On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:06:38 GMT, Frogleg wrote:
[snip]
Can't anybody come up with a few main dishes, sides, soups or salads
that are a delight and don't include some particularly expensive brand
of chestnut puree? Is the only food worth eating the product of
free-range pheasants and out-of-season endiive?

No one suggested souffles and quiches. or simple fruit tarts for
dessert. Soups and stews are often economical, but I'd like to see
some more individual main dishes and crafty use of meat. A new thread
on 'elegant salmon loaf' has possibilities, 'though I wasn't thinking
of 'open a can of this and a can of that.' Not excluding it, either.

Come ON people. I'm a fan of white chicken meat, but whole fryers were
on sale last week for $0.48/lb. Wouldn't a roasted chicken surrounded
by potatoes, carrots, and onions be cheap and good eats with dark- &
light-meat eaters around? *This* is the kind of thing I was looking
for.

Easy now, thread drift happens. No use getting too worked up
over it or your blood pressure will never go down while reading this
group.

I think people have mentioned plenty of ideas in this group as
a whole, although you might get more specific responses if you were to
Google or ask on misc.consumers.frugal-living. I tend to try and keep
things fairly simple, just because it suits my skills and the time I
have available to me. A few examples of very basic meals, some I've
done these past couple weeks:

--pan-fried fish (dredged in seasoned flour), then with a bit of
sherry, soy sauce, water, ginger and scallions added to the pan and
made into a sauce, served with rice and steamed broccoli
--roast beef, a chunk of bottom round rubbed with salt, pepper and
studded with slivers of garlic, served with a baked potato and steamed
asparagus
--chicken breasts, marinated in Italian dressing and baked (can also
be grilled or cooked on Foreman grill), cut into strips and tossed
with romaine lettuce and sliced onion in a simple salad, dressing of
your chocie
--grilled ham and cheese
--salmon croquettes, recipe at end of message
--omelet, herbs are a nice addition if you've got them, but we like
grated sharp cheddar, and sauteed mushrooms/onions, too
--Dimitri's great recipe idea for baking some pork spare ribs on a bed
of sauerkraut, chopped cabbage, sliced onion, with a sprinkling of
caraway seeds, can add a splash of white wine or apple juice, eaten
with mashed potatoes
--cabbage roll-like stew with half and half mixture of ground pork and beef,
simmered on stovetop, extra cabbage and sauerkraut
--Mimi Hiller's sticky chicken (recipe in RFC cookbook) with parsley
potatoes and a salad
--Don't remember the Chinese name for it offhand, but a whole chicken
rubbed with salt and let sit in the fridge overnight, next day poach
it (boiling water, put chicken in, let sit a minute or two, take it
out, bring water back to boiling, put chicken in, cover pot and turn
off heat, let sit for an hour) and served with rice, maybe a dipping
sauce (oyster sauce, hoisin, etc.) and some sliced
cucumbers--leftovers work great in chicken salad
--saute some garlic and onion, add some canned diced tomatoes and a
can of good tuna, let simmer a bit, and serve over pasta

Well, the list goes on. I'm sure that a great many people make fairly
simple dishes quite often, but it may not occur to them to discuss
them because... well, they're so simple.

Ariane

P.S. I've never had pheasant and probably wouldn't recognize an
endive if it bit me on the ass. g



* Exported from MasterCook *

BAKED SALMON CROQUETTES

Recipe By : Southern Living 1981 Annual Recipes, page 22
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Fish Salmon

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
15 1/2 ounces Canned pink salmon -- Drain, reserve juice
Milk
1/4 Cup Butter
2 Tablespoons Onion -- finely chopped
1/3 Cup All purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Pepper
1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
1 Cup Bread crumbs, or crushed Corn Flakes

1. Drain salmon, reserving liquid; add enough milk to salmon liquid
to measure 1 cup; set aside.
2. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat; add onion and cook
until tender.
3 Add flour, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
4. Gradually add milk mixture; cook over medium heat, stirring
constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Stir in salt and pepper;set aside.
5. Remove skin and bones from salmon; flake salmon with a fork. Add
lemon juice, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, and white sauce, stirring well.
6. Refrigerate mixture until chilled; shape into croquettes. Roll in
remaining bread crumbs.
7. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet; bake at 400 degrees for 30
minutes.

Frogleg wrote:

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:04:27 GMT, "kilikini"
wrote:

What I think many people are forgetting is that in a college dorm...

Not, not, not asking about student food! Sorry I even mentioned it as
a peripheral example of what I *wasn't* interested in.

Want ideas of economical *real* food. What would dear Julia do if
restricted to a common or garden supermarket and no budget for a $50
roast and $2.50/ea artichokes? I have a feeling she'd be able to
dazzle with a packet of frozen spinach and some chicken thighs.

We're all (mostly) supposed to be inventive and talented cooks who can
make the most of whatever ingredients are available. Not Iron Chef
weird stuff, but plain ol' supermarket food. If it takes a specialty
butcher and ground macadamia nuts and goat cheese and baby zucchini to
make anything worth eating, then we deserve to pay $45 for a
restaurant hamburger.

Can't anybody come up with a few main dishes, sides, soups or salads
that are a delight and don't include some particularly expensive brand
of chestnut puree? Is the only food worth eating the product of
free-range pheasants and out-of-season endiive?

No one suggested souffles and quiches. or simple fruit tarts for
dessert. Soups and stews are often economical, but I'd like to see
some more individual main dishes and crafty use of meat. A new thread
on 'elegant salmon loaf' has possibilities, 'though I wasn't thinking
of 'open a can of this and a can of that.' Not excluding it, either.

Come ON people. I'm a fan of white chicken meat, but whole fryers were
on sale last week for $0.48/lb. Wouldn't a roasted chicken surrounded
by potatoes, carrots, and onions be cheap and good eats with dark- &
light-meat eaters around? *This* is the kind of thing I was looking
for.

Here is another one of my favorites.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Kale With Cannellini Beans

Recipe By :Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Beans

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 pounds Kale
salt
pepper
1 small onion -- finely diced
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic -- minced
pinch red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons rosemary -- chopped
1/2 cup wine, white -- dry
1 1/3 cups cannellini beans, cooked
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese -- freshly grated

Simmer the kale in salted water until tender, 7 to 10 minutes. Drain,
reserving the cooking water, and chop the leaves.

In a large skillet, saute the onion in the oil with the garlic, pepper
flakes, and rosemary for about 3 minutes. Add the wine and cook until
it's reduced to a syrupy sauce.

Add the beans, kale, and enough cooking water to keep the mixture
loose. Heat through, taste for salt and season with pepper, and serve
with a dusting of Parmesan.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 216 Calories; 8g Fat (33.8%
calories from fat); 10g Protein; 26g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber;
4mg Cholesterol; 194mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean
Meat; 5 Vegetable; 1 1/2 Fat.


Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0


--
Susan N.

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who do not.

On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 14:15:33 -0500, " BOB" wrote:

Frogleg wrote:

Want ideas of economical *real* food. What would dear Julia do if
restricted to a common or garden supermarket and no budget for a $50
roast and $2.50/ea artichokes? I have a feeling she'd be able to
dazzle with a packet of frozen spinach and some chicken thighs.


*REAL* barbecue where you take a tough, cheap cut of meat and make it into a
heavenly food, fit for the Gods.
Mexican/ Cuban/Island type foods.
Use the cheaper spices.
Think "breads" (freshly baked)
Home made pizza (without the expensive toppings)
Grilled fresh vegetables

All RIGHT! Probably misquoting from "The Impoverished Student...", but
'bread is one of the few gifts of gods to men not mediated by a
hierarchical priesthood.' Can't go (far) wrong making bread and
bread-things. Fresh veg are (hand-waggle) getting awfully expensive,
even in season. If 'grill' includes a heavy grill-pan for stove and
not an outdoor propane establishment, I think this is a good idea I
should try. Pork BBQ is $4/lb in the deli section. Sirloin bone-in
pork chops are $0.98/lb in a recent ad. Forget what shoulder was the
last time it was advertised. Well worth looking out for.

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:40:22 GMT, Ariane Jenkins
wrote:

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:06:38 GMT, Frogleg wrote:
[snip]
Can't anybody come up with a few main dishes, sides, soups or salads
that are a delight and don't include some particularly expensive brand
of chestnut puree? Is the only food worth eating the product of
free-range pheasants and out-of-season endiive?

Easy now, thread drift happens. No use getting too worked up
over it or your blood pressure will never go down while reading this
group.

I meditate after every connection. :-)

I think people have mentioned plenty of ideas in this group as
a whole, although you might get more specific responses if you were to
Google or ask on misc.consumers.frugal-living.

Don't want 'frugal.' I *know* how to make 1 (half) chicken breast
extend to a 4-person meal. I want inventive, delicious, gourmet
cooking that doesn't require a pound of lobster meat as a contributory
ingredient to, say, 2 dozen Long-Island oysters.

--pan-fried fish (dredged in seasoned flour), then with a bit of
sherry, soy sauce, water, ginger and scallions added to the pan and
made into a sauce, served with rice and steamed broccoli

Check.

--roast beef, a chunk of bottom round rubbed with salt, pepper and
studded with slivers of garlic, served with a baked potato and steamed
asparagus

Beef cooked how? I am roast-impaired.

--chicken breasts, marinated in Italian dressing and baked (can also
be grilled or cooked on Foreman grill), cut into strips and tossed
with romaine lettuce and sliced onion in a simple salad, dressing of
your chocie

Because someone had given me a whole flock of pecans and I spent a
number of mindless hours shelling them, I experimented with
pecan-crusted chicken strips recently. Googled for recipes; found most
included pecans AND some sort of crumbs; and processed pecans with
cornflakes. Not bad at all. Pecans are expensive unless someone gives
them to you, but perhaps peanuts would do.

--grilled ham and cheese
--salmon croquettes, recipe at end of message
--omelet, herbs are a nice addition if you've got them, but we like
grated sharp cheddar, and sauteed mushrooms/onions, too
--Dimitri's great recipe idea for baking some pork spare ribs on a bed
of sauerkraut, chopped cabbage, sliced onion, with a sprinkling of
caraway seeds, can add a splash of white wine or apple juice, eaten
with mashed potatoes

Wizard!

--cabbage roll-like stew with half and half mixture of ground pork and beef,
simmered on stovetop, extra cabbage and sauerkraut
--Mimi Hiller's sticky chicken (recipe in RFC cookbook) with parsley
potatoes and a salad
--Don't remember the Chinese name for it offhand, but a whole chicken
rubbed with salt and let sit in the fridge overnight, next day poach
it (boiling water, put chicken in, let sit a minute or two, take it
out, bring water back to boiling, put chicken in, cover pot and turn
off heat, let sit for an hour) and served with rice, maybe a dipping
sauce (oyster sauce, hoisin, etc.) and some sliced
cucumbers--leftovers work great in chicken salad
--saute some garlic and onion, ...

And everyone who comes into the house says, "Ummh. You must be cooking
something good."

add some canned diced tomatoes and a
can of good tuna, let simmer a bit, and serve over pasta

Well, the list goes on. I'm sure that a great many people make fairly
simple dishes quite often, but it may not occur to them to discuss
them because... well, they're so simple.

This is exactly what I was after. *Really* tasty food that doesn't
cost an arm and a leg.

Ariane

P.S. I've never had pheasant and probably wouldn't recognize an
endive if it bit me on the ass. g

I've had a squab. You're supposed to eat a lot of the bits you'd
discard in a chicken. Not a treat for me. I believe pheasants are a
bit larger. :-)



* Exported from MasterCook *

BAKED SALMON CROQUETTES

Recipe By : Southern Living 1981 Annual Recipes, page 22
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Fish Salmon

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
15 1/2 ounces Canned pink salmon -- Drain, reserve juice
Milk
1/4 Cup Butter
2 Tablespoons Onion -- finely chopped
1/3 Cup All purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Pepper
1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
1 Cup Bread crumbs, or crushed Corn Flakes

1. Drain salmon, reserving liquid; add enough milk to salmon liquid
to measure 1 cup; set aside.
2. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat; add onion and cook
until tender.
3 Add flour, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
4. Gradually add milk mixture; cook over medium heat, stirring
constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Stir in salt and pepper;set aside.
5. Remove skin and bones from salmon; flake salmon with a fork. Add
lemon juice, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, and white sauce, stirring well.
6. Refrigerate mixture until chilled; shape into croquettes. Roll in
remaining bread crumbs.
7. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet; bake at 400 degrees for 30
minutes.

Thank you.

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
You have to get in the student groove. That hot plate can only do one
thing... and they have only one pan. It's a skillet but doubles as a soup
pan. Ramen works. So does Hamburger Helper (in its various incarnations)
after you brown the burger and dump the grease down the unsuspecting
dormitory drain. Likewise Kraft Mac & Cheese (with said hotdogs sliced
into
it). Hmmm, never heard of chicken wing soup, might have to try that.

Now ask me why they don't steam some veggies or figure out how to stir-fry
in that one-meal-wonder skillet. And I'll say I have no idea

Jill (light years away from a college dorm but recalls the feeling)



I'm 2 years out of college dorm life, after living in the dorm for 4. I
never ate Ramen noodles or any of the other "cheap slop" kind of staples...

I'm not sure if things are like this at other schools, but both dorms that I
lived in, one for one year and the other for the remaining three, had
kitchens in the basement, complete with full-sized stove top and oven. This
was at the University of Kentucky, BTW. So, students living in the dorms
had more options than just a microwave. Hot plates weren't allowed, but
some had them anyway.

In my dorm room, I had a toaster oven (which wasn't allowed either, but I
kept it under my bed and out of site unless it was in use), electric
skillet, microwave, and mini-fridge. I did have a meal card, which operated
on a declining balance format, so you weren't locked in to having to eat a
set amount of meals. When I didn't eat at a place on campus, I could cook
up some pretty decent food in my room and in the kitchen.

I'm in graduate school now, and the school am at only has dorm space for
freshman, so the majority of students live off-campus. At the grocery, it
seems that most still go for the Ramen noodle suprise type of stuff. It
always amazes me what you see these kids buying... lots of prepackaged junk.

I think a lot of the times with college kids, it's lack of interest to try
to make good food inexpensively. It can be done, but it involves some
effort and planning ahead. Making chicken soup, etc isn't as quick as
throwing a pack of Ramen noodles in the microwave. IMO, eating well for
cheap isn't something you can do without thinking about it. I'm always
planning ahead what I want to eat, how I can get the most from each food
purchase, and still have really good food. I'll usually have a good idea of
what I'm going to want at some point in the next 2-3 months, and I watch for
whatever I need to go on sale. I never pay full price for meat of any sort,
canned goods, butter, cheese, sugar, flour, potatoes, soda, juice,
condiments... I tend to make most of my bread, but occassionally buy a loaf
of sour dough, and I do buy bagels, hamburger/hotdog buns, and white bread
for sandwiches, but I purchase on sale and freeze. My full price
expenditures are usually limited to fresh vegetables, and even then, I try
to stick to mostly what's in season, milk, eggs, and the occasional random
special item. I've gotten creative at finding storage places for
nonperishables, and I have a 5.5 cubic foot deep freeze, which I received as
an apartment warming gift from my parents, to store the rest in.

In addition to the long term general planning, I try to plan what I want for
a week ahead of time. I plan for suppers and lunches, how much to make, if
I can freeze leftovers, etc. I don't always stick religously to the
plan--sometimes, even though I've thought I might want something it just
doesn't sound good anymore when it comes time to make it--but it works
pretty well.

Another thing.. it seems like more and more young people make it to college
without knowing to cook, or plan meals, or cook on a budget. When I was
growing up, I was always in the kitchen with mom and my sister and I would
accopmany her to the grocery store. I started cooking when I was 9, and by
the time we were in high school, my sister and I were responsible for
planning and preparing a couple of meals a week. Do kids not learn this type
of stuff anymore? And not necessarily at school. I never sat foot in a
home ec class, but my mom taught me what I needed to know...

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 14:45:50 -0500, The Cook
wrote:

Frogleg wrote:

Want ideas of economical *real* food. What would dear Julia do if
restricted to a common or garden supermarket and no budget for a $50
roast and $2.50/ea artichokes? I have a feeling she'd be able to
dazzle with a packet of frozen spinach and some chicken thighs.


Here is another one of my favorites.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Kale With Cannellini Beans

Susan -- the chicken/rice recipe looks good. I did some white beans
with kale a couple of years ago and counted the next extended power
outage as an excellent excuse to toss the baggies I'd frozen. :-)
Well, it was my first attempt and perhaps I didn't follow the recipe
as carefully as I might have.

"notbob" wrote in message
news:5t9Tb.204055$na.334992@attbi_s04...
It's the damn milk that's insanely
priced!


That is one of my biggest pet peeves... Milk is outrageous in the grocery
store, but dairy farmers are only getting about 10 dollars per hundred
weight (10 dollars per hundered pounds of milk, a gallon is roughly 8.5 or
so pounds, I think).... This was the price the last time I asked, and it's
been awhile, but I don't think the price of milk has gone up any for the
dairy farmers. The farmers definitely aren't seeing any of the profits. It
just makes me so ill when people like my dad are working their a**** off,
and someone in a suit somewhere is obviously getting rich from it. It
seems the stores or bottlers, more likely, mark up the milk under the guise
of "the farmers need more money", which is the truth, yet the farmers aren't
getting that extra money.

As my dad points out, things would be a lot better if they would do away
with government price supports, since farmers could then set their own price
for milk and hopefully earn the money that they deserve.

While frolicking around in rec.food.cooking, DRB of SBC
http://yahoo.sbc.com said:

Another thing.. it seems like more and more young people make it to college
without knowing to cook, or plan meals, or cook on a budget. When I was
growing up, I was always in the kitchen with mom and my sister and I would
accopmany her to the grocery store. I started cooking when I was 9, and by
the time we were in high school, my sister and I were responsible for
planning and preparing a couple of meals a week. Do kids not learn this type
of stuff anymore? And not necessarily at school. I never sat foot in a
home ec class, but my mom taught me what I needed to know...

When I got my own place, at 17, I couldn't even cook potatoes; I had
to phone my mother and ask her how long to cook them.
--
Nikitta a.a. #1759 Apatriot(No, not apricot)#18
ICQ# 251532856
Unreferenced footnotes: http://www.nut.house.cx/cgi-bin/nemwiki.pl?ISFN
"I've noticed that most dogs aren't very polite when it comes to sharing
ice cream. " Oiorpata (Sheddie)

Frogleg wrote:

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:04:27 GMT, "kilikini"
wrote:


What I think many people are forgetting is that in a college dorm...


Not, not, not asking about student food! Sorry I even mentioned it as
a peripheral example of what I *wasn't* interested in.

Want ideas of economical *real* food. What would dear Julia do if
restricted to a common or garden supermarket and no budget for a $50
roast and $2.50/ea artichokes? I have a feeling she'd be able to
dazzle with a packet of frozen spinach and some chicken thighs.

We're all (mostly) supposed to be inventive and talented cooks who can
make the most of whatever ingredients are available. Not Iron Chef
weird stuff, but plain ol' supermarket food. If it takes a specialty
butcher and ground macadamia nuts and goat cheese and baby zucchini to
make anything worth eating, then we deserve to pay $45 for a
restaurant hamburger.

Can't anybody come up with a few main dishes, sides, soups or salads
that are a delight and don't include some particularly expensive brand
of chestnut puree? Is the only food worth eating the product of
free-range pheasants and out-of-season endiive?

No one suggested souffles and quiches. or simple fruit tarts for
dessert. Soups and stews are often economical, but I'd like to see
some more individual main dishes and crafty use of meat. A new thread
on 'elegant salmon loaf' has possibilities, 'though I wasn't thinking
of 'open a can of this and a can of that.' Not excluding it, either.

Come ON people. I'm a fan of white chicken meat, but whole fryers were
on sale last week for $0.48/lb. Wouldn't a roasted chicken surrounded
by potatoes, carrots, and onions be cheap and good eats with dark- &
light-meat eaters around? *This* is the kind of thing I was looking
for.

No measurements; they are not critical and I don't measure this stuff:

Cut up a chicken, or buy a bag of leg quarters. Remove any big hunks of
fat. Arrange [the chicken] in a single layer in a 9x13 lasagna pan or big
glass cake pan. Meanwhile, remove the seeds and stems from a handful of
dried New Mexico chile peppers. Soak the peppers in hot water until they
soften up, then dump them in a blender, water and all. Add a chicken
bouillon cube, a couple of cloves of garlic, and a big pinch of oregano.
If the peppers are not hot, add some cayenne pepper. Liquify. Pour over
the chicken. Bake uncovered in 375 degree oven until done. Serve with
warm tortillas and grated cheddar cheese, and a nice salad.

Bob

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 21:22:37 GMT, Frogleg wrote:

I meditate after every connection. :-)

LOL... So should we all. g

Don't want 'frugal.' I *know* how to make 1 (half) chicken breast
extend to a 4-person meal. I want inventive, delicious, gourmet
cooking that doesn't require a pound of lobster meat as a contributory
ingredient to, say, 2 dozen Long-Island oysters.

I think you may be a little mistaken about what the term
"frugal" may mean to different people. It's not always going to be
about stretching food to feed an army, it can also be about making the
most out of what you've got. Some of the regulars at MCFL are
excellent from-scratch cooks, because that's how they can get great
meals for the least amount of money. And it's almost a given that
they will not be working with very expensive or hard-to-obtain
ingredients, but rather, what they can grow or find at a regular
grocery store or a farmer's market if they're lucky enough to have one
nearby.

--roast beef, a chunk of bottom round rubbed with salt, pepper and
studded with slivers of garlic, served with a baked potato and steamed
asparagus

Beef cooked how? I am roast-impaired.

Shoot, let me think... I preheated the oven to 450 F, stuck
the roast in for about 10 minutes, then turned it down to 375 and
cooked it until the internal temperature was about 140 F. I lost
track of how much time that took, but it was definitely over an hour
for a 3-4 lb. chunk of beef.

Because someone had given me a whole flock of pecans and I spent a
number of mindless hours shelling them, I experimented with
pecan-crusted chicken strips recently. Googled for recipes; found most
included pecans AND some sort of crumbs; and processed pecans with
cornflakes. Not bad at all. Pecans are expensive unless someone gives
them to you, but perhaps peanuts would do.

Sounds great! I've never experimented with nuts much in
cooking, mainly I use them in baking. The Indian grocery not far from
here has a good price on almonds (whole and slivered), that might be
nice, too.

Speaking of coatings for chicken, I love using panko. It's
easy to find and not expensive here, and it makes a great coating for
chicken tenders.

And everyone who comes into the house says, "Ummh. You must be cooking
something good."

Hehehe, a polite way of saying, "Your kitchen smells!!" ;D our
ventilation system is poor, it's one of those air vents that just
recirculates the air back into your kitchen. It's not a problem for
most stuff, but frying smells and strong cabbagey smells to tend to
hang out for a while until we can air the place out. We don't mind
the smell of curry or lasagna even after a day or two, but that's us. ~

This is exactly what I was after. *Really* tasty food that doesn't
cost an arm and a leg.

Yep, that's my goal. We don't have oodles of money, and my
skills really aren't up to dealing with super expensive stuff,
anyway. I'd feel rotten if I screwed it up and wasted the
ingredients. So meanwhile, I'll continue to work on becoming a better
cook, and by trying to make simple but good meals for DH and I.

I've had a squab. You're supposed to eat a lot of the bits you'd
discard in a chicken. Not a treat for me. I believe pheasants are a
bit larger. :-)

I've only seen them walking around on rich peoples' lawns while
on a trip to England. I did wonder how they tasted, but...well,
people were hanging around, and I couldn't pop one into my daypack.

Ariane

Frogleg
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Message-ID:
References:

X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 32
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 10:39:48 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.30.232.87
X-Complaints-To:
X-Trace: newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net 1075631988 67.30.232.87 (Sun, 01
Feb 2004 02:39:48 PST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 02:39:48 PST
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net



On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 18:12:34 -0600, "jmcquown"
wrote:

Frogleg wrote:
There've been threads on 'student food' and other cheap meals, but I
wonder... I made Freedom Toast the other day from a couple of large
slices ($2/loaf) of WalMart sourdough bread, 1 egg, and a little milk.
(snip)
Why do cheap eats
involve ramen noodles (can't argue with the cheapness, f'r sure) or
hamburger extended to the limit with pasta?

Surely this group can come up with inexpensive dishes that aren't
Welfare Porridge. Assuming a normal range of condiments and spices,

There's your problem. Assuming a normal range of condiments and spices.
It's hardly fair to assume in a college dorm one would have anything aside
from salt, pepper and some packets of ketchup from McDonalds.

I have explained this qestion badly.

Actually you didn't ask any viable question... all you did, and are still, is
mumbling incoherencies. Frogleg, you are obviously a drunk and/or druggie...
just take a gander at your inane gibberish below. You sicko pathetic
*******... GET HELP!

I'm *wasn't* asking about student
food, just using that as an example of how cheap eats are often
discussed here. What I'm after is inexpensive gour-may ideas. Not
rock-bottom poverty fuel, but also ideas that don't require goat
cheese and prosciutto or a bucket of fresh raspberries to taste
'right.' Also wasn't thinking of "how to feed 20 people for $10"
dishes. Just inexpensive but *good* food. Ex: potatoes and onions can
be had quite cheaply. Cabbage and carrots. Celery and eggs keep going
up and up, but butter is pretty cheap right now. Frozen veg are
cheaper than fresh, mostly. Chicken, whole or cut up, is relatively
inexpensive. It's easy to make something delicious that starts with a
pound of large shrimp or sushi-grade tuna; what about something that
starts with frozen whiting?


---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
Sheldon
````````````
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."

In article ,
"DRB" wrote:

"notbob" wrote in message
news:5t9Tb.204055$na.334992@attbi_s04...
It's the damn milk that's insanely
priced!


That is one of my biggest pet peeves... Milk is outrageous in the grocery
store, but dairy farmers are only getting about 10 dollars per hundred
weight (10 dollars per hundered pounds of milk, a gallon is roughly 8.5 or
so pounds, I think).... This was the price the last time I asked, and it's
been awhile, but I don't think the price of milk has gone up any for the
dairy farmers. The farmers definitely aren't seeing any of the profits. It
just makes me so ill when people like my dad are working their a**** off,
and someone in a suit somewhere is obviously getting rich from it. It
seems the stores or bottlers, more likely, mark up the milk under the guise
of "the farmers need more money", which is the truth, yet the farmers aren't
getting that extra money.

As my dad points out, things would be a lot better if they would do away
with government price supports, since farmers could then set their own price
for milk and hopefully earn the money that they deserve.



Don't be so hasty...

Farm subsidies are all that is keeping some farms from selling the land
to housing developers, and starving all of us.......

K.

--
Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

,,Cat's Haven Hobby ,,
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra

In article ,
Ariane Jenkins wrote:


Hehehe, a polite way of saying, "Your kitchen smells!!" ;D our
ventilation system is poor, it's one of those air vents that just
recirculates the air back into your kitchen. It's not a problem for
most stuff, but frying smells and strong cabbagey smells to tend to
hang out for a while until we can air the place out. We don't mind
the smell of curry or lasagna even after a day or two, but that's us. ~

I worry more about cooking catfish. G


This is exactly what I was after. *Really* tasty food that doesn't
cost an arm and a leg.

Yep, that's my goal. We don't have oodles of money, and my
skills really aren't up to dealing with super expensive stuff,
anyway. I'd feel rotten if I screwed it up and wasted the
ingredients. So meanwhile, I'll continue to work on becoming a better
cook, and by trying to make simple but good meals for DH and I.

I have lots of ideas, most of them involving chicken, fresh onions and
celery, and some low salt canned goods. I cannot afford "fancy"
ingredients either and one does not need them when supplied with a
decent array of flavorings and spices.


I've had a squab. You're supposed to eat a lot of the bits you'd
discard in a chicken. Not a treat for me. I believe pheasants are a
bit larger. :-)

I've only seen them walking around on rich peoples' lawns while
on a trip to England. I did wonder how they tasted, but...well,
people were hanging around, and I couldn't pop one into my daypack.

Ariane

Real squabs cannot fly well so are easily caught. ;-)
Try your local park. Around the statues...

Or breed your own like I do. They don't eat much.

K.

--
Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

,,Cat's Haven Hobby ,,
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:06:38 GMT, Frogleg wrote:

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:04:27 GMT, "kilikini"
wrote:

What I think many people are forgetting is that in a college dorm...

Not, not, not asking about student food! Sorry I even mentioned it as
a peripheral example of what I *wasn't* interested in.

Want ideas of economical *real* food. What would dear Julia do if
restricted to a common or garden supermarket and no budget for a $50
roast and $2.50/ea artichokes? I have a feeling she'd be able to
dazzle with a packet of frozen spinach and some chicken thighs.

We're all (mostly) supposed to be inventive and talented cooks who can
make the most of whatever ingredients are available. Not Iron Chef
weird stuff, but plain ol' supermarket food. If it takes a specialty
butcher and ground macadamia nuts and goat cheese and baby zucchini to
make anything worth eating, then we deserve to pay $45 for a
restaurant hamburger.

Can't anybody come up with a few main dishes, sides, soups or salads
that are a delight and don't include some particularly expensive brand
of chestnut puree? Is the only food worth eating the product of
free-range pheasants and out-of-season endiive?

No one suggested souffles and quiches. or simple fruit tarts for
dessert. Soups and stews are often economical, but I'd like to see
some more individual main dishes and crafty use of meat. A new thread
on 'elegant salmon loaf' has possibilities, 'though I wasn't thinking
of 'open a can of this and a can of that.' Not excluding it, either.

Come ON people. I'm a fan of white chicken meat, but whole fryers were
on sale last week for $0.48/lb. Wouldn't a roasted chicken surrounded
by potatoes, carrots, and onions be cheap and good eats with dark- &
light-meat eaters around? *This* is the kind of thing I was looking
for.

OK, my previous post assumed a dorm room without refrigerator. Nearly
everything I do uses pretty common ingredients, almost always starting
by chopping an onion. I dealt with chicken stock before.

A winter dinner can be built around a baked winter squash. If it is a
side to some meat, I usually find a way it will sit in a pan, and cut
a tapered plug out of the top. Scoop out the seeds, and put stuff
inside. Then replace the plug and bake.

If you want something closer to a one dish meal, with a little meat,
you can make a stuffing with meat, garlic, seasonings, chopped onion
etc. In any case I start by sprinkling a little salt around the inside
surface.

A couple of slices of bacon could be diced into it, or some sausage
meat. A chili pepper of your desired heat is always possible. Whole
peeled garlic cloves are nice. They get completely cooked when the
squash is baked. If there is no other fat around the garlic I half
fill the cavity with olive oil when everything else is in.

****************

Frugality demands that you buy whole chickens only. If you just want
white meat for one meal use the thighs and drumsticks later. Throw all
bones in the freezer til you have time to make stock. You could bone
the thighs and drumsticks and use the meat in a stuffed squash as
above.

I admit to paying a lot more for chicken than the supermarket charges
(for much better chicken), but the principle is the same. A better
cook than I can doubtless do wonders with the .48/lb special, but I am
not that advanced. I may have to learn when my wife is also retired.
**************

If you can get over the idea that chili has to have meat in it, or
just call it something else, a dinner based on beans and rice has lots
of tradition behind it and is nutritionally sound as well as cheap. It
is not that difficult to make it taste good as well.

*********************
As a change from rice, potatoes, or pasta consider perled barley or
farro perlato, both of which will cook in similar time to rice. Farro
perlato will act much like arborio rice to make farrotto if you have a
suitable stock.


Rodney Myrvaagnes J36 Gjo/a

The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the
simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.
- Richard Dawkins, "Viruses of the Mind"

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 21:42:39 -0600, Katra wrote:

I worry more about cooking catfish. G
[snip]
I steam mine, on a bed of julienned scallions and peeled
ginger, a bit of rice vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil on top. It's
not stinky this way, the ginger seems to help counteract any cooking
fish odors.

Ariane