How To Make Do with What You Have on Hand

You may think that you need to spend money. I say that if you have food on your table, basic kitchen equipment, a roof over your head with the electricity/gas bill paid, a stock of emergency supplies, and a week’s change of clothing, you have the vital supplies. Electronic goods and an Internet connection are something you should reduce the cost of to the bare essentials—yes, a flip phone will work for you.

Be inventive with what you do have!

• ·         Famously, you can do a great deal with duct tape and ordinary corrugated cardboard.

• ·         You certainly don’t need a computer database if you have index cards and a file box.

• ·        If you have a sewing machine and fabric, with the fundamental tools, you do not need to buy much clothing or many dry goods. HomeSew.com is a worthy source of fabric, etc. when it notifies you by opt-in email that it has placed stock on clearance (everyday, fabrics are listed in the Fabrics/Special Buys drop-down menu.)

• Keep a sorted set of metal fasteners along with some basic tools (including needle-nosed pliers and a tiny screwdriver for eyeglasses and such, as well as your hammer and a set of Allen/hex key wrenches.) You’ll also need a guide like Reader’s Digest, New Fix-It-Yourself Manual. which you can order from Better World Books.com for a song—and you won’t need to replace most items that are not as electronically complex as a late-model automobile!

·         Think before you purge!

o   If you happen to be a houseplants person, and you have broken a dish, wouldn’t the pieces make fine drainage pebbles?

o   If you happen to get a newspaper or magazine and you have a kitty, he’ll be ever so much happier with that (torn in strips) as litter than with scratchy old commercial clay.

 

o   Hold onto your most expensive items, whether gifted to you or bought out-of-pocket, if you have the room for them. One or more may solve a dilemma for you in the future! It’s cheap materials that are “tossable.”

§  For example, aluminum foil is dear already, and with the current tariff war, will only go up in price. If it’s a clean piece, save it in a dedicated bag.

© Copyright Deborahmichelle Sanders 2018. All rights reserved.

Produce Storage Hints for Long Life

When you bring produce home, especially from the Food Bank where, at least in San Francisco, it is generally dripping wet, you need to dry it carefully before refrigerating it. Lettuce and other greens, including celery, will last longer if you wrap them in absorbent cloth or paper towelling before placing them in bags. Cloth bags–made of dense cheesecloth–are the type of containers that maximise produce life.

Don’t refrigerate potatoes. Store them in a cupboard in a cloth bag. Using separate bags for Russets and for boiling potatoes (red, white, Yukon Gold) is helpful to make inspection easier. (You do, I’m sure, remember to inspect your potatoes about once a week since a rotten one, etc.)

Parsley and other herbs, scallions, and celery will all stay fresh for a long time if stored in water. The herbs and scallions can be placed in glasses or jars filled with water nearly to the brim. Change the water in all of these weekly.

(C) Copyright Deborahmichelle Sanders 2018. All rights reserved.

High-Priced Foods--and Some Alternative Groceries

• Vanilla extract—The orchids are being marauded, and the price will be going sky-high soon, once grocers dare to end their price war. While the getting is still good, invest in a four-ounce bottle. At the same time, get a large bottle of imitation vanilla extract, “vanillin.” I am already using one-half vanillin and one-half vanilla extract in all my recipes, to conserve.
  • Rosewater is what our great-grandmothers used in place of pricey vanilla. I’ll be experimenting with rosewater, and will let you know the equivalents. You can get rosewater at a Halal/Islamic (or a Middle-Eastern) grocery store.
• Pine nuts, also called pignoli
• Wild rice (you can get the same texture from buckwheat groats, called “kasha” by Jews. Kasha is too pricey in the supermarkets, but Amazon sells it for $3.50 for a whole pound. The info is “Roasted Buckwheat Kasha, groats, kosher two-lbs (package of four), Good Food of Tel Aviv, $27.95. The problem is that you need jars for storage, and you need to really like kasha!)
• Saffron (at least here, there’s the fine substitute of turmeric, a great ingredient for brain health, anyhow)
• Balsamic vinegar (just use red wine vinegar)
• Any kind of fresh mushrooms in quantities greater than one-quarter pound
• Quinoa
• Cold cereal, except packaged in large bags
• Packaged salad mixes other than romaine hearts; baby carrots; salad-bar cut veggies.

Also, stay out of restaurants. If you really have your heart (or your stomach) set on something that you feel you can’t possibly duplicate at home, set out a lidded jar in your kitchen, label it with the food that you want, and put quarters or dollar bills in it until you’ve saved up the cash to cover the expedition. Then: enjoy the splurge that you’ve earned by dedication.

(C) Copyright Deborahmichelle Sanders 2018. All rights reserved.

Groceries to Get if You Have an Empty Pantry

This shopping list will provide nutritious meals for a month if you cook carefully. I’m assuming that you have access to a good basic cookbook that gives recipes for “scratch baking.” This list is relevant as a checklist even if you have some groceries on hand already. Compare prices; the store may have some brand names cheaper than their generic/store-brand equivalents.

• Cabbage, green, one large head. Later in the month, go back to the store and get a second head.
• Potatoes, Russet/Idaho, ten pounds
• Carrots, a five-pound bag
• In an extra shopping trip between buying the two heads of cabbage, get some in-season zucchini or in-season sugar-pie pumpkin–as much as you think you can use. These veggies are versatile (you can even roast the pumpkin seeds) and dirt-cheap.
• Frozen chopped broccoli, 32-ounces
• Vegetable seasonings: five pounds of yellow onions; one large bulb of garlic; and, if you like Asian food, a small knob of ginger
• Legumes: lentils, pinto beans, or whatever two kinds of dried beans are your favorite. Note that Boston baked beans are made with navy/pea beans, and that chickpeas/garbanzos/ceci take the most time/energy to cook.
• Cheapest-per-pound fruit, probably Fuji apples in a bag, three pounds–you will be using these solely for baking a crisp or cobbler or pie. (Note that unless you choose to buy shortening [that is, unless you have the funds for it], your pie crust will not be flaky.) If any are left over, you can prepare dumplings or bake them. Cooked apples, at least in my experience, have ever so much more taste than the fruit does in its raw form.
• Oranges, cheapest kind, one dozen for use in cooking (you will be using their juice, zest/grated peel, and sometimes their pulp), not eating out of hand (except leftover pulp, as a fruit salad). I use oranges often as a make-do when I cannot afford lemons. Of course, accompanying seasoning has to be adjusted.
• Yeast–you need two three-envelope strips, or, cheaper in the run of the next month or two, the jar
• Baking powder
• Baking soda–since you can use this for cleaning purposes as well as culinary, you can get a large box if its price works out for you
• All-purpose flour (you don’t need unbleached), ten pounds; Rolled oats, two pounds or more (you will make cereal like granola and dessert crisps from the oats, not to mention the only energy bars that you will be able to afford)
• Sugar, five pounds
• Cocoa, the smallest size OR one bag of chocolate chips OR one bar of unsweetened baking chocolate–you will be able to make one chocolate dessert
• Non-fat dried milk, a box that makes eight quarts of milk–and that does not contain individual envelopes if possible
• Spaghetti, two pounds
• Vegetable (soy–but it’s not labelled generally) oil, one quart approximately
• Margarine, two pounds. Be sure to get stick margarine, as you cannot bake with margarine spread (it is a mixture of water and margarine)
• Canned tomatoes, whole–you can cut them up in the can with kitchen scissors. If you don’t have the scissors, it’s more cost-effective to buy the ready-cut. It will probably be cheaper to buy three cans of 29-ounces each, but you may find that six cans of 15-ounces are less expensive.
• Tomato paste (the cans are always six-ounces)–six cans
• Small bottle of cider vinegar; distilled white vinegar in whatever size is cheapest (often the jug–a full gallon–is!)
• Eggs–in a supermarket, the eighteen-eggs packages are cheaper per egg than the dozens. If you can find a package of 60 eggs, grab it. Otherwise get three eighteen-eggs packages (that’s 54 eggs) or get the more expensive five packages of one dozen eggs each. Recipes generally assume that your eggs are the “large” size.
• Other “center-of-the-meal” protein sources. Tofu (not the shelf-stable kind, which is hard to cook with) is often the cheapest, but it has the shortest life, even in the refrigerator. So I don’t recommend getting more than one package. Textured vegetable protein is very cheap in bulk; it is very expensive when branded. So assuming that you are looking at fish and meat/poultry, I suggest that you get four 5.5-ounce cans of chunk light tuna in water, two whole chickens (preferably five-pounders), and one pound of ground turkey, chicken, beef, pork if you’re neither Jewish nor Muslim (observant)–whichever is cheapest. This suggestion is for feeding one person with abundant leftovers frozen, or two people with less in the way of leftovers. The tofu will make one skillet meal. The textured vegetable protein will make any dish that can be made with ground meat. The tuna’s use is up to you–you might want to splurge and make tuna salad out of mayonnaise you whisk using your eggs, although it won’t taste “perfect” with a vegetable oil base. (I suggest mixing the tuna with fresh breadcrumbs in casseroles.) The chickens will provide “planned leftovers” of meat for casseroles and broth for many purposes. The ground meat is to flavor marinara sauce.
• Herbs, spices, and extract: SALT, whatever you do, don’t forget it; pepper (if you can find a grater filled with peppercorns, the taste of the freshly-ground triumphs over the ready-ground); turmeric; basil; oregano; ground ginger (for baked goods); thyme (don’t waste it by forgetting this: measure it into your non-dominant palm and use the fingers of your dominant hand to crush it. It doesn’t break down in cooking); vanillin/imitation vanilla extract.
• Fresh herb: parsley (store it in a water-filled glass in the fridge, and change the water every few days–it will last weeks.) In-season, you might desire to get cilantro as well.

The following are nice if you have the funds:

• Four bananas for special treats eating out-of-hand
• A bunch of celery
• Herbs and spices: Bay leaves; dry mustard (you can mix an Asian wet mustard; there are many recipes, using your canned tomato products, for ketchup); curry powder (Madras is the mild type); and, tarragon.
• Cornmeal; rice
• Elbow macaroni
• Pasteurised cheese product (like the Velveeta brand); cottage cheese (store it upside-down in the refrigerator for long life)
• Shortening
• Raisins–be sure to get a one-pound box, not the high-priced snack packages
• Peanut butter and/or peanuts (cheapest in the shell)
• A lemon if you can get a large one for 60 cents or less–use it judiciously as even that is a crazy high price
• One can of frozen apple juice concentrate to defrost, pour into a spare ice cube tray, and re-freeze. Pop the cubes out into a freezer-storage bag, and prepare the called-for amount of apple juice in the many recipes that require it.

Tell me in the Comments section where you think I could have done better in giving this advice….

(C) Copyright Deborahmichelle Sanders 2018. All rights reserved.

Tea Drinkers, Alert! An Amazon Bargain

Whether you want herbal, green, or black tea, Bigelow teabags in the variety pack online at Amazon are cheap. Indeed, the herbal, which people who want to stay calm may well desire to drink, includes 118 teabags for just $15.69 (“Bigelow Herbal Tea Variety Pack,” which is six boxes). These are foil-wrapped bags that stay fresh for a long time. The flavors include chamomile, chamomile-with-mint (“Sweet Dreams”), and lemon-ginger, all soothing, plus three assorted fruit odors and tastes.

(C) Copyright Deborahmichelle Sanders 2018. All rights reserved.

The "Hankering" Way to Target a Low-Cost Menu

Instead of going grocery-shopping when you pass a store, pass up the store until you figure out what you really want–and how to get it on your budget. Here’s a personal example from today. I’d been having a vegetable lasagna and turkey at alternate dinners and supper. (More on that turkey in another post.) I was thinking of taking out a can of peaches from my emergency storage, but realized that fruit wasn’t “It.” I’ve been drinking canned pineapple juice at many breakfasts ($2.99 for five servings), enjoying a couple of tangerines or an apple left over from my pre-holidays Food Bank delivery (December 20, 2017–has to last until the next delivery after vacation, on January 10, 2018), and having occasional snacks of Bonne Maman jam (just a teaspoon or two–Bonne Maman is reasonably-priced and does not include high-fructose corn syrup, which I avoid ingesting. It satisfies a craving for sweets.)–I didn’t really want fruit…. But that line of thought clued me in that I wanted produce. I started to plan putting corn into the cornbread that I’d be baking once my current zucchini/pineapple/coconut quick bread is gone, but something out of a can or the freezer didn’t hack it. I wanted fresh, and I wanted greens. 

After all, today (when I wrote this post--and today is the Vernal Equinox, hurrah!) is only a week past the Winter Solstice, and fresh greens are hard to find at a reasonable price. I went to the produce mart, and was delighted to find that sunny California (well, except for our tragic wild fires) has produced romaine lettuce at a decent price ($2.99 for three hearts of romaine–the bunched romaine worked out to a similar price, oddly enough) to provide at least six large salads. In a less sunny corner of the world, you might need to purchase winter greens like turnip, mustard, or collards, but you get the idea of how to narrow down your choices. Find your “hankering” first. Hand over that cold cash second.

(C) Copyright Deborahmichelle Sanders 2018. All rights reserved.

Bare Essentials and Add-on Desires to Establish Your Kitchen Equipment

What do you really need in order to set up a kitchen if you are really starting from nothing? I give you first the bare essentials, and thereafter, a long list of add-on desires. Indeed, my own kitchen includes many items not on this list at all, but I’ve been cooking for fifty years, and the yen increases over time in exploring new cuisines! (Most of what I have is for baking.)

Go to a thrift store (there is no reason to pay more for new items). You want the local one that offers the largest selection—a Salvation Army or Goodwill store are examples. There, in several trips, you can obtain whatever you don’t already have (from a previous household or from family) of the following absolute needs:

• pots (eight-quart, three-quart, and one-and-one-half quart, all with lids) Make sure they do not have plastic parts, so that you can place them in the oven (at no higher a temperature than 350 degrees Fahrenheit for safety. The covers will save you much aluminum foil.) Please don’t buy scratched non-stick pans, for the sake of your health. Your thrift store will offer you all-metal alternatives. And bear in mind that you ought not cook acidic foods like tomato sauce in an aluminum pot. Steel-coated/clad aluminum is good for all purposes.
• a skillet, uncovered (any size)
• a large strainer, with a handle. You can use this for everything from:
  • Cold-brewing coffee (straining out the grounds);
  • Draining canned produce; and,
  • Sifting flour or other baking ingredients. Not only that, but
  • By placing it over your largest bowl for safety, you can sub it out for a colander for draining pasta and such.
• A set of mixing bowls. To bake two loaves of bread, a thirteen-quart bowl is necessary. If you use eggs, glass bowls are much better than metal.
• a slotted cooking spoon and a regular cooking spoon—wood ones are good.
• a “spoon” spatula (concave) and a jar-scraping small and thin spatula
• a can opener and a bottle opener
• a long knife. A serrated one is best for cutting bread and tomatoes, but you can make do with it as your only knife. Its advantage is that you can do not need to sharpen a serrated knife. Later, when you can, you can purchase standard knives (carving and boning, if you eat meat) and necessary sharpening implements.
• Kitchen shears (you’ll use these frequently—to cut a whole bird into pieces if you eat poultry, to mince fresh herbs or green onions, to open plastic wrappings)
• a cooking fork, sometimes called a carving fork. (You will need this even if you are vegan!)
• one or two nine-by-thirteen roasting/cake pans.

You may be fortunate enough to find a package of regular sponges, a package of scrubbing sponges, and a scrub brush at the thrift store and a container of dishwashing liquid there, but it is more likely that you will have to buy these essentials new.

You can manage with the above for quite a good while, filling in with whatever flatware and dishes you may have, even plastic and/or paper supplies!

—————————————————————————————————

When you have gathered the money to return to the thrift store of your choice, it will likely take a number of visits to amass the following. The blender is first because it will do so much to make your life as a cook easier.

• a blender (Oster is the most reliable brand). It’s best to choose one with an “ice-crushing” function. If it has a “pulse” function, all the better! If you place firm produce like carrots in the blender with water to reach one-third of the way up, you can use the “pulse” function (or release the activation button every few seconds) to chop the produce. (Then drain it. That water is a good base for preparing stock.)
• A slow cooker, such as a Crock-Pot, that will last. That means settings for high, low, and off only. (A keep-warm setting won’t affect durability. What you want to avoid keenly are electronic functions, which can break.) A five-quart to a seven-quart capacity will be the most versatile. If you have to get a four-quart, you will not be able to cook a full pound of beans with aromatic vegetables in one batch. If you want to cook meat or poultry, a seven-quart oval-shaped slow cooker is best.
• A twelve-inch covered skillet. This size will allow you to use it for recipes with six servings, of which you can freeze half the batch if you live alone. Just as you did with the pots, you should try to find a skillet without any plastic parts so that you can use it in the oven. (Restrict its use to a 350-degree Fahrenheit oven.) The cover will save you much aluminum foil.
• a colander on three “feet,” the biggest one that you can find, with the most perforations
• a large cutting board (made of any material except glass) with a trough if you cook meat (it doesn’t matter how narrow.) It is preferable to use two boards, one reserved for raw meat and poultry, but since you are buying used, for now you might as well assume that the board has already been subjected to Salmonella and E. coli bacteria…. That is, one board will do as well as two until you can buy new ones.
• two sets of measuring cups—one for liquids (you will need at least a two-cup measure, a set with a one-cup and a four-cup as well is better) and one for dry goods (one cup, one-half cup, one-third cup, and one-fourth cup.)
• two sets of measuring spoons—one for oil, extracts, and other liquids, and one for dry goods. If you can find flat-bottomed spoons, these will save you hassle if you need to open a second spice jar to complete a measurement
• a pancake turner spatula, metal unless your skillets are non-stick.
• A large funnel and a small funnel
• a pastry brush (but since these are hard to sanitize, you might want to get this new)
• a serrated steak knife (about five inches.) This makes a first-class paring knife.
• a vegetable peeler. It’s a plus to have one with a rounded hook on its business-end to nudge out eyes from potatoes.
• a standard four-sided box grater
• a long grater for nutmeg, ginger, zesting citrus, and cheese-grating—Microplane is the finest brand
• a pastry blender (or you can skip this and use two forks to blend fat with dry ingredients, if you expect that you won’t bake often)
• a metal juicer (about six inches across)
• a large balloon whisk and an old-fashioned egg beater—or, an electric mixer
• a potato masher
• a ladle, with the largest bowl you can find
• a salt shaker
• a pepper grinder (but you can purchase a bottle of peppercorns in the supermarket that comes intact with a grater. However, that is not something that you could refill.)
• a mortar and pestle, or, a second grinder that you use only for spice mixes. (If you cook East Indian foods, you’ll really need this.)
• three cooling racks
• two cookie sheets (measure the interior of your oven before you buy)
• two muffin tins, each holding a dozen standard-size cupcakes
• a nine-inch pie plate
• two eight-inch loaf pans for meat or neat loaves, or nut breads
• two nine-inch loaf pans for sandwich breads
• dishes and mugs, an assortment that coordinate—which looks far more attractive than a matched set (and no one need know that it turned out that way for the sake of economy!)
• flatware
• drinking glasses
• storage jars. Canning jars, while more expensive, can be sanitized by boiling, and, you can pour very hot liquids into them. You will need probably to buy new lids at a hardware store or on Amazon, as, at thrift stores, the lids are usually mottled.

The list above assumes that you will be baking bread and desserts. Doing so will markedly increase the nutrition you can get for each dollar available to you for procuring food. And, the taste of home-made is so much better than store-bought goods! (The aroma of rising bread will lift your spirits, too.) But, if you are certain that you will not be baking, you can skip the cookie sheets, muffin tins, and two nine-inch loaf pans on the list above. The rest you will be using in general cooking.

(C) Copyright Deborahmichelle Sanders 2018. All rights reserved.

The Most Fundamental Cooking Skill is Mixing Thoroughly....

First of all, if you have any muscular weakness, place your mixing bowl in the kitchen sink and lean down into it. It is now below your elbow, and gravity will maximize your expenditure of energy.

Secondly, I do not even own (or miss having) an electrical mixer, hand or stand. For some purposes, I use a balloon whisk or even an old-fashioned egg beater, for others a steel potato masher. For most situations, I use a silicone spatula—the large spoon-spatula type. With just one implement, I can mix and scrape the bowl’s contents out into the pan.

Now, the best salad dressing is composed, as the Spanish proverb would have it, by four people: “a spendthrift for the oil, a judge for the salt, a miser for the vinegar, and a madman to mix them” (in the words used by Ruth Binney on page 131 of her Wise Words and Country Ways for Cooks [David & Charles Publishers (Newton Abbot, UK: 2009.)]) The way to do that mixing is in a large bowl, with two serving spoons or a salad spoon and a salad fork. I put the salt, freshly-ground black pepper and herbs on top of the lettuce leaves that I have already carefully rinsed, torn, and spun-dry. (As for the herbs, unless you have the sunlight to grow your own fresh, you can probably only afford jarred. Try a fair amount of tarragon or mixed Italian seasoning—which you can mix yourself from an online recipe, for economy—or just a pinch of garlic powder or of mustard powder. More than one seasoning is oppressive.) I then pour a little vinegar over (either wine or cider, although you may prefer rice if you don’t like tart tastes.) Finally, I swirl extra-virgin oil in a spiral over the lettuce. The ratio is about one part vinegar to three parts oil, but since you also need a tad of water, don’t spin-dry every drop of water off the leaves! I can’t be more specific because I don’t know how much lettuce you have used!

To move to the mixing of the salad dressing per se: First, I distribute the seasonings over the top of all the leaves. Then I start pulling the leaves up from the bottom of the bowl at the Noon point. I move to two o’clock and repeat, at four o’clock, six o’clock, and, you guessed it, also at eight o’clock and ten o’clock. All the leaves should be glistening with the oil by now, and (as once you have learned from experience in pouring the vinegar and oil), there will be very little dressing left at the bottom of the bowl.

Let’s turn to mixing batter, say for cookies. It’s practically the same procedure, only the first step is to mix clockwise around the sides of the bowl. Repeat counter-clockwise. Repeat until you’ve gotten all the flour away from the bowl’s sides. Now, you can do the Clock Dance. (However, if the recipe is actually for muffins, biscuits, or other baking-powder-leavened breadstuff, which have much flour in comparison to little or no sugar, be careful to mix only long enough to get all the flour moistened. Otherwise, you can easily end up with tough bread!) When you want to incorporate nuts or dried fruit to batter for a baked good, mix them with the dry ingredients to coat before adding the dry ingredients to the wet ones. In this way, the nuts or fruit won’t sink to the bottom of the bowl.

If you want to mix a meatloaf or a neat loaf (if vegan), you have two choices. The easier way is to use your hands. (If there’s meat in your loaf, be sure to wash scrupulously before and after mixing!)  If you use your hands, just smoosh all the ingredients in each sector of the bowl together as if you were working clay or Play-Dough.– But, if you don’t like that idea, you can use a potato masher or a large spoon-spatula.

(C) Copyright Deborahmichelle Sanders 2018. All rights reserved.