Pantry Raid!

It's an old-fashioned pantry raid!  We'll be storming the freezer and the pantry to use up all of the stupid things I bought on sale cause they were a good deal but still have yet to be used.  A few months expired?  Don't care!  Doesn't sound good anymore?  Too bad!  It's food.  Get over it.

"This week on Iron Chef, our Chefs' secret ingredient is...crap."

So there's a super easy recipe on the back of a Rice-a-Roni box.  It's basically like this:  Take this product and add chicken and a vegetable.  Cook.  Mix together.  Eat.  See?  Easy.

I think you can apply this one-bowl meal recipe principle to any easy-cook boxed starches.  Tonight, for example, I took 2 of my 4 boxes of Stove Top stuffing I had stocked up on when it was 89 cents post-Thanksgiving and did essentially the same thing.

The box itself offers three tasty looking recipe ideas, except they all include some kind of cheese or creamed soup or sour cream.  I can't eat dairy so they were all useless to me.

Noticing on the box of Rice-a-Roni that the only difference in the amount of water you add to the side dish alone versus the easy meal idea is a quarter cup less of water.  It's less for the meal - this makes sense; there's water content in the chicken and the veg, so to displace and ensure your rice isn't all soupy, use less water.  Got it.

So apply this same principle to the stuffing mix and done!  Cook the chicken in the boiling water, toss in some frozen broccoli or green beans, let simmer for just a couple minutes and then add in the stuffing packets and watch it expand.  Let sit, then fluff.  Just like Thanksgiving.  

And it's just hit me - I think I have a can of cranberry sauce in my fridge...confirmed!  Wow!  It's good til July 25th 2013 (obviously, it's been there for years)!  You want to know what serendipitous means?  There it is.  Tomorrow, there will be sliced jelly with the left-overs.  Left-overs!  There it is again!  It really is Thanksgiving in July!

I'm back!

The Gourmet is back!  I've had a baby and likely won't be returning to my job (the one I got after I disappeared from posting -- the commute is too insane, the pay not enough to justify, and the baby is too adorable).  So while I scramble to help make ends meet, I will also be scrambling eggs and other low-cost ingredients together for some truly jerry-rigged meals.  You'll find them all here!  Stay tuned!

Fancy Schmance At Home

So for special occasions, I like to "do it up". If I can't and since I can't go out for fancy meals, I'll bring the fancy home. Generally around special holidays there will be deals on fancy meats and seafood at your local grocery store. Just keep an eye our for those weekly Wednesday ads in your mail.

For New Year's this year (yes I know, that was months ago), they had a sale on lobster tails and tenderloin. Surf n Turf, baby! The lobster tails were six bucks each (they were frozen but who cares), and tenderloin was something like eight dollars a pound. I picked up 2 modest fillets and two 6-buck lobster tails for a total of 22 dollars.

Here's the cookin:

for the lobster:

After thawing them out overnight in the fridge, cut down the middle of the tail with scissors, and loosen the meat as much as possible - this will make it easier to remove from the shell while it's piping hot. Place a pat of butter n the opening of the shell and put in the oven at broiling temperature for 5-10 minutes.

For the filets, get your pan nice and hot on the stove. Salt both sides of the meat. Melt a few table spoons of butter, and when it's hot enough place your filets in the pan to sear. Each side gets 4 minutes (for an average 1 and a quarter inch thick steak). For the last 2 minutes I put a lid on the pan to let them steam a little to ensure a perfect mid-rare. Remove from heat onto a plate and let sit.

For the sides, what is easier than potatoes? I picked up a small bag of tiny gold potatoes, but any variety will work. Cut into generous pieces, place in microwave safe bowl with green onions, butter, salt and some lemon juice and microwave wave in increments of 5 minutes until tender. (15 - 20 min) Stir along the way.

For veg I chose broccolini, yellow zucchini and mushrooms (I know, that's not a vegetable). Leaving the spears of broccolini whole, add with chopped yellow zucchini and mushrooms and steam. I don't have a "steamer" so I just use a metal colander and place atop a stock pot with boiling water in it, and trap the steam with the stock lid on top of the colander. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon.

Order of prep:
1) potatoes - get chopped and get them cooking first
2) lobster prep - and preheat oven
3) meat
4) veg & put lobster in the oven
5) prep any drinks and butter warmers
6) plate & serve



From start to finish the whole deal takes about 30-40 minutes, comfortably. With the price of everything, including stuff "I already had" this meal cost around $35. It would have easily run us 3 times that at least at a restaurant.

A Third of a Penny Saved, is a Third of a Penny Earned!

Yesterday's post reminds me of a another nugget of fatherly advice given to me. Actually it was given to me to share with my then boyfriend (now husband!), Adler. My father never gave advice with any kind of actual value, but he did once call to share with me this:

(phone conversation, Adler and I had been dating for only a couple of months at this point)
Dad: "How's Adler?"
Me: "He's good."
Dad: "You tell Adler --" and then he really did pause, as if he was looking left and right to make sure no one could hear him before he revealed his sensitive information.
I nearly thought he might next say something semi-protective of me... you know "get your mitts off of my daughter!" etc.
No, no.

Dad: "You tell Adler -- you can get three uses out of a coffee filter before having to throw it away."

So there it is. If you want to save literally fractions of a single penny: reuse your coffee filters.

In the beginning

My mom was, and is, an amazing cook. I learned many things from her, but my fascination and ability to make anything from anything had to have been passed down genetically from my father. Though social norms and general fear of ridicule prevented me from going to some of the lengths, --or rather shorts that my father did, I still take after him, sadly. I have never tried, nor ever will try, the "technique" below. I also don't recommend it. But it did inspire me to create this blog, so here it is:

You can use a coffee pot to boil hot dogs. And by boil I mean, just get them hot enough to eat. You're not going to kill off anything that might be harboring in those dogs, so make sure they're not old. My father discovered this method upon moving to Torrance, CA (leaving his wife and kid behind) to take a temporary job to make ends meet. While walking through Hollywood with me, he found a coffee pot at a crummy yard sale. He bought it for two dollars. He was, in my opinion, overly-happy to acquire this used, crusty, off-brand coffee pot, but now that I know the major plans he had for it, I guess it makes sense...

He had no regular pots or pans in his studio apartment, so he put the hot dogs in the coffee pot carafe, loaded the reservoir with water and brewed his meal. I guess you could also heat up things like corn or frozen vegetables this way too. This method would also come in handy if you don't have a stove.

Welcome to the MacGyver Gourmet!

Let's face it (and let's also face that I just started my first entry with "let's face it") -- it'd be nice to buy the choicest cuts of beef and veal, the freshest produce, a lobster. But that's all pricey. I just left my job and I can't blow my non-existent paychecks on premium fare. Yes, yes, I know the best tastes the best, but I simply can't afford it. I'm going to have to cook with what I have and what I can afford -- this is The MacGyver Gourmet.