Berkeley Farmer's Market

Berkeley Farmer's Market April 2005. Hey, any locals to the SF Bay Area? I and a few other food bloggers will be at the Berkeley Farmer's Market on May 21 with copies of Digital Dish. Sample some strawberries and come by and say hi!

Soup from Leftovers

I keep a container in my freezer for leftover bits of vegetables. When it's full, it's generally time to make some soup. It never comes out the way twice, of course, and you have to do a bit of tasting throughout and adjust some seasonings. Basically, I start with about a quart of broth, more or less depending on what I'm using up. In this case, I had made the beef broth a few days ago so I skimmed the fat that had hardened on top while it sat in the refrigerator, then measured out about a quart into a soup pan. The rest of the broth was frozen in 4 cup containers for another day.

I pulled out my container of leftover vegetables, labeled, clearly enough, as "stuff for soup." I popped the frozen contents in the broth. There was corn, green beans, carrots, and peas I think. A few nights ago I'd made some summer squash casserole and had a bit left over in the frig so I added that as well. In looking through the shelves, I also spotted a bit of leftover rice-a-roni and added that. Then I spotted the last of the pinto beans I'd made Sunday and added them as well. After it warmed up and simmered a few minutes, I tasted it and added some salt and pepper.

It's good. Just a simple vegetable beef soup. This would have been even better if I'd had some leftover beef to put in but I didn't. As it is, it makes a nice warming side dish for the suddenly cool weather we're having (and rain too!) right as the girls start swimming.

Chili Verde: 85 cents a serving

When I was checking out the marked down beef bones I used to make beef broth, I spotted some pork marked down as well. I picked up one pork shoulder steak (bonesless) for .73 and it weighed about a pound. I also saw some "pork stew meat" for $1.73 which was also about a pound. Both of these were originally $2 more but had $2 off coupons so for less than $2.50 I picked up 2 pounds of pork for chili verde. It's things like this that make me question the "$40 a day" meals as supposed bargains. I know in other parts of the country meat is regularly on sale for much cheaper than I can find it conveniently in the suburbs where I live (in the SF Bay Area).

Oh, I had been worried about my pots, since I had one simmering beef broth and the other big one with the pinto beans in it. I remembered my deep covered non-stick skillet and used that and it was perfect.

1 Tbs oil
2 pounds pork, cubed
1 onion, diced
1 7 ounce can diced green chilies
1 14.5 ounce can tomatoes, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup water
salt to taste, garlic salt would be good too
1 Tbs cornstarch plus 2 Tbs water

Cube the pork into 1" or so cubes and brown in the oil. Add the onions and cook a few minutes, stirring. Add the chilies, tomatoes (undrained), garlic, and water. Bring to a simmer, cover partially and cook 2-3 hours. Add more water if necessary and stir periodically. When you're ready to serve, mix the cornstarch and water, then stir into the chili and simmer a few minutes to thicken.

I served this with pinto beans and flour tortillas. I did the pinto beans a bit differently though, adding a tablespoon of bacon grease instead of the salt pork. Came out great, as always! I debated about adding a can of tomato sauce, but decided simpler was better as a side for the chili verde.

The girls wrinkled their noses a bit when they saw dinner. Chili verde was an unknown and kids just don't generally like stuff all "mushed together" I think. But the younger one wrapped the pork in a tortilla, took a bite, looked at me and said "Mom, this is really good! Can I take some for lunch tomorrow?" The other took a few more minutes of looking at it and watching her sister. Then she had to get up and grate some cheese to go with it and get some sour cream. She put the pork, the cheese, and some sour cream and rolled it all up. Took a bite. Took another bite. And another. "So?" I said. "Uh, yeah, this is really good!" The only disappointment for them turned out to be that I didn't fry and mash up the beans for refried beans. Next time.

I want to try to start calculating costs for some meals. The magazines and "news media" seem to think $1/serving is unheard of, but I swear we can do better than that pretty easily.

Costs:
$2.46 pork
.33 onion
1.19 tomatoes (frequently on sale for less but I don't have a record so I used the store price)
1.00 green chilies (probably on sale for less periodically)
.10 garlic? (.50 a head right now)

I think this would serve us more than twice so I'll count it as 6 servings, making it .85 a serving for some great food! I'm not counting the cost of cornstarch or salt. Garlic I usually grow myself but I estimated it here. Flour tortillas would add another 15 cents per serving, but I personally found the chili verde just as good on top of the pinto beans--or you could make the flour tortillas for far less of course. I've done them before.

And the beans... 99 cents a bag or cheaper if you buy 2 pounds at once. Bacon grease is free if you cook bacon otherwise add a bit for some salt pork. Chili powder I buy at the warehouse store and don't have the price handy. Another 33 cents for the onion. Probably 6-8 servings so 22 cents or so. Compare that to a can at $.75 (cheapest price I've found) to $1.79with perhaps 3 servings so actually if you can find them on sale and don't want to go to the trouble, the canned ones are a pretty good deal! Dry beans are, of course, cheaper, but canned ones are pretty darn close and much more convenient.

One thing I discovered a long time ago was to check the "ethnic" sections for spices and such, by the way. The price difference is amazing for stuff like cinnamon, bay leaves, chili powder and the like. So if you don't have access to a warehouse store, check the local ethnic groceries or the ethnic sections of your regular supermarket.

Addendum: I hadn't actually looked at the $40/day book I had seen referenced, but it is about eating out for that much, which makes me feel a bit better. However, the local papers here did a "budget cooking" article a while back using $100 for 4 days, dinners only, to feed 4 adults.

Addendum 2: We've now had 7 servings of this (2 dinners for 3 of us plus 1 lunch for me). I froze part of it already and still have at least 1 more serving in the frig.

Beef Broth

Ah, true confessions here. I make chicken broth all the time. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I bought chicken broth. I keep a container for carrot, onion, and celery ends in the freezer and a bag full of chicken bones and make broth periodically. I freeze it 1, 2, and 4 cup portions so I can use one or two cups as needed and make soup with the 4 cup portions. But I never seem to buy any beef with bones and have never bought beef bones specifically to make soup before.

But today I must have the hit the grocery market right after they marked the meat down. I found 2 packages of beef bones labeled as "soup bones" and they looked meaty enough. One package was $1.11 with a $1 off coupon and the other larger package was $2.12 with a $1 off coupon. So for less than $1.25 I figured I had to try it!

I'm working off Julia Child's "How to Cook" and began by roasting the bones with some chopped onion, celery, and carrot for 30 minutes at 450. Dumped it all in the soup pot and deglazed the pan, adding that as well. Added 4 or 5 quarts of water, some herbs and peppercorns, more carrots, onion, and celery and a seeded tomato. I never would have thought to add the tomato. It's simmering slowly away, smelling wonderful. Next question will be what kind of soup to make with it. I personally would lean towards a French Onion but the girls wouldn't be thrilled. I may do a beef barley vegetable instead.

I also found some pork roast on sale and am going to try to make chile verde tonight. However, without thinking I started some pinto beans also and am now out of big pots.

Leftover Burritos

Tonight we had one of our favorite means of using up leftovers. I've made these with pork, beef, and chicken. For myself, I'm happy with vegetarian burritos as well but the kids like a bit of meat in theirs.

I had barbecued a big roast the other night, having rubbed in some spice mix I bought from Costco. (Pappy's?) Normally I like to make my own rubs/mixes, but the price made this hard to pass up. The kids said it was just a tad spicy for them but I thought it was great.

I chopped up some of the leftovers and heated up some refried beans, tortillas, and leftover rice. I also put out small bowls of grated cheese, sour cream, and avocados. I heated up some flour tortillas in the microwave in my cheap-o Styrofoam tortilla warmer.

That was dinner. We each put what we liked on our tortillas and rolled them up into burritos. Very quick. Very easy. And a very good way to use leftovers!

Pasta Salad

Over the weekend, summer started. Well, not exactly. But our summer social life revolves around our neighborhood swim club and we got the first phone call of "Hey, we're lighting some coals and cooking out tonight at the pool. Want to join us?" I had some of those great apple-chicken sausages. I had some sugar snap peas for munchies, some olives... but I wanted to bring a side dish of some kind to share. I decided to make a pasta salad. I cooked up a package of flavored spiral pasta from the Mendocino Pasta Company. I set aside a bit of it for the kids to eat plain so the amount of pasta is guestimated. The pasta is flavored, which added just a bit of a kick to the salad. I've read about adding some red pepper flakes to the water as you cook the pasta but I haven't yet tried that.

8 ounces pasta, cooked and cooled
1 red pepper, sliced thinly
1 yellow squash, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 6 oz can olives, sliced
1 10 oz frozen peas
4 ounces Cheddar cheese, cubed
8 ounces oil and vinegar dressing (I used Kraft Zesty Italian)

Cook up the pasta and drain it. Add all the other ingredients and mix well, then chill a few hours. This was a hit with the adults but the kids preferred the plain pasta.

Strawberries, Tomatoes, Basil, and Red Onion

Lots red in this and very pretty! Wish I'd caught a picture before we devoured it. No measurements for this one either. A friend had an overabundance of fresh strawberries and made this for dinner the other night.

sliced strawberries
quartered and sliced tomatoes
fresh basil
thinly sliced red onion
sliced mozzarella (optional)
balsamic vinegar

Layer everything prettily on a plate, then drizzle with the balsamic vinegar. Mmmm. The combination is delightful!

Ask Extension Database, NDSU Extension Service

Ask Extension Database, NDSU Extension Service. Tons of information on freezing all kinds of food here.

A new way to cook rice

I've read this idea plenty of times and finally set out to try it. Rather than carefully measuring the water for rice, bringing it to boil then turning it way down low and cooking the rice, I brought a large pot of water to boil and added the rice. I let it boil, stirring occasionally until it was soft (about 20 minutes). Then I drained it and rinsed it. It came out great!

Applesauce Pork Chops

Adapted from a Taste of Home recipe... I almost always cook up sauteed apples whenever I make pork chops. That's easy. Peel (or not) , core, and slice apples, then cook in a bit of butter and sprinkle with brown sugar when they're soft. This recipe called for cooking the pork chops with the apples and applesauce and they came out very moist and good. My girls complained that "the apples taste like pork" but they loved the pork chops.

4-5 boneless pork chops
1 Tbs oil
2-3 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 cup water
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbs water

Heat the oil and brown the pork chops on both sides. Drain the excess oil off, if any, then add the apples, applesauce, water, onion, Worcestershire, garlic powder, and pepper. Stir, bring to a simmer, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Take the pork chops out onto a platter, stir together the cornstarch and water and add that to the apple mixture. Stir and simmer for a few minutes, then put the pork chops back in and heat through.

I have other good pork chop recipes but I like this one in terms of last minute attention. You can sit and visit with company while your side dishes of rice and carrots cook, then pay a bit of last-minute attention. I cooked up my rice with chicken broth instead of plain water and it seemed just right with this.