderful means of culinary collaboration, I find myself desiring after a central location for all these recipes.  Plus, I have a few I would like to share and now I can!

Fall seems to be the season in which I am most inspired to cook.  Leaves are changing colors, the air is getting crisp, soup enters my dreams at night, and apples are only 59 cents a pound.  What I would like to have happen here and now is that all those recipes we would brag about on facebook we post here to share with a broader community.  As I am a little unfamiliar with this blog set up I am going to ask for some patience as I get things going - I would do a webs page, but I don't want ads running across the top nor do I want to pay.  Frugality is the name of the game.

In addition to posting the recipe, any comments you have on how you made it or modified it would be wonderful.  I'll be honest, I am also getting into the habit of trying to cook on a budget and so comments on the effective use of leftovers would be greatly appreciated! Food is a glorious experiment in my opinion so let's all share in the learning and eating together.

Here's to many wonderful meals and successful exciting kitchen experiments!
Melissa (aka Mimi)