Wednesday, May 19, 2010 by Hodding.

The above title is all I’m going to say about my long absence/abstinence from writing here.  Some pretty cool stuff is in the works regarding my writing and being frugal that partly explains neglecting my blogging duties BUT I can’t reveal them just yet.  I’m hoping next week.

In the meantime, I’d like to report that Lisa and I have been working until 9-10 at night to get our various gardens in.  Literally.  And the thing that kills me is when I stop by a friend’s house to pick up a bicycle Angus has left behind (along with his scooter, baseball glove and muddy clothing) she has immaculate raised-beds all lined up in neat little rows AND, worst of all, not only are her sugar snaps a good 18-inches tall but she even has pole beans beginning to wrap their way around her perfect, plastic-coated metal poles shaped like a tee-pee.  What the hell?  There’s not even a speck of dust on the hemlock boards that she made the raised beds out of.  Even her weeds are trimmed back…well, ok, she doesn’t have weeds but if she did, they’d be looking sharp, I know it.

Then there’s us: garden plots that look like battlefields, dirt not only spilling out of the gardens’ borders but also littering the inside of our home (along with bits of horse manure we retrieved from our doctor’s backyard), and not a single plant emerging–except for the 200 or so strawberry plants that were already there.  Our living room looks like something Lewis Carroll* might have dreamed up with florescent bulbs resting on paint cans lining our dinner table so our precious baby seedlings will grow big and strong, despite the fact we began most of them about a month late (the baby tomatoes are looking mighty good, though, since I re-planted them up to their necks [bottom leaves]). And at least half a dozen of our hens’ backs are so red and irritated–and are missing so many feathers thanks to a certain roosters talons–that I’m considering filing rape charges against Snowflake, our rooster.  Eliza, in fact, has begun to ask me on a daily basis, “Will you please kill him today, dad.  Please  I hate him.”  Who knew roosters were so violent?  I am going to do away with him and the only reason I haven’t yet done so is that I want to incubate another dozen or so eggs.  I just keep forgetting to set up the incubator.

Maybe going public will urge me into action?

Ok, so we’re a bit messy, way behind our fellow vegetable-growers and are harboring a criminal but, hey, how about those falafel sandwiches and mint-lime slushies we just had?  As my loyal readers know, my downfall was my stomach and my taste buds.     I lived to eat something new, delicious and, more often than not, expensive and I fed this habit by eating out 2-3 times a week–or more, if you count those coffee-and-a-muffin mornings.  So, to pull off this frugal living, the one thing I had to still do was make sure we ate as well as–or better than–we did while being spendthrifts.  Boy, did we succeed the past few days.

On Monday afternoon as we shopped for milk, cheese and a few other essentials, Eliza announced, apropo of nothing, “I want some falafel.”

Huh?  This was a total surprise.

Don’t get me wrong, though.  I was happy it wasn’t, “Dad, I want to get my nose pierced.”  Or, even worse,  “Dad, I’m pregnant and my boyfriend and I are running away to the circus.” (She’s 14 and I’m totally not ready for either statement.)  It’s just that we’ve only made falafel 2-3 times her whole life and I didn’t think she really knew what falafel was.

Thank God I was wrong.  The thing I miss the most sometimes, when mostly-never eating out, that is,  is fulfilling my taste cravings.  I especially miss street food along the lines of Chinese pork buns, chicken shawarma in a pita, grilled baby octopus (northern Thailand, of all places), roasted maize sprinkled with chili and lime, etc.  Strong, mouth-watering bits that transport one’s culinary soul.

So in steps Eliza’s falafel.  As some of you may already know, the falafel themselves are fairly easy to make and tasty but are nowhere near where the excitement is.  Mix together some shopped up chickpeas, matzo, and spices.  Roll the mess into balls, deep fry for 2-3 minutes (in my case, said frying takes place in our garage; Lisa HATES the smell of fried food so she bought me a commercial fryer a while back that I’m supposed to use out there–which works for both of us because now that I don’t ever have to hesitate when wanting to fry!) and they’re good to go.  It’s what you put on the falfael, inside the pita, that makes this a transformative experience.  And our sauces did not fail: creamy, full-fat Greek yogurt cucumber sauce with fresh mint plus a sublime, sinfully smooth-and-nutty tahini sauce.  One bite and we were transported to the Mid East–although there was a short detour when Helen, 12, asked if these were also popular in the South.  Turned out she was confusing the US’s midwest with the Mid East.

Thirsty, we whipped up a batch of mint-lime slushies (Angus, 7, wanted the slushies and Anabel, 14, suggested the mint), using store-brand frozen limeade concentrate, ice, and some more of the fresh mint.   Helen, 12, by the way, had no part in the making of any of this because she is doing two sports this season–track and field and soccer–and has no energy to do anything at home besides moan and groan.

Gotta go–just writing about it all makes me want to do the entire meal all over again.  I’ll try and post some photos later.

*By the way, despite the assertion of those in favor of recreational-drug usage, Lewis Carroll (given name Charles Dodgson) was apparently not a drug addict and was also not high on anything while writing Alice in Wonderland.

Posted in Frugal Cooking, Frugal dish, Gardening, Hens, Roosters | 17 Comments »

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Hodding.

I forgot to sign out of my website yesterday afternoon and lo-and-behold, I was still active this morning!  Wonder what that will do?  Make my site appear more popular? Cost me more money?  Nothing?

I bring that up because I was just laughing with Lisa (see past posts; she’s my wife–the sane one in the family) about how a year ago, several readers asked me if they could follow me on Facebook and what my twitter account was.  “Uh, well, I guess you could be one of my friends,” I stumbled.  And then I mumbled that I was about to become a twitter member too–even though I had no earthly idea what twitter was. Or better yet, that you didn’t become a twitter member–or do you?  I’m still going to do that one of these days–that is, when I know I’ll be able t0 come up with something pithy and pertinent about being frugal every single day.

Ok, I’m writing in a panic today (I tend to do that) but I wanted to relate a shopping experience I had last year that could prove helpful for all of us.  I wrote about it in the “Comments” section of my column for gourmet.com: a post-Saint-Patrick’s-Day potatoes, carrots and corned-beef sale. That day I was rifling through the reduced-for-quick-sale rack at the end of our grocery store’s produce section when I spied a coupon for a great deal: a few days before St. Patrick’s Day, the store was selling 5 pounds of potatoes, 1 pound of carrots and 2.5 pounds of corned beef for $7.99.  Since corned-beef often costs that much all on its own, I was elated.  Until I remembered it was the day after St. Patrick’s.  Bummer.

Later, as I morosely worked my way through the rest of the store, I came upon the meat section.  Thank God. Yes, the sale was over but to my and my family’s stomachs’ delight, it’d been replaced by something better.  A half-off sale.  Since the heady rush of celebrating this dubious Irish holiday had already passed, the store had a lot of salty meat to unload.

We could get all three items for $3.99.

As far as I am concerned, the grocery-shopping Golden Produce Rule–numero uno, in other words–is to shop based on coupons and what’s on sale, not what you think you need.  That said, remembering the yearly potatoes, carrots and corned-beef sale that I happened upon last March has got me wondering:  Can the Golden Produce Rule be universally applied the day after every holiday?  Are there similar sales after every holiday that we can draw each other’s attention toward? Most importantly–and finally to the point–is there a post-Valentine’s-Day sale that is about to be dropped in our laps this coming Monday (and I’m talking about something beyond half-price for a 5-pound box of heart-shaped chocolates that are filled with some unnatural cream or jell that invariably end up back in the box, half-eaten because of their in-edibility factor)?

Well, is there?  Please write in.  If there is, I want to make the appropriate shopping plan.

For instance, having learned from last year’s St. Patrick’s surprise, I already have this year’s March 18th shopping plans in place. Since the half-price deal is only 1 per customer, our entire family will shop that day and each family member will buy his/her own St.-P-Day combo. Pretty good, huh? The only difficulty I foresee is coming up with enough different recipes using those same 3 ingredients. So far, I’ve only come up with a pie and a stew.  Pretty dull.

Maybe there’s some kind of dessert?

PS–I think I have a photo of the corned beef, carrots and potatoes around here somewhere that I took in the store, I was so excited.  I’ll post it if/when I find it.

Posted in frugal tips, Frugal Grocery Shopping, Frugal Cooking, Frugal dish, Frugal Meals | 19 Comments »