To Thine Own Self, Be Food

Since the beginning of January, my husband and I have instituted a new way of spending money on food. We pay cash. A Mason jar sit atop our bedroom dresser; it contains ones, fives, tens, and twenties.  Anytime we run to the grocery store or to a restaurant for a meal, we use only cash from the jar.  Let me tell you, when there's a limited amount of greenage, you really rethink your choices. "We're having barbequed chicken sandwiches tonight...hmmm, should I shell out $2 bucks for a package of hamburger buns?  Or shall I thaw out a loaf of homemade sourdough bread in my freezer for the sandwiches (and make another loaf later) instead?" It's an easy choice, don't you think?  How about this one? "Should I buy the prepeeled and precut baby carrots for snacking or the cheaper bagged carrots, which I will have to peel and cut myself?" Yeah, it's a no-brainer to me, too.  I'll take what's behind door number two. But, as always, th...

First, a silent moment of thanks to the person (it's disputed - either a guy in Omaha or a guy in New York) who decided to combine the flavors of corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing...and then named it after himself. And...let's also send up a second wave of appreciation for the person who thought to make it into a pizza. I happened to have a phenomenal Reuben at Stein's Market & Deli in New Orleans recently, and within two days of my arrival home, a recipe for 'Reuben Pizza' was in my gmail inbox from www.allrecipes.com . Fate?  Coincidence?  I didn't ponder that question very long.  I simply decided I must make that pizza... And what a simple process. A basic pizza has: pizza crust, tomato sauce, variety of toppings (indefinite), and mozzarella cheese.  A Reuben pizza makes the following substitutions: Thousand Island dressing = tomato sauce, corned beef or pastrami AND canned sauerkraut = indefinite variety of top...

 Two grocery shopping excursions into the month of January have already provided fruit for reflection. Per one of our January resolutions, we withdrew cash from the ATM machine about seven days ago...with the sole purpose of using it for groceries and eating out. The idea behind this experiment is if we limit ourselves to a fixed amount of money for food every month, maybe we'll be forced to analyze or reorganize our eating habits...for the betterment of our waistlines and pocketbooks. And let me tell you, when you only take $100 to the local supermarket exclusively for food purchase, you do start reevaluating your habits. A disclaimer first: due to deals I'd taken advantage of in November and December, not to mention trips to Costco, our freezer is set right now in the meat department.  Thus, it's possible my numbers for the next month will be skewed, since high meat costs won't be part of my bill. First of all, I pay much more attention to prices and deal...

This blog entry has quite a backstory, but I'll sum it up quickly. In making the mega-batch of Red Sauce, I drained roughly 32 oz of juice from a large can of diced tomatoes.  "Waste not, want not", so I froze the leftover liquid, to be used at a later time. That time was today.  My original thought was to concoct a chili or similar, but then...I had ideas! Searching online, I found a recipe for Tomato-Basil soup at www.allrecipes.com.  With slight modifications (I had no crushed tomatoes or fresh basil) to the soup, today's lunch was soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Raves all around, and I guess now I can say goodbye to Campbell's Tomato Soup. Thank you - allrecipes.com! That left me with another 20 or so ounces of remaining tomato juice, and I was hankering to do something crazy with it.  And what would be on the other end of the tomato usage spectrum, if innocent, comforting tomato soup is on the another? The Bloody Mary, of course!  Blo...

New Orleans' Donut - the Beignet.  Powdered sugary goodness. A very unflattering picture of my son eating a fried gator Po-Boy. The New Orleans trifecta: jambalaya, red beans and rice, and shrimp etouffee Smothered crabcakes Brent's pleasant surprise: a muffaletta My new passion: The Reuben And yeah, a culinary tour of New Orleans isn't complete without a seafood dish of some kind!

For your viewing pleasure, a photo narrative... But first - context.  God Bless Andrew Carnegie and his public library idea.  I often forget what a veritable treasure trove my public library is, especially in regards to cookbooks.  Supposedly, my husband is a fan of beets...although I've seen him eat them, oh, a half a dozen times.  In FIFTEEN years.  Anyway... I've been quite prejudiced against the blood-red root veg, and I think it comes from my dishwashing days (as a young teen) at my aunt and uncle's restaurant.  Cold pickled beet juice combined with cottage cheese residue congealed into a bright pink mess on salad plates I was to scrape clean?  Did people actually eat that?  Disgusting!  And I harbored that bias for a long time... But, if there's any conviction that we here at "Be Food" (and by 'we', I mean me) try to adhere to, it's that life is about learning and letting go.  So - let's roast some beets! Mind over matter,...

First of all - welcome back to To Thine Own Self, Be Food!  It has been over three weeks since my last post.  That whole pesky novel-writing thing, you know... Second of all, check this out: This is the dividing and conquering of 50 pounds of bread flour, purchased from the local Costco (ConAgra Harvest).  At $15 a bag, it's quite a deal. However, being a King Arthur brand user, it's disconcerting to discover that Costco's flour is bleached and enriched...and so comes down to the age-old question: cost over nutrition?  I will keep you posted on how my loaves turn out. Third, we were running low on butter earlier this week, and my daughter (10) announced that she wanted to make butter.  So, I sent her and her father off in the direction of the Google.  Thirty minutes later, we had homemade butter (the shakingshakingshaking of heavy cream).  But, my oldest son became enamored of it (as did many others in the house), and I think it now shall be...