Forest Gump of Plums

I am the Forest Gump of plums.

This year all of our plum trees have gone into overdrive producing.  So many plums.  So many types.  I feel like Forest Gump


Wild plums, Italian plums, Santa Rosa plums.

Plum jam, plum jelly, plum pulp frozen to make more plum jam and jelly, plum bread, plum cookies, plum crisp, plum tortes, plum pies, plum sauce, dried plums, frozen plums, canned plums, fresh plums.  

FREE plums.  Please take some of these plums.  Begging people to come an pick them before our deck is totally spotted with rotten plums dropping off of the tree.

I can't stand to see the fruit go to waste so I spend my time preserving, cooking, freezing and drying.

Here is a recipe that freezes well.  The bread is better after sitting and 'aging' for several days, otherwise, it is cakelike, crumbly and doesn't cut well.  The Italian plums are a pleasing blend of sweet and tart that doesn't make the bread gooey.

Italian Prune Nut Bread

Yield: 2 loaves

1 cup butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4  large  eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp  cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sour cream
2 tsp lemon peel, finely grated
3 to 4  cups Italian prune plums - diced 1" pieces
1 cup chopped pecans


1. Pre heat oven to 350.  Grease and flour two loaf pans

2. Cream the butter sugar and vanilla until fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition

3. Sift together the flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking soda.  If you don't have cream of tartar use baking powder ( 2 tsp)

4. Blend together the sour cream and lemon peel.  Add the the creamed butter mixture alternately with the dry ingredients.

5. Stir until well blending then fold in the plums and nuts.

6. Pour into the two baking loaf pans and bake at 350 for 55 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Pork Roast and the Plan - Part ONE

What do I have on hand?
What use of leftovers can I make?

One of my main strategies in planning for a week is to cook one 'large' item that I can use for several leftover meals during the week. Not only does this save TIME it also can save money. Here is an example from last week.

First: what do I already have on hand? So....delving into the freezer, I see that I still have several pork roasts that I bought about 6 months ago when they were on sale. Pork Blade Shoulder Roasts or also known as Boston Butt. Looking at the label on the packaging it is an 8 pound roast and I see that I paid .97 cents per pound. Woo Hoo!!! SCORE!! The same roasts now are $1.90 to $2.10 per pound now. (Tell me all about how we don't have inflation again?).

How do I know the price and poundage? Whenever I buy meat in bulk to freeze, I write this information on the label, along with the date so that we can use the older stock first. LIFO in accounting terms.

OK. Pork it is. However, an 8 pound pork roast is a lot of meat for two people. We don't want to eat pork ALL week long.......... I know. Let's have company!!

COMPANY MENU
( 4 people..links to other recipes in this blog)

CRISPY SALT CRUSTED PORK ROAST
PINWHEEL GNOCCHI
CAESAR SALAD
RICOTTA PINEAPPLE PIE



CRISPY SALT CRUSTED PORK ROAST

8 pound pork roast (because I already owned it)
8 or more large cloves of garlic
8 tablespoons of Kosher Salt (1 tbsp for each pound of meat)
2 tablespoons coarse ground pepper
6 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
4 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
1 tsp each dried oregano, marjoram, thyme

Place the pork, fat-side up, in a roasting pan fitted with a rack insert, and using a sharp knife, score the surface of the meat with small slits Mash the garlic and some of the salt (about 1/3) until it is a paste. I used a mortar and pestle, but you can also use the flat side of a cleaver on your cutting board. Mash in the spices and pepper to make a coarse paste. Place the paste in a bowl and stir in the rest of the salt and the oil and vinegar. You don't want to completely dissolve the salt grains. Rub the garlic paste all over the pork, being sure to get into the incisions so the salt can penetrate the meat and pull out the moisture - this will help form a crust on the outside when cooked. Cover the pork with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

Allow the meat to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Roast the pork 45 minutes to the pound, uncovered, until the skin is crispy-brown. Using an instant read meat thermometer the internal temperature should be at least 145 to 160 degrees. Don't let the thermometer touch the bone when testing or you will get a false read.

Let the meat rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes before slicing. If longer, just tent loosely with foil and let it sit.

This is the most juicy and tender pork that you will ever eat.

FRUGAL PLANNING POINTS
Ricotta Cheese: The Potato Gnocchi recipe calls for some Ricotta Cheese. In order to make good use of the rest of the cheese, I chose to make the dessert that also uses the Ricotta.

Caesar Salad: Don't buy those packaged salad mixes. They are expensive!! and often the romaine lettuce is not all that fresh. Instead, invest in a salad spinner and buy romaine by the head and either make your own Caesar salad dressing or buy a jar and keep in the refrigerator. Caesar is our favorite salad and we eat it or a variation at least 2 to 4 times in a week and the head of Romaine will last that long.

How to keep it fresh? Breaking the whole leaves apart first (I don't mean tear the leafs up...leave them whole, I put the entire head of lettuce into a big zip lock bag and insert a just damp paper towel. This keeps them fresh and you can pick an assortment of outer and inner leaves for your salad.

Cost of a pre-packaged salad (single use) $4.00

Head of Romaine $2.00
Salad Dressing $3.50

For a little bit more, you get 4 to 6 salads instead of just one!! That's FRUGAL.

Now that we have had a great meal with friends, what am I doing to do with the rest of this pork???

Stay tuned for part TWO.

Frugal Tips: Make a Meal Plan and Stick to it.

If you want to save money and save yourself a lot of stress make a meal plan for the week and try to stick to it.

I know. Too anal. Too restricting. Too much work. Too Boring!!

But believe me it will work.

This was my routine before making shopping lists and meal plans.

"OMG I'm out of cream and onions for the casserole that I just decided that I want to make tonight." Run to the store and "Oh...look they are having a sale on Cheeze-its, strawberry ice cream and oooooh don't those olives look good. Maybe I should pick up some of these pork chops" So, in addition to spending more money than I needed, I came home with a bunch of stuff that I didn't need and some pork chops for which I have no real plan. This means that I have to go back and get more ingredients later for the surprise pork chop meal. Rinse and repeat.

The result is wasted food. Wasted time. Wasted MONEY. The result of haphazard planning is meals that are boring, meals that are not creative and which are repetitive. It is too easy to go with the good old standards, until you and your family are sick of spaghetti, tacos or whatever your go-to standard is.

For me, part of the joy of cooking, to steal a phrase, is to make new meals. Different dishes. Experiment. Sometimes it works and you have what we call "a keeper". Other times it is a total failure....we won't do that again.

Over many years I have come up with a system that works for me. I ask myself these questions in no particular order.

What do I have on hand?
What is on sale in the store now?
What seasonal foods are available?
How long will these items last in the refrigerator or before they begin to 'turn'?
What does my family really like to eat?
When was the last time we had these particular meals?
What would I like to try to experiment on?
How can I make the best use of my time and money by using leftovers?
Can I combine ingredients to make different and exciting meals and save money by buying in bulk or using things I already own?

Then: I make a rough list of meals for the next week or for at least several days. Thinking of the main dish and side dishes that would go nicely. Also trying to create a variety of meals. After all.....even if chicken IS on sale, we don't want it every freaking night!! While Chinese or Mexican food is great....I don't want it all the time. Mix it up and create variety or your family might rise up in revolt against the same food all the time.

Consider the nutritional value of your meal plan as well. You need, throughout the week, a good mix of protein, fats, vegetables and grains. So, while I love Fettuccini Alfredo, every meal can't be carb loaded pasta. Indulge yourself: make a dessert or some sweet treat for the week.

I also leave myself some flexibility so that if we decide to go out for the evening or we just decide that we are really really not in the mood for Pastisto or Arroz con Pollo or Clam Chowder we can move that meal to another night or just do something else with the ingredients. A meal plan doesn't mean you are stuck, like in a straight jacket, and must adhere to the plan. Be flexible within your plan and realize that YES, you will have to go back to the store for some things, especially those items that you can't buy in bulk or that have short shelf lives......lettuce anyone?

So in this and in the next few posts I will cover a few of my questions at a time and give some examples of meal planning.

Frugal Cooking Tips: Buy in Bulk or On Sale

There are many ways to cut down on the cost of cooking. Over the course of these next posts I'll try to highlight some of the frugal cooking techniques that I used.

You might find by following a few of these your costs will go down AND the quality of your meals will go up.

BUY IN BULK and WHEN ON SALE: Whenever possible, buy in larger quantities. Of course you have to be able to store the extras. It does you no good to buy mass quantities that then go stale, spoil or have to be thrown out.

My husband is always reminding me that the freezer or the pantry isn't a savings account!!

Our local market had these beef chuck roasts on sale. Buy one get one free!! How can I resist? . I purchased two 3 pound roasts. So...... priced at 5.19 a pound my actual cost per pound is 2.59 per pound. Now THAT'S more like it. Freezing one today and cooking the other as an oven pot roast with separately roasted, carrots, potatoes, onions and home made rolls.

This is an easy peasy recipe and when you are done there will be ample left over meat for another meal, like a beef enchilada casserole, minestrone soup or pot roast sandwiches.

(I need to note here that I am cooking for two adults. If you have more in your family, then you should adjust accordingly. We two adults will be able to get 2 to 3 meals from this recipe.)

BEEF POT ROAST

• 3 lb beef chuck roast
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup flour
• 4 tbsp or so of oil
• one small onion chopped
• 2 bay leaves (if you have some otherwise...no big deal)
• 4 to 5 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
• 2 stalks celery chopped in 2 inch pieces leaves included

Pre Heat the oven to 325.

Salt and pepper the roast on all sides. Roll the roast in the flour In a dutch oven heat some of the oil and sear the roast on all sides, about 3 minutes to a side. Remove the roast and make a bed of the onion, celery and bay leaf. Put the roast back onto the pan, cover and roast for about 30 minutes. Turn the heat down to 300 and roast for another hour or hour and half.

ROASTED VEGETABLES

• 5 or 6 medium sized red potatoes cut into eights
• 3 large carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 red onion peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
• any other root type vegetable or winter squash that you may have hand cut into similar size pieces
• garlic salt
• cracked pepper
• spices that you may have like parsley, basil, tarragon..whatever
• olive oil, about 1/4 cup or less

During the last half hour, on a separate sheet pan or shallow roasting pan, drizzle the vegetables with the olive oil and toss well to coat. Sprinkle with garlic salt, pepper and the spices that you desire. Roast along side the pot roast, stirring the vegetables a couple of times with a spatula.

Remove the pot roast and let set for 10 to 15 minutes. In the meantime if the vegetables are not done or you would like them a bit crisper, crank up the heat and stir them again to ensure even cooking.

If you would like, make some gravy with the drippings in the pot roast pan.

Pot roast can be as simple as you want it to be, like this recipe, or you can jazz it up. The trick is long slow cooking of an inexpensive cut of meat to create a tender and juicy roast.