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Ah, with the advent of fall my mouth starts to water in anticipation. I love the berries and fresh fruits and vegetables summertime farmer's market, but I get really excited about fall cooking. It's all about cinnamon and comfort food and pumpkin everything. I'm finishing up my last week working a newspaper route (read: sleeplessness) and I'm hoping to blog at least once a week after that. I figure 3 meals a day x 7 days a week, and all I have to do is blog about one of those. Doable.
I already bought pumpkin spice egg nog. Delish. Then we got the pumpkin cinnamon swirl bread from Great Harvest Bread Company. Love it. Hope Jesse gets a slice before I eat it all. Boaz (my one year old son) even liked it. I'm not embarrassed to say, I dropped some on the floor, but I picked it up, blew it off, and ate it anyway. Still alive.
I love fall cooking because it gets cold, and I like to save money. I figure, if it's a little chilly, I can turn up the thermostat, OR I can cook something. Double duty heating.
Well, the Potter house is now on a budget. I mean, now I'm adhering to the one we have. Jesse was good about it. And I would go to the Good Food Store and come back with all the things I didn't know existed but now needed. And that, my friends, is why I'm waiting 'til next month to go buy the cardamon I've been wanting. I'm trying to stretch that dollar for our food budget (or even go a little underbudget, if possible) whilst still having fun cooking and enjoying what I'm eating. Here are a few things I'm doing to help that along:
1. Put my grocery money in an envelope-when it's gone, I'm done shopping for the month. So far: major fail. But it's the first month, so it's ok.
2. Shop the sales. I'm checking the ads. About every two weeks, Rosauers has some crazy good sale for one day only. You can combine manufacturer coupons with store coupons with sales to improve savings. Albertson's has a coupon roundup this week. So your 25 cent coupons are actually worth something now!
3. Eat seasonally. If I don't finish the produce I have, I freeze it. In Montana, people literally try to get rid of excess zucchini. So I'm chopping, grating, and freezing for this winter.
4. BE HAPPY WITH WHAT I HAVE! This means realizing that God has provided for us and I need to just steward it well and not covet what I don't have. I'm getting a little more creative and using stuff that's been shoved to the back of the pantry. And you know what? Jesse has loved eating mac n' cheese with cut up hotdogs. This should be my number one on this list, but at least this way, it will be the last thought I leave you with. Ps. 23 v. 1 in Spanish literally says, "The Lord is my shepherd, and nothing is lacking from me. =)
Friday, September 23, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Why Regional Foods are Delicious!
What is it that makes Italian food really delicious? Or what is it about Chinese that we love? I've been pondering this question a lot lately, and I think it comes down to a few things.
1. The abundance of local foods- Italy, surrounded by water on three sides, has an abundance of seafood. Grains also grow well there, grapes, tomatoes, etc. Cattle and sheep do well too. So you see a lot of cheese, a lot of tomato based sauces, wines and vinegars, pasta, polenta etc. etc. People are gonna work with what they've got.
2. Religious beliefs and cultural taboos- Many Indians don't eat cow or pork for religious beliefs due to the predominance of Hinduism and Islam. Jews, likewise, might keep kosher in their diet. Even if something is growing everywhere, people won't eat it if it is taboo.
3. Skills of the cooks- If there is one thing I have learned watching Chopped on the Food Network, it is that truly good food doesn't depend on the quality of the ingredients, but on the skills of the chef. One chef won with her fish head pasta dish. She boiled the heads down to make a broth. She painstakingly removed the delicious morsels of meat. She took her time and made the most out of the ingredient. A Tuscan woman once said to Chef Anne Burrel, "In Tuscany, we don't have much money, but we do have time." That is how you finesse the flavors out of raw, mundane ingredients.
1. The abundance of local foods- Italy, surrounded by water on three sides, has an abundance of seafood. Grains also grow well there, grapes, tomatoes, etc. Cattle and sheep do well too. So you see a lot of cheese, a lot of tomato based sauces, wines and vinegars, pasta, polenta etc. etc. People are gonna work with what they've got.
2. Religious beliefs and cultural taboos- Many Indians don't eat cow or pork for religious beliefs due to the predominance of Hinduism and Islam. Jews, likewise, might keep kosher in their diet. Even if something is growing everywhere, people won't eat it if it is taboo.
3. Skills of the cooks- If there is one thing I have learned watching Chopped on the Food Network, it is that truly good food doesn't depend on the quality of the ingredients, but on the skills of the chef. One chef won with her fish head pasta dish. She boiled the heads down to make a broth. She painstakingly removed the delicious morsels of meat. She took her time and made the most out of the ingredient. A Tuscan woman once said to Chef Anne Burrel, "In Tuscany, we don't have much money, but we do have time." That is how you finesse the flavors out of raw, mundane ingredients.
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