Quote
"I cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object." -- Thomas Jefferson
Ok, here’s how it often goes with me. I wanted a pasta recipe that used anchovies. I found this recipe (Broccoli Rabe (Rapini) and Pasta with White Bean and Anchovy Sauce) on Recipeland and thought I’d use it as a guide. I wanted to make a singe serving among other things.
I made a small bag of ribbon pasta. I’ll use the rest of the pasta elsewhere.
The recipe called for Broccoli Rabe. I assumed it was a type of greens. Because I did not have Rabe, I used spinach.
Recently, I had made a small batch of anchovy butter, so I used about a 1/3 of a cup of the anchovy butter.
I made a cup of vegetable stock with a vegetable bouillon cube and a cup of water. I only used about 1/3 a cup of the stock, I'll use the rest of the stock elsewhere.
Beans are plentiful here but there are not many choices of white beans are available. I had made a small batch of white beans previously and wanted to use them.
Because I had made several changes to the original recipe, I wasn’t sure it would turn out. One bite told me, it came out great.
I thank Jack Monroe for introducing me to the varied uses of anchovies.
Normally, when I use garlic powder, I have no ill effects i.e. acid reflux, but because I made several recipes with garlic powder, lately, my system was overwhelmed. So, now, I will reduce the garlic powder to a hint to none.
Pasta, White Beans, Spinach With an Anchovy Sauce
(Adapted from: Recipeland, Broccoli Rabe (Rapini) and Pasta with White Bean and Anchovy Sauce)
Makes a 1 bowl serving.
Pre-Preparations:
Make Anchovy butter:
Drain 1 tin of anchovies.
Add anchovies to a container with a lid.
Add 1/2 Cup butter.
Mix and smash the butter and anchovies until they are thoroughly combined and the anchovies are in tiny pieces.
Hold off on adding spices. Add them later when using the mixture as anchovy butter.
Make Vegetable Stock:
Add 1 vegetable bouillon cube to a cup of water.
Microwave on high for 2 minutes.
Remove and stir until the bouillon cube has dissolved.
Ingredients:
1 Small bag of pasta
1 dab of vegetable oil
1/3 Cup of Anchovy butter
1/3 cup of vegetable stock
2 Heaping TBspns of canned (rinsed in the can) or cooked white beans (any type)
1 Small dessert bowl of frozen spinach
a hint of garlic powder
Ground black pepper to taste
Garnish: Parmasan cheese
Process:
Pasta
In a medium pan, add enough water to cover the pasta.
Add a dab of oil.
Add pasta and cook according to package directions.
When pasta is done, drain and set aside.
Anchovy, Spinach and White Bean Sauce
Add anchovy butter to a small skillet.
Simmer and stir until anchovies have “melted.”
Add vegetable stock.
Add beans.
Add spinach.
Add garlic powder.
Add ground black pepper.
Stir to mix ingredients.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
Check and stir occasionally.
Use a spoon to mash the beans.
Simmer until beans are so soft they are easy to mash.
Continue to simmer. You want the mixture creamy and hot throughout.
To serve:
Fill a bowl about 2/3 full of cooked pasta.
Add the sauce.
Stir ingredients to mix them thoroughly.
Add garnish.
#GERD-friendly
Spruce Eats has become another of favorite go to recipe site.
For the present, the website is not full of popup boxes or moving videos which I like.
Lots of good info, written in an easy to understand manner.
Recipes include both fancy and simple recipes.
I always love a recipe website that offers tips.
For some reason, I was swimming in anchovy and sardine recipes and ended up on Spruce Eats and making garlic butter and anchovy butter for other recipes.
I know, I know, it's a simple recipe. But, it's all the other tips that make it fun.
Garlic Butter
(Adapted from: How to Make Simple Garlic Butter With Variations)
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Tspn Garlic Powder
Process:
Add butter to a container with a lid.
Add garlic powder.
Use a spoon to mix the ingredients thoroughly.
#GERD-friendly
Quick Post:
One of the takeaways from The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn is pay attention to the pennies, they add up.
Inflation is happening all the time and everywhere.
As an example, these are recent changes in size and price of four rolls of toilet paper:
Date / Price / Number of Sheets:
10/2019 24.53 / 350
5/2019 24.50 / 400
Note: It is a common practice for manufacturers to change the size / volume of products and to keep the price the same or to increase price.
You can take this dressed up Can of Cream of Portobello Mushroom soup anywhere.
Thanks to Jack Monroe (https://cookingonabootstrap.com/), I’ve made another great soup.
Sadly, I do not have a blender, so I used a can of Cream of Portobello mushroom soup instead of fresh mushrooms and also made other adjustments.
It turns out that Cream of Portobello mushroom soup is more of a broth whereas a different Cream of mushroom soup is creamy.
Also, I was pleasantly surprised, I had been saving a bit of leftover red wine in the frig for quite awhile. It was fine.
Hotplate/Microwave: Dressed Up Can of Portobello Mushroom Soup
(Adapted from A Girl Called Jack - Red Wine and Mushroom Soup p51)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups water
1 Vegetable Bouillon cube
1/2-1 TBspns Onion powder
1/2 TBspn Garlic powder
1 15oz (420g) Can of cream of Portobello mushroom soup
2 oz (50ml) Leftover Red wine
1 Tspn Thyme, dry, crushed
Garnish: Thyme, dry, crushed
Process:
Add bouillon cube to water.
Microwave on high for 2 minutes.
Remove and stir until cube has dissolved.
Pour a small amount of the vegetable stock into a medium pan.
Add garlic and onion powders.
Stir.
With the liquid, the powders will become a paste.
Simmer for 1-2 minutes.
Add mushroom soup.
Stir and mix ingredients.
Add the rest of the stock.
Stir.
Add wine.
Stir.
Add thyme, crush between palms over liquid.
Stir.
Bring to a boil.
Stir.
Simmer 3-5 minutes to get soup thoroughly hot.
Add garnish when serving.
#GERD-friendly
As time goes on, popular books are often forgotten. In the 1990s, Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette books were popular and the topic of tightwaddery was discussed about in various media.
While the focus of Amy's books is a change in perspective about saving money, it is also about a lifestyle and a philosophy. In addition, to Amy's ideas and illustrations, she tells stories about becoming and being a tightwad.
I enjoy reading about her adventures in yardsaling, dumpster diving and more, as well as some of the "ethical" conundrums she confronts like the Great Muffin Debate.
While Amy was staying as a hotel for a talk show appearance, she kept an extra muffin from the buffet because she could not finish eating it. She had published in her newsletter her experiences about traveling while on her book tour. She included a story about the buffet. Later, in a letter, a reader chastises Amy for keeping the breakfast muffin. Amy agreed with the reader. Because in Amy's words:
"The relationship between ethics and thrift can be summed up in one
sentence. It is wrong to save money at the expense of others. Period."
As you read the Tightwad Gazette, you'll find little gems of advice. One of my favorite pieces of advice from Amy is "are you getting your bang for a buck?" meaning before you spend money evaluate whether it is truly worth it.
As I have said elsewhere, Amy saved my life, and I still try to follow her advice as best I can.
Often, in all 4 of Amy's books, she includes ideas from her readers.
This recipe is from two of her readers.
I made a few adjustments.
Hotplate: TWG Universal Pilaf
(Adapted from: The Tightwad Gazette (The Complete edition) P824-25)
From Andrea J. Albert and David E. Gurzynski, they note, this can be a meatless side dish or a meal when meat or a protein is added.
Ingredients:
Choose one in each category.
Fat: 2 TBspns: vegetable oil, olive oil, butter, or other oil
Base vegetable, diced: 1 onion, 3 shallots, 1 leek bulb, or 2 TBspns onion powder
Herbs: 2-3 Garlic cloves, diced or 1-2 TBspns garlic powder
Meat or protein:
1/2 to 2/3 Cup cooked chicken, diced; canned chicken, drained; canned
tuna, drained; fresh tuna, diced; cooked or canned red beans, drained;
white fish, diced; cooked hamburger crumbled; or other protein
Grain: 1 Cup: Uncooked rice (white or brown), bulgur, couscous, or other grain
Liquid, 2 Cups: chicken bouillon cube and water, vegetable broth, chicken broth, vegetable water, or water
Vegetable(s), 1/2 Cup: frozen, fresh, or canned (rinsed) peas; frozen, fresh, or canned (rinsed) carrots, diced; frozen, fresh, or canned (rinsed) corn kernels; or frozen or canned (rinsed) peas, carrots and corn; frozen or fresh bell peppers, diced; frozen or fresh celery, diced; or other vegetable
Seasonings: S/P, hot sauce or herb of your choice, to taste
Garnish: Parsley, dry, crushed
Process:
In a skillet, add fat.
Add base vegetable.
Saute on medium heat until soft.
If using only onion powder, just mix powder with the fat and heat for a moment.
Add herbs.
Stir.
Add meat (except tuna, add that later).
Use medium heat to brown the meat.
Stir.
Add grain.
Saute for a minute or two.
Stir mixture.
Add liquid.
Stir.
Bring to a boil.
Add tuna if that was the protein choice.
Stir.
Add vegetables.
Stir.
Add seasonings.
Stir.
Return to boil.
Stir.
Reduce heat to simmer.
Add cover.
Check often and stir.
Cook 15-40 minutes, depends on ingredients chosen.
Stir.
Cook until liquid has been absorbed.
Stir.
Serve.
Add garnish.
Can be #GERD-friendly if you use onion, garlic and black pepper sparingly or use onion or garlic powder, and don't use hot sauce.
In this recipe, I have married recipe tactics from two of my favorite authors, Jack Monroe (The Tin Can Cook) and Amy Dacyczyn (The Tightwad Gazette).
Because I live in Mexico, I often do not have access to several ingredients called for in many recipes, so I make substitutions.
Also, in Mexico and in the United Kingdom, they use the metric system. So, I convert the grams, liters and milliliters into ounces etc. But, do not take the ounces literally, generally, just find a can of whatever in the general range of the ounces noted.
Stovetop/Hotplate: Bean, Potato, and Bacon-flavored Chowder
(Adapted from TWG Bean-Bacon Chowder P160)
 |
| (Flour not pictured) |
Ingredients:
3 cups Milk (I used 1/2 dry milk mixture and deslactosada milk (Lactose-free milk))
2 TBspns Flour
1 TBspn Imitation bacon bits
1 TBspn Onion powder
1 430g / 15.16 oz Can of potatoes, diced or sliced, rinsed in can
1/2 Tspn Thyme, dry, crushed
1-5 dashes of hot sauce (Optional)
S/P to taste
1 560g / 19.75 oz Can of Charro beans (contains pork bits), drained
Garnish: Parsley, dry, crushed
Process:
Add milk to medium sized pan.
Bring to a simmer.
Add flour slowly.
Stir and mash flour into milk.
Smash any lumps with a spoon or other utensil.
Stir thoroughly to mix flour into the milk.
Add bacon bits.
Add onion powder.
Simmer mixture.
Add potatoes.
Add thyme.
Add S/P to taste.
Stir thoroughly.
Cover and simmer 12-15 minutes to soften potatoes.
Add beans.
Stir mixture.
Simmer until mixture is warm throughout.
After making a serving, garish with a sprinkle of crushed parsley.
Recipe made four bowls of soup.
I am a great believer in freezing additional servings for future meals, I got that idea first from Peg Bracken in her, I Hate to Cook Cookbook.
Freeze individual servings you want to save for later.
Reference:
TWG: The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
During the last few weeks of recipe frustration, I did make two recipes that came out well but only for people who like sour and salty snacks.
I like anchovies, so I had to try Jack’s recipe Anchovy Savories from Cooking on a Bootstrap (eBook version).
While it looks like a simple recipe, it is, but the whole melting butter mixed with flour thing intimidates me.
Toaster Oven / Hotplate: Anchovy Savories
(From Jack Monroe’s Cooking on a Bootstrap (eBook) )
Makes enough sauce for 2 slices of toast.
Ingredients:
1 tspn Butter
1 tspn Flour
A little Milk
A small lump of hard Cheese, grated
A few drops of hot sauce
2 pieces of multi-grain bread
Parsley (optional)
1 36g (1.25oz) Can of anchovies, drained
Process:
Make toast, first, either in a skillet or in a toaster oven.
In a small skillet, add butter.
On a low heat, melt butter.
Add flour and stir.
Keep stirring as you slowly add a bit of milk.
Keep stirring to avoid lumps.
Add grated cheese.
Keep stirring.
Add a bit more milk, if needed.
Add hot sauce.
Keep stirring, scraping the bottoms and sides of skillet.
Sauce should be slightly thick.
Spread a layer of sauce on toast.
Top with a few anchovies.
Add parsley (optional).
Eat immediately.
To my mind, this is a snack food.
Note: You may have heard about the controversy over the contents of some Parmesan Cheese containers. Some companies were selling cheese flavored sawdust. Well, the same problem exists in the spice industry. I had a jar of Parsley that was more like twigs than parsley leaves. So, that is why I did not use parsley in this recipe
I
credit Alex Fergus for the inspiration for the following recipe. You can find
him at
https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/51-sardine-recipes-for-the-fussiest-of-fish-eaters.
Deviled Eggs Stuffed with Sardine Mash
Pre-preparation:
Make hard-boiled eggs via toaster oven. See recipe on this blog.
Make sardine mash. See recipe on this blog.
Ingredients:
Hard-boiled egg(s)
Sardine mash
1 TBspn Mayo and a little more
1/2 Capful of lime juice
Ground black pepper to taste
1 TBspn of parsley, dry
Process:
Peel egg(s) and cut in half lengthwise.
Carefully remove the yolk(s) and put into sardine mash container.
Add Mayo into container.
Add Lime juice to mixture.
Add ground black pepper.
Stir and mix sardine mash and yolk(s) well.
Stir mixture until it is creamy.
Add more mayo if needed.
Take a Tsp scoop or more of mixture and fill the hollow in the egg halves.
Sprinkle deviled egg(s) with crushed dry parsley.
#GERD-friendly if you do not add Black pepper.
