Oxtail Soup

Contrary to what I'd heard, oxtails are not cheap! $5.99 a pound at the butcher! The recipe I wanted to make called for 4 pounds! So I bought one pound and decided to make the soup anyway. I made the full recipe with the exception of the one pound of oxtails and it made a nice thin but tasty soup that would be lovely with a loaf of crusty french bread and some butter.

The original recipe is from The Slow Cooker Ready & Waiting Cookbook by Rick Rodgers. I left out some of the ingredients in order to stick within the budget.

Jamaican Oxtail Soup Sans Argent

1 pound oxtails
fresh ground black pepper
2 medium potatoes, scrubbed, unpeeled, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch thick rounds
1 fresh hot green chile pepper (such as jalapeno), seeded and minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
5 cups water
1 bay leaf

1. Broil oxtails, turning once, until browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer the oxtails to a plate and season with fresh pepper.

2. In a 5-quart slow cooker, layer the potatoes, onion, carrots, chile pepper, and garlic, in that order. Sprinkle with oregano, allspice and 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns. Arrange the oxtails on top of the vegetables. Pour in the water and add the bay leaf.

3. Cover and slow-cook until the oxtails are very tender, 9 to 11 hours on low or 4 to 5 hours on high. The meat will be falling off the bone and the broth is fatty but very tasty and filling.

Grocery Report

For this week I bought:

Produce Stand:
5 limes
1 head of garlic
1 bag of carrots
2 zucchini

Sahidis:
2 lbs of raw dried chickpeas
1 litre of Spanish olive oil

Damascus Bakery:
1 package of 6 small sesame pita loaves

Trader Joes:
1 quart of milk
1 dozen eggs

Met Foods (my local):
2 24 oz jars of Classico spaghetti sauce

Fort Greene Farmer's Market:
7 apples

About that Classico spaghetti sauce. I was so tired and frustrated on Friday night, and as I wondering what I could make for dinner all I could think of was penne rigate with Classico spaghetti sauce, one of my former favorite quick comfort foods. I do have a can of tomatoes, and I thought I should make an arrabiata sauce that's relatively quick and easy. When I got home I realized that my cats needed new litter STAT, so I went off to Met. Wouldn't you know they were having a sale on Classico 2/$5? It put me $5 over budget but I was an easy mark.

This should last me a couple of months, but I've been so busy lately I may use up in the next couple of weeks.

At least it will ease me back into cooking more.

Anyway it was probably a good thing I didn't attempt to cook anything real because I absent mindedly put the penne in the cold water to boil...

Kitchen

In my little cooking article I mentioned that I used to feel lonely and bored in my kitchen, but this afternoon as I was looking around, thinking it was looking a bit disheveled, I realized that I'm now feeling very relaxed in there, perhaps because of the memories from the past year of the cooking and creating that's gone on there.

Last month saw a lot of waste. Having learned the fallacy of sunk costs I cleaned out the refrigerator and threw away some food that was well past its prime, even though I've otherwise been making myself eat a lot of things I would have thrown out in earlier times. La Bonne Cuisine does not make people sick.

And now that fall is coming I can turn my thoughts to things other than flavored ice and water!

Back Again

August was crazy and I hope that things get back to normal a little bit for me.

I went shopping today and here's what I got:

Produce Stand:
5 limes
8 nectarines
a bag of carrots
2 zucchini
1 cucumber
1 head of lettuce

Sahadis:
1lb of Italian Roast Coffee, ground
1 lb of brown rice

Damascus Bakery:
1 pkg of 6 sesame pita loaves

Trader Joes:
16 oz container of Greek style yogurt
2 1lb packages of Trader Joes penne rigate

The craziness of August produced a lot of waste. It might take the month of September to get back to normal!

My favorite discovery in August had to do, perhaps not surprisingly, with cucumbers and mint. At an afternoon tea for my mother's 75th birthday in Tucson, Arizona, there were pitchers of water with cucumber slices and sprigs of mint. It was so refreshing, especially since I'd spent the morning walking around in 108 degree weather, admittedly in the shade and water mists of La Encantada outdoor mall, but still in need of something cool, simple and not loaded with caffeine and corn syrup.

It takes a long time to get from NYC to Tucson. There are no direct flights in the summer. And the airlines charge for food now, and it's as expensive and bad as in the airports. However, in DFW airport I discovered Dickey's Barbecue. A barbecue meat sandwich with a side of cole slaw set me back $7, but at that point I hadn't eaten all day and I was starving, and it was fantastic. Really good cole slaw, too, not overdressed! All other air travel food should hide their heads in shame. I want all my connecting flights to be in DFW from now on.

Grocery Day

It was not as bad as I thought:

Sahadis:
1 litre of olive oil
1 lb of brown rice

Produce Stand:
7 limes
1 bag of carrots
1 pint of blueberries
4 peaches
1 head of curly lettuce (frisee?)

I had enough leftover for 2 cucumbers and a green pepper at the Farmer's Market.

Grocery Day

So much going on in the last week and I didn't get a chance to post last week's groceries, and it was a challenging week because I went a little over budget. I needed coffee and it threw me off my game. I have to say though that nothing can beat Sahadi's Italian Roast for $4.75/lb, I think it has to be the biggest bargain in NYC, especially considering that I used to spring for Illy at $12 for 10oz.

This week will be even more challenging, because I need to buy olive oil. They were having a tasting at Sahadi's last week, so I know what I'll be getting - I love a spicy super-tasty olive oil, but it's going to put a serious strain on my budget and creativity.

Check it

Check out my post on Recessionwire.com about learning to cook

101 Simple Salads

NYT: The Minimalist - Recipes for 101 Simple Salads for the Season

Don't just bookmark this one, copy and paste it and save it to your hard drive!

Grocery Day

Last Thursday's grocery day anyway. Here's what I bought this week:

Produce Stand:
7 limes
1 large head of loose leaf lettuce
1 bag of carrots

Sahadi's:
1.3 lb dried chickpeas
.3 lb moroccan olives

Damascus Bakery:
1 package of small sesame pita loaves

Trader Joe's
16 oz Greek-style yogurt

Grand Army Plaza Farmer's Market:
2 cucumbers
1 green pepper

100 fast easy recipes

Guardian: The 100 easiest, fastest recipes. Ever

From a variety of chefs and food writers, with an English summer slant. Numbers 63 - 100 are from Mark Bittman, who wrote 100 fast, easy recipes for the NYT a few years ago.

None of these seem exactly cheap, but I want to look at it again and see what I can use.

Tomato Crop in Peril

NYTimes.com: Late Blight Fungus Threatens Tomato Crop in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic

My patio tomato gave me three tomatoes, two ripe and one green, and has totally succumbed to blight. I bought a new one at the farmer's market this morning for $4. I had better throw out the old plant before it affects the new one.

The blight affecting tomatoes is the same blight that affected the potatoes in mid-19th century Ireland and caused the Irish famine which caused me to be born in Illinois. Oh dear I can live without tomatoes for a year but my Irish genes can't live without potatoes!

Price of milk

As I was poking around the Ballymaloe Cookery School website I noticed a posting that said the price of milk has collapsed around the world. Is this true? I checked the University of Wisconsin dairy statistics and it appears to be true for the US:

2007
2008
2009

Lettuce, cucumber and mint soup

The other day I was looking through a stack of old Gourmet magazines, and I found an intriguing recipe for Lettuce, Cucumber and Mint soup in the August 1990 issue, from a feature on the Ballymaloe Cookery School and their beautiful herb garden.

Following on from the delicate taste of my menthe a l'eau I thought this would be a perfect dish for the sweet summer weather we've been experiencing here in New York. And it tasted amazing; the flavors are delicate, unexpected and soothing.

The original recipe served 8, but I cut it down to 1 large serving; also, since I did not find the recipe either on the Ballymaloe Cookery School website or on Epicurious, I'm reproducing it here in its entirety, with my proportions for one serving.

Ballymaloe Cookery School Lettuce, Cucumber and Mint Soup
from Gourmet August 1990

1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup diced potato
1/4 cup diced cucumber
1 1/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup lettuce
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1 tablespoon cream or milk

In a heavy saucepan heat the butter over moderate heat until it begins to foam, add the onion, potatoes and salt and pepper to taste, and stir until the onion and potatoes are well coated with butter. Cook with the lid on over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft. Stir in the cucumber and the broth and simmer the mixture covered until the potatoes are tender, about ten minutes. Stir in the lettuce and simmer the mixture uncovered for 5 minutes. Stir in 1/2 half the mint and the tablespoon of cream or milk and blend. Serve garnished with mint.

Menthe à l'eau

Menthe à l'eau is a drink mostly for French children, the thought of which can send people of a certain age into reveries. I discovered it the summer I was a high school exchange student in a small town in France. At the café or before lunch you might have un menthe à l'eau while the grownups had their apperitifs (although sometimes we did get to have the apperitif), or in the afternoon after bicycling around in the hot sun you could make it at home with store-bought syrup - maybe serving the role that lemonade served for American kids before Big Gulps ruled. But oh how sophisticated I felt ordering un menthe à l'eau at the café in the nearest big town!

All the pictures of menthe à l'eau that I could find are bright flourescent green, which was the color of the store-bought syrup; however I was given to understand by my "family" that the final drink was meant to be a very lightly tinged green, or else it was a sign you had put in too much syrup.

I have a mint plant growing as part of my "kitchen garden" outside my front windows, and I was thinking of what uses I might make of it for summer refreshment, and of course menthe à l'eau was on my mind. I found this recipe at Epicurious for mint simple syrup. I made a half batch using 3/4 cup of mint leaves (packed), 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water, enough for two or three large pitchers. The syrup makes an icy mint flavored water that is delicate and not overpowering, which as a grownup I appreciate more. Not to mention that it's practically gratuit.

Grocery Day

My groceries for this week:

Produce Stand:
5 limes
2 heads of leafy lettuce
1 bag of carrots
1 cucumber
2 pints of blueberries

Sahadi's:
.25 lb of French Feta
320 grams of tahini

Trader Joe's:
1 lb of frozen shrimp
1 6oz can of tuna
2 cans of chickpeas

Target had a sale on some small appliances and I bought a mini-chopper (1 1/2 cups) for $7! I have wanted a mini-chopper since my last one died; I loved it so. This one is actually a bit larger, although maybe not large enough for hummous. Perfect for pesto!

Kitchen Illiteracy

Grist: Not much convenience in “convenience foods” via Bitten.

One of the first things I learned when I got back to cooking at home was that you can cook a meal in the time it takes to wait for it at a takeout place, for less cost. This post talks about a UCLA study which found that families who used (so-called) convenience foods didn't save all that much time, and blames kitchen illiteracy for the misconception.

Urban Farming

NYT Will Allen: Street Farmer - NYTimes.com

Fascinating article in the NYT Sunday Magazine section about Will Allen, a Milwaukee-based pioneer of urban farming.

If there’s no place in the food movement for low- and middle-income people of all races, says Tom Philpott, food editor of Grist.org and co-founder of the North Carolina-based Maverick Farms, “we’ve got big problems, because the critics will be proven right — that this is a consumption club for people who’ve traveled to Europe and tasted fine food.”

The Brooklyn counterpart to Will Allen's Growing Power is Added Value, which operates its own farmer's market in Red Hook.

Grocery Day

Holidays, visiting relatives and sudden rainstorms can't stop me from my weekly grocery shopping. I thought I would post my grocery purchases to show you what I have to work with.

From Sahadi's:
1 lb of cocoa
.3 lb of French feta

Damascus Bakery:
1 package of 5 small sesame pita loaves

Produce stand:
7 limes
2 heads of red leaf lettuce
1 bag of carrots
1 bag of 4 red onions
2 pints of blueberries

Trader Joes:
12 oz Trader Joes Greek-style yogurt

Cocoa granita is now a staple. I have plenty of beans, eggs and chicken to get me through next week, and I expect to get plenty of free food over the holiday weekend.

Hummous

This weekend I made hummous for the first time, following a recipe from The Greens Cookbook and a helpful thread from Chowhound: Home made hummous just not as good as restaurants.

The takeaway from the Chowhound thread was: to get the desired consistency, do not be afraid to blend everything together for a long time (my handheld blender was fine) and add as much water from the chickpeas as it takes.

My hummous was definitely as good as any I've had. It was so exciting I kept tasting it to make sure it really was that good and by the next day it was gone. Next time I'll make a double batch and hopefully the novelty will have worn off...

...and for when the novelty does wear off, Casual Kitchen has a hummous blogroll of 16 different hummous recipes (many of which may upset the purists at Chowhound).

30 Bucks a Week

I was intrigued to discover the blog 30 Bucks a Week, fellow Brooklynites who spend less than 30 bucks a week on food - that's $15 each. I spend $20 a week, and people are usually horrified when they find out, so part of why I started this blog was to document my cooking, even though I didn't want to talk about the exact amount I spend.

Twenty dollars was the minimum I felt comfortable spending, and I will admit it has not been easy. Like 30 Bucks a Week, my $20 doesn't include liquor, eating out or entertaining. But I am a grown single female who doesn't need to eat a lot or stick to a certain diet to stay healthy. All bets are off if you have a teenage boy in the house! Every situation is different, but everyone benefits from being mindful of ways to eat well while saving money.

Also, 30 Bucks a Week belong to the famous Park Slope Co-op, which I've inwardly debated joining for years. Mostly I notice it allows them to buy very small amounts of food that stores only sell as pre-packaged sizes. This may be the deciding factor to get me to join the Co-op, because I've long known that my friends who are members get pretty good prices on high-quality fruits and vegetables. Other frugal bloggers talk about farmer's markets, but the ones in NYC are pretty expensive; coupons are usually for things I don't want in the first place, and the grocery store scene in the big city is not good. I make a weekly trek to Atlantic and Court Street to shop at Trader Joe's, Sahadis, and a couple of good fruit and vegetable stands nearby, which is about a thirty minute walk each way. Taking the bus or subway there and back would add $4 (soon to be $4.50) and isn't worth it.

In addition to finding cheaper places to buy your food, one of the biggest things anyone can do to save money is to learn how to waste less in the kitchen. It's no joke to throw out food that was perfectly good when you bought it, but you forgot about it for six months while it rotted in the back of your refrigerator.

I don't want to feel deprived (eh, who does), but I don't mind being disciplined, mindful, and spending more time in the kitchen. To think that 3 years ago I could go for days without setting foot in my kitchen! Seriously!