The Joys of Bread-Based Puddings

We never eat the ends of our breads.  Not only that, but we rarely ever manage to finish off all of our baked goods (biscuits, pancakes, etc.) before they go stale.  They say its bad luck to throw bread away - the idea being that throwing away bread means throwing away prosperity - so I've been avoiding throwing bread in the trash for years.  We used to freeze it all and take it to the park to feed the ducks and geese, but, as much as I love those birds and enjoy feeding them, I wanted another option. So, I've been testing out some ways to reuse these bread products to make our food dollar stretch as much as possible.

As it turns out, there are a ton of great pudding recipes out there that let you turn your stale bread products into crowd-pleasing desserts.  My personal favorite is the classic Amish Bread Pudding, which always turns out sweet and spongy.  Once I even made it with a combination of wheat bread and coffee cake and ended up with a fluffy, cinnamon treat that was perfect for breakfast. 

Occasionally a fancy bread pudding recipe will make its way into a modern cookbook, but for the most part, this ancient style of pudding seem to have been sadly forgotten in the new American Foodie world.  Luckily, I have my favorite old stand-by for forgotten kitchen wisdom: The American Woman's Cookbook.  In it, I have found several creative versions of bread pudding, including coconut-bread pudding and bread pudding with jam.  It's amazing to me what delectable treats can be made from the scraps in our fridge and pantry!

Finally, but not the least in my recently acquired repertoire of bready desserts, I have finally discovered the joys of a dish I've heard about my whole life but never gotten to taste: a Brown Betty.  As it turns out, this dish is a super-simple fruit pudding made with bread crumbs (it's typically made with apples, but any in-season fruit can be used).  And no, this is not the apple crisp so often referred to as a Brown Betty (in fact, when I Googled images of the dish, all I came up with were pictures of crisps), but a thick, gelatinous goo that tastes wonderful and could be parsed over oatmeal or pancakes as easily as it could be eaten by itself with some cream or ice cream. 

With all these things to do with my extra bread, I do hope the birds don't go hungry!

  

Simple Tips: Save, Re-use, & Save more!

Many of the simple things our parents and grandparents did to save money have been forgotten in this modern age of waste.  Trying to be a sustainable person, always, I recycle…but reuse is an even more important concept if you are not just trying to be sustainable but a (thrifty) sustainable survivor.

As a result, I have begun incorporating the wisdom of my mom and grandmom, both of whom grew up in hard times, by saving and reusing as much as possible.  Here are some of the things I have been re-using lately:

• The wrappers from sticks of butter: I keep these in my fridge to use for greasing pans and have had to spend far less on things like olive oil and cooking spray.
• All seal-able plastic containers, such as the tubs for butter, sour cream, and yogurt: Why buy Tupperware when you can store your leftovers in something free?
• Paper and plastic bags from the grocery store: The plastic bags can be reused as trash bags for small cans.  The paper bags can be used for a multitude of storage purposes, one of which is using them to store potatoes and onions in (this prevents them from rotting as quickly).
• Milk jugs and other containers used to store liquids: I like to use the milk jugs for storing iced tea and the smaller containers for storing the liquids from canned foods (I use these to make soup stock).
• Gift bags & bows: who says you can't tear off the tags and use these over and over again? After all, it’s the gift inside that counts. 
• Technically, if you open your presents carefully, you can save the wrapping paper as well.  If you, like me, have a five year old who loves to rip open their presents, though, I say just use something cheap (like a paper bag or the Sunday comics) to wrap them.
• Old tires: Why pay the disposal fee to a mechanic? Take them home and use them as tire swings, bouncy yard seats (bury the tire on its side, halfway in the ground), or planters (just lay them on their side and fill them up with soil).

Just for Fun: Beer!

So I just saw a picture on Facebook of a beer one of my friends was drinking.  Yes, she took a picture of her beer - don't we all? - but it wasn't just any beer.  It was beer from Lagunitas Brewing Company, a smallish company that seems to specialize in humorous beer names.  Why am I writing about beer, then, you may ask? Well, look at the picture:

"Jobless Recovery Ale?" Boy, I wish I were a beer drinker because I so need that!  Just the name of the beer makes me feel a little better all ready. 

The beer itself is described as a "malty, robust...ale" and, according to my friend Andy, it is quite delish.  Too bad the incredible irony of this is that it’s not exactly the right price for the truly jobless...  Now, if you aren't jobless, but your friends or family are… well, there  you go: ready-made, funny but bound-to-be-appreciated birthday or holiday gift!

Becoming a Modern-Day Apple Annie

When you're stuck at home because the job search isn't panning out, you have to think outside the box.  In the depression, when so many were out of work and scrounging for the money they needed to get by,  people began to realize the value of making use of any talents/skills to earn even the smallest amount of money here and there. 

In our own home, both my husband and I are currently unemployed and on the job hunt.  During the last time the country had to deal with an economic crisis like this, only the husband would be looking for work outside of the home.  Probably the only negative result of women entering the workforce during WWII was the fact that it led to the American standard of the two-income household - a phenomenon that has resulted in inflation to the point that a one-income household seems an impossibility to most lower-income families nowadays.  When my husband first lost his job at the beginning of the economic crisis, though, our daughter was not school-age yet and, after doing some very enlightening calculations, we realized that, by using the extra time at home to economize, we could actually save money by his staying home and being a house husband while I was going to graduate school.  Now that I have no student loans coming in and no income, however, survival has become a serious issue, the crisis stage of which is merely being staved off by the generosity of our (not-so-well-off-themselves) family.

Though it would be ideal, now that our daughter is in Pre-K, for both me and my husband to find jobs outside of the home, being poor for as long as we have has resulted in difficulties in even this area.  To get by, we've had to sell off assets, including our second car. While we had no choice about it at the time, only one of the two of us is capable of telling a potential employer that we have reliable transportation and full availability now (especially since we live in an area without nearby public transportation).  As a result, one of the two of us has to be on the lookout for a full-time job while the other has to work their availability around the other's schedule.  Of course, this is all in theory because neither one of us has been able to find a job yet.

Despite my education, my own job search, while promising at first, has been proving long and unfruitful, so recently my husband has taken point and begun looking for a full-time job while I try to figure out some part-time ways of making an income. As a certified geek, the internet was the first place I looked to for possible sources of even the smallest amount of extra income.   I checked out some paid survey websites, but most of them seemed somewhat sketchy to me and each one I visited filled my email with huge amounts of spam.  

selling my talent online

The next thing I tried was based on the suggestion of a friend: I've been doing art on Photoshop for years as a hobby and my work has gotten pretty good, if I do say so myself.  My friend suggested that I try to use that talent to make some extra money by selling prints of my art, so I began with a Facebook artist page, started looking for a local place I can get things printed, and have been slowly starting to try to develop my art into an internet-based side business.  No, it hasn't really taken off yet, but a couple of family members have bought cards and a little money is better than none!

Since I love writing and also do this as a hobby, this blog is one of the other ways I'm trying to earn a small amount of extra money on the side.  While it’s a wonderful dream (that I certainly have) to eventually get your blog sponsored and get paid to write full-time, you can also make scraps of cash by using AdSense on any blogs and websites you have.  Adsense works by placing ads on your page and paying you a small amount each time a visitor to your page clicks on an ad (so help me out - click on some of those adds!).

Thanks to my education, I'm considered enough of an expert in Chemistry that I qualify to be an online tutor, which is another avenue of income I'm currently pursuing.  Like everything else I'm trying, its something that makes use of my talents and skills, that I can do in my spare time, and that I can do from home.  Yes, I'm going to be spending a lot of time at my computer and may not be able to update everything every day (for instance, this blog might have to get tuned down to 2-3 posts per week instead of daily posts as it has begun).  I'm going to be busy, yes, but I'm trying to turn myself into a modern-day Apple Annie, doing whatever I can to earn what I can, and no one can validly claim that they weren't extremely busy as well!  

New Leaves at the Green Grocers

It's time to go shopping again and the budget is low as always.  Determined to stretch my money while still catering to my sale-based chaotic shopping style, I've been doing some research to create a general list of basics that I can (hopefully) create many cheap but excellent meals from.

I have been searching for many years on the internet to find that one catch-all list of pantry basics from which you can make any basic food on the cheap.  Every list I've come across, whether it is based on  modern urban notions of frugality, backcountry living, or depression-era wisdom (though these, still are some of the best), I've found to contain many suggestions I disagree with.  For instance, many of the lists  suggest buying broths but I say nay! Make your own stock and, when you have the money, buy a box of cheap bouillon cubes to supplement your supply for busy weeks.  Another common suggestion is to buy nuts .  Health wise, this is an excellent choice because nuts are incredible sources of vitamins, minerals, and good fats… Economy wise, though, nuts are a terrible choice as they are one of the most expensive snacks (per serving) you can buy at the grocery store nowadays.  Unfortunately, I do love nuts, so if we must have them, I will buy the cheaper sunflower seeds or peanuts instead.

Ultimately unsatisfied with what I was learning online, I ended up finding a treasure-trove of information in my grandmother-in-law's 1944 American Woman's Cookbook!  In this book, it is suggested that you look at your grocery budget in terms of fifths: Lets say that your budget was $5 (an impossibility nowadays, but it provides for a simple explanation).  One dollar or more should be spent on milk, cream, and cheese (mostly milk).  One dollar should be spent on vegetables and fruit, with a focus on green and yellow veggies.  One dollar or less should be spent on meats and eggs.  And finally, one dollar should be spent on sugars, fats, and other groceries.

The cookbook actually details how much of certain basics each member of the household needs! Most of it is still nutritionally sound, though not all:

Milk - Each child should have 3/4 qt - 1 qt of milk per day.  Each adult should have from 1/3 to 1/2 qt of milk per day. So, for a three-person family like mine, its suggests about a gallon of milk every two days. Eeek! That's a lot of milk! I think this particular wisdom may have been proven invalid via our modern understanding of nutrition… thank goodness. 

Fruits & Veggies - Fruit should be eaten twice/day (but don't forget that tomatoes are fruits!).  Children will typically eat about two potatoes and 1/4 lb veggies per day.  Hard-working adults often can consume two or three times this much!  From my experience with a 6'4" husband, this rings true with the additional factoring in of sheer height. ;)

Meats - Here the book makes a suggestion that my previous vegetarian self loves but my current carnivorous incarnation rails against.  Meats should not be served more than once per day and only about 1/4 lb of meat should be in that serving.  Well, it does make sense both nutritionally and economically, so I'll try to slowly transition this advice into my lifestyle…

Having done my research and searched my brain for bits of advice given to me over the years and my own gathered wisdom, I have now created my own list of kitchen basics to always try to have on hand:

Veggies/Fruits

Tomatoes, Celery, Potatoes (buy in bulk), Onions (buy in bulk), Garlic (buy in bulk), Bag of whatever fruit looks best (oranges, apples, or the mix bags)

Baking Goods 

Bisquick, Cornmeal, Flour, Yeast, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Brown Sugar, White Sugar, Salt, Vanilla extract, Powdered milk - can be reconstituted for cooking, will last on the shelf, and is far cheaper than fresh milk per oz, Shortening - while we often rail against shortening because of its trans-fats, it has many advantages in the sustainable survivor's kitchen because it is shelf-stable, will increase the shelf life of baked goods, and is far cheaper than butter

Canned Goods

Condensed cream-of soups (these add an excellent cheesy texture to dishes for far less money than real cheese, which should be used as sparingly as possible), Tomatoes, Beans, Veggies, Fruits, Tuna, One other cheap canned meat (for variety) Note that canned chicken, while convenient due to its shelf stability, is more expensive, at over $2 a can, than buying some cheap cuts of chicken (or even a whole chicken) that can be used in multiple meals.

Dry Goods

Oatmeal, Rice, Pasta (keep around a variety if possible), Mac & Cheese, Peanut Butter, Honey, Jello, Jelly (You can get these cheap now but always make sure to take some extras on the sly whenever you splurge on restaurants that have the little jam packets), Condiments (mayo, mustard, ketchup), Oil & Vinega, Syrup

Fresh Foods

Eggs, Cheeses, Milk, Cream, Butter/Margarine, Sandwich bread (you can buy a loaf for close to $1 most of the time, which is cheaper than baking your own. Plan to only use this for sandwiches, though, and supplement with home-made bread products)

Once you have these basics, shop the sales to round out your potential meals. Most of your meat and vegetables should be bought based on seasonal availability and sales.  After this, if you are still under your budget, you can splurge on a few extras such as your favorite spices, cold cereal, coconut milk (great for cooking up beans and rice), cocoa powder, or any other extra ingredients you like to use to make meals special.

When you get home, make sure that you place your garlic, onions, and potatoes in a dark, cool area where air can flow around them.  Your best bests for this are baskets or paper grocery bags.  The plastic bags they come in will encourage sprouting, so throw those babies in the recycle bin!

Final note: You'll almost never have to buy everything on this list, so I keep my list in an Excel file that can be printed out to keep track of items we need as we run out of them.

Now off to the grocery store I go! 

Beans, Beans, Good For Your… Wallet

While one ideal of economy is to plan all of your meals and only buy the exact amounts you will need for each dish, my grocery shopping style often results in random extras of items found on sale.  My husband and I, having been vegetarians for 14 years before adding meat back into our diet, still can't help ourselves when we see cans of beans on sale and often find ourselves buying a can of each type. As a result, beans always seem to remain in our pantry when the rest of the food is almost gone.   

Back in the 30's and 40's, the frugal wisdom of the time was to always buy your beans dry.  Unfortunately, this is one of those instances where the wisdom of our grandmothers no longer works because the world has changed.  While a cost comparison does show that dried beans are a few cents cheaper than canned, the cost difference at the market averages out to only 2-3 cents per ounce.  When you factor in the time that dried beans need to be cooked on the stove and the increased cost of the gas and electricity used to heat that stove, there is really no difference between canned and dried beans in terms of price.  Not to mention that time is money…so, really, the canned beans are the cheaper alternative as long as you buy generic brands on sale.

Why all this talk about beans? Well, it could be just because they are a cheap and healthy food item that is a staple in the diet of any family struggling to make ends meet... but there is more!  This is a story of a night where I made myself proud and my family's bellies full:

I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner with the few scraps we had left in our pantry and fridge.  It was almost time to visit the grocery store, but I was determined to put this task off and use what we had on hand… Surely I could throw something together!  I went to our pantry and saw that we were all out of veggies, but we still had our ridiculous stash of canned beans.  I looked through our fridge and noticed some turnip greens from the day before that had not gone over well with the little one and was unlikely to get eaten in its current state.  We also had a very tiny - as my husband had said when I finished my bagel the other day, "…barely enough to even bother saving" (Ha!) - amount of cream cheese left in its wrapper, some parmesan sprinkles, and a block of cheddar. 

I started pulling out the random items I had found in the fridge and added to this three cans of beans: black, kidney, and lima.  I started some rice (another staple that always seems to still be standing when the rest of the food is gone) in our rice steamer and began creating a makeshift casserole:

On the bottom layer, I mixed the black and kidney beans (making sure to save the liquids from the cans for stock).  I covered them with some fresh cilantro leaves my mother-in-law had given me recently and some of my favorite spices (cumin, thyme, and  garlic powder).  I then added a layer of shredded cheddar.  The next layer was created by melting the cream cheese in the microwave just long enough to make it soft for mixing.  This I mixed with the turnip greens and lima beans to make the third layer, which I covered in more fresh cilantro and spices.  Finally, I covered it all in another layer of cheddar with a thin layer of parmesan on top and baked it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

The end result was the most delish beans and rice any of us had ever tasted.  My husband said it tasted kind of like the pizza he'd been craving all week and my daughter, who is four and by the nature of her age a picky eater, gobbled it all up with nary a complaint!  With a family of three, we ended up with about half the casserole left over.  Tomorrow, we're going to be having it over baked potatoes.  Yum!

Save it All and Make Stock!

I love fresh vegetables! Unless you have your own garden, though, fresh isn't always cheap nowadays.  Personally, I like to visit our local Korean grocery store and plan meals around the veggies they have on sale.  Even still, though, I would prepare my vegetables in the modern manner of chopping off the ends and peeling straight into the trash can.  One night, I was preparing a particularly veggie-heavy meal and was shocked to see how much food I had wasted by throwing these scraps in the trash.  I thought about composting, but I don't have a garden so compost was not going to result in more food on my table.  Since it was winter and I was on a soup-making kick, I then thought, "Hey, why not save all these vitamins and minerals and put them in some soup?"

And so began the filling of my freezer with funny things:

• Every time I cut veggies now, I save everything (the stalks of fresh herbs, the ends of tomatoes, celery leaves, carrot and potato peels, mushroom stems, etc.) except the truly rotten parts and throw them in a bag in the freezer.
• Any time I open a canned or jarred vegetable - and I'm not just talking green beans here...I do this with everything from beans to olives and artichoke hearts - I don't drain it over the sink.  Naw, that'd just be a waste of nutrition! So I drain them into a lidded container (I use the same one and just add to it until it's full) that I throw into the freezer for later.
• Bone-in meats are typically cheaper than meat without the bone, so we often will purchase these and cut the meat off the bone ourselves.  This not only saves us money at the store but adds to my stock for stock! Every time we have meat with bones, I save the bones in a lidded container or seal-able bag that gets thrown into the freezer as soon as the meal is done.

I was surprised at how quickly my freezer filled up with vegetable ends, funny looking frozen liquids, and the bones of various meats.  Once I had enough, I was ready to make my first batch of stock!

The process of making stock is ridiculously easy:

1. Throw all of the frozen veggie ends into a large pot.  If I have them, I also like to add a cut up onion or two and some smashed garlic for extra flavor.
2. Break the smaller frozen bones in half and throw all the bones (and, presumably, the meat pieces stuck to them) into the pot.  Note: To get the most out of the bones, you can saw the thicker bones in half as well.  Breaking the bones helps expose the marrow to the water, allowing more flavor and nutrition to soak into your broth.  
3. Warm up your container of frozen liquids by running it under hot water - do this just enough to unfreeze the liquids from the sides (otherwise, you won't be able to get it out of the container) - and empty it into the pot.
4. Add at least enough tap water to completely cover all the veggies and bones.  As long as you have enough water to cover your ingredients, you can add as much water as you want at this stage.  Just be aware that the more water you add, the weaker your broth will be (storage-saving tip: you can always make a more concentrated stock and dilute it when you reheat it).
5. Bring it all to a boil then immediately reduce the heat, cover, and let it simmer for HOURS!  Personally, I like to start the stock in the morning and let it simmer all day long.  Towards the early evening, to save on fuel, I'll turn off the stove, but leave the soup cooking in its own heat for at least an hour or so.  Note: If you don't have time to cook it this way, you can just throw it all into a crock pot and set it on low so that it cooks while you're at work for the day.
6. Once the stock has been cooked, strain out all of the solids - now there is nothing left to do with these but compost.  At this stage, I'll also try to sift through the mush and pull out all of the bits of meat that fell off the bones while cooking.  This meat I'll save for adding to soups.
7. Once you have your stock, you're ready to use it to make soups, stews, gravies, flavored rice, and so many other things!  But how do you store this huge pot of stock you just made so it won't go bad before you have a chance to use it all up?

Aromatic, Rich, and Oh So Yummy!

• Pour some into ice cube trays and freeze it.  This will give you small amounts of stock that can be used to make gravy or add flavor to rice or vegetables.
• Pour most into several medium-size lidded containers to be frozen for soups and stews.
• Keep only as much as you plan to use within the next week in a lidded container in your fridge.

My first batch of stock, a combination of potato and carrot peels, mushroom bits, leek leaves, cilantro and parsley stalks, tomato ends, bits and pieces of several types of squash, fish and chicken bones, bacon drippings, and the liquids from canned olives, artichoke hearts, and canned chicken, turned out wonderfully!  The house filled with the aroma of the herbs as the broth cooked over the day and I learned that you have to wait until the strained solids cool before you start sifting for meat!  All in all it was a fun and easy process that created a broth my whole family raved about with plenty left over in the freezer for my next soup!