Bountiful Basket #2

I waited too long to place my order this week, which necessitated a different pickup location near Lakeshore and Guadalupe. Joanne left early in the morning to go to Tucson for a scrimmage, so Owen got to go on a little adventure with his Pop, which is only the second time we've been out in public solo (I don't count the couple of times I've brought him out to ultimate, since Joanne was there, although not in Owen's mode of transportation). He even got to wear his hat. He's grown into it a bit, so now he looks silly instead of goofy.

That is a move up.

Anywho, this week's haul:

• 1 # strawberries
• 2, 10 # bananas (7)
• 2, 1 # green grapes
• 1, 1 # cherry tomatoes
• 1, 5 #broccoli (2 full heads, not crowns)
• 2 # baby carrots
• 2, 15 # bosc pears (8)
• 2, 6 # mangoes (3)
• 2, 10 # red potatoes
• 3, 11 # red plums (14)
• 1, 11 # green peppers (5)

The basket is supposed to be 50/50 fruits/vegetables. That isn't quite the case. The 29 pieces of hand fruit will be a challenge, but I think we'll be OK. The location I picked up at is a new spot. I doubt that they messed up on splitting everything up, but I wonder if the delivery was mismanaged slightly and the location got an extra pallet of fruit instead of veggies. I was really surprised there was no leafy greens. There also was a basket with random stuff in it. It might have been the trade basket--I'll need to check the FAQ to see if that was it. I do recall one of the groups I looked into have that, but it required a full swap--ie the allotment of strawberries for the allotment of carrots.

Bottom line: 23 pounds of produce of mostly good quality (the pears are on the small side) for $16.50.

Yet more food stuff

The Republic had a feature in the Food and Drink section this past Wednesday on food costs and how to control them through purchasing decisions and developing better cooking habits (as in actually prepare and cook as opposed to just heating). I think the reporter could have done a better job in selecting a subject for how to save money--a family of four that spends $400/week on groceries isn't typical, i wouldn't think. That lends itself to a lot of fluff that is too easily trimmed. Granted, the 2 kids were 15 & 17, but still. I went back and looked at our bills for the first 7 months this year. Joanne and I averaged roughly $100/week (all grocery charges; about 3/4 of costco and a small bit at target), and I splurge a bit on meat and seafood, not shying away from stuff in the $7-10 a pound range.

As part of the feature, a list of tips were included, a lot which we already employ, some oddities (olives are a staple of a well stocked pantry?), but others were good reminders or things we hadn't considered:

To save money on produce, consider joining a community-supported agricultural group, or CSA. Consumers pay a monthly fee to farmers and receive baskets of locally grown produce, from kale to lemongrass, each week.

Wean your family off boxed cereals, granola bars and other high-priced convenience foods. You can make 30 bowls of oatmeal for the same cost as one box of cereal. Or make your own granola, or buy less-expensive cereal and trail mixes from the bulk bins.

Limit beverage purchases. Loading the cart with soda, iced tea, orange juice and Merlot quickly inflates grocery tabs.

Learn to make your own salad dressings and marinades. They take just minutes and cost at least half the price of prepared versions

Be energy efficient. Plug in your toaster oven out on the patio in the summer. Use a slow cooker. When using the oven, load up with as many trays of food as possible. For example, if roasting potatoes, add extras for hash browns for breakfast.

Comments in random order: It never occurred to me to put the toaster oven outside--I am slow sometimes (like how it took me almost 3 months to figure out the best way to put on a Onesie).
In another example of slowness, I am a big fan of Minute Maid's Low Acid OJ--all the great taste of OJ, but no acid. It didn't really dawn on me for a long time that it's over $5/gallon. I am sometimes shocked by how much beverage bill can be--a container or two of Naked (much cheaper at Costco), milk, a couple half gallon cartons of OJ, the Dew, maybe gator/power-ade. It all adds up. Not that it's had an effect on our purchasing decisions yet.

The making your own stuff--it never seemed like a bother, but I am reassessing. The last time I shopped for a red wine vinaigrette, i spent too long comparing ingredients--sugar or corn syrup, was the sweetener first, does organic matter, does it have some ingredient I don't like but wouldn't notice. But that's more me being a bad shopper. The anti cereal/bar thing was new in concept, as I grew up a cereal or bagel person. I think I know one person that's an oatmeal for breakfast person (not that it's a topic that comes up much). In that search, I found a site operated by the world's self-professed expert on your morning meal, Mr. Breakfast. Lots of good stuff there, particularly on the oatmeal front--in addition to a lot of recipes, there's the top 10 reasons it's an ideal breakfast.

Last, the CSA produce. I've looked into this twice in the past year. The first time was curiosity; the second was with more purpose after we found out Josiah and Monika had bought a share. My initial impression was that at $20-25/week, it isn't actually a cost savings, though the food itself is probably better. Joanne asked how much I spent on the last Costco produce haul ( 18 kiwis, 11 large peaches, a dozen bananas and a 5 lb bag of carrots), which was about $23. My impression is that the latter is a lot more than the a CSA share. Still, we are likely to try one out. The feature mentioned four in the Valley:

• Crooked Sky Farms based in South Phoenix, a share is $20 a week for 12 weeks. The pickup best for us is Thursdays just south of ASU.
• Desert Roots Farm is based in Queen Creek. This is the one I looked at twice and that JoMo joined. They are adding a pickup spot at Riverview on Tuesday afternoon/evenings that is ideal. A share is $23 for 12 weeks, but they have a 4-week summer session starting soon that would work as a trial. Home delivery is an extra $5/week.
• Whole Earth CSA: they use the blog as their website, and it seems to be lacking a bit in terms of easily finding useful info, so not a contender.
• Bountiful Baskets: this is a food co-op, not a CSA, so it uses a group purchase to cut out the store markup in dealing directly with a produce warehouse. For us, there's a pickup at Carriage Lane park, but I saw a note that there is only a 15 minute pickup window. It's 7:45 am on Saturday mornings, so that might be doable. And $15 looks to go a long way.
  

For my wealth of non-local readers, you can find your own CSAs at Local Harvest.

Food bill

I've seen a number of posts on the personal finance blogs I read about how to spend less than $20 or 30 a week on groceries (or claims to that effect), and I just don't see how it's possible. A lot of this based on timing coupons with sales (in the marketing cycle, store discounts are often four weeks after the release of a coupon, meaning you combine discounts by holding onto coupons for a month), and then using a lot of coupons to stock up. Still, coupons don't cover produce, most meat, some dairy and what not.

Not that it's representative of anything, but my tab this afternoon at Costco came in under $180. Granted, a lot of that will last more than a week, but it's definitely not 6 weeks worth (or 3 weeks, since there's two of us). That's actually pretty good, as my normal Costco tab is north of $200. But this might be the first time I only got food. It broke down like this:

• $50: meat (ahi tuna, leg of lamb, shrimp, sandwich turkey)
• $42: produce (blueberries, rainier cherries, asparagus, spinach, carrots, kiwis, bananas, potatoes)
• $29: grains (2 cereals, bread, waffles)
• $29: snacks (dried fruit, crackers, frozen fruit cups, fiber one bars)
• $25: other (oregano, soup, naked blue machine)

There's some splurge there (ahi, shrimp and cherries weren't cheap), but still, $20-30 a week? Really?

My other issue with costco shopping (or really food shopping) is that I tend to think of the items I like and if the price is right, I buy them, regardless of how many other similar items I'm getting. This is particularly an issue with produce. The last Costco trip, I purchased kiwis and plums--packages of 12 and more than 12 I think. And fruit doesn't exactly last. So we had like 2 of each every day, sometimes 3. A rational person wouldn't have bought both (or maybe they would, if they are better than joanne and me about eating fruit), but when my previous purchase of plums was very, very good, and the kiwis were the largest I had seen in a while. But I digress...

I got the leg of lamb because the Streits were coming over for dinner. Myra is 4 days older than Owen, but will generally be 3 days older (born Feb 28th).



And Tim and Evelyn outside:



I always have the vision of having friends over and having it be completely casual, no big thing, but it always turns into a production. Tonight was no exception.



I guess that pic doesn't really do it justice, but it's the only one Joanne took. I got the leg of lamb without really knowing how I was going to prepare it. The package said it could be grilled, and that was enough for me. Joanne called and told me before I left Costco that leg of lamb is often used for kabobs, but I wasn't about to buy a 10 pound bag of onions at Costco, and I didn't forsee another shopping trip in my future.

When I got home, I reviewed my options. The two grilling books were not as helpful as one would hope (marinades that required too much time), but, as usual, How to Cook Everything didn't let me down--I went with the Grilled Butterflied Lamb with Coconut Milk (the book tends not to use fancy names). As written, the recipe called for:

• 1 leg of lamb, 3-4 pounds
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp of turmeric or a few threads of saffron
• 2 medium onions
• 1 T. fresh ginger or 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
• salt & pepper
  

I had to improvise a bit since we didn't have cilantro or regular onions. But the turmeric and/or saffron? Not a problem. In place of the onions, I used our remaining shallot and some green onions we had on hand. I didn't worry about the cilantro, as I'm not a big fan. And I didn't go "or" on ingredient 3--I used both. Funny thing about that--I assumed saffron, for whatever reason, was like a vanilla bean. A strand would be some long skinny thing. The saffron was in an envelope in the container, and when i pulled it out, the threads were, at most, a quarter inch long. So I used a little more than "a few" threads, making the marinade a very bright yellow (you blend ingredients 2-6 and then marinade for an hour or two, which fit our schedule).

In cutting the fat off the leg of lamb, I ended up making into four smaller cuts so that it wouldn't take as long on the grill. And for one of the very few times, I actually cooked a piece of meat right--I have a tendency to overcook out of fear of undercooking. In carving it for dinner, it had a very nice pink color. The recipe recommended medium rare. I'd call it a little more cooked than that, but not medium. I lucked out there.

The verdict? Tim, Sarah and Joanne all said it was very good. I thought so too, but my enthusiasm for it was tempered a bit because it tasted a lot like Tasty Kabob (a questionable name from a marketing perspective, but it is truth in advertising--they make kabobs and they're tasty), so it was not a new taste bud experience for me. Still, I was happy to discover what might be their secret--an overabundance of saffron.

When I mentioned this to Joanne after dinner (me not being "wowed" by the lamb), she was surprised. I explained my view that since it was something I was accustomed to, it isn't a "wow" thing. Like me, she gets the same dish at TK (she gets the filet kabob; I get the lamb), so I asked her if she is wowed by they filet, or if it's something she knows she'll like, and she agreed, that the "wow" comes when she hasn't had it in a while. I went twice in June, so...

Actually, what I made might be better than TK, because it wasn't overcooked--I would say the tendency of the lamb there is to be cooked past medium, so it isn't always tender. Tonight it was very tender. The Victorinox slicier went through it so easily.

Eating better

No, this isn't about the dietary habits, but cooking. A while back, we made some changes to our cooking habits that immeasurably improved the quality of our dinners. They were:
1. Better cookware
2. Fresh meat
3. A better grill

Number one came first, but is more involved, so I'll explain 2 & 3 first. We stopped defrosting, instead stopping by the store a couple of times a week to buy fresh. This may be the smallest impact, but it does make things easier to make. As for the better grill--they last for quite a while, and a quality grill will definitely make you want to grill more. We had a cheaper Charbroil for a while, and didn't use it that much. Then we found a good deal on craigslist for a Weber Silver, and now we grill often. It also helps that we have a better idea of what we're doing, but the better quality is definitely noticeable.

As for the cookware... I grew up with non-stick and regular old stainless steel. Never really tried anything fancy, but when I did, meals turned out... ok. if that. So when our cheap, college, non-stick cookware was finally done, I started researching cookware. Coming across a special for Calphalon at amazon and wanting more information about anodized aluminum, I came across this tutorial at egullet.com that is more detail than you would expect about what to look for in cookware.

This opened my eyes a bit in terms of food preparation, why our dinners were ok, but nothing special. If you're looking to sear or brown meat, it's basically impossible for non-stick to do that, as the teflon creates a layer that essentially steams items. And from what I've learned in the last two years, a good sear is key. It develops the fond and allows a cook to deglaze (adding liquid to a hot pan), which is always a fun for the instant poof of steam and the resulting sizzle.
But getting back to the actual cookware, a key part of cooking well (particularly frying or sauteeing) is to have a pan that can hold heat and transmit it to the food without losing temperature. Sounds obvious, I know, but the thermal properties of cheap non-stick and stainless steel make that nearly impossible.

So the lesson learned: thick aluminum disc, thick anodized aluminum, thick copper, or thick cast iron is the way to go. And nonstick is NG (ng=no good). It's good for eggs and that's about it.

IMO.