I Can Only Spend What?? Part Deux

Many moons ago, I was challenged to create a fake budget for myself, and I had to incorporate 90 balanced meals. I promised to post my menu when I was done, and I never got around to it. I’m sure you’re all used to that by now.

I want to pat myself on the back and say that I had $5 left over on my fake budget. I would probably use the $5 to buy something other than lentils. Believe it or not, you can buy a lot of food products at the dollar store, and a lot of them aren’t too bad. The country ham is great, and you can often find feta cheese. I don’t know if I’d want to eat this menu all the time, but I could still live happily on it.

In case you were wondering, my food bill for the month was $93.15, and that included tax. I remember when I could easily live on that for a month, but those days are long gone. I also want to mention that many of my classmates went the Lean Cuisine route. I made a personal pledge that I would neither do that nor live on sandwiches. I was successful on both counts!

Click on the above menu to see it larger

We Got the Beet

Weaning myself off of junk food may not be the easiest endeavor that I’ve undertaken. I’ve been addicted for quite some time, and old habits die hard. While I’ve never had much of a sweet tooth, I still enjoy sugar now and again. I’ve found a helpful and unlikely remedy for the removal of junk food from my diet: beets.

I often get the impression that the Beet Fan Club is a small but devoted group of beet fanatics. I love beets. I’ve loved beets for as long as I can remember eating them. Canned beets are a cheap and easy addition to salads, but the flavor is often lacking from sitting in the water for so long. At the supermarket, beets are seldom inexpensive. At my local supermarkets, beets are typically sold in bunches of about 3, for $3-4 per pound. Maybe it’s a deal when you figure in the cost of gas to bring the beets to the supermarket and all of the production, but I want more beets for my money.

This past Friday, I bought a bunch of beets from a very pleasant gentleman who was selling the extra that his family had. I gladly spent $1 for a bunch of about 8 small beets. When I came home, I grated one of them and had it with lettuce and vinaigrette. Tasty, but it was still missing something.

I had been thinking about the remaining beets sitting in my fridge and decided that today would be the day for a salad. I peeled the raw beets, which is easier than rubbing hot beets to get the skin off. I put them in a small pie plate, drizzled them with orange juice and salt, and then put them in a 350° oven for about 45 minutes. I wasn’t exactly timing them—I pulled them out of the oven when I could smell the juices start to burn. While they were still hot, I tossed them in a bit more orange juice. I quartered each beet in an attempt to get them to cool faster. I couldn’t wait. As soon as the steam stopped coming off of them, I started popping them into my mouth. Still warm, the natural sweetness enhanced by the orange juice.

I arranged some mixed lettuces on a plate, added the remaining beet quarters, then drizzled it all with the Stone House mustard vinaigrette. This was topped with the sweet and spicy pecans and the creamy feta that I’d picked up at the farmers’ market yesterday. I almost cried as I neared the end of my salad. While I still have more of the other ingredients, I’m out of beets! I don’t know if I’ll make it until tomorrow to get more! The feta producer apologized that he only had the large container of feta and asked if I’d be able to eat it all. As long as I can get my hands on more beets, it won’t be a problem. Who needs candy when there’s sweet deliciousness to be had in a beet?

The Beet Fan Club is always looking for more members. I will be retaining my lifelong membership and may even begin a recruiting campaign. Long live the beet!

It's Just a Little Kibble

Today being a Saturday, LA and I were off to the Winecoff farmer’s market. We were on a quest for something a little different than the standard produce. LA found out that he would be the owner of a new puppy by the end of the day. To create a welcoming environment for Mr. Piddlesworth (you don’t want to know his full name), LA wanted to buy some dog treats. I wanted feta cheese. That’s the beauty of the farmer’s market—you can find just about everything there.

Away from the main building, Deborah’s Kitchen Krafts was set up under a canopy. Not only does Deb make some great mustard and tapenade, she has expanded into the world of dog biscuits. These are available in cheese, applesauce, and carrot flavors. Deb recommended the applesauce variety, but LA ignored her and went for carrot. A carrot dog biscuit? As Deb pointed out, she had samples. I tried the carrot one. I could see the carrot but not taste it. LA was a bit appalled, but it was basically a thick, very dry cracker. I made him try it too. Homemade dog biscuits have very few ingredients and all of them are found in typical human food. The dryness was the most unpleasant aspect. So yes, today I ate a dog biscuit. A gourmet dog biscuit.

We took our dog biscuits and headed up to the main building. The heat was overwhelming but worsened as we got inside. Today was the busiest that I’ve seen the market so far this season. People were out in force, many with their kids in tow. We stopped and got peaches for later. We headed to the Cackleberry Farms booth (next to Darryl’s Copper Workshop) for feta and some hard Cheddar-like cheese. All I’ve heard it called is “hard cheese”. We’d tasted it before but never bought any. I’m looking forward to some grilled cheese sandwiches.

As we swam through the crowd into the heart of the market, just past the many bins of different soaps, a man collecting food donations stopped us. Not to ask for a donation, but to ask LA how often he changes his hair color. He’d seen him “around the village” and knew it hadn’t been red before. Then he gave me a high-five for my willingness to walk next to LA in public. But he did call me “striking”, so that was a plus.

We stopped by Ohana Favorites and tried some of Joanie’s Hawaiian pepper jelly. It started out sweet, with a taste of tropical fruit, then turned spicy. An added bonus was that it covered the dog biscuit taste in my mouth. We didn’t get a chance to talk to Joanie, as she had several paying customers in her booth. Along with the jellies and cereals, she also has started selling boiled peanuts. I’ll have to give those a try in the near future.

The booth in the back is occupied by Miller Produce. I wanted to get some honey, so that’s where I headed. LA is a bit of a honey-snob and wanted to know what type of flower their honey comes from. Laura Miller explained that they grow beans, potatoes, okra, zucchini, tomatoes and all kinds of other things, so the honey has a little bit of everything in it. She offered us a sample, but we both turned her down. I tasted it once I got home and found it to be very mild, much more so than wildflower honey. And lighter in color.

As we were leaving, I wanted to stop by Harvest Catering’s booth. On Wednesday nights, Harvest Catering offers takeout meals, including a meat, two sides and a dinner roll for $6. This past Wednesday, I had the pot roast with mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese (this coming Wednesday's option is baked ham). I was told that the pot roast was fantastic and wanted to find out for myself. I had to give Sandra my opinion. The pot roast was fantastic. Also, the mashed potatoes included chunks of red skin potatoes and a hint of garlic. Delicious! I didn't initially think I cared for the mac & cheese, but then realized I was inhaling it.  Although it was baked, it was cheesy and not eggy; just the way I like it.  While I was picking up my dinner, I had been talked into some chocolate banana pudding too. Talking me into it didn’t involve much arm-twisting. It was definitely worth the $1.50. During the winter tailgate market, I’d gotten some Candy Apple Jelly from Harvest Catering. I don’t care for cinnamon, and the smell of it was the first thing that hit me when I opened the jar. I forged ahead and discovered some truly yummy jelly. I may be a cinnamon convert. Today I also bought some sweet spicy pecans from Harvest Catering to add to my beet and feta salad. I tried one when I got home. I popped it into my mouth, chewed a little, and thought, “This isn’t spicy at all.” Then it hit me. I take back what I said. They are sweet and spicy and will be an excellent addition to my salad.

With our bag filled with goodies and our constitutions weakened by the heat, we left the market. I was so thrilled to see all the people that turned out today, despite the temperature and humidity. Maybe they had all heard the same piece of trivia that I had: according to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, most fruits and vegetables sold at U.S. supermarkets travel an average of 1,500 miles from their source, whereas farmers’ market produce is usually sold less than 50 miles from where it’s grown. I know how wilted I am after a long trip, and I’m sturdier than an ear of corn or a tomato. I was a fan of the farmers’ market before reading that, and I’m even more devoted now. I’ll be heading over to Harrisburg on Monday, and I hope to see some of you there!