Archive for November, 2008
Are You Tough Enough to Win the Coupon Wars?
A while ago I wrote a post on Grocery Shopping – Inattention Can Cost You Big spelling out how smart shoppers understand how grocery stores increase their profits through the use of shelf tags and shelf talkers. This is nothing illegal, just a way for them to augment their small profits by tricking the unaware shopper into spending more than they have to to purchase what the store would like you to purchase.
This post takes the consumer education a little further; into the world of coupons and BOGO’s (buy one get one) specials. Again, this is not to condemn the grocery stores and call foul on their methods; only to provide an understanding on how it works and how smart shoppers can profit from it. Product manufacturers and grocery stores spend lots of marketing money and effort in convincing you to buy what they want you to buy. Our job will be to convince you to buy only the products you really need.
As the economy tightens more and more of us are clipping coupons and marching off to the store to “save” a bunch on our purchases. To successfully work within the “coupon” system we have to actually put forward some effort on our part. First there is the finding and clipping of the coupons; no big deal just developing a routine. Now that we have the coupons we have to organize them, maintaining our collection within the expiration dates. There is nothing like getting to the checkout line, thinking you have just saved a bunch, only to find out that many of your coupons have expired.
Now it is time to talk about shopping discipline. Hopefully you are planning your meals and making a shopping list. Take out your coupon collection and go through it to pick out only the ones that are for the products you need and have on your shopping list. This is where the store’s marketing attempts to take over your thought process, be sure that the product is still the best buy even with your coupon, even with double coupon offers. Sometimes the stores will push a certain product and an equal product will be cheaper without the coupon. At times the BOGO offer is good, but can you really use 2 of that product? Most stores will only charge you half price if you buy only one of a BOGO.
To sum this up, saving money at the grocery will cost you time and effort. You are up against an army of marketing specialists, hired by the manufacturers and grocery stores to seperate you from your money. You need to be just as deligent in your process as they are in theirs. Be tough, be smart, it is us against them and I am on your side.
1 comment November 23, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Fettucini Alfredo
(From the Starch Collection at emealsforyou.com)
We had brunch at our friends’ house this Sunday to celebrate Thanksgiving. They usually have Thanksgiving Dinner with us but this year they will visit their daughter in Chicago and have their Thanksgiving there. Long story made short…we did the usual brunch thing; overate. Around 6:30 P.M. we decided we should have something to eat but just didn’t know what that something was. I finally came up with Fettuccine Alfredo, quick, easy and good.
I need to step back for a minute and vent about that stuff they call grated cheese in the round, cardboard container on your grocery shelf. Growing up my father always had an old mayonnaise jar in the frig filled with grated cheese. Now this ethwas way before food processors so it meant that he would grate the cheese himself; using the old fashion box grater, you know pyramid shaped grater. He would sit down and fill that jar about once a month with fresh grated cheese. Today we can get fresh grated hard cheeses in our local groceries, or we can pop a chunk in our food processors and have that fresh, grated cheese to add to whatever we think would benefit from it. If you are buying the green, cardboard cylinder of grated cheese please stop; buy your family a little of the fresh grated cheese or try and grate a little yourself; a micro plane works very well for this. Taste a little of your old container of cheese and then taste the fresh grated; I know you will see the difference.
As a post script I offer a suggestion: try sprinkling a little of the fresh grated cheese over your salads, you will be surprised at how much the little bit of cheese adds to the the flavor of the salad.
Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!
Fettucini Alfredo
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Starch |
| Meal: | Dinner on the Deck (Picnic Meal Plans) |
| 1 | lb | pasta, fettucini |
| 1 | large | egg |
| 0.66 | cup | cream, light |
| 8 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 0.5 | cup | cheese, Romano, grated |
| 0.75 | cup | cheese, Swiss shredded |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Beat egg with cream. Melt butter. Pour both over cooked, drained, hot fettuccini, add grated cheese. Toss and serve.
Add comment November 22, 2008
Take the Register Receipt Challenge
By now, if you have been following along with all my meal planning posts and rants, you are feeling pretty good about yourself. You think you are doing a good job, or maybe you think you are at least better than you were at planning your shopping needs. Like any good training tool we now come to the test. How well do you actually do cutting back on unnecessary purchases, saving money and feeding your family better?
The grocery store has assigned all its marketing efforts to FORCE you into those impulse buys. They lay in wait at every turn with their endcaps designed to COERCE you into purchasing that package of cookies. Candy is only a short reach away. So here is the challenge: each week for the next 4 weeks gather up your grocery register receipts and enter them on the attached spreadsheet. Enter the unnecessary items, impulse buys, things you just couldn’t live without, and those things that just FELL into your cart in the spaces provided. I know that we are approaching the holiday season and we all are a little prone to slightly ease up on our discipline but just think; if you can get through this how easy the rest of the year will be.
Add up the columns and see exactly how much you are wasting each week/month. In these tight times wouldn’t that money be better spent on something else. The other lesson here is that after you complete this list and spend the time you will realize that using some of that time to plan meals and write down a shopping list will help with your budget and maybe your sanity.
The bottom line is that if you make the effort; whether you plan using paper and pencil or “spring” for the www.emealsforyou.com solution you will find life becomes a little easier. Click here register receipt challenge to open and print the tracking sheet or click here to email Chef Jake if you prefer the MicroSoft Excel version to request the file.
Add comment November 20, 2008
Recipe of the Week – (crock pot) Easy Italian Beef
(From the Slow Cooking/ Crock Pot Cooking Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Easy Italian Beef
Pull in to most non-national chain fast food shops in Chicago and you will see Italian Beef on the menu. Philadelphia has its cheese steak sandwiches; ordered “wit or witout” as they say, with or without cheese. Chicago’s answer is the Italian beef sandwich; this time your choices are with or without sweet green peppers and wet or dry; with juice or without. The steak sandwiches are unique to the Philly area and almost duplicated across the country. I say almost because once you go to 9th and Passiank in South Philly to Pat’s Steak House you will never eat another “Philly cheese steak” with the same appreciatation. Maybe it’s the Frank Sinatra music playing in the background or the fact that ever candidate for a national office has made a stop there; whatever it is it works.
The Chicago Beef is another story. Easily created in your crock pot or slow cooking in a Dutch oven the ease with which you turn an ordinary chunk of beef into “man food”; perfect for the football watching rituals is amazing. I guarantee your family will love this and you will reap the compliments. Please make this and don’t take the shortcut of ordering thin sliced roast beef and extra au juice on the side from your grocery store; it doesn’t even come close.
Make mine with and wet please!
Easy Italian Beef
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Slow Cooker / Crock Pot Cooking |
| Meal: | In the Good Ole Summertime (Picnic Meal Plans) |
| 3.5 | lb | beef, roast |
| 1 | 6 oz can | pepperonchini |
| 1 | 10 oz bottle | beer |
| 1 | 10.5 oz can | beef broth |
| 0.7 | oz | Italian salad dressing mix, dry |
Combine all ingredients in a large crock pot. Cook on low for six to eight hours or until beef is very tender and falls apart. Serve on Italian rolls or bread.
Hint: During the last hour of cooking, you may add one or two sliced fresh green peppers.
Add comment November 17, 2008
Can You Go Home Again? A Non-Rant
With the holidays looming in the near future I begin to think about how we approach returning to the home we called home before we moved on. Do we view “home” with different eyes? Are we older, maybe and maybe not wiser? Do the things that impressed us as youthful residents still impress us now?
We recently returned to New Jersey to share some time and meals with family and work a little on the “to-do-list” at my mother-in-law’s place. Working on the list during the day and partying hardy with the family at night left us both refreshed and exhausted. Catching up on the stories and happenings that just don’t translate well over the phone or through emails makes the drive well worthwhile.
On one of my trips to buy materials for the list I passed by the Trenton Farmer’s Market, a place where local farmers and businesses can sell fresh produce, homemade foods, flowers and more. I hadn’t been in the Farmer’s Market in quite a while and as I needed some Italian bread for dinner I pulled in. Wondering around brought back many memories of long gone days. To my surprise the market had aged well and offered significantly more products then in bygone times. A stop at the Italian People’s Bakery stall yielded 2 loaves of Italian bread and a loaf of Corn Rye Bread; the stimulus for this post.
Growing up Saturday morning was spent riding to the Eagle Bakery; trying to time it just right to allow the bread to cool enough to have it sliced and just before everyone else bought all of it; 9:30 seemed to work. Years later I have tried to duplicate the taste and texture of this wonderful Corn Rye, almost but not quit getting it right. I have tried different types and combinations of flour and additives; even making slings to hold the bread while it went through the delicate rising period; but I just couldn’t get it right. This brings me full circle back to the Farmer’s Market, the bread was delicious, everything I remembered and then some. See, I could go home again, if just a little.
P.S. I somehow found myself back at the Farmer’s Market again before I left NJ and I bought two more loaves for the road.
For those of you who wish to try to make Corn Rye Bread, here is a recipe I got off the Internet. I am going to give it a try; if you do please let us know what you think.
From: http://emr.cs.iit.edu/~reingold/ruths-kitchen/recipes/breads/ryebread.html
Jewish “Corn” Bread (Rye Bread)
Years ago my husband and I ate some corn-rye bread in Los Angeles. Corn-rye bread doesn’t have cornmeal in the bread itself, but the outside is coated with cornmeal. The texture of the bread should be dense without being dry, and the crust should be crisp and crunchy. For many years I tried to duplicate the recipe, but rye breads are tricky. They can be too dry and heavy or too light and airy. The rye bread in most supermarkets would never pass muster in a delicatessen. I was overjoyed to find this corn-rye bread recipe in Helen Witty and Elizabeth Colchie’s, Better than Store-Bought, Harper& Row, 1979.
Rye Sourdough Starter
48 hours before beginning rye bread, make this starter: Mix 1 T. dry yeast in 2 cups of tepid water. Beat in 2 cups of rye flour. Add a small onion, peeled and halved. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Remove onion. Beat in 1 cup tepid water and 1.5 cups rye flour. Cover and let stand for 24 hours longer. This can be used immediately or refrigerated for 24 hours. This preparation makes about 4 cups of starter (a bit more than required for the bread).
Corn Rye Bread
Yield: 2 very large loaves
- 1.5 cups warm water (110°)
- 1 pkg (1 T.) dry yeast
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
- 4 tsp. kosher salt
- 3 cups Rye Sourdough Starter, measured after stirring down
- 2 cups high gluten flour
- 3.5 cups all-purpose flour
- cornmeal
- 1 egg white beaten with 2 T. water for glaze
- 2 tsp. caraway seeds for topping and more for inside, if desired
The following directions are for hand kneading. If you have a heavy duty food processor, put all dough ingredients in work bowl after you have made the yeast starter. Add starter and combine. Dough will be fairly sticky. Don’t use a food processor unless it is quite durable; this is a very heavy dough.
Combine 1/2 cup warm water, yeast, sugar, and let stand until double (10 min.). Dissolve salt in remaining water. Mix in sourdough starter, then yeast mix. Add gluten flour and 2 cups of all-purpose flour and optional caraway seeds; make a soft dough. Spread 1.5 cups flour on kneading surface and turn dough out on it. Knead, adding more flour, to make a soft dough. Do not overknead. The dough should be only slightly elastic, even a bit sticky. Form dough into a ball, and put in an ungreased bowl. Cover with plastic, and let rise until double (1.5 hours). Knead, cover with towel, and let rest for 15 minutes. Divide into 2 parts. Form each into 12 inch loaf. Pinch seam, and place seam down on cornmeal-dusted sheet. Cover and let rise until 3/4 proof. Put a large pan with 2 inches water in oven. Preheat to 400 °. Place quarry tiles on upper shelf of oven. Brush loaves with egg-white glaze, slash with knife. Sprinkle seeds on top. Bake for 30 minutes on tiles. Brush again with glaze; bake an additional 20 to 30 minutes.
Add comment November 13, 2008
Cooking that Bird
ROASTING INSTRUCTIONS FOR SAFETY AND DONENESS:
1. Set the oven temperature no lower than 325 °F. Preheating is not necessary.
2. Be sure the turkey is completely thawed. Times are based on fresh or completely thawed frozen birds at a refrigerator temperature of 40 °F or below.
3. Place turkey breast-side up on a flat wire rack in a shallow roasting pan 2 to 2 1/2 inches deep.
Optional steps:
- Tuck wing tips back under shoulders of bird (called “akimbo”).
- Add 1/2 cup water to the bottom of the pan.
- In the beginning, a tent of aluminum foil may be placed loosely over the breast of the turkey for the first 1 to 1 1/2 hours, then removed for browning. Or, a tent of foil may be placed over the turkey after the turkey has reached the desired golden brown.
4. If a meat thermometer is not available, cook stuffing in a casserole. Mix ingredients just before stuffing a turkey; stuff loosely. Additional time is required for the turkey and stuffing to reach a safe internal temperature (see chart below).
5. For safety and doneness, the internal temperature should be checked with a meat thermometer.
The temperature must reach 180 °F in the thigh of a whole turkey (center of the stuffing should reach 165 °F) before removing it from the oven. Cook a turkey breast to 170 °F.
6. Juices should be clear. In the absence of a meat thermometer, pierce an unstuffed turkey with a fork in several places; juices should be clear with no trace of pink.
7. Let the bird stand 20 minutes before removing stuffing and carving.
APPROXIMATE COOKING TIMES
UNSTUFFED
- 4 to 6 lb breast…..1 1/2 to 2 1/4 hrs
- 6 to 8 lb breast…2 1/4 to 3 1/4 hrs
- 8 to 12 lbs…………….2 3/4 to 3 hrs
- 12 to 14 lbs…………..3 to 3 3/4 hrs
- 14 to 18 lbs……..3 3/4 to 4 1/4 hrs
- 18 to 20 lbs……..4 1/4 to 4 1/2 hrs
- 20 to 24 lbs…………..4 1/2 to 5 hrs
STUFFED
- 8 to 12 lbs……………3 to 3 1/2 hrs
- 12 to 14 lbs…………..3 1/2 to 4 hrs
- 14 to 18 lbs…………..4 to 4 1/4 hrs
- 18 to 20 lbs……..4 1/4 to 4 3/4 hrs
- 20 to 24 lbs……..4 3/4 to 5 1/4 hrs
From: FSIS Food Safety Education and Communications Staff
Meat and Poultry Hotline:
Add comment November 12, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Laurie’s Cake
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Laurie's Cake
In our house traditionally the birthday person gets to pick the birthday meal and so it was with our daughter-in-law’s birthday dinner last week. This time she and our son went onto the www.emealsforyou.com website and chose the meal. She picked an Italian salad, Chicken Cacciatore and Dad’s Mashed Potatoes. For dessert she wanted something not too sweet, not too fancy and maybe made with cornmeal.
Piecing together several cornmeal type cakes I came up with this wonderfully moist, tasty and satisfying cake. Originally I named it Cornmeal Cake, kind of fit what it was, don’t you think? My wife disagreed with the name but really liked the cake; so she named it Laurie’s Cake. This is the perfect cake if you want something out of the ordinary, something really good and something that your company will want to take the leftovers home; which, by the way, is exactly what Laurie did.
Laurie’s Cake
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Laurie’s B’day Dinner (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 1 | cup | cranberries, dried |
| 0.5 | cup | flour, all-purpose |
| 0.5 | cup | corn meal, yellow |
| 1 | tsp | baking powder |
| 1 | tsp | orange zest |
| 0.75 | cup | butter, salted |
| 1.25 | cup | sugar, white |
| 0.5 | tsp | vanilla |
| 4 | large | egg, yolks |
| 2 | large | egg |
| 0.33 | cup | orange juice |
| 1 | tsp | sugar, powdered |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the center of the oven. Place cranberries in a small bowl and toss with 1 Tb of the flour; place aside. Mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and the orange zest together. In the bowl of the mixer cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy; add the egg yolks and eggs one at a time. And beat for 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and the flour mixture slowly on low until just mixed. Add the orange juice and mix for 30 seconds. Fold in the cranberries and pour into a greased 8” cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, in the middle of the oven until brown and the cake is set in the middle when moved. ( a toothpick will come out clean when inserted).
Cool the cake on a rack; dust with powder sugar; serve at room temperature.
Add comment November 11, 2008
Meal Planning – Yes You Can
Exhibit A
I am about to prove to most of you that you really do know something about meal planning. I say most because some of you will get a pass and be invited to eat the Thanksgiving feast at someone else’s home. Each year the ritual begins about a month out; looking through magazines, asking friends and family and watching the endless TV cooking shows. You search for something different to serve for your Thanksgiving dinner; put together the list of things you will need for the meal, shop, cook, plate and serve…in other words Meal Planning at the highest level. While all this preparation and work seems like way too much effort; just take a minute to remember the look on everyone’s face as you serve the meal. Think about how much everyone enjoyed the food, the conversation and even thanked you for your efforts.
That last sentence makes my point. It all is worth it in the end. So what I propose is that you make an effort to do just a little of what you did for the feast. Plan small meals, less complicated, less work but I bet you still will get those smiles and maybe even a thank you or two.
Check out our easy recipe for Pecan Pies and many more at emealsforyou.com.
Add comment November 6, 2008
Recipe of the Week – Pot Roast
(From the Beef Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)
I wanted to have steaks on the grill and salad; my wife, on the other hand, thought pot roast would be nice. The occasion was our friend’s wife was out of town and he and his teenage son were at home; forced to fend for themselves for dinner. Well, as I put the pot roast on the stove I thought,” you win some and you lose some.” The good news is that I make a “killer” pot roast.
I learned long ago the secret to really good pot roast is to cook it longer than you think you should. If, by normal thinking, it should cook for 3 hours, cook it for 4. You really can’t over-cook it as long as you have some fluids around it while it is cooking. This will make a juicy and extremely tender, fork-tender, roast flavored by all the wonderful things you put along side it during the cooking process.
I cooked oven-roasted veggies alongside the pot roast; lots of potatoes, carrots, onions, celery and garlic; the thick, dark gravy just begging for dipping crusty bread into it. We finished the meal with some croissant bread pudding with bourbon sauce. I passed on the bread pudding but did have some more bread to dip into the gravy.
Pot Roast
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Beef Entrée |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 3.5 | lb | beef, roast |
| 1 | tsp | salt and pepper to taste |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 6 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 3 | medium | bay leaves, whole dried |
| 3 | medium | onion, yellow ,quartered |
| 1 | 12 oz can | beer |
| 1 | 10.5 oz can | beef consommé |
| 1 | Tb | Worcestershire sauce |
| 4 | Tb | water |
| 2 | Tb | cornstarch |
Spread salt and pepper over entire roast. Heat oil in a large, oven-roof pot. Brown roast on all sides. Add onion and onion browning slightly; add garlic and immediately add beer, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves and consommé. Cover and cook on low on stove top or place in a 300 degree oven for at least 3 hours, until meat is fork tender. When done remove meat to a platter and cover. Mix water and cornstarch to make a slurry. Add to pan juices, bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thickened. Reduce heat, Cut meat cross grain and pour gravy over. Serve extra gravy on side.
Shown here with oven-roasted veggies.
1 comment November 3, 2008
Tips, Techniques and Ideas – Common Sense Thoughts from our Website
Kitchen Notes
Ever wonder what a roux is? How about, “How many tablespoons in a cup”? What about which tools we rely on in our test kitchen?
We’ve revealed some secrets from our kitchen!
If you are asking it probably someone else has, too. To help you out, we have compiled our own Kitchen Notes tailored just for our members.
Plan Your Meal Cooking
Plan your meal cooking the way you plan your “soccer mom” driving. Assign a time to prep and cook each component of the meal. Start with the longest prep/cooking item, begin that and stage each of the other components according to cooking time to have everything finish at the same time. This is the hardest task to learn but once you master this you will find your cooking will become immensely easier.
1 comment November 1, 2008
