Simple, Rich and Old-fashioned

No - the title does not describe my last surviving aunt. If it did, the title would be "Simple, Rich and Dead Under Mysterious Circumstances That Points To Rose's Last Surviving Uncle". But I digress...

Pop with a patron

Saturday, I had the chance to go to the Worthington Farmer's Market - something rare these days. I was kinda disappointed - most produce was priced pretty high (being the cheapskate I am, I can't bring myself to buy hot house tomatoes or hydroponic lettuce) and there were way too many people offering baked goods. As I made my way around the market, I stopped in and visited a few old friends. The folks over a Meade Farms had tons of heirloom tomato plants for sale, so I bought a couple from them. The other booth I always make a bee-line for is Pop and Judy's. They do a wonderful job of growing the stuff I am willing to spend my hard earned cash on. This time it was an old favorite of mine, rhubarb. My parents had rhubarb in their extensive garden, and it had been years since I had been able to grab some fresh picked. The secret to really great rhubarb is to get small stems, before they get large and spongy or stringy. Pop and Judy's was just perfect and the price was right too - $2.50 for a pound bundle.



Since I had rhubarb, I needed some strawberries. The sad part is - strawberries are in season, but only one person had them at the market. The cost? $5/ quart!!!! No way! and they weren't even ripe! So, I headed over to Meijer and picked up a two pound pack. Not as good as home picked, but damn it! I gotta get my fix!

The best thing about strawberries and rhubarb is that you can do a minimalist approach to it and they still taste fantastic...

Rhubarb Compote or Stewed Rhubarb

1 pound of rhubarb, cleaned and cut up into 1inch pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar (depending on how sour you like it. I went with 1/4 cup!)
2 t of lemon zest

To clean rhubarb: First - never ever ever use the leafy part of rhubarb!!! It is poisonous!!! Cut off the leafy end of the stems and trim the bottom end. Wash to remove any dirt. The next step is optional. It all depends on big the stems are. Larger stems will have string in them (kinda like celery) and you have to peel them off to keep the compote from being tough and stringy. It's easy though. You just take a paring knife and grab the skin at one end. Pull and the strings will come right out along the whole length of the stalk.

Cut up the rhubarb, toss with the sugar and lemon zest. It then sat at room temperature for about an hour. This brings out the natural juices and keeps the flavors from being diluted. When you have about 1/4-1/2 cup of syrup in the bottom of the pan, simmer on medium heat for 7-10 minutes, until soft and cooked through. Cool and refrigerate until ready to serve.

That's it!

Strawberries are even easier.

Strawberries for shortcake

Clean and cut up the strawberries into slices. Toss with about 1/4 -1/2 cup of sugar depending on amount of strawberries. Let sit at room temperature for about an hour to bring out the juices then refrigerate.


Almost done!

I wanted something that would be serve as a base for stewed rhubarb and strawberries.

Then I though back to a dessert I had forgotten about - pound cake. I used to make pound cakes quite often about twenty years ago. My mother was very fond of them - chocolate pound cakes, lemon pound cakes, sour cream pound cakes, you name it - if it had a pound of butter in it, my mom loved it. I have tons of recipes from all over, but I just wanted a plain, simply cake that would set off the fruit.

I dug around in my cookbooks and settled on the Marion Cunningham version of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. I picked it up for $1.00 at Half Price books a while back and it has been a fantastic resource. My hubby has a not so secret crush on Marion ever since he saw her on Baking with Julia a couple years back. Knowing that I use her recipes probably adds to his enjoyment in some perverse way...

With a cake this simple, it is really important that you use only the freshest ingredients. I actually went as far as to purchase a pound of Plugra ($2.28/pound wholesale) for the pound cake - in something this basic you can taste the difference. Plus, you never want to use a butter that has any off flavors - yummmm onion flavored pound cake!

Also, a low gluten flour is important here. If you have some White Lily or other low gluten AP around, you could try it instead...

The hubby started picking at the cake as soon as it came out of the oven - bad Tony!

POUND CAKE

1 9 x 5-INCH LOAF

½ pound butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 ²/3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla, or ½ teaspoon mace

5 eggs

2 cups cake flour

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter and lightly flour a 9 X 5-inch loaf pan. Cream the butter, slowly add the sugar, and beat until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating each in well. Stir in the flour, salt, and vanilla or mace, and combine well. Spoon into the pan and bake for 75 to 90 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack. Serve very thin slices.

Oh yeah baby - look at that fine moist crumb. You know you want it!

Strawberry and Rhubarb Longcake

I can't really call it strawberry and rhubarb shortcake - 'cuz there ain't nothing "short" about it. It's long on flavor, long on looks and long on calories...

If you really want to gild the lily you can top everything off with whipped cream. Bar none - this is my favorite spring dessert!

Breakfast At Nancy's

Well tomorrow may be the last day for Nancy's Home Cooking. Fans everywhere have been furiously raising money in an attempt to help Cindy King and her family save this beloved Clintonville Landmark. I've thrown my share into the pot - and I am betting if you know about the place you have too.

For my readers who don't know about Nancy's Home Cooking, here is what you need to know - Cindy King runs the best "greasy spoon" in the city. I love little places like this. I love the fact the food is honest - fried eggs, potatoes, meatloaf, chicken and noodles over potatoes (!!) and an endless cup of coffee. I love sitting at the counters and talking to the other patrons (even if they wish I wouldn't), and I love that Cindy and her family have made it a welcoming home away from home for so many people over the years.

I started going to Nancy's when Tony and I were dating. Twenty years of garbage omelets under my belt and twenty five for him. We have taken all kinds of people there - I once dragged a severely jet lagged friend from France there for a pot of coffee and a heaping plate of fried eggs and home fries as soon as he stepped off the plane. I've taken my mom. We've taken starving college students, business people and comic artists and they all love it. It is something that is complete in itself - more than the food, more than the location, more than the people.

So a couple weeks ago, Tony, Eric, Tate and I got up at the buttcrack of dawn and went down for breakfast. Garbage omelet, home fries, fried eggs, toast and sausage gravy all around. A word about the sausage gravy - YUM. Makes everyone else's - including mine - taste like wallpaper paste.

I also annoyed people with my camera just so I could take some good-bye photos for my collection. I would have stolen a menu if there were any...

Garbage Omelet, home fries and sausage gravy
- all topped off with OJ so Tate felt he was eating something "healthy".

I have a theory about how the space where Nancy's currently resides used to be a walkway or
alley between the buildings on either side. Someone just put a roof on it
and said "Rent it out!" I present my main exhibit for the court's consideration.

Ed at the grill. Bonus points (and a breakfast) to the first person
who can tell me what he has tatooed on his right calf.

From left to right: Eric and Tate. I think Eric had like 3 hours sleep and
Tate hadn't been to bed yet. Perfect time for food overload, then going back to bed.

The obligatory menu shot

Tony on his 3rd cup o' joe. Yes we were hogging the only table,
but we got there damn early to do it!

15 minutes after opening

An hour after opening. I didn't stay to see the line snake outside.

I have doubts about whether this last ditch effort will truly save Nancy's - it may save the business, but folks, it will change. Its the nature of the beast. Cindy is ready to retire - she's been at it a long time and deserves to rest a little bit. I've heard the city is requiring the building be brought up to code - and that takes money and the business would most likely have to close for a while to accomplish that. So let's say the King family decides to sell the place - I sure as hell would not buy it. I would not want to be known as the person who "killed Nancy's". As soon as you raised the prices, or made changes to the menu or do what you thought would be best for the business as a business and not as an Columbus institution, you would have detractors, people whispering behind your back "She's killing this place - its not like it used to be." or "The fry cook working doesn't make xxx like Ed." or a million other numerous thing that each and every patron has come to love about the restaurant. Nope - it is a thankless task that I would not want.

I hope the place makes it for a while longer - long enough for my daughter to learn the joys of eating there on Saturday morning with a hangover on her last fiver. Not that I would know anything about that...

Frugal Food: Buying foodstuffs

The Economics of Food

Ever since I read Becke's entry about eating out cheap, I've been thinking about how to eat cheaply at home. Unlike searching out coupons or dining specials, eating cheaply at home requires a different set of strategies. It requires buying savvy, storage capacity, cooking know-how and willingness to be flexible in your habits. I am sure that most of these strategies are old news for most of you, but bare with me. If you have some suggestions, toss them in. I am always looking for new ways to deal with old problems.

Think of your life this way – it’s really all about profit and loss. Profit means having money left over out of your paycheck at the end of the month. Loss means you had to charge your cable bill on the credit card once again. Your food bills can help you make or break your bottom line – since it is really one of those things that we just can’t do without. But it is a controllable cost. Unlike a fixed cost like your car payment or rent, you have the power to use strategies that can change the way you spend what money you have available to you. The more you think of your household finances as a business model, the better you will do in the long run.

Image by timsamoff. Click on the photo to see his original comments.

Knowing a deal when you see one

The first step is learning what the mean prices of your favorite everyday items are. For example: Boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

Go to your favorite store and take a look at the non-sale price.

Did your pulse stop racing yet? That stuff is expensive!

It’s important that you know what an item you regularly use costs at full retail. That is the only way you can know if something is a good deal. You can find organizers for price logs online. Me, I keep them in my head – but that also means when my memory is on the fritz, important details like where I live, where I work and who those strange people in the house are with me get lost. Eventually, I am going to have to start writing crap down!

Refresher Math Course! (This is for my math genius daughter, who can work advanced calculus problems, but probably can’t remember what a mean is.)

A mean price is the average for a range of numbers. You get the average of a set of numbers when you take all the values for an item, add them up and divide by the number
of values.

Chicken Breasts: a Mean

The prices you purchased your chicken breasts at the last five times: $4.50/lb, $3.75/lb, $2.99/lb, $2.49/lb, $1.99/lb

Mean: ($4.50+$3.75+$2.99+$2.49+ $1.99)/5= $3.14/lb

If you have some basic math skills, you should really use this formula . It’s so much quicker and easier.

There are other reasons why you need to know what you average cost is for regularly used items - and we'll cover that in another installment.

So how do we get what we want for less?

Loss Leaders – Every week, grocery stores offer deep, deep discounts on certain items. They are willing to sell these items to you at a thin profit margin to get you into their store to buy the other items you need at regular prices. You – the savvy consumer – can buy up those items and put them in your freezer or pantry.

My most recent buy was Chicken of the Sea tuna at Kroger’s. They had 20 cans for $10. $.50 a can is a fantastic deal, and I hadn’t seen a name brand tuna that cheap in years. I now have 40 cans in my pantry waiting to be added to salads, casseroles and pasta sauces

If you don’t get the Sunday ads for all the various stores nearby, then hop on the internet. Lots of the stores list their ads every week – and sometimes list the next week’s as well, letting you plan which day you will do your shopping to get the best deals.

• Kroger
• Meijer
• Marc’s
• Aldi’s
• Wal-mart

(Of course, maybe you should be getting the ads in the bag, but maybe you have a lazy shiftless goodfornothing bag delivery guy who simply tosses them all into a dumpster and goes off to smoke crack. Not that I am pointing fingers…FRANK!)

Discount stores – Let’s say you really want to buy something that isn’t on sale this week. Places like Marc’s and Aldi’s offer regular groceries at discounted prices, plus there are specialty shops like The Pepperidge Farms outlet store, the Wonder Bread/ Hostess Outlet stores and Arena Produce where you can pick up items on the cheap. Once again, beware! Just because the store says it offers discounted prices doesn’t mean that you can’t get the same item cheaper as a loss leader or with coupons.

Ethnic Groceries – I love cooking Indian, Mexican and Asian foods. Buying some of the more uncommon items in “regular” grocery stores can set you back a pretty penny. Produce like baby bok choy at Meijer will put you in the poor house if you buy enough for a family of four, but you can get a big bag of this stuff for $2.50 at a grocery store like CAM (Columbus Asian Market). Or stopping into Patel Brothers on Kenny Road, I was able to find really good cauliflower for only $1.75 per head. Olives and feta can be an amazing deal if you start frequenting Middle Eastern markets.

Of course, like any other grocery, you need to shop there on a regular basis to familiarize yourself with the products as well as the prices. Really small shops may not have the turnover that a larger store might have, and the quality of some items can suffer. On the other hand, I found some really good Cracker Jacks from 1964 with prizes they don’t put into them boxes anymore – so sometimes this could be a good thing. Try not to eat the canned chili from 1963 though – it was not a good year.

While I am not an expert on every shop in Columbus, I thought it might help if I listed a few of my favorites.

• Crestview Market
• CAM
• Tensuke
  Market (great place to shop, crappy website)
• La Michoacana Mexican Market (I shop the one on Morse Road and usually stop in to grab a couple tacos when I am out!)

Coupons – Yes those old stand-bys. You can get them from magazines, newspapers and mailers. Also, for those of you who didn’t know this – you can buy them on Ebay. My friend George turned me onto it. You buy a packet of identical coupons from sellers online – usually for about a buck plus postage. George used his coupons for Tabasco – which he eats on everything even the cans of chili from 1963. Combined with a really great sale price, plus double coupons, he was able to get small bottles of Tabasco for about $.08 each. I think he ended up with 70 bottles. Yes-he is that crazy about hot sauce - and the letter W.

I will confess I rarely use coupons. You know why? Because so many of them are for things that I don’t use (pre-packaged foods or the latest, greatest version of a name brand cereal with a cartoon character on it) or I can get store brands cheaper on sale without a coupon.

However, I know people who use them to great effect. It takes organization and perseverance to make the “coupon queen” thing work well and I have a lot of respect for people who work that system. That being said, I just don’t have the skill set necessary to get that system to work every time I go to the grocery store (IE: I am really incredible disorganized. I would be pulling expired coupons out of bodily creases for weeks afterward.)

Clearance – Perishable items are just that – perishable. Rather than throw out those items, grocery stores will mark it down a percentage of the original cost because something is better than nothing. Recent example: I went to Marc’s to pick up some items when I saw a three pound bag of carrots marked down to $1.00. Upon examination, I discovered that several of the overly long vegetables had snapped in half. They were otherwise undamaged. Considering the regular cost of a bag was $2.50, that is $1.50 I could spend on something else. (Remember that huge power outage? About three days into it, I got some great deals on shrimp and other seafood. And don’t let me tell you how cheap I got ice cream!)

The same holds true for pantry items as well. After the holiday season, Kroger had their 28oz cans of pumpkin 2 for $1.00. I ended up buying four cans. The expiration date was 2010. That means my pies for the next two years are already taken care of.

A few tips for buying clearance items:

· Inspect all your perishable produce carefully A bruised banana might make great bread, but not a bruised eggplant. Some items will develop mold inside their plastic packaging.

· Check the sell by date on the meats and dairy In stores with less than stellar product rotation, I’ve found bad meat and spoiled dairy lurking in the case with past sell by dates on them. Meat should be used or frozen ASAP. Some dairy products like milk have a couple extra days left in them after their sell by date, so you have a little leeway there.

· Check packaging for damage If it looks like the integrity of the container has been compromised, let it be. Better safe than sorry.

· Know your products Whenever you go into Meijer’s, they always have a huge rack of clearance food items. Some are there as part of regular stock rotation, some are there as seasonal clearance and some of them are there because they suck and no one will buy them. No matter how cheap the item is, money spent on something you can’t use is not a bargain. (Personally, I got suckered by a couple cans of Wolfgang Puck soups. He is now known as Wolfgang Sucks in our household because of his crappy canned soups.)

Sweat Equity – Don’t use boneless breasts. Get a whole chicken and bone it out. Make your kids learn to eat dark meat. Or buy bone-in breasts and take the bones out yourself. It isn’t that hard. Use those kitchen skills to save you money by expending a little time. Or better yet, make your kids learn to eat meat off the bone…geesh!

Bulk Purchases – Sam’s Club, Costco - or in our case Restaurant Depot - can save you tons on the items you use frequently. That is if you can use it all up before it goes bad. This is where a purchasing co-op can come in handy.

“A purchasing Co-op? What the hell is that?” you ask. A Purchasing Co-op is a group of people who band together to buy large quantities of items then split them up into manageable parcels. Example: Eric, Moose, Andy, Tate and my family have started shopping at Restaurant Depot for bulk meats. We recently purchased a case of boneless chicken breasts for $.60/lb. A case is 40 pounds. That’s a lot of meat for a family of three or a single guy to buy on their own. However, the seven of us were able to share the costs and storage of the chicken, making it a win-win situation for everyone.

One key to setting up you own private co-op is to make sure you have people who like-minded. If your best friend in the whole world is an organic vegan – then your chances of getting her to buy in on a great meat deal is pretty darn slim. However, if you too are an organic vegan, then you guys can buy a 20 pound bag of tofurkey and split it up – no problems. (If you do manage to locate a deal on 20 pounds of tofurkey, please do not call me. The thought of a tofurkey getting that big scares me!*shudder*)

The other key is to work with people you trust. A person who refuses to pay or to carry their share of the work will kill the whole group.

Shopping in Season - Seems pretty straight forward doesn’t it? In the summer, you can buy all your fresh veggies at the farmer’s market for pretty darn cheap. Now, you are paying $3.00 for a head for “out of season” romaine grown in a local greenhouse. Yes you are buying local – but buying yourself into the poor house. In winter, you see things like cabbage, citrus fruit and greens that are cheap and plentiful. True they may not have been grown local, but when you are strapped for cash – well, I am willing to bend my rules to make sure I eat healthy within my budget. Recently I bought some lemons (a 2 pound bag for $1.50, a standard sale price), and following tips from the internet, I am throwing them in my freezer for later in the year…lemon chess pie…yummmmm

Here is a resource map from Epicurious that outlines what states are producing what products in what months. Use it wisely.

Grow Your Own – This can be done fairly easy, even if you live in an apartment. A single tomato plant in a container purchased for $6.00 will easily produce more than $6.00 worth of produce in a season – as long as you take care of it. If you have a yard, convert one of your flowerbeds into a small kitchen garden. Hell, even a pot of cilantro on the window sill saves you some cash in the long run. If you wonder what a regular garden can net you savings-wise, check out this article over at Kitchen Gardeners International.

Barter – You find someone who has the item you want and work out a trade. One of my co-workers, Justin, hunts deer every year. I would really like to get some venison for stew/chili. He and I are negotiating to see what I can trade him in return for a few pounds of meat. So far – no agreement has been reached. I will let you know what happens.

Of course, buying stuff for cheap is just the beginning. These is so much more to Frugal Food - and we'll talk about that next time...

A bit of Columbus History

I was cruising around the internet and came across this little gem...

It a quick article about the Maramor Restaurant that used to be East Main Street.

The whole blog is very interesting - especially if you love reading about "how it used to be".

Resources for wanna-be gardeners

Hey folks - It's time to start planting that "recession" garden! Every little bit will help you. A pot of herbs, a patio tomato - money invested in a growing plant will come back you tenfold. Take a gander at a recent Dispatch article talking about the backyard garden revival.

Afraid? Don't be! OSU has a Master Gardener's program with trained volunteers to give you a hand. Check out their website. Not only are there articles with general information, but the Master Gardeners can give you personal advice!

Even if you don't have room of your own, you can look into using community gardens. A community garden is a place where land is set aside for use by the general public for growing vegetable and flower gardens. Some sites require you to rent the plot, others ask for volunteer hours or donations to offset the cost. Check with the owners of the garden plots to see what the rules are...

A few of the sites I found here in Columbus:

Four Seasons City Farm

Leave A Mark Community Garden

University Area Enrichment Program

Sycamore Hills Community Gardens

Grandview Heights Community Gardens

Plus more...

I was surfing the net and came across this site for the American Community Gardening Association. They do list quite a few sites in and around the Columbus area, but the information is sketchy, so research will be necessary.

You have land but don't have the tools? Check out the Tool Library run by the City of Columbus. They have a sod removing tool and a rototiller. I wish I had known about the sod remover a couple years back!

If you are on Food Stamps, you can purchase food bearing seeds or plants with your allowance . As long as the store accepts your Ohio Directions Card, you can start growing a few things of your own!

Finally, if you do grow a garden this summer, remember those who are less fortunate than yourself and Plant a Row for the Hungry .

These are but a few of the resources available online. So what are you waiting for?

Meet and Greet

Anyone interested in hanging out at the Banana Bean Cafe tomorrow from 4pm til 7pm? There will be a gathering of foodies - I hope to be there with the hubby after 6pm. For more details, check out the Meetup site.

Garden Envy

Ahhhhhhhhhhh - it spring and an old woman's fancy turns to thoughts of home gardening... I've caught myself pouring over seed sites trying to locate things like Ghost Peppers for the garden this year. I still have to till the ground - and this year I am using Ben, one of Annie's friends (who owes me money) to help me get the ground ready for planting. (Get to work beotch!) I just hope it drys out soon before he graduates and heads out for college - damn Ohio weather!

In other gardening news...

Michele Obama wearing the latest in gardening gloves.
Damn girl - those make you look hot!
(Charles Dharapak/Associated Press)

I think it's really exciting that a Kitchen Garden is going in at the White House. Check out the diagram from the article. Pretty freakin' sweet. Of course, for the Secretary of Agriculture, it was still a press opportunity to pimp out the plan to put more fresh fruits and veggies on the lunch trays of school children ever where. I want to know if there is money in the plan to train the cafeteria staffs on how to cook food properly and not leach every single bit of nutrition out of the fresh produce - and food education courses for the kids so that they learn to appreciate all the new foods that are going to be coming across their plates. I can just see it now - tons of fresh veggies getting dumped in the trash because it"tastes yukky!" Sigh.

I think other government agencies should let people grow food on their vast expanses of green lawns. Every time I drive by a huge lawn in front of a building and think of how much herbicides and pesticides go into just maintain some grass..... *grrrr* it makes me mad. We talk about how expensive fresh fruits and veggies are, and yet we waste valuable growing area on grass.

And churches - they have tons of empty lawn space they could use to help raise fresh veggies, not only for their own congregation members, but for charitable donation as well. I know that there in one church up on Sawmill Road that has plots available. (Sorry I suck and can't remember the name.) Also, The Leave A Mark Church is offering garden plots for people who don't have land of their own. If you are interested, give them a shout.

Not sure how to start with your own garden? Check out the Master Gardeners website. The volunteers in this program offer advice and classes for people who want to learn how to grow their own veggies and fruits.

OH and I just wanted you to know that home gardening is non-partisan - I won't hold it against any of you Democrats or Republicans if you want to raise a few veggies...