Mule Train Ho!!

Been grabbing supplies for the Thanksgiving feast and cookie baking - wanna know the best deals on flour and sugar?

Aldi's! - whodathunkit?

Even cheaper than the Restaurant Depot.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Doughnuts...

I have a soft spot for deep fried dough. I come by it honestly - my parents loved them too and there were always some type of cake doughnuts hanging around the house waiting to be dunked into coffee or a cold glass of milk. Occasionally, the local scout troop or some other fund raiser would bring around Crispy Cremes - and 20 secs in the nuke later we would have sinful glazed goodness.

Roll forward to my college years and its 3 a.m. on Campus and the only thing open was Buckeye Donuts. Staggering home from "the library", all it would take was a hazardous waste container of their strong "varnish remover" and a couple sinkers - man I was ready to tackle that sociology paper due in the morning...

Now in my dotage, it takes a truly magnificent doughnut to turn my head. While Crispy Cremes are good (especially when they just come rolling out of the glaze). Light and sweet - they have their place, but after one or two, they show their shallow nature. And the variety doughnuts they carry - so lacking in character they are not really worth the time it takes to mention them.

So the point of all this you ask?

Meet Rosa Auddino. She is the matriarch of the family owned bakery Audinos. Locals in the food service industry will recognize the name - Auddino's delivers fresh baked buns and breads to customers all over the city. What most people don't know is they have a retail outlet. And inside that retail outlet - they have doughnuts. Good doughnuts. Did I say good? I meant - Fantastic Doughnuts. Well those and other really great baked goods as well.

Let me regale you with the story of how my hubby found Auddino's.

One of Tony's best friends is Charlie. Charlie owns a towing company. One thing you can depend on is that Charlie knows where to find good food - north, south, east or west he can point you to something that is truly delicious. So one day I asked Tony to hunt down some rolls for the Italian Beef I was making and he was having no luck. So he stopped in at Charlie's shop to get his butt whipped at gin and shoot the shit.

"So watcha up to, Tony?" Charlie says as he rolls his big stogie around in his fingers. (Charlie is a big guy - he makes my hubby look like an anorexic dwarf- and his voice rolls over you like a jet engine ready to take off. You know Hagrid the giant from the Harry Potter books and movies? Well Charlie would bitch slap Hagrid and take his lunch.)

"Rose has me running all over the city trying to find these rolls for dinner tonight and I just can't find what she wants. I tell you if she wasn't such a good cook, her ass would be out on the curb!" says Tony as he shuffles the deck and deals.

"Well why don't you go over to Auddino's?" Charlie starts sorting out his cards while chewing the hell out of his half lit cigar.

"Auddino?"

"Yeah, Auddino's. Over by the fairgrounds. We'll go over after I finish takin' all your money. They'll have what you want."

So after finishing the game in which Tony was forced to cough up his stripper tipping cash, they headed over to Auddino's. (He denys it, but why else would a man carry around $30 in ones? All men are dogs...)

And I'll be damned if they didn't have the prefect rolls. Plus a ton of pastries. We ate really good that night. I even forgave Tony for his stripper tipping habits - for the moment.

A week later, I made Tony take me over to the bakery so I could check out their wares for myself.

Underneath an ancient sign reading Auddino's Breads Cakes Donuts and Pastries lay one of the best bakeries in Columbus

Behold their bounty...

Fried Croissant -This is my favorite. Take a plain croissant, throw it in some hot fat, then drench in a glaze. It is sweet, flaky buttery and totally sinful. This is what Krispy Kreme wishes it could be.

Apple Fritter - Soft, with tiny apple pieces and lightly spiced with cinnamon, these are some of the best examples of this fried goodie I have ever found.

Cake Donuts - Paired with coffee or milk, cake donuts are that old fashioned midday treat.

And let's not forget the classic Italian treats!!

Amaretti - These are dense moist very sweet cookies made with almond paste. I had tried for years to make these at home but to no avail. Now - I just stop down and pick up a dozen of these to serve with coffee after dinner. And you have to serve these with coffee. The extreme sweetness make this the perfect accompaniment to a strong espresso or dark roast americano.

Cannoli - The real deal. Crunchy, creamy and sweet - these are a dream.

This is not all they offer, so I recommend you stop in and check it out for yourself ASAP.

In parting, here is some advice concerning your upcoming trip to Auddino's.

1) If you see a really big white pickup sporting a set of truck nuts parked out front, be prepared for gale force winds in the building - this means Charlie is there picking up goodies for his crew.

2) Go early. Their more popular choices sell out quickly and you may miss out.

3) Needing lots and lots of bread and goodies? Call ahead and place an order. They are professionals ya know...

Auddino's Bakery
1490 Clara St
Columbus, OH 43211
(614) 294-2577

I know, I know - but I have goodies!!

To all the folks who keep checking this spot hoping I'll have something to say - hello.

As a reward for your diligence, I have a treat!

There will be a free screening of Julie and Julia this coming Thursday (July 23) at the Landmark Gateway. It starts at 7:30pm.

As if that weren't exciting enough - I have the passes you need to get in...

So drop me an email and we'll talk...

First come, first serve...

So to get in the mood, stop over at the movie website, enter the contests, check out the blog of the week and get ready to see real thing on Thursday!

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...

Deals!

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post this earlier...

Stopped by the Pepperidge Farm Outlet store on Kenny Road today to find out that they had more baked goods then they knew what to do with. They had loaves of bread Buy three, Get one free. The final cost was about $5.25 for four loaves.

For your sweet tooth, they had packages of cookies 2/$1! That included Milanos, which have a big following in our house...

You know what will get people riled up at Thanksgiving?

Stuffing Vs Dressing

I am betting Becke and I would come to harsh words over the whole thing. She, a tried and true stuffing gal, would never think of of anything other than cramming the cavity of her bird with bits of dried bread, diced veggies and buttery goodness. I, on the other hand, make an argument for baking the mixture in a separate bowl. I think that my turkey comes out so much better because I can control the cooking method.

In fact, this year we purchased a 23 pound bird from Kroger. Nothing fancy. I just can't bring myself to spending $35.00 on a Kosher bird when money is tight. My store brand bird cost me all of $7.50. Easy on the wallet - tasty in the tummy. I had the hubby butterfly out this big old bird. That way I could monitor the temperature of the white and dark meat separately and pull out pieces parts as they got done. No Normal Rockwell moments around my Thanksgiving table - the resultant bird looked like something Victor Frankenstein would have served. Not that my family would have been depicted anyway - when we eat it looks more like a scene from a show on Animal Planet. "The three predators are now moving in quickly - their prey no longer capable of resisting attack. Notice how the big male dismembers the large bird, making way for its mate and offspring to pick the choicest morsels before he too falls upon the helpless turkey."

So - let's return to this stuffing vs dressing debate. In my household growing up, we had both - mostly because there was never enough stuffing to go around. We would get a 16 pound turkey for six people and the cavity just wasn't big enough to hold the monumental amount of bread-y goodness for everyone. My dad got first shot at it - and then it was catch as catch can. I don't think my younger brother ever got any stuffing until he was old enough to fend off the other attackers. My mother was forced to supplement with a big bowl of dressing - usually oyster dressing.

I had two problems with this. 1) I hated getting pieces of shell. My mom would miss some of the tinier bits when she cleaned the oysters. and 2) It was dry as hell. The stuffing was always nice and moist and the dressing needed a ton of gravy to make it palatable.

It wasn't until I worked in a restaurant that I learned a good way to make stuffing. Delores had been cooking in restaurants for many years. She wasn't a chef, she was a cook. And there in nothing wrong with being a good cook. Chefs couldn't be chefs without competent people under them. Delores only worked three days a week - Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Wednesday she was responsible for making the daily special and all the regulars knew they had better show up early to get some. Italian wedding soup, stuffed green peppers, Swiss steak, roast pork - every single dish was good. And in the process of helping her between tables, I got to learn how to make a lot of her dishes.

Every year Delores would make a big batch of dressing for the owner to take to his family gathering. Cheating I know - but hey, he was a man who knew how to manager his resources. That meant I got to see how someone else made this required holiday dish. It was nothing like I had seen before, but it has been the technique I've used ever since. The technique is not revolutionary, but its more akin to a savory bread pudding than the dried out stuffing that my mom would make.

My recipe goes something like this.

2 loaves of quality white/wheat bread, cubed
4-5 stalks of celery, medium dice
2 medium onions, medium dice
1 medium carrot, medium dice (optional)
1/2 stick butter
4-6 cups of broth, warmed
herbs and spices
Salt and pepper
1 egg

1) Start the night before. Take the cubed bread and let it dry overnight. It should be fairly crumbly. If you don't have the time or inclination, you can also dry out the cubes in the oven set on low. The whole idea is to get out as much moisture from the bread as possible so it can soak up the broth and spices. When dry, put the bread in a really large pan or bowl. I usually have to break out a huge bowl I got from Tupperware.

2) In a large pot, melt the butter and saute the onions, celery and carrots until the onions are transparent. Add 4 cups of the stock, and allow to simmer. This is also where you add the dried herbs and spices. What I add varies depending on what I am serving this with and what I have on hand. For the Thanksgiving batch it went like this - 2 T of rubbed sage, 2 bay leaves, a little seasoned salt, pepper, 1/2 t of dried chipolte pepper, 1/2 t of Spanish smoked paprika, 1 t of Mural of Flavor (some new stuff from Penzey's), 1/2 t garlic powder and 1/2 t onion powder. The idea is to make the flavors very intense in the broth. Remember, this is getting mixed in with tons of really bland dried bread. If you have fresh herbs, then you would add then to the bread mixture just before you pour the hot broth/spice/veggies over top. You don't want to over cook them.

This is the right texture.
It's kinda hard to tell, but hey its a tactile thing not a visual thing.

3) Pour the veggie/spice/broth mixture over the dried bread. Mix. You want to distribute the broth evenly over the dried bread. Here is the tricky part. The bread should be fairly moist. Almost like a thick slurry of bread. If it isn't moist all the way through, then you might need to add a little more liquid. (Here are my thoughts on this: When you go to put the stuffing into the bird, you make it dry so that it will soak up the juices coming out of the meat. This means you need to compensate for that extra moisture. Also, when you are baking the dressing, some of the liquid will evaporate. So you have to make it just a bit more moist than you think it should be so that it will "dry out" just enough to make it tasty. Its a fine balance. I ruined a couple of batches before I got the knack of it.) When the texture is right, add one beaten egg and mix well. Pour into a greased oven proof bowl bowl. I use an old 4 qt Pyrex bowl I bought at a garage sale for $.25. It's ugly, but it works.

4) Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. You will know when its done because the top with be all brown and crusty and the inside should be set and moist.

My apologizes for the lack of photos. The final product was eaten rather quickly and pronounced to be "very good - the best you ever made" by the family.

Randazzo Run

A long while back, Gail sent me this report on one of her favorite place of all time - Randazzo's. She has been talking about this place since I met her about ten years ago.

I will admit to being very tardy with posting her report - these pictures are from about a year ago - but better late than never. If you are near the Detroit area, this could be worth a visit.


Randazzo Report by Gail

My first house was in Livonia Michigan - 11 years, second house was in Plymouth, Michigan - 16 years. My Mom lived in Garden City, about 10 miles away. Every time I went to my mothers I had to pass the corner of Warren and Newburgh roads. On the Northwest corner was a large, treed lot.

One day I noticed some building going on and decided to make an effort to notice what was going on with that corner. The lot was cleared, a building went up then the sign went up on the side of the building "Joe Randazzos". What is a Joe Randazzo's I wondered. The next time I went to my Mom's I made a point to leave much earlier than I needed to so I would have time to investigate.

On the way in to the store I grabbed a cart, I didn't anticipate buying anything, but you never know. As I walked the store I noticed the prices and nearly swallowed my tonsils. The entire store was produce. Produce at prices so much lower than the grocery where I shopped that I began to wonder what was wrong with it.

I grew up on a farm, and on that farm we grew potatoes, (EIEIO,- oops got sidetracked there for a minute). When we took our potatoes to the processor they were all dumped into a multi-tiered machine, each tier having different size holes in its board. When they turned on the machine, potatoes would drop through the holes by size. The potatoes that would not drop through the holes rolled off the end of the machine through a chute and into baskets. Those were the ones we kept, the nonconformist sizes that just wouldn't settle for average, the rest we sold.

Well I noticed that the potatoes were many different sizes in one bag and realized that these were the naughty non-conformist potatoes. The green peppers had black streaks (normal), or were curved or warped in some way. WOW non-conformist Green and Red peppers too. At that time they were 7 for $1.00 as were the curved cucumbers etc.

Well I went completely crazy and filled my basket to overflowing with various lettuces, fruits, veges and herbs. Going through the back and outside I discovered they were selling trees, rose bushes, flowers by the flat, etc. Also priced irresistibly well. I further loaded my cart. When I got to the check out, shaking in my shoes hoping my check book balance would handle the excesses, I discovered I had spent a little over $20.00. I decided "I LOVE RANDAZZO'S".

Now living in Ohio it is a bit too far away to go to every week but when we go for holidays or to visit relatives I do a RANDAZZO run. If I have room in my car I go completely nuts and buy for Rosie and Debbie too and seldom spend over $30. I've tried to get Rosie & Debbie to make a trip to MI to do a Randazzo run with me but we seldom get a common day off. I'm sending these pictures to you Rosie, so you'll see what you are missing and we'll make a greater effort to go.

We need one of these here!!!!

As always, Love & Joy; With a Gail Twist

Ribeye Stew

Tony and I have membership to the Restaurant Depot. I've mentioned it before a long long time ago when I was a happy little blogger, not the ass dragging overworked wage slave that I am now. The recent increase in food costs have driven a few of our friends to inquire about buying costly items like meat in bulk, then divvying it up amongst the group. In particular, steaks and bacon were at the top of the list. (Single guys...go figure.)

As those of you who buy at places like the Depot know, the wholesale cost isn't always as good as a loss leader at a regular store. For example, ten pounds of 80/20 ground beef was $1.99/lb at the Depot. I recently purchased a ten pound bag of 80/20 at Schumann's for $1.79/lb. Not a huge savings, but the quality at Schumann's was better to boot.

Today I picked up a whole ribeye. At $4.99/lb it was not a huge steal, but still good. I spent the afternoon trimming the primal and cutting it up into steaks to be vacuum sealed and put in the freezer against the long dark winter. I had lots of little pieces of meat left so I decided to try my hand at crock pot beef stew.

I will admit to lifting a tip from America's Test Kitchen. Well, they actually got it from someone else. I found lots of references to it on the internet once I looked. The biggest problem with crock pot stews is that they get really watery. With a heavy tight fitting lid, the water never has a chance to escape, plus you have lots of liquid coming out of the foods in the pot - you can see how it would end up meat-flavored water real fast. The instant tapioca was a great fix, and it left no floury aftertaste as if I had poured the broth into a pan on the stove and thickened it with a slurry, which is what I have done in the past.

True, I think its a huge cheat. I would must rather do it the old fashioned way, stews and soups taste so much better on the stove. Of course, when you still have to do things like run your 17 yr old daughter to the store to buy $100.00 worth of shoes, crock pots look real nice. (You still owe me $50 for those boots Annie!!!)

The recipe went something like this:

2 pounds of ribeye scraps, generally about 1" square
3 medium onions, fine dice
4 cloves garlic, squooshed
2 T tomato paste
2 pounds of potatoes, cut into large dice
1 pound of turnips, cut into large dice
1.5 pounds of carrots, cut into large dice
4 oz of dried mushrooms, re-hydrated and rough chopped
4 cups beef broth, from the freezer (yes, some of my stuff was saved!)
3T instant tapioca
Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and 2 bay leaves

Sprinkle a little salt onto the meat. Put a couple of tablespoons of oil into a pan - I used a cast iron skillet. Get good and hot; brown off the meat. Remove to slow cooker. Lower heat to medium. Add onions to skillet and cook until transparent. Add in garlic and tomato paste. Cook briefly until you can smell the garlic. Remove to slowcooker. Add broth to pan and deglaze. Pour into slow cooker.

Add veggies and tapioca. Season to taste and throw in the bay leaves. Cook on low for about 6 hours. Taste towards end of cooking and adjust seasoning. I've been known to saute up another onion and a couple more cloves of garlic to toss in towards the end. The stew tends to have a flat taste after cooking so long and you need to brighten up the flavors. A shot of Tabasco or Worcestershire isn't bad either.

The stew went into the fridge overnight. We'll see how the tapioca reheats. Also, I plan on freezing half for a future dinner, so we'll see how the tapioca freezes as well.

News Flash: The stew reheated fine - but it never got frozen due to the fact that it was eaten very quickly. I also never got a picture of it. My camera is having issues. Ah - when it rains it pours!

Butter Me Up!!

Stopped by the Meijer on Sawmill Road while out shopping today and found pounds of salted butter for $1/pound. No shit - a single green back for a pound of butter. Hot Damn!

If cars ran on butter, it would be a hell of a deal. Since cookies do run on butter - I guess it's even a better deal!!

I immediately purchased 33 pounds of butter for Gail, Debbie and me.

My freezer overfloweth; my hips expandeth.

The best $15 you will ever spend in a restaurant...

That's what Moose told me.

No kidding.

Here is the tale of how we discovered Anna's Restaurant. We have a friend called Moose. Yes. For real. That's his nickname. Moose loves to eat. He had mentioned Anna's to us a couple of times, but our schedules being what they are, we never had a chance to go. Then our friend Eric called us up and said "It was the best Greek food I've ever eaten." So now we were suitably intrigued.

Anna's doesn't look like much from the outside. It sits in a strip mall on Sawmill road just south of Hard Road. If you know where Sunflower Chinese restaurant is - then you know where Anna's is.

Two weeks ago, we stopped in for their Sunday Buffet. We stopped in again this past Sunday. Yup - it is that good.

Most of the internet sources for this restaurant list the place as being closed on Sundays, but this is not true. They have a awesome Greek buffet from 11:00am to 2:30pm every Sunday and have for about a year.

Anna's offers a full menu the rest of the week - So why am I recommending the buffet? A couple of reasons.

1) Try it before you invest: Let's say you you never had patstisio before. Would you want to order a whole plate of it just to discover it sucks? Heck no! ( not that their patstisio sucks-far from it - but you get my meaning)
2) Grazing: I would rather eat a small amount of multiple items than a serving of just one or two items. It allows you to discover foods that you would not have ordered a full portion of. Think of it as a tasting menu - poor man style.
3) You can have it all: soup, salad, entree and dessert - and multiple choices for each.
4) Price: Buffets definitely give you bang for your buck. Especially if you have a family. Anna's reduces the buffet prices for kids from 5-10 yrs and free food for kids under 5. A sure way to get your kids to try something new without wasting a bunch of money or food.

The buffet starts off with appetizers. Two salads - a lettuce based "Greek salad" and another type that is chopped tomatoes with onions, cucumbers, olives, and feta. It is lightly dressed with a vinegar and oil dressing. They also have bread rounds accompanied by big bowls of hummus and tzatziki sauce. The tzatziki is definitely homemade with Greek yogurt, and lots of fresh garlic and cucumber. Greek yogurt is really thick and tangy and makes this the best tzatziki sauce I've ever had. The hummus was good - but I can't tell if it is homemade or not.

Soups- there have been two: avgolemono and lentil. The lentil was good, but if I had to choose - I would go for the chicken egg and lemon soup.

Omelet station - yes - you can have omelets cooked to order. With veggies, feta and gyro meat. I admit, the hubby was skeptical, but it turned out to be a great combination. He wouldn't even let me have any - bastard. And best of all - the eggs were cooked corrected - moist and set but not dry and flavorless. Don't like your eggs cooked moist? I am sure they could ruin the dish if you ask.

Entrees and side dishes - Wow. Here is an embarrassment of riches. There were several dishes that were on the buffet both times: Pitas and gyro meat (for those that insist), pastitsio and moussaka, Dolmathes in avgolemono sauce, baby squid and cod (lightly battered and fried), lemon potatoes, green beans, spanokopita and tyropita - it is a pretty extensive list. The first week we went there were the best meatballs I've ever had. No kidding. Light, flavorful...hmmmmmmm

And lastly, Dessert - Yeah they had baklava. They also had several other dishes that were great - such as rice pudding and Greek yogurt with honey and fruit.


I also have to mention the staff. Friendly! Right on the spot with service despite that we were eating a buffet. An example: My hubby got a bad creamer for his coffee. The waiter noticed it from across the room and brought him new coffee without having to be asked. That's service!

So yeah - it was a pretty great way to spend my $15. I am very interested in eating from the regular menu soon. I would like to try more seafood dishes - I mean Greece is made up of islands....

Anna's Restaurant

7370 Sawmill Rd
Columbus, OH 43235

(614) 799-2207

Wow!! Time flies even when you are not having fun!

I took an assistant manager position with my store - better money, but you know how it goes - the company expects twice what they are paying for. So beside working - I haven't done a whole heck of a lot.

I did take some time out to meet with Lisa and Becke, two of my fellow food bloggers here in the capital city. We had brunch at Zen Cha tea salon. (I love Zen Cha - great teas and pretty decent food. Their bubble tea is the best because they make it fresh, not from the weird mixes like so many other places in town.) Us gals decided that this summer would be a great time to get all our other fellow bloggers together for a confab. Also, maybe a bunch of us could meet up for a raid on one of the farmer's markets on Saturday as well. It's always fun to put faces with blogs!! If you are interested and live in the Central Ohio Area, let us know!

Because I had been pressed for time lately, I have been eating out a little bit more than usual. And boy does it suck! I hate chain restaurants! No consistency - too many crap-tastic items on the menu usually pulled out of a freezer and nuked at the last minute. Some restaurants suffer from "food service-itis" - sauces from mixes, pre-cut potatoes plus other atrocities - you know that every box and can in the pantry says "SYSCO" on it. Life is too short to eat nasty food like that...

So what's a gal to do?

My solution - Try to eat at little places in town that offer great food at reasonable prices. It isn't always easy. There are a lot of really bad restaurants out there. You all have horror stories of that little Mexican joint that was so scary you were afraid to eat there the moment you walked in the door. There used to be a "diner" here in town that would display strawberry pies with green mold growing on them. Thank god they died a quick and painful death before any of their patrons did.

My first favorite hole in the wall is Mi Mi Cafe [5858 Columbus Square, in the Columbus Square Shopping Center (just down the way from the Bowling Palace) at the corner of Cleveland Ave and E. Dublin-Granville Rd.] I learned about the cafe from Lisa over at the Restaurant Widow. I count on her for her flawless ability to sniff out great food. So far she and her hubby have batted 1000 for all the places they recommended and I have tried. So get on over there and check her blog out!

So back to Mi Mi's. They have the best Banh Mi sandwiches. Who would have thought a fusion of French and Vietnamese cuisine would be so freakin' addictive? Crusty bread is layered with pate, mayo, pork, pickled radish and carrots, a little bit of fresh jalapeno and cilantro for kick, topped with a little fish sauce. Oh boy! It is really good. I am drooling just thinking about them. Here is a picture of the culprit.

Best part - it's only $3.50 per sandwich. No kidding. Worth it at twice the price.

While the hubby and I are addicted to the sandwiches and the Vietnamese coffee (both hot and cold), our daughter loves the Pho. I do too, truthfully. For those of you not familiar with this noodle dish - it is rice noodles served in a excellent Asian-style beef broth, and topped with thinly sliced beef, tripe, and meatballs that have gelatinous pieces of tendon in them. It comes with a platter of herbs, bean sprouts and lime to doctor the soup to your taste, plus hoisin and sriracha sauces to dip your meats into. My hubby just adds the sriracha right into the broth. When we were all sick with the flu a couple weeks ago, this is what I brought home for dinner. Better than mom's chicken soup!!

Mi Mi's has a very small menu. Only four items on it - plus coffee, tea and bubble tea. Lunch is pretty busy, with the patrons stopping in to grab sandwiches - so you may want to stop in for dinner if you can't take time for a leisurely lunch. Sunday morning is really really busy. The owner joked it was because all the nail salons were closed on Sundays. The service can be slow when they are busy - they only have three people running the whole operation. Be patient. It is worth it.

The other place I have been stopping into on the way home is Pita Hut Grille. It's been years since I had a shawarma. What is a shawarma you ask? In this case, its a combination of beef. lamb and turkey that is highly seasoned and then roasted on a spit. It is then slivered off and tucked into a pita with hummus, tomatoes, onions and pickles, and topped with a tahini dressing. Dammit - now I need to go get one. I'll be back in a few....OK all better now....

Their side dishes are acceptable - I didn't like their tabbouleh. It was too minty - it over powered everything else. I like fresh mint - but there are limits to everything. Their French fries are food service - acceptable but not great. They had an eggplant salad ( I am not sure of its official name) and while it was pretty darn good the rest of the family was less than impressed.

Pita Hut is not the bargain that Mi Mi's Cafe is. At roughly $5 a sandwich, it sets me back almost $20 for three sandwich combos. True, they have coupons on their website, but still...it ain't cheap fast food folks. If you are really poor, you'd better resort to the dollar menu at Wendy's across the street.

Now here is a debate that my family had when eating their dinner one night - Shawarmas or Gyros?

My family is gyro crazy. It is our fast food of choice when we are on the Northwest side of town. We have been customers of The Gyro Shoppe for about 15 years now and I figure the owners must be buying a summer home with all the money we have spent there over the years. Now here is the thing - don't expect this to be a Greek restaurant. It ain't. Don't expect haute cuisine. It ain't that either. And it definitely isn't health food. They serve a great gyro and fries quickly and cheaply. I love their fries. They are cut on site and fried up fresh. They aren't like Mickey D fries at all - but add some seasoned salt and they rock my world.They also have something called a Romanburger which a double burger with everything PLUS several slices of grilled salami, feta and gyro sauce. I don't even want to think about how many years have been taken off my life by those damn things. Lastly, they also have baklava for dessert. Lots of kinds - including chocolate chip. Hang on - need to make another quick trip....must have chocolate chips....hmmmmmmmmmmm.......

So after a heated debate in the best "If a tiger and a lion fought - who would win?" tradition, it was decided that if we were presented with a gyro and a shawarma - the gyro would win. Sorry Pita Hut - it was the fries that really swung the vote in this case. A good helping of salty starch is a requirement for every fast food experience and the Gyro Shoppe's fries are superior to yours...

So yes Virginia, there is good fast food out there - even if you have to search for it and possibly pay a little more than you would at the Golden Arches. But isn't making your taste buds happy worth a couple extra bucks now and then?

And the gloves come off...

Like most mothers who are single, we have lives and children to feed and we are doing it the best way we can. So,
I can not slave behind the stove for 2 hours and 45 minutes with my mommy to make Rosie Eat Bite Your Tongue It’s SO Good Soup; and
After working all day, dropping kids off to sports and pick them up from after school programs I am tired as hell.

Do you have 5 kids and no husband or help?
So pardon me, I find it refreshing to see someone who can show me how to create meals in a short period, while using ingredients that I can purchase form the store (everyone does not have a Secret Garden in the back yard) so that I able to spend time with my kids before they fall asleep. I like eating around the table with my family, allowing my kids to assist me in preparing quick meals and having lively discussions with my kids and not passing out because I am tired. And too your comment about edutainment. I like the style. I can watch food programs with my kids that don’t bore them and me to death. No, Rachael is not for everyone...and sometimes she is not for me but, they are people out there who are looking for ways to create quick meals and spend time with family who can’t wake up in the morning and try out recipes all day long. She is popular for a reason.

I CAN NOT SPEND QUALITY TIMES WITH MY KIDS IF I AM PREPARING MEALS FOR 4 HOURS.

I have a 3 year old toddler, 5, 9, 13, and 17 year old - all boys and did I mention that I am by myself(38 year old MILITARY WIDOW for the last year and a half). So tell me when do I have time to create this dish: Rosie's It Too Damn Cold Outside Chili. Which should be titled,
Rosie’s Its too damn long from me to make this chili because I got kids to feed, homework to check, and work to finish.

You and your bloggers must come the some socio-economic demographic. You all (your bloggers) sound mad because folks can relate to Rachel Ray. I don’t have a husband that could watch the kids while I enjoy my “Lustful Apron Experience.” Do you have 5 kids and are on a limited budget? Could you see how that could be difficult? I pride myself on making meals that are healthy and affordable for my family. So, before you and your “friends” start to insult anyone you must consider that everyone is not in the same boat as you are.

Oh, by the way this is the Anonymous writer who you wanted to sign up so my name can be displayed. In reference to your “Back on the 4th I posted about how I had fallen out of love with the Food Network and garnered this comment.

Yeah, do you remember I talked about how mean you are. I was wrong, you are not mean. You are just not empathic to others lives.

Sammies,
Regina

And Roise I will advise you to respond with caution.

Regina - It is nice to put a name to the comments. The world is so large and there are so many people who feel that they can just "flame on" without standing behind what they have to say. Congratulations on having the courage to take responsibility for your words.

I did not intend for my comments to be a personal attack on you - how could they be since there was no name attached to the words? I do not know you or your situation any more than you know me or my situation. How can I be empathic to someone who I know nothing about? As far as I knew, you were one of Rachel's paid publicists who go around defending her honor. (And don't say there aren't paid guns who do it - that's the way it works in the big city.)

Actually Regina - I don't have time to slave over a hot stove every day either - even if I do only have one child and a even bigger baby (the hubby). I work full time with overtime, plus freelance graphics work and helping my hubby with the family business. That means I generally need to make decent meals in a quick amount of time. I am also always looking for the cheapest way to use my food dollars. I have better uses for my time and money then making high end meals every day of the week. (Actually, that is one of my pet peeves with other bloggers - but that's another column.)

As far as Rachel Ray is concerned - I do not think she is the only answer. I outlined my issues with her earlier. I still stand behind them. I am glad you and others like you love Ray Ray. If her show gives you inspiration-great. But she is not the only show in town - and "her" solutions are not always the only or best ones. Quick "one night stands" as I call them are something I resort to only when I haven't had the foresight to plan ahead or my plans go to hell in a hand basket -and we all have those weeks - sometimes more often than we care to remember.

However - that being said - I am also not a fan of Once A Month Cooking. For those of you who haven't encountered that before, it means you buy everything you need for an entire month of meals and cook it over a weekend once a month - usually with the help of others who split the rewards of the labors. Then everything gets tossed into the freezer and pulled out and defrosted according to a set menu. I don't have a whole weekend to give up for cooking meals - and I bet you don't either. I also dislike the fact you can't really shop for great bargains in the weekly ads. And I really don't love casseroles that much.

Planning ahead is just as important as "30 minute meals" in my schedule.

Sunday is generally my cooking/household chores day. It's the day the weekly ads come out and my whole family is home so I can use them as cheap slave labor. I get up early, hit the stores, come home and get to cracking. (Most of my blogs are written on Sunday too, by the way. I sneak it in between loads of laundry and dishes.)

Let's take that chili you disparaged - that is my mid sized car recipe. I make it about once a year or so when I have the good fortune to luck into inexpensive ground beef ($1.29/lb at Meijer's) When I wanna make my compact car chili - it's different. First, I cut the amount of meat by about 2 pounds. Second, I substitute about half the beef for ground turkey ($.79/lb at Aldi's). I also throw in a couple extra cans of beans to make up to difference in bulk. It makes it a little more beany than I like but hey - everyone gets to suffer with me afterwards. Then- the best part - it goes in the crock pot on low and cooks for six hours while I do some illustrations for one of my clients. When it's all cooled off, I then portion it out - some of it is for dinner the next day, but the rest goes into quart sized freezer baggies and tossed into my small chest freezer. (At $85 bucks on sale the freezer was a great investment.)

So how does the freezer chili get used? Sometimes it's chili mac. Boil pasta, toss into chili, top with cheese and serve with green beans and a salad. Or chili dogs - served with carrots and chips for a midweek treat. Sometimes I will make chili burritos - messy but good.

Another thing I do when I hit the cheap meat bonanza is to spend a couple of hours making up dinners that I can throw in my freezer. Ox tails on clearance? The it's oxtail pasta sauce. Fast? No- but the time it's in the oven on Sunday morning allows me time to get laundry done and clean the bathroom. Into the freezer when its done! Ground beef on sale? That means meatloaf and meatballs - essentially the same recipe. I make up a big batch of mix, portion out the meatballs, then add a couple more ingredients to the mix that left and portion into two loaves - one for Sunday night dinner and the other for the freezer. Meatballs get cooked in the oven, then tossed with a jar of sauce then frozen. Then the meatloaf is tossed in the oven with some potatoes. An hour later - dinner is served. And there are leftovers for lunch for me and the kid. Meatloaf sandwiches rock.

Chicken on sale? I like whole chickens best. I get more mileage from them than anything else. Last week, Meijer had whole chickens on sale, $.69/pound. My two birds when in the oven. Half of one chicken got eaten for dinner. I made plain white rice and served it with defatted pan juices and glazed carrots. I also chopped up a bunch of veggies for later in the week while I was hacking up the carrots and bagged them up. Meat got stripped off the bones and packaged up. Chicken bones went into the crock pot and turned into stock overnight using the tail ends of the veggies left over from preping dinner. Monday morning - took the stock out of the crock, quickly strained it and put it in the fridge. (I know you would not have time to throw the bones in overnight, Regina, with five boys to wrangle in the morning - so I would recommend throwing the bones in the fridge and doing the broth on Monday night on the stove. It's the type of thing that doesn't really need watching while you are bathing, cajoling, counseling and otherwise parenting your boys.) Monday lunch - chicken sandwiches for me and the kid. Monday dinner - fried rice made with leftover rice, plus the leftover chicken and a bag of stir fry veggies from the freezer. Tuesday - Chicken noodle soup made with the broth from the bones, the pre-chopped veggies from Sunday and a bag of noodles from Aldi's. Wednesday night dinner is usually something like a casserole - tuna or chili mac so that I can have leftovers for Thursday - which is usually my really long night at work. It is usually the hubby's night to cook as well. Maybe you could teach your oldest how to make something simple like spaghetti. I just taught my daughter how to cook baked pork chops so she can get dinner started on Wednesdays when she beats the rest of us home...

So there are some of my tips - true they are not recipes.They are not peppered with cute catch phrases - every person needs to come up with their own in my opinion (both recipes and catchphrases). And I am most likely not as photogenic as some TV hosts. But, I get the job done. No one in my family starves. They are healthy, well fed and happy. PLUS, I have a reputation as a great cook. And I don't need hoards of fans to convince me of that. I simply have to look at my friends and family to know it.

Rosie

PS Regina - my condolences on the death of your husband. My family and I appreciate the sacrifice he made for us so that we can live fear free in our homes. Maybe that is a small consolation to you considering that you still have to raise your family without him, but it is all I, a stranger, have to offer.