Oh Gosh. I'm the Worst.

This always happens.

Every Summer, I end up taking a looooong sabbatical from blogging, totally unintentionally. At the end of May, I really should just say, "Ok, see you guys in August!" But I never think about it until it's been two months since my last post. The lack of a schedule in Summertime makes blogging a real challenge, and because I generally have less to think about in the Summer, I have less inspiration. Seriously, though. I'm back. For real.

On the long drive home from Colorado, I listened to "The Five Aspects of Woman" -- a series of lessons by Barbara Mouser on the ways that the Scriptures describe women -- on cassette tape, if you can believe those dinosaurs still exist, and was really struck by the "Mistress of the Domain" aspect (taken from Genesis 1, if you're curious). That particular teaching encouraged me to get off my butt and start exercising dominion over my condo.

So, along those lines, here are my projects for this school year:

- improve my sewing skills and start using my sewing machine more regularly, especially to bless my friends with young kids.
- make a rag rug (I love the look of knotted shag rugs, but they seem to involve an awful lot of steps!)
- remember how to knit (knitting is awesome. It's such a portable craft!)
- make liquid soap AND bar soap
- keep up with my homemade laundry detergent, which works great!
- continue to phase out chemical body-care and cleaning products and replace them with homemade versions
- use extra money to replace nonstick and aluminum pans with safe, nonreactive cookware (partly done now since I just rescued three cast-iron skillets from my parents' garage) and plastic storage products with glass

What about you, friends? What's on your project list?

I Love Risotto AND A Good Day's Work

So. Risotto. Is there a reason you're NOT eating risotto for dinner a couple times a month? If it's because you don't know how, here: let Marcella teach you. That's really all you need. Recipes? Psshhh. Risotto is a method, homeboy. And it goes a little something like this:

Take some fat. Heat it in a pan. Add a few aromatics. Throw in some long-cooking veggies if you like. Sizzle them for a little bit. Meanwhile, boil some water or broth in another pan. Add some arborio or carnaroli rice to the pan with the fat and aromatics. Stir it around until the edges start to look translucent. Don't let it brown. Add a splash of white wine. Add the water or broth a half-cup or so at a time, stirring constantly, until each batch is absorbed. When the rice is al dente, taste, adjust seasoning, and add quick-cooking veggies and a few flavor enhancers. Butter. Cream. Cheese. The texture should be creamy and loose, but not soupy. Add an egg yolk or two off the heat if it tickles your fancy.

Does that sound easy enough? Think of the variations.

Cajun Risotto
Fat: bacon grease
Aromatics: onions, peppers (capsicums), garlic, bay leaf
Long-cooking veg: none
Liquid: water or chicken broth
Quick-cooking veg: peas
Flavor enhancers: cream, very aged gouda
Bonuses: andouille sausage, shrimp

Springtime Farmers Market Haul Risotto
Fat: olive oil
Aromatics: onions, garlic
Long-cooking veg: morels
Liquid: H20
Quick-cooking veg: shredded zucchini, spring onions
Flavor enhancers: butter, parmigiano reggiano, egg yolk

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Also, a good day's work would be... the 7 half-pints and two pints of strawberry-rhubarb jam and 4 half-pints of serviceberry-raspberry jam. Have I mentioned that I love canning? Because I do. It's probably my favorite all-time kitchen activity. Narrowly above baking bread, but there just the same.

What Can You Do With... Leftover Pasta?

Make a baked pasta. Toss together leftover meat (sausage, chicken, cubed meatloaf) with the pasta. Add jarred pasta sauce, thin slightly with water, wine, or stock, sprinkle with cheese and bake. Other add-ins: peppers/capsicums, onions, zucchini, bits of ricotta, fresh herbs, spinach, pancetta, cherry or grape tomatoes.

Make pasta salad.

Make a pasta frittata. Saute pasta briefly in a little oil. Scramble a few eggs, and add in whatever you like. Pour eggs over pasta, move pan to oven and bake until eggs are set. This is a great place to use up all the little odd bits of leftovers in your fridge.

Potato Salad

This has to be a quick one because I swore to myself I'd be in bed before 10:00 tonight. Lame, I know, but when the alarm rings as early as it does at Chez Frugal, these are the necessities of life.

The second the weather starts to warm up, I start craving potato salad. Now, as an adult, I've become an equal-opportunity potato salad lover, but when I make it myself, we are talking stupid simple. I just peel, boil, slice, and cool some potatoes (any kind, I'm not particular -- everything from plain baking potatoes to those swanky purple fingerlings from the gourmet shop), and mix them with very, very finely minced Spanish onion (sweet onions are good, but strong, spicy, tear-making onions are better for this application), a heap of mayo*, a squeeze of plain yellow mustard, and salt and pepper. Really. Frugal, and delicious. Better the next day, and the next. And the next.

Gee, I kinda wish I had some potatoes. Uh, grocery run tomorrow!





* N.B. I am the least brand-conscious person on earth, and you know how I hate to spend money, but people, mayo matters. Do not, I repeat do NOT, buy store-brand mayonnaise! Hellmann's (if you're east of the Rockies in the U.S.) or Best Foods (if you're west of the Rockies) should be the only brand in your cart. Seriously. I will allow the purchase of 365 brand mayo, and Kraft in a pinch. ALSO. This is important: low-fat mayo is not food, you dig? It is franken-food at best. Buy the real stuff and just eat less, mmkay? Your non-freakshow offspring will thank you later for not cramming your body full of chemicals and weird laboratory-based stabilizers in the name of health.

What Can You Do With... Leftover Rice?

Make "Faux-sotto": saute onions in olive oil, deglaze with white wine. Add chicken stock and leftover rice. Stir like crazy until rice looks creamy. Add anything else you like in your risotto -- peas, mushrooms, cheese, greens, herbs, crispy bacon, cream, etc. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Use it as a binder or filler in meatballs, meatloaf, fish croquettes, etc.

Make rice patties: add a little flour and an egg or two, plus any shredded veg you like (onion, zucchini, carrot, sweet peppers/capsicums), salt and pepper and any seasonings you like. Fry in a bit of olive oil and serve on a salad or with soup.

Freeze it! Rice freezes beautifully, and reheats in the microwave in seconds.

What Can You Do With... Stale Bread?

Make bread crumbs. Store in the freezer. I ALWAYS have breadcrumbs on hand, and I use them for a million things.

Make croutons.

Make french toast.

Toast it and pour gravy, chicken broth or soup over it.

Make a sweet or savory bread pudding or a breakfast casserole.

Pickles!

Hey, y'all! I was just making some pickles yesterday and thought of you!

I love canning, but that love does NOT extend to canning pickles.* Instead, I love to make refrigerator pickles, which couldn't be easier or more yummy. The basics are simple: you make a quick brine, add seasonings, and put sliced vegetables (which are sometimes blanched) into the brine. Then refrigerate overnight, and voila! Pickles!

The pickles I made yesterday went a little something like this (all measurements estimated -- this ain't rocket science, y'all):

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
pinch red pepper flakes
few grinds of black pepper

1 large (seriously massive) English cucumber, sliced thinly
1 large carrot, sliced thinly
2 spring onions (scallions), sliced lengthwise a couple times

Throw all that together in a jar. Give the brine a taste -- it should be tangy but not elicit a "whooo." Adjust seasonings, remembering that the spices will become stronger as they steep in the brine. Let it all sit overnight, and then nibble away.

Of course, just about any firm-textured vegetable will work for this: blanched cauliflower, green or wax beans, pearl onions, sweet peppers, roasted beets, etc. Beet pickles should certainly include much more sugar.

It's a frugal way to deal with a surplus of veggies because it extends the life of that veggie, and it's also MUCH cheaper than your average store-bought condiment. Great accompaniment to a simple dinner of bread and cold meat. Mmmm...



*Notable exceptions to this rule include bread-and-butter pickles and cinnamon pickles, which hold up well to canning. Hmmm... those would be good tutorial posts for my mom to do, since I've never made either on my own.