Gourmet eating on a Top Ramen budget

In the first two weeks Marius was here, I bought bananas no fewer than seven times.  He ate at least 2-3 each day, on top of the other fruits I had on hand.  Our weekly milk intake went from 2 half-gallons, which included my bi-weekly yogurt production, to closer to 5 gallons.  I hate to admit it, but I've had to get a Costco membership and shop at discount grocery stores to stretch our food budget as much as possible.  Since coupons are so often for processed foods we don't use, that hasn't been an avenue to help the old bank account.

After Marius had been living with us for a couple of weeks and we started to realize just how much he really eats, I started asking work colleagues with teen boys what they feed their plague of locusts kids to satisfy them without bankrupting the family budget. 

One coworker's suggestions were full of processed foods: mac-n-cheese from a box, pre-made PBnJ sandwiches, pizza rolls, instant noodles, etc.  That wasn't going to happen (and clearly she doesn't know me very well!).

I started focusing on increasing his share of carbs, and finding things to make him feel satisfied after a single serving: trail mix, pasta, rice, cheese sticks, bread.  That definitely helped.  Introducing him to peanut butter has helped, too.  Instead of eating 3 bananas, he now eats a peanut butter and banana sandwich on wheat bread.  We don't want him to not eat, we just want him to eat smarter.

I'm the sole wager earner in the household right now, and bringing home an educator's income at that, so we've had to very closely monitor our food budget.  We are a cash-only household on principle and things have been tight this month.  After paying bills at the end of September, I knew that October was going to be a lean month.  Feeding two adults, a mobile infant, and an athletic teenager on a tight budget has been a herculean, but not impossible, task.  I refused to eat pasta for a month or to serve crap food.

Thank goodness for a well-stocked pantry, creativity, and kitchen know-how.  In the past three weeks, we've only purchased perishables and bread.  Here are some of the things we've had:

• Pumpkin bread
• Breakfast pizza
• Banana bread
• Chocolate-cherry scones
• Pancakes
• French toast
• Frittata with broccoli and cheese
• Baked potato soup (this is a FANTASTIC way to use up dried-out cheese!)
• Pumpkin-chipotle chili and corn bread
• Chicken burgers and sweet potato fries
• Lemon riccota pasta with wilted spinach
• Pot roast
• Shepherd's pie
• Pulled pork sandwiches
• Homemade pizza (OK, and a single take-and-bake from Costco... they were $6!!)
• Spaetzle
• Spinach salad
• Shakshuka
• Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup
• Fenberry pie
• Baked potatoes with chili
• Enchiladas with salsa verde
• Soft tacos
• General Tso's chicken
• Quesadillas
• Brownies
• Marshmallows
• Blondies
• Smoothies
• Pumpkin pie
• Chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting (for my dad's birthday)

I even made tomato jam and took corn bread to a work potluck.

Kaelen has been gorging himself on home-canned foods, some of which are favorites if wild kicking of feet is any indication.  Peaches, green beans, pears: he's eating food by the fistful and has loved all the quick breads I made.

Thanks to a friend's generosity, I am in possession of a mountain of rainbow chard, kale, cabbage, beets, lettuce, green tomatoes, and a spaghetti squash.

Tonight we're having kale with sausage and white beans for dinner.  Technically the white beans are Peruvian yellow beans I bought out of culinary curiousity a couple of months ago, but who's going to judge me?

Tomorrow we'll have a green tomato and chard gratin.  I'm going to throw in the last of the coppa I found in the freezer.  Tuesday will be spaghetti squash with pasta sauce.  Wednesday we'll have sloppy joes and sweet potato fries.  I think Thursday the last of the pork chops will be brought forth and served with rice pilaf and green beans.

Luckily for us, hosting an exchange student comes with a stipend. The first month's check, received at the beginning of October, paid off the futon we'd purchased for his new room.  That's part of the reason why these past weeks have been exceptionally tight: none of the stipend has been available to go toward the very real living expenses.  October's funds will restock my pantry and allow us a little more wiggle room.  My freezer is nearly empty and just about all of my staples are gone.  I'm literally scraping the bottoms of containers to get sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and similar items.  I still have a nice supply of items I canned: green beans, chili, tomatoes, tomato sauce, peaches, pears, pickles, beans, jams, and more.  That said, there are a lot more empty jars than there were a month ago.

The last few weeks have been very tiring for me.  I love cooking: it's a challenge and a puzzle and is interesting.  But there's been no break: no take-out, no "wanna go grab a sandwich?" moments, no dinner out.  Every single day I've had to figure out what to make that will not only feed the four of us but will also provide enough leftovers for lunch the following day.  There have been days where all I did was plan what I was going to cook, cook it, clean up from cooking, and plan for the next bout.  I went to work each Monday exhausted from having devoted so much of my weekends to finding ways to get healthy food into mouths creatively and economically.

But I did it.  Marius, whose older sisers both studied in the USA and told him that Americans eat mostly fattening fast food and "from powder" (mixes), has said over and over again how happy he is to live with a family who cooks real food.  I used up some odder things in my stockpile and finished up lots of odds and ends.

Payday is Thursday of this week.  I'd planned on going grocery shopping on Thursday night after work but in surveying what's still left in the house, I think I'll go Friday morning instead.

Lactose-free pumpkin pie

Last weekend we had out-of-town guests for dinner.  I knew that the wife is vegetarian so checked with her husband ahead of time if she ate eggs and cheese.  He said yes, so I went forward with my plans to prepare shakshuka.  It's an easy and hearty vegetarian entree that can be stretched by serving it over rice.

On a side note, the first time I made this dish for Marius, our 15-year-old German exchange student, he was sampling tidbits from my cutting board and got quite a shock when he nabbed a hot pepper.  I laughed and said, "that'll teach ya".

 

The day before our friends came over, we were all together at a Renaissance-themed wedding.  Here's a photo of the wedding party.  Gene, Kaelen and I are about 1/4-way from the right: I'm wearing orange and holding Kaelen.  Gene's grinning from behind the guy in the fleur-de-lys robe and hood.  And the newlyweds are in the sage-green velvet dress and kilt at the center.  We're so happy for them!

It's early and I'm pre-coffee.  Bear with me... I have a point.

While we were at the wedding, I double-checked with Rejoyce (pictured 3rd from right in a traditional Kyrgyz matron's dress) that she ate eggs and cheese.  She kind of blanched and said she could, but preferred not to due to lactose intolerance.

Oh.

Hrm. 

Ok.

Luckily, shakshuka is easy to prepare without eggs and cheese.  I made it up to the point where I add the eggs, then pulled out a portion for her.  To hers I threw in some spinach and VOILA: vegan entree for her.

That morning I had chatted with my aunt on the east coast while she was making a pumpkin pie.  Marius has been curious about pumpkin pie, which is also Gene's favorite, and so I decided to make one.

But wait a second.  Pumpkin pie has quite a bit of dairy in it.  Interwebz to the rescue!

Any ingredient I wouldn't quickly and earily use was out.  I didn't want to get stuck with a tub of silken tofu, a bag of spelt, or cartons of soy milk so any recipe that called for them was out of the question.

I decided on a store-bought graham cracker crust.  A little bit of research brought me to this recipe.  It turned out beautifully.  Every single morsel of that pie disappeared by the time the dishes were cleared.   With the holidays coming up, be a dear and make a dessert your lactose-intolerant guests can eat.  They'll thank you for it.    

LACTOSE-FREE PUMPKIN PIE Recipe from Dairy-Free.Food.com   1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar*
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4-1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups mashed cooked pumpkin
1 cup soymilk, rice milk, almond milk, or non-dairy coffee creamer*
(*I used vanilla-flavored creamer and found that the recipe was very sweet.  Reduce the sugar somewhat if you use a flavored creamer.)

 

Directions:

1. Whip eggs until frothy.
2. Beat in sugar, then spices and salt.
3. Add pumpkin and soy milk and beat until well blended and smooth.
4. Pour mixture into pie shell.
5. Bake at 450F for 10 minutes.
6. Reduce heat to 350F and bake for 30 to 35 more minutes.

You can top it with your choice of a whipped cream or ice cream - with or without lactose - and nobody will even know the difference.

Enjoy!

And, because I only used half of the can of pumpkin, I made my favorite pumpkin bread last night.  Pumpkin bread for breakfast!  Booya. 

Tomatillo chicken with piloncillo

We got rid of cable several years ago and haven't looked back.  Having rabbit ears on our TV does get annoying, especially when large planes running powerful radar are doing touch-and-gos at nearby Joint Base Lewis-McCord, but we're used to getting about four channels now.

About a month ago I was watching PBS and came across a show making things with tomatillo.  I was intrigued because they were in season (and are still readily available).  The first two things she made were not new to me.  Then she made something she called "Pollo con Tomate Verde, Chipotle y Piloncillo": chicken with tomatillo, chipotle, and piloncillo.

tomatillos

Now she had my attention!  Piloncillo is that brown cone-shaped thing you may have seen either in the produce or Hispanic sections of the grocery store.  I'd seen them before but never knew what it was or what to do with it.

 

It turns out it's just unrefined cane sugar that's been pressed into a very hard cone.  To use it, you simply grate it.  At around $1.50 each, they're cheap and apparently they last indefinitely.  And it you don't have one, it's can be replaced with regular brown sugar.

 

I made her recipe and let me tell you: it's delicious.  Because Gene doesn't like onions, I pureed the sauce once it was done and served the dish with brown rice.  There was not a single peep from the peanut gallery about the onion content.  It was mildly sweet, tangy, and had just enough kick to be interesting.  I made it with chicken thighs.  Make yours with whichever cut of chicken you prefer. 

 

If you like spicy food, use 2 chipotle chilis, otherwise 1 is enough.  I hate opening a jar of chilis in adobo because I rarely get around to using that rest of it.  If you have this problem, freeze the leftover chilis and sauce in an ice cube tray and then transfer the cubes to a plastic baggy later.  Don't forget to label the bag.  One time I made spaghetti sauce with cilantro instead of basil.  It was unforgettably wretched.

 

 

CHICKEN IN A TOMATILLO, CHIPOTLE AND BROWN SUGAR SAUCERecipe from Pati's Mexican TableServes 4 to 6INGREDIENTS3 chicken leg quarters, or a combo of drumsticks and thighs, rinsed and patted dry 1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt, more or less to taste 1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground 1/4 cup safflower or corn oil2 cups white onion, sliced 2 garlic cloves, chopped 2 lbs tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed, quartered 4 tbsp piloncillo, shredded, or substitute for brown sugar 1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, plus more sauce if desired 2 cups chicken broth, or water

TO PREPARE Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.

In a thick and tall heavy skillet or casserole dish, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the chicken pieces. Brown on one side, for about 4 to 5 minutes and then flip and brown on the other side, for another 3 to 4 minutes. Don't try to flip too soon or the skin will stick to the skillet. Remove the chicken pieces and place in a bowl. You may remove the skin if you wish, I don't.

Add the onion to the skillet and cook, stirring for about 3 to 4 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, for about 20 seconds. Make room in the pan and add the tomatillos. Let it cook all together, for about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the piloncillo, the chipotles and their sauce and stir well. Once it comes to a simmer incorporate the chicken pieces along with the chicken broth and cook for about 30 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should be chunky and thick, and the chicken fully cooked.
(I apologize for not using any of my own pics.  I did take some when I was preparing this recipe a full month ago but haven't had time to download them from the camera.  Indeed, just while writing this post I've over-steeped a full French press of coffee and Kaelen has fallen once and bonked his head.)

She brought a tear to my eye

Warning - if you're squeamish about eyes, read no further.

Last Thursday at work I noticed an enormous new floater in my right eye.  The outline of it looked like a monkey hanging from a vine.  It was very annoying because it was right in the center of my field of vision.  Sometimes when I looked from my computer screen to my keyboard I noticed a momentary flash of light. 

Frustrated with a technical glitch discovered while editing my department's website, I took an earlier than usual lunch.  My usual lunchmate was busy so I sat and ate by myself.  It was during that quiet time over lunch that the words of warning from doctor upon doctor returned to me: "because of your extreme myopia, you are at high risk for retinal detachment.  Should you ever see flashes of light, call a doctor immediately".

I started paying closer attention to the flashes and the floater, then I looked up symptoms of retinal detachment on my phone. 

Holy crap:

• flashes of light... check
• sudden onset of large floaters... check

I hightailed it to my office and called the eye doctor right away.  While I was speaking to a technician, I remembered that the previous night Rosemary had gotten a little too excited and had head-butted me in the eye. It had hurt like hell.  After a couple of minutes the pain subsided and I had forgotten all about it.

But wait.  An eye injury was also on the list of symptoms of retinal detachment.  Oh no.  Rosemary's head-butting to my eye counted as an injury.

• recent trauma to the eye... check

The nearby eye clinic didn't have an appointment.  They wanted to know if I could drive to the clinic that's about 15 miles away in an hour.  Does a bear poop in the woods?  Hell yes, I can get myself there.  I drove home, grabbed Gene, and we went up together.

We walked into the clinic at 2:10.  By 2:45 I had been diagnosed with a horseshoe retinal tear but not retinal detachment.



mvretina.com

The optometrist said that the resident opthamalogist would perform immediate laser surgery to repair it. 

"Whuuut?  You mean, right now?" I gaped ever-so-eloquently.

"Yes.  We're going to 'spot weld' the tissue around the tear in place to prevent further leakage of the fluid in your eye and to avoid any loss of sight.  Gravity will continue to pull at that tear and you don't want to wait any longer than necessary.  If you leave it, it'll develop into full retinal detachment and you'll go blind in that eye."



healthyliving.msn.com

I must have looked like a fish, opening and closing my mouth without saying anything.  I had been expecting this to happen - for years, actually - but it was going really fast.  Gene is squeamish about eyes the way I am about broken bones.  When I went into the waiting room to tell him what was happening, he visibly blanched.

About 30 minutes later I had laser surgery.  It's not a pleasant procedure.  Some of the 350 laser blasts hurt, but at least I'd been warned of that fact in advance.  The hardest part is getting over the insanely strong urge to close your eye due to the bright flashes of light.

The upper back part of of my eye now looks like this. 

retinalphysician.com

My eye has a 'fro'd-out happy face because it can still see.

The new floater is omnipresent, and make take a few months to go away.  I've also got a small blind spot from the tear where the laser and tear were: like I've been looking at a bright light (which I guess I did) and/or have something on my cheek.  I also have lots of little black specks in my field of vision, which cause me to wave off nonexistent fruit flies, imagine phantom rats and cockroaches scurrying by, and turn my head to see birds that aren't really there.  My vision is hazy in that eye and I've got a follow-up appointment scheduled in another week.

I'm glad that I'd listened to doctors all those times I'd been told of the warning signs of retinal detachment.  I'm fortunate to have decent health care.

But most of all, I'm thankful I can still see with both eyes.

A new room in our house

I have created a whole new room in our house.

Looking toward the front of the house:

This was in 2011.  Shudder.  It was a constant source of horror, stress, and marital strife.  Gene's mother passed away in 2004 and he'd never had the wherewithal to go through her things.  So they wound up in the attic, rummaged through and strewn everywhere.

Again in 2011, after I'd spent an entire day clearing, sorting, and ditching things.  I'm an avid believer in passing things along (i.e. donating) that we're not using so that others may enjoy them.

A couple of weeks ago I did a more brutal sort.  Gene got in on the act and went through more things.  We took an entire trailer load out.  It was 1/4 recycling, 1/4 garbage, and 1/2 donations.  There's still more to do but it's entirely manageable - and no longer scary - now.

And finally I painted.  Gene wanted orange.  This is a little more sherbet that we'd planned but it's fine for now.  This is an inner spring klik klak futon.  The stairs are so narrow, and the roof so low, that regular bed and sofa options were out of the question.  The futon is a perfect solution.

That little door on the far right is an access door to the top of the porch.  I've never been in there (shudder) but have peered inside.  Alas... no hidden treasures.

Looking toward the back of the house:

The Big Manly Chair (TBMC), which is deeply coveted by my friend Dena, is ancient.  It's been in my family for... well, nobody is alive anymore who would have known for sure.  But I think it once belonged to the Perrins, friends of my great-grandparents.  It's been stored in basements and garages for decades and is in dire need of refurbishing.  Actually, the chair at the desk 1 photo up is also from the Perrins and is one of a pair.

TBMC is, for the time being, still in storage.  Gene and I have taken a shine to it and have decided to refurbish it.  It's a massively heavy oak thing and I suspect it dates from 1900-1920, as it's a Mission style chair with a leather seat, very similar to this one.  Given the value of the other chair, we will consult with an expert before doing anything to our chair!

Here's the storage area of the attic.

Another 2011 shot.  I've since gotten rid of all of my narrow-mouth canning jars, some 15 dozen!  I'm moving exclusively to wide-mouth, which I find are easier to pack and clean.  The previous owners generously left behind piles of hangers, broken poster frames, old electrical wire, an ancient Kirby vacuum, 2 huge leaves for a long-misplaced table, and endless rolls of vinyl flooring and carpeting.

With the exception of the Kirby vacuum, which I'm going to try to sell on ebay, everything is now gone.  The carpet rolls have been put to good use.

We're thrilled to have expanded our home by some 200+ square feet.  In a strange way, this is all due to Kaelen.  If we hadn't had Kaelen, I wouldn't have accepted a side job of finding a host family for Marius, failed to find one, then talked Gene into taking Marius on ourselves.  That prompted me to clean out the attic and make it liveable.  After Marius returns home in January, we'll transform the attic once again into a playroom for Kaelen and Gene's office. 

Then maybe, just maybe, I can finally get my built-in booth with storage in the kitchen.

To market to market

A friend of my boss sent him this photo some time ago:

Do you recognize any of the products?  Doesn't it seem odd to you that Stove Top, Lucky Charms, Crisco, Nerds, and tabasco (among others) are all in the same section? 

Have you guessed why yet? 

This is the "American" section of a grocery store in Italy.  This is what Europeans think we eat.  This is what enough ex-pats demand when overseas that this store imports these items.

Yes, I'm horrified, too.  It does not, in any way, match my own food shopping experience.  Heck, I don't even buy most of what's on these shelves, though I will admit that Karo syrup, canned pumpkin, and peanut butter are all staples for us.

With our very own German teenager on his way, I'm eager to find out how different our reality is from his expectations.

Last weekend we were in the Bay Area and we stumbled across a farmers market.  Since we were on our way to Sonoma (for an ill-advised attempt to go wine tasting on a Saturday in August), we stopped in to get some picnic items.

I picked out an "elephant heart plum" for myself, and a nectarine for Gene.  My plum was nearly the size of my fist.  Both were delicious.

I resisted the berries, but only because they don't travel well and I didn't feel like scarfing an entire container in the car.

Another vendor had the prettiest "cheddar" cauliflower I'd ever seen.

We purchased some smoked salmon from another vendor, joking with him that we'd driven all the way from Seattle only to purchase something we can easily get at home.  He was very nice and we talked about the trend in Washington to have "salmon candy", or smoked salmon that's treated with a sweet glaze.

The market was overflowing with gorgeous produce.  Hey, it was California after all.  We didn't buy much but our eyes drank in all the lovely sights of a productive and busy market.  I'd take anything from that farmers market - ANY farmers market - over the "American section" of the Italian grocery store any day.

On a related note, we've been introducing Kaelen to solids for about 2 months now.  We've yet to find something he won't eat, so I'm getting more adventurous in what I give him.  Neither Gene nor I care for beets but as you can see in his reaction to a batch of baby borscht, Kaelen doesn't share the sentiment.

We're expecting

We're expecting again.

It's a boy. 

He's a 15-year-old German exchange student named Marius.

Don't worry: no "Irish twins" here!

I signed up to be the "local coordinator" for an international exchange organization and my job was to find a host family.  That didn't quite go as planned and so we decided to take Marius into our home and hearts.

Have I told you before that our house is 1070 square feet and that we have but a single bathroom?

We've been busy transforming our attic from an unorganized and over-filler storage area into a bedroom.

Tonight I'm going to primer the awful faux wood paneling.  We're looking for a high quality futon to put on the right side of this picture against the knee wall.

I'm debating whether this needs a curtain as a door.  On one hand, Marius will have the entire upstairs to himself, with only the occassional foray by Gene or me to get something out of storage.  Privacy won't be an issue for him.  On the other hand, this space is not insulated.  A heavy curtain across the doorway will both block light from the window at the other end of the house and help keep in heat from a space heater.

In the 9 years I've lived in this house, I had never once completely cleared, organized, or even swept this space.  The previous owners thoughtfully left behind a huge pile of wire hangers, light fixture parts, curtain rods, rolls of carpet and vinyl flooring, and broken glass in the back corner.  I can confidently walk barefoot without fear of slicing open a toe or getting lockjaw.

There's nothing quite like a hard deadline to get you moving on a long-neglected project.  Once Marius returns home next January, we'll reclaim the upstairs as a playroom for Kaelen, office for Gene, and guest room for anyone who visits.  Perhaps my east coast family will finally be persuaded to venture west of, well, Boston!

I'll post more pictures once I primer the attic. 

What color would you paint it?