Of great May buys & Spring Veggie Chowder

Jews tell a tale of a peasant who had dreamt that he could find great treasure under a bridge in a town far away. He dropped everything, & traveled to that town, & sought that bridge, & began to dig underneath its banks. A watchman appeared, & asked him what he was doing. “I dreamt that there is treasure under this bridge, so I came from my town.” The watchman replied, “You can’t believe dreams. Why, if I believed my dreams, I would journey to your town, & dig up under the floor of your hovel.” The peasant returned to his home in passion, dug up his floor, & found the treasure.





HELPFUL HINTS:

Potatoes should be kept in a separate cupboard than onions. They need to be stored in an opaque bag, though – just like onions. On the other hand, potatoes don’t need to be separated from each other –onions do. The way I handle onions is to place them in a cloth bag, with the bag twisted shut & tied above each onion. (I use rubber bands between each pair of onions.) They last much longer that way. And, so do the potatoes when kept by themselves in an opaque bag.

The best way to avoid getting clogged drains in the bathroom is to avoid getting hair in. When shampooing hair in the shower, remove stray hairs from your hands, & transfer them to the shower wall. After your shower, a simple wipe with a tissue will pick up all the hairs. (I economize by using a square of toilet paper.) Similarly, wipe out the vanity bowl after you brush or comb your hair.

When you plant seed in your garden, do not fertilize for several weeks, or you are just throwing away good compost, manure, or commercial fertilizer. The seeds contain nutrients, & there are not yet enough plant roots to fix the nitrogen in the plant food.

If your life situation changes drastically, such as having to deal with being laid off without sufficient savings &/or unemployment insurance, you may well find it appropriate to relocate from suburbia to either the city or the country – suburbia is the most expensive place to live.

You can find the best recipes for thrift in any older cookbook, published before, say, 1975. While I have a number of these, my favorite is the GOOD HOUSEKEEPING COOKBOOK of 1973. A specialized cookbook that I enjoy is the 1971 COMPLETE AMERICAN-JEWISH COOKBOOK. Going back to the time of widespread immigration to the Midwest, any edition of the SETTLEMENT COOKBOOK gives over 3,000 ideas – even though most of them require some basic cooking knowledge to follow. (The edition that I own is the last one published, to the best of my knowledge. THE NEW SETTLEMENT COOK BOOK – THE WAY TO A MAN’S HEART, 1954 edition, is the book that I have. The first edition was published in 1901 in Milwaukee, WI.)







GREAT BUYS FOR MAY:

Groceries:

Artichokes
Asparagus
Corn
Peas
Tomatoes

Grapefruit
Plums
Strawberries

Mexican-themed foods for Cinco de Mayo

Other great deals:

Costume jewelry (but a thrift store is cheaper any old month for this.)
Handbags (ditto)
Outdoor furniture (OK, here’s something that one rarely finds at a thrift store.)
Silver (If you don’t care about having items match, you can find great buys on silver at a thrift store.)
Dry-cleaning of linens (Bed coverings & draperies)





RECIPE:

There are a few more days of Passover, so here is another recipe suitable for the holiday. By the way, as with the preceding Passover recipes in the last 3 issues, you need only substitute flour for matzo meal to have a year-round dish. Also, if you prefer, you can use green beans in place of the spinach year-round.

Spring Veggie Chowder:

2 T butter
1 large onion, minced

In a Dutch oven, saute until the onion is lightly browned.

10 oz frozen, defrosted chopped spinach, or 1-1/2 lbs. fresh spinach, trimmed & chopped, OR (not during Passover) 1 lb green beans in 2” pieces (fresh or frozen)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes or cayenne
6 medium zucchini or summer squash, sliced in 1” pieces
1 large Russet potato, diced (no need to peel it)
29 oz can of tomatoes, chopped in the can with kitchen scissors, UNDRAINED

Add to pot. Stir thoroughly. Reduce heat & cover. Cook for 30 minutes.

MEANWHILE:

3 c skim milk, scalded in a separate pot until you see small bubbles forming (then take the pot off the flame)
2 T butter
½ c matzo meal

Remove ¾ c of the milk to a quart Pyrex measuring cup or bowl. Add butter & matzo meal. Stir with a whisk until completely smooth.

Pour the remaining 2-1/4 c of scalded milk into the Dutch oven. Mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk-matzo meal mixture, & stir thoroughly again. Cover again. (Maintain the heat on low.) Simmer for 10 minutes.

1 bunch fresh parsley, minced with kitchen scissors

Add parsley & stir. Serve to 7.

Of Passover & distressed furniture

During the coming week, Jews celebrate the holiday of liberation, Passover. The holiday is so named because, when Moses was ready to lead the people out of Egypt, the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Jews during the execution of the 10th plague, the killing of the 1st-born sons. The holiday starts with 2 seder evenings, or organized readings & special foods. ( The readings have to do with how a people can move from slavery into freedom. One way is to uphold the Divine laws.) The Jews were in such a hurry to leave Egypt that they had no time to bake their bread. In all the centuries since, Jews eschew risen breads during Passover, & just eat matzo instead. (We also do not eat other foods that puff up in cooking, such as beans & rice.)





HELPFUL HINTS:

Keep fresh ginger in the freezer. It will last much longer, & it is easier to grate when frozen.

If you are in the market for a new or used car, bear in mind that the cost to insure different makes & models varies enormously. Before you buy, check with your insurance company to learn which cars the company accepts the lowest premiums for, & seek to purchase one that is on that list.

When you cook an oven meal for which the recipes advise different temperatures, bake it all at once, to save on your utilities bill. Just choose the temperature advised for any bread, cake, pie, or cookies that you are baking - goods with baking powder or yeast, & adjust the times that you keep other foods in the oven. (Adjust items that are advised to be baked at a higher temperature to be in the oven longer. Adjust items that are advised to be baked at a lower temperature to be in the oven for a shorter time.) If you are not preparing baked goods, choose the temperature that is in the middle of the range of temperatures given in the recipes that you are preparing, & adjust the other temperatures as given in the parenthetical above

As we approach mosquito season, here’s an easy way to keep the critters out of your face when you’re outdoors. Just cut some cheesecloth (about 2’ by 2’), put on a hat, & tuck the cheesecloth under the hat’s front brim & inside your collar.

To store plastic bags, stuff them into an oatmeal canister, & cut a slit in its plastic lid. You can even provide continuous ejection by knotting one bag’s bottom end to the next one’s top end. (That is, stuff them together into a chain before putting them in the canister.)

A fine place to find high-ticket goods at rock-bottom prices is the business bankruptcy auction where a business (in Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code) did not have anything to do with the kind of item you are looking for. For example, if a clothing store has gone belly-up, the resulting auction would be a great sale at which you could find a computer, because the computer is “ancillary” to the business that had been going on – the computer will go for a song.

When you want to give a present that will fit into a jar – such as a mix for baking where you can layer the ingredients attractively & affix the recipe, you want the jar to look pretty, &, of course, you would prefer to recycle a jar. Here’s how to make a lovely new label after you soak the old one off & let the jar dry thoroughly. Use a scrap of fabric, aluminum foil, wallpaper, ConTact® paper, or what-have-you, & write or print out a descriptive label smaller than the decorative label. Affix the descriptive label to the decorative, & the decorative label to the jar, both using rubber cement on all the edges. I’d bet that you know about rubber cement that it dries quickly, &, once dry, you can rub any excess off easily – it beads readily.







ABSOLUTELY ABSURD RETAIL ADVERTISEMENT:

The Broyhill furniture company, selling a new collection called “Attic Heirlooms,” assures the public that the furniture in this group have “[r]ustic worn woods … [that] feature unique character knots, dents & scratches that harken to the past.” The ad promises that “these newly-made pieces have all the character & style of one-of-a-kind antiques.” Wow! Guaranteed to have you pay through the nose for distressed furniture when you can pick some up in any Salvation Army store ….





RECIPE:

I’ve doubled my usual poultry ration for this recipe, since so few foods are available for Passover. A good accompaniment to this dish is mashed potatoes made with chicken broth.

Fruited Turkey:

½ lb pitted prunes (about 1 lb prunes that you pit yourself)

Soak overnight in 1 c water at room temperature (covered). Reserve water.

1 c matzo meal
1 tsp cinnamon for the holiday – 1 tsp cardamom instead if you are making this recipe year-round (Note: Observant Jews only use foodstuffs marked for the holiday, & not everything that is available year-round is sold Kosher for Passover.)

Mix together the prunes in water, matzo meal, & spice.

¼ c olive, peanut, or walnut oil
2 c cooked turkey, chopped
2 large or 3 medium carrots, grated
½ large or 1 medium onion, sliced with rings separated

In a Dutch oven, sauté the turkey, carrots, & onion in the oil, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.

Add the prune mixture & stir thoroughly. Cover & reduce the heat. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring at the 5 & 10 minutes marks.

Serves 5.

Of children's allowances & eggplant/mushrooms

That which you see & hear, you cannot help; but that which you say depends on you alone. – Jewish Zohar (a mystical work)





HANDLING CHILDREN’S ALLOWANCES:

Some folks prefer to give their children allowances that are not tied to “chores.” Others feel differently. Let me be up-front about my bias. I think that a child should share in the work of a household without the work’s being rewarded with crass coins. I think that the child should make contributions of his or her time in solidarity with the rest of the family, without what may be felt by the child as “bribery.” But you may feel differently. I’d love to run another piece, gathering your opinions about why & how paying for chores is better -- & how you have arrived at a pay scale that you & your child feel is equitable.

Whatever monies children receive – gifts, allowances, income from work – should be saved, in part. Decide with your child 6 or over what would be a fair percentage – something between 10 & 30 percent would probably be equitable. Younger children should have, in my opinion, all the money gifts that they receive be saved for them.

Have the child decide what she or he is saving for. (Perhaps this would be a used car if the “child” were a teenager – or a new bicycle for a younger child.) If the amount to be saved is on the high end – 30% instead of 10%, it might be a good idea to divide the saved pot in half. One-half would be for short-term savings, & the other half towards an adult goal – college or a down-payment on the adult child’s first home. (If a child puts 15% of all monies the child ever receives into long-term savings, these goals would not be absurd. Naturally, these larger sums should be invested carefully. Tax considerations are crucial, particularly if the child is receiving income for his or her help in a family business. The state “529” tax-deferred savings accounts for college would often be the most appropriate vehicle. Finally, liquidiy & safety of the investments are the paramount issue.)

Many people calculate allowances as $5 or $10 times the child’s age. This is simply ridiculous for pre-teens in my opinion – how can a 10-year-old responsibly handle $100 or even $50? (If $1 is used as a multiple for the youngsters instead, how would it seem fair to the child for that multiple to be increased at a given age? What IS the big difference between 8 & 9, for example?)

But, if the parent & child agree that, as a teenager, the child should provide out of his or her allowance for all needs beyond (i) shelter, (ii) food at home, & (iii) health care, (or from the allowance plus his or her earnings), the $5 or $10 per year of age formula makes more sense.

A back-to-the-nester, in my opinion, should not be given an allowance but should be asked to pay rent. I would define such a child to be anyone who is not disabled from working, who is over 18.

So, my friends & readers, add your voices to mine & let’s speak together about this important issue!





HELPFUL HINTS:

If you need to fly cross-country, consider purchasing tickets to & from Las Vegas. The casinos are almost always inducing the airlines to provide special deals to that destination, so you often will pay less on your trip by utilizing this method.

Here is a way of saving on toiletries that are thick such as deodorant: just turn the container upside-down between uses.

In the specific case of colored nail polish, dilute it with a base coat/topcoat as it is used up. You can use the cheapest kind of base coat/topcoat to keep a more luxurious brand of colored polish going for many, many months.

To save big dollars on your car insurance, cancel your collision coverage once the car’s market value is less than 10 times the premium for the coverage.

When you MUST use a paper towel – a cloth just won’t do, such as to pick up a dead fly, which carries disease – tear off the least possible amount feasible for your purpose. This may be as small as a 2” square.





RECIPE:

Here is a second recipe suitable for use during Passover, when no leavened products are used by observant Jews. (For example, baking powder & yeast are prohibited foodstuffs.) The holiday won’t be here for a week, but it’s necessary to plan menus in advance, in order to know what to shop for. Nothing that has been used year-round can be used on the holiday (which lasts for 8 days), if a family is observant. Note that the carrot custard in last week’s issue is also suitable for the holiday.

Eggplant & Mushroom Bake:

Both eggplant & mushrooms are pricey, but, hey, Passover is a major holiday!

Prepare a 9x13” casserole dish like Pyrex® with cooking-oil spray.

¾ lb. mushrooms, sliced (you can use an egg slicer to make this easy)
1 to 1-1/2 lb eggplant, cubed (cut into 1” cubes)

Place attractively into the casserole dish.

2 T olive oil
½ large or 1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp (1/2 T) marjoram, if you can get it Kosher for Passover – or, substitute oregano
“lots of” freshly-ground black pepper, or 1/2 tsp ready-ground black pepper

In a Dutch oven, cook the onion & celery in oil until lightly browned. Add seasonings & stir thoroughly. Remove onion/celery/seasoning mix from Dutch oven & place into casserole dish atop other the eggplant/mushroom mix.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 T olive oil
2 T matzo meal
2 c milk

Prepare a white sauce:

In same Dutch oven, heat remaining oil. Add matzo meal slowly, & stir until it has browned. Slowly add milk (2/3 cup at a time), stirring constantly. Stir intermittently until mixture has thickened.

Pour the sauce over the veggies in the casserole dish.

3/4 c matzo meal

Sprinkle over the top of the casserole.

Bake for 30 minutes. Place under broiler for 2-3 minutes to brown the matzo meal. (Watch carefully, to ensure that the meal does not burn.) Serve to 6..

Of plastic in microwaves, & carrot custard

(4/7/05)

From the Jewish Talmud: Who is rich? One who is happy with what he has.





DANGER OF MICROWAVING IN PLASTIC CONTAINERS:

Johns Hopkins Medical Center has recently underscored the dangers of using plastics in the microwave. Our information comes from a physician reader of this blog, who sent it along from her family member, Dr Jody Bedore, who supervises materials management at the operating rooms of University of Chicago Medical Center.

Dioxins, which are carcinogenic molecules, can be released when you microwave in plastic containers or put plastic wrap over a dish that you are microwaving. This is especially true if there is fat in the food.

It is much safer to use a glass or ceramic container, even if that means that you must transfer the food from the plastic dish in which you had purchased it.

And I add: This is something that holistic practitioner Andrew Weil, MD has been saying for many years, but it is now being sanctioned by allopathic/mainstream medicine.




HELPFUL HINTS:

Even with using a spatula, do you have trouble getting all the good food out of a can? Particularly with solid foods such as cranberry sauce or tomato paste, here’s an idea. Open BOTH ends of the can, remove the top, & push the bottom of the can through the can.

Speaking of opening cans, my home health care aide, Margarita Recinos, has just taught me a valuable lesson. NEVER leave a can lid hanging from the can. Cut it off smoothly, even if doing so requires several passes through the opener. One of Margarita’s clients failed to remove a lid completely, & in the process of removing the food severed 2 veins in her wrist ….

Fill up your gas tank when the gauge tells you that the tank is half-empty. That gives you enough time to find the cheapest price.

Instead of BUYING identification tags for your electronic equipment, simply use the tabs that close bags of store-bought bread. (The reason they come in different colors is so the bakery can tell which day of the week the bread will be delivered to the stores.) You can use one color for each piece of equipment that shares one surge protector. OR, you can number each tag of any color. Either way, you’ll need to post a “cheat sheet” to identify the pieces of equipment, but this method is still much easier than trying to commit the whole problem to memory.

When you’re at the end of a tube of toothpaste, you’ll often find that you need the strength of 2 hands to get the last bit out. A simple trick is to apply the paste to your index finger as you hold the tube, & once you’ve put the tube down, apply the paste from your finger to your toothbrush.






RECIPE:

Eggs are so cheap during the spring. Why not take advantage of the price to make this hearty side dish? (Vegetarians will find it to be a fine entrée.) Even though there is a little sweetener & there are pie spices in this recipe, it turns out not to be cloying.

Carrot Custard:

Spray a 9x13” casserole dish like Pyrex® with cooking oil spray.

1 lb carrots (about 6 medium carrots), grated

Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

6 eggs
3 c milk
¼ c honey or maple syrup
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp cloves
¼ tsp ground allspice

Mix in a large bowl using a hand mixer set on low or an egg beater.

Stir in the carrots.

Pour into the casserole dish. Bake for 75-90 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Refrigerate for a few hours at least. Serve to 8.