Sizzling Summer Squash

This recipe is brought to you by my first experience with Bountiful Baskets and a long-standing request for more ideas on how to use powdered parmesan in recipes.

Of course, we have to begin with back story. I have to say, that when it comes to parmesan, romano and other hard Italian cheeses, some people might call us snobs. I prefer connoisseurs. Or, you could call us purists. Snob just sounds so harsh.

A few years ago, we hosted a cooking class in our home and taught a crowd of women how to make pasta from scratch with several sauces besides. Brennan, our oldest, is a local legend for his famous alfredo, in which he uses heavy cream, butter and the best pecorino romano we can get - from Costco.  When one of our guests asked him, "So, can we just use something like powdered parmesan?" He wrinkled his nose, shook his head and said, "Why would you use that when a hunk of pecorino romano is the same price and it tastes WAY better.”

I think he was 12 at the time. And, he was right. Costco and other specialty stores have great prices on fresh hard cheeses. Additionally, hard cheeses still in their wedge last a LONG time in the fridge. But, not everyone can get to Costco, or wants to grate their own every time they need it. And, sometimes all you may have on hand is powdered parmesan. Well, no shame in that, and actually, there is a lot you can do with it. So, stick with me and I’ll give you a great recipe you’ll want to try as soon as you can.

On Saturday we got our first Basket o’ Bounty (see the link if you are still wondering what this is) and it was full of great stuff for $15. On the veggie side we got potatoes, onions, celery, yams and summer squash. For fruits we got a little gem case of huge blackberries, 5 kiwi, a bag of apples, 2 pounds of grapes, 2 persimmons (I don’t know what to do with those yet), 4 grapefruit and a bunch of bananas. It was all in good shape.

The summer squash was the one thing I thought my kids might be picky about. I decided if I cooked it right, they’d love it. As I pondered what “cooking it right” would look like for them I thought about the grilled veggies we’ve enjoyed at a local Brazilian grill. I fired up the barbecue, tossed the squash in a mixture of olive oil, minced garlic, powdered parmesan, salt and pepper.

It was a huge hit. They came off the grill sizzling with savory crumbs of cheese crusted to them. When I brought them to the table, this is what happened:

“You guys are gonna love these. They turned out so good. They are spicy and salty and the cheese makes an awesome coating.” I serve them all a few.

First Heba, our honorary family member from Egypt says, “Perfect. They are perfect.” I’m always pleased when Heba likes something because she’s an excellent cook and her opinion is highly valued.

Next, my husband, Don, “These are so delicious. It’s like eating a piece of meat. How did you do that?”

KC responds, “Well, it’s ‘cause she grilled it on our grill and we have so many charred meat remnants on it, of course it tastes like meat.” I shoot her a quick look, because the last thing I want is for Heba, an observant Muslim, to worry about is what kind of meat may be contaminating our veggies. That would NOT be Halal,
Heba only eats meat that is slaughtered and prayed over in a certain way.

Don picks up on my concern right away, “No, I scrub that thing off after every time we use it. There are no meat bits on these.” Nice save, partner. And the gospel truth.

Caleb, however, is inspired by the “meat” theme, and takes it to a new level “Yeah, these taste like you could make an awesome burger out of them.”

Brennan is out late acting as assistant stage manager on a big production at his school. When I pick him up, I have a warm plate of food in the car with me. He unwraps it and wordlessly devours the entire meal. When he is done he says, “Thanks, Mom. That was really good.” He usually has more to say about his food, but it was 11pm, he’s been up since 5:45am hasn’t eaten since lunch, so I take it as a high compliment.

The littlest among us takes one look and says. “I am not eating that. Please pass the rice.” She missed out.

Sizzling Summer Squash
2 medium summer squash, cut in ½ inch coins
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons powdered parmesan
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Toss together in a large bowl.  Place on a plate and be sure the parmesan coating is even on both sides of the squash. Grill over medium-high heat until golden all around, maybe 5-7 minutes per side.  Keep an eye on them.

Grocery Shopping the Ghetto

A good friend of mine recently presented me with an offer I couldn’t refuse. She had inside information on an amazing discount grocery store in Salt Lake, and in the spirit of sharing, took me with her on a tour of the place.

“Have you ever been to NPS?” she asked. “It’s my yogurt super store.”

“No. I’ve never even heard of it.”

“What? We’ve got to go there.” She was clearly, and deservedly, excited to be the source of information on a vital new hotspot for my grocery shopping adventures. “How much money do you have?” was her follow up question.

I fessed up about the newly separated black and white of my finances, “Fifty bucks as soon as I return my unopened food processor. I was going to do that today because I need a few things. When do you wanna go?”

We haggled over our schedules and then discovered that there is no time like the present, so we got in my car and headed out. Costco actually gave me $55 for my returned merchandise and I was good to go. We drove the 25 miles or so to get to this super store and I felt like I was in familiar territory.

A number of years ago we mentored a family of refugees from Somalia. Their first apartment in the states was located in the neighborhood where we ended up. Also, the Arabic store that sells Halal meats is just down the road, and I’ve been there a few times since Heba has come to stay with us. If I didn’t know the area I may have been a little concerned, at first glance you might put it on the ghetto end of the economic development spectrum.

“I feel bad bringing you here when you have such limited funds,” she said.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll just keep close track and we’ll leave before I hit my limit.” I’m not worried, I thought smugly, I know how to add.

We pulled in, got out, and went in. Our first stop was in the Dollar Clearance section of the store. We both found a killer deal on gift items that I will not go into further detail until after the holidays, but suffice it to say, we got some crazy vintage stuff for $1. Unbelievable.

Then we went to the grocery clearance section where I got salad dressing, barbeque sauce and spice packets all for under 20 cents apiece. The prices of these items were slashed because they were past their expiration date, but I’m the queen of maximizing the longevity of a “best by” date and was undaunted.

Next we found bottles of imported balsamic vinegar for 69 cents. Um, does vinegar go bad? No. I got individual Greek yogurts 4 for a dollar. Three pounds of onion rings for $1.50, five pounds of French fries for $2.50, thirty-six white bread dough rolls for $2.50. It was amazing. I bought a case of 30 cheddar popcorn snack bags for our play practice contribution to the treat tote. Those were 10 cents each. Roma tomatoes in perfectly good condition were 49 cents a pound. My favorite find, only because I’d been thinking of it just that morning, were the mega-mix-packs of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing that make a gallon of dressing each. 79 cents is what I paid for those babies, I got 4 of them.

After I found some dollar cereals and dollar loaves of bread and 69 cent specialty cheese spreads, my ability to add got all muddled and alarms started going off in my head.

“Hey, let’s go,” I said abruptly as we were perusing the frozen bakery section, full of all sorts of pre-made, deeply discounted bakery delights. There were frozen, unfrosted sheet cakes in all varieties. Cupcakes and cake pops, pies, cream puffs and innumerable other dainties. “I think I met my max,” I said as I felt my head swim with the effort of trying to keep track of all that I put in my cart.

“So, did you just hit $50?” she asked?

“Yeah, I think so. I think we’d just better go.”

I walked to the cashier with some trepidation and unloaded my cart onto the conveyor belt. I held back my most expensive items (which were $2.50) to the last. But, it was in vain. All in all, I got out of there with a basket full of groceries and some fun gift items for $30. I still had 25 bucks in my pocket. It was awesome. Thank you, Carolyn, for a great adventure and grocery blessings.

A New Family Favorite - Sabanekh

Photo from: http://theactorsdiet.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/ahhhh/

Our Sabanekh turns out just a bit more red/brown than this.

People have asked what we are eating on this here experiment of ours, wondering if rice and beans are our main staples, or maybe ramen noodles.  Well, actually, I have a recipe that incorporates some of those elements, but is far from the "poor people food" we're used to.  See what you think and I promise, next month, to give a better play-by-play of each meal.

Today KC and I made a big pot of Egyptian Spinach Sauce, a hearty, new family favorite. This is a recipe we learned from our favorite resident Egyptian, Heba.  She's living with us for the school year and teaches Arabic at our school.  I was introduced to this dish a few days after she moved in.  It was our first real culinary expedition together, and it ended so beautifully, my whole family frequently requests this awesome one dish wonder.

"Heba, do you know any recipes for spinach?" I asked as I peered in shame at the bunch of spinach in the fridge on the brink of going bad.  I felt ashamed because, since Heba moved in, I realize how much food we still waste, even though we try to be diligent and careful.  Egyptians waste nothing. 

"Yes.  I have one." She reported.  Then she got a gleam in her eye, "It is called Sabanekh and I think you will like it."  Just so you know, Sabanekh is easy for her to say, but not me.

I had made several of our favorites for Heba previous to this, and she had gotten to know the spices and variety we enjoy in our cooking, but this was her first time to show me something new and she was excited. 

"It's very quick and I think you have everything.  You have tomato paste?" she asked.

"Yes."

"You have vegetarian soup stuff, what is this called?  The water from the soup?" she mimes ladeling broth from a bowl of soup and bringing it to her lips.

"You mean broth?"

"Yes, broth."

"The only vegetarian soup stuff I have is some seasoning packets from ramen.  Will that work?"  Everything we make together starts out vegetarian because all of her meat has to be Halal, which is a Muslim form of Kosher.  Heba eats plenty of meat, but it has all been slaughtered in a specific way, prayed over and purchased in a Halal market.

"Yes, that will work." 

Heba smiled and went to work, so excited to bring us one of the great Egyptian comfort dishes.  It takes about an hour, tops, to prepare, and truly it is the soul food of Pharaohs.

Sabanekh – Egyptian Spinach and Rice

This recipe comes is borrowed from egyptianfoods.org, with some adaptations. 

Ingredients
1 bunch fresh spinach (cut into small strips)
3 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped fine
2-3 bouillon cubes (or ramen packets)
3 tablespoon tomato paste
1 T coriander
1 T cumin
1/2 tsp. hot chili powder (cayenne is great)
3 cups water
salt
pepper

Directions

Wash spinach well and cut into small sized strips. I usually take a few leaves, and slice them together into strips, leave the stem, not problem. (This technique is called a chiffonade. It does not have to be perfect, you just want to get them into longer, smaller strips.) Set aside.

In a large pot or stirfry pan add chopped onion, garlic and butter and sauté until soft.

Add spinach, tomato paste, bouillon, spices, and stir around until well coated.  This is actually such a rich sauce that you can hide all kinds of pureed veggies in it, I espescially like carrots and zucchini.

Add 2-3 cups of broth. (You can add or decrease broth, depending on how thick you’d like it to be, check while cooking and add more or less broth. End result should be thick, but watery enough to be like a thick sauce — hope that makes sense.).

Bring to a boil, and simmer for 20- 30 minutes on low heat.

Serve next to (or on top of) rice or browned fideo noodles and with pita bread for scooping.

Treat Jar

It was the end of the afternoon on Wednesday, the kids and I shared a snack in the living room and talked about our current state of affairs.
“So, we used our last three dollars of the grocery money I set aside for the month. We spent it on our pop yesterday afternoon.”

“Well, thank goodness for the treat jar.” Brennan, the oldest, says. “We probably have at least twenty bucks in there.”

“And, with the new system of putting money in the jar when we don’t do what you asked us to do, when you asked us to do it, is going to add A LOT.” This comes from Caleb the ten year old.

“I hope not. You guys are never just disobedient by telling us ‘No, I won’t do that,’ but I hope you can get better at not blowing us off so much when we have to ask you multiple times to do something.”

“I had to put a quarter in yesterday,” says Hannah, the youngest. “I waited until the second time you asked me to come to the table and I had to pay.”

“The thing is, guys, we’re almost always willing to negotiate, ‘just another minute while I finish what I’m doing,’ but you all have gotten to where we don’t even have that conversation, you just wait until you are ready, rather than coming when I ask you.”

“Yeah, I had to give $2 on Monday, $1.25 to the jar yesterday, and I haven't put any in today. I think Monday was an all time high.”

“Well, considering it’s costing you a quarter for each time you don’t respond when you’re asked to do something, it does seem pretty high, but you are getting better.”

“True, but that day you were standing over me, ‘KC, please do your chore. Oh, you didn’t get up, that’s 25 cents."

"Yeah and you just laid there on the couch."

" 'KC, you need to do your chore. Oh, you're still laying there. Okay, now it’s 50 cents.’ "

"And you were laughing like it was a funny joke, but you still didn't get up."

"You got all the way up to a dollar before I got to it.” She’s right, I stood there like a taxi ticker, hiking up the price every time I had to ask her. I don’t generally set my kids up to fail, but this has been an interesting new plan, and it has gotten quick results.

“Anyway, even today has been better than yesterday for all of you. Do you think it’s in keeping with the spirit of our experiment to use that money for whatever we need in order to get by until the end of the month? “ I ask.

Brennan gives an emphatic, “Yes! Don’t you always tell us about when you guys were broke and you’d go searching for change so you could buy a diet Coke?”

“True,” I said.

KC turns the conversation. “And, did you match what we gave, too?”

“No. But I think I might.”

“I think you should. It’s not a ton of money, but even ten or fifteen bucks will go a long way at this point, right. Especially if we mostly just need milk and stuff. Plus, did you take that food processor back?”

“Not yet, but what do you think?”

“What are you going to get for it?” Brennan asks.

“Something around fifty dollars.”

“Fifty dollars! Take it back. We’ll be fine. We can totally make it 10 days on fifty dollars.”

I love these kids. All the little gray areas I was grappling with separated quickly into black and white at their counsel. Good enough for me.

Cheating

So, I spent my last $3 cash after school yesterday. I bought a 32 oz. caffeine free Diet Coke for me and a 44 oz. Dr. Pepper for the kids to share. Those purchases weren't food, strictly speaking, but I used my grocery money anyway. I know it wasn't the best use of 3 bucks, but Monday's can be rough and we really needed the boost. 
I still have 2 weeks to go and there are a few factors I'm considering as I rifle through my wallet, all but empty except for a bunch of receipts showing me the paper trail of where I've been.  I think I may be breaching the integrity of my experiment, but I'd love to know what you think.

1. Maybe I should take the kids up on their offer and match to our grocery budget what they gave to charity this month.  That would give me another $15.
2. The jar of cash and change that gets collected from the laundry and other instances where kids owe me because they are late could support our soda habit for the duration.
3. A couple of weeks ago I bought a really nice food processor from Costco.  My old one, that I got 14 years ago died after a long useful life, an I figured the new purchase would help me a lot in my food prep.  However, I got it home, started this experiment and never took it out of the box.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I kept thinking I might need the 50 bucks.  It's a bute and I hate to take it back, but if I do and I get the $50 to use on groceries, is that cheating? 

 

Let me know what you think.  In the mean time, I'm grateful to report that I left $30 of grocery money in the bank so I could start the Bountiful Baskets program online, and I should get my first basket on Saturday.  I'm so excited. Also, I'm going to take inventory of what we have on hand and post it here.  Maybe that will help us all make a more informed decision on how to proceed, and whether we need  to "cheat", or not.

Birthday Traditions - An Epic Post

I survived feeding and entertaining 16 young party guests and a neighborhood of boys yesterday. One down, three to go. All of my kids have Holiday season birthdays. It’s fantastic! I only say that with slight sarcasm because, the truth is, when they were all born in November and December I was thrilled. Now that they all have so much going on, on top of the regular holiday stuff, this time of year leaves me overwhelmed and exhausted, a lot. In fact, as much as I love the Holiday’s, I tend to turn in to Ebenezer Scrooge when things get added to our calendar. I think that’s why every fourth quarter for the last few years finds me trying to simplify my life in a really complicated way. Like when I decided these things:

1. Seeing if we could go more than a month without entering a grocery store, thus having to make everything we eat from scratch.
2. Buying nothing new for a whole holiday season. We saved money and the gifts we gave were simpler, but it took lots of thrift store hunting and handcrafting to fit the bill for birthdays and Christmas that year.
3. Cutting our grocery budget in half, just to see what we can do with what we give away. I’m not sure that this actually simplifies anything, but it seemed like an interesting experiment to try.

So, the birthday party. All of my youngest daughter's girl friends from her Sunday School class, two families of siblings, and two friends from school came to help celebrate her big day. Plus, we invited the whole neighborhood out for cupcakes. Not everyone came, but we did end up with about 10 little boys and their moms from various parts of our street. Some of the best parts of the party were:

• I released myself from the notion of having a themed party . We just had a treasure hunt, played a bunch of fun games like charades and balloon stomp, and experimented with dry-ice in bowls of hot soapy water (it’s fascinating, you should try it sometime .
• I didn’t buy any pricey party favors. The day after Halloween, Hannah and I went to the candy story and found lots of cute Halloween themed specialty candies seriously discounted. We bought what we needed and only spent $3 for all 16 of our party participants.

It was a great time, and I stayed in a very small budget. Between the balloons, the dry ice and the candy I only spent ten bucks. We ate snacks we already had (popcorn and fruit from Grandma and Grandpa’s trees) and cupcakes from food storage cake mixes. Good, cheap, fun.

So, what does this kind of craziness have to do with Live On What You Give? Well, beginning last year we started a tradition of birthday service. The idea is that our birthday is a pretty big thing to be grateful for, and maybe there are things that we can do to show our appreciation.

Past Birthday Service projects have typically been simple, take a meal to a family with a sick mom, donate blood, shovel a neighbor’s driveway, help clean our church. The key is that whatever we do, we serve together. Sharing a meal - some of us help with the cooking and some of us help with the delivery. Donating blood –one of us donates, some of us are support team and some of us stay behind with the younger kids, preparing dinner and making things nice for the donor’s return. You get the idea.

For yesterday’s service, we decided to invite all of the neighborhood children for birthday treats. So, early in the morning Hannah and I got up and made 4 dozen cupcakes in two flavors, devil’s food and vanilla (we turned those purple). The day was CRAZY, I had a presentation to prepare, a class to teach, a husband to pick up in Salt Lake, and carpool to run. There was no time for icing all of those cupcakes. But, inspiration comes often when you needed most, so here’s what we did...

“Okay, Hannah and I made these cupcakes to share with everyone.” I told them as I put all 48 of them in front of them on the table.

Wide eyes quickly counted how many cupcakes there could be.

“But, wait,” one little girl said. “How come there’s no icing on them?”

“Well, we thought we’d let you guys in on that fun.” I feel like Tom Sawyer tricking all of his friends into paying him for the chance to whitewash his fence.

“We each take 3 cupcakes. One is for you to eat and two are to give away. If there are enough left in the end, everyone can eat another cupcake.” I instructed.

“This is part of my birthday service. You guys get to help me ice all of these cupcakes.”

“Wait, we’re giving them away?” All the little girls shared looks of confusion.

Then, one girl asked, “So, we’re sharing these with neighbor kids? It’s like a service, right?”

Exactly. As all of the other girls began to understood they went to work . I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happy group of cupcake decorators.

When the neighbors didn’t seem to be coming on time, they all started to get anxious that the love and effort they had put into those cupcakes would have been in vain.

“No one’s coming. What should we do?” Hannah asked, concern in her voice.

“Take the trays of cupcakes and go outside. I promise you will find plenty of kids to give them to.”

“You mean we can just go and give them all away?” a little girl asked.

“Yep. And I know those kids are going to love all your hard work.” I said.

There was a collective cheer as they pulled trays of cupcakes off the table and headed for the door. When they got there, they found a bunch of kids and moms ready to be served. It was awesome. I think it is one of the best birthday parties we’ve ever thrown.

Where We Stand Today

The Live On What You Give Experiment is running from October 20 through January 20th.  I draw cash for groceries and other food purchases on the 20th of each month.  The amount of cash we allow ourselves is set and equal to the amount of cash we donate to help individuals and families in need right in our own area.  You can read more about where our cash contributions go, here and here.

For this particular experiment I did not stock up.  I did not inventory what I had and decide what I might need in order to make it to the end of the month.  I also didn't plan any contingencies for camping, Halloween, or birthday parties (we have one tomorrow). Those all had to fall into the budget.  So, here's where we stand.

We went camping with cousins and I scrounged up all the granola bars and snack items I could find in our food storage.  I also brought hot chocolate, cereal, paper cups, bowls and spoons, all from food storage.  We bought french bread and soda on sale and made other meal contributions from our garden.  It was amazing, because in the past I remember spending upwards of $50 for a simple over night camping trip.  This time we pretty much only brought what we had.

For Halloween, I bought the big bag-o-candy.  I considered taking it back since we were going to our friends' neighborhood, but we ended up with a few of our own trick-or-treaters before we left, so the candy stays.  I hope I can make it last through the holidays. 

Earlier in the day Don had a party at work.  Food storage and garden items came in handy for the seven+ layer dip he brought.  We had beans, el pato hot sauce, and olives from the pantry.  Our garden was prolific with onions, peppers and tomatoes this year.  Only three items came recently from the store: cheese, sour cream and cilantro.

Before trick-or-treating, we had a big chili party with our friends.  There were three families and three pots of chili.  I found a white chili recipe on allrecipes and made it my own, using canned turkey instead of chicken breasts and only 2 cans of beans instead of 5 (who uses that many beans?).  I also added one cup of cream.  The cream and the cheese were the only items that did not come from food storage.  It was delicious and we ate most of it.

So, I have made a handful of trips to the store in the last 10 days and am left with less than $100 to get us through to November 20, when I can draw cash again. It may not sound that hard, but we are foodies, and there are six of us. I have to say, that in order to make it, I think I'm going to have to implement "No More Grocery Shopping" again and stay out of the store.  Costco is like a death trap in this experiment. 

I'll update again soon to give details on where we are.