use real butter

NaBloWriMo day #12.

Eat on $30 day #2

How are all of my Eat on $30 buds doing? Hanging in there? Good! I don’t mean to snark because I snark a lot and this time I’m really not meaning to. I want to point out that it’s not possible to buy an arbitrary quantity of most foods like soy sauce or diced tomatoes. I guess I’m trying to keep it as realistic as possible. Otherwise, as I said in yesterday’s post, it’d be easy peasy for me prorate and charge myself for 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 tsp of vanilla extract so I can go make oatmeal cookies. That’s not how it works, yo.

I do want everyone to know that I am loving the thoughtful discussion in the comments and encourage you to keep sharing tips and observations! You guys are GREAT!

This morning, Mr. FedEx brought me a big box with a dog treat on top. All of the delivery people in my town carry heaps of dog treats – it’s a dog town. I had to sign for the package and promise that I am over 21 years of age. You know what that means…

booze! lovely wines from st. supéry

Rick Bakas (follow on Twitter @RickBakas) graciously sent me bottles of the wines we were served at the infamous lunch at BlogHer Food 09 in San Francisco. I’m so excited to try these wines (and Jeremy is even more excited)! But they will have to wait until after the Eat on $30 challenge is over. I just don’t think most people on food assistance get complimentary wine FedEx’d to their homes. I had to put them away because just looking at the bottles made my mouth water.

what i did with some of the veggies

salt and pepper on the beef chuck

Breakfast got a little screwy today. I was up late and Jeremy woke up at 5 am to head down to the office and start remote observing on a telescope. My intention was to prepare breakfast for him each morning, but I just mumbled, “Bagel. Eat a bagel,” and I quickly fell back to sleep. I discovered that he only ate half a bagel, leaving the other half for my brekkie which I toasted with a little butter. For lunch, Jeremy took some of the huge pot of beef stew I made yesterday.

beef stew with rice

**Jump for more butter**

NaBloWriMo day #11.

There is much going on and I will completely understand if you’ve missed the news from the past few days. Just look at the top of the page where I have links to posts on the Good Bite-Quaker Oats competition where my chosen charity Farm to School could win $10,000, and on my giveaway for a $25 gift card to Macy’s.

Today (Sunday) was the first day of the Eat on $30 challenge that Tami of Running with Tweezers is hosting. I’m proud to say that I’m participating in this hunger awareness campaign. Yes! Yet another one! I told Tami if all the leaves in Colorado had fallen or were brown by this week (i.e. no reason to scour the state to shoot fall colors), I’d join. So here I am. I discussed the idea of the campaign earlier and got a lot of reader comments and suggestions. This isn’t just about seeing if I can feed my household on $30/person, it’s about getting a dialogue started about hunger in this country and maybe understanding the predicament that so many Americans find themselves in today. What does it mean to eat on $30?

produce i bought for the week

Eating on $30 is *easy* if you have access to a library of spices, typical staples (I always have butter, flour, rice flour, sugar, brown sugar, confectioner’s sugar, rice, beans, soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, vegetable oil, vinegar(s), ten different kinds of Asian noodles, dried cranberries, almonds, walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, hazelnuts, chocolate(s), chiles, etc.), and a freezer full of homemade broths and meats. It’s *easy* if you have a garden. It’s *easy* if you live in a place where food is cheap and you have access to terrific and affordable farmer’s markets. This is not about the EASY. This is about what struggling Americans have to deal with. Forgive me for having a little (or a lottle) attitude, but people who act indignant that others can’t make ends meet really chap my hide. As if the poor are at fault for being poor or hungry.

meats and most of the dairy

As far as I’m concerned, the hard part of Eat on $30 is over. That would be the menu planning, price comparison, and shopping. Now I get to cook (easy) and eat (easier). Let me describe my situation first. I live in a small mountain town of 1500 people at 8500 feet above sea level. We have snow on the ground from as early as September to as late as May. There is a decent (but small) local grocery store and a local co-op. Both places are on the expensive side for what I deem less than quality produce and it’s hard to find certain ingredients. Boulder is the nearest town of sizable population (~100,000) and it is a 30 minute drive down a steep and windy canyon from my town. I try to shop ONCE a week in Boulder. Food in Boulder is not cheap. We spend approximately 50% more on food per week than we did when we lived in Southern California. The quality of our groceries is lower and the selection is smaller. I shop primarily at Safeway, Costco, Whole Foods, and my local Asian grocer. I prefer organic, local, and sustainable products when I can get them. To be able to make a statement with my dollar is a luxury.

grains, canned foods

My approach to the challenge was to keep our eating habits as normal as possible. That means meat, vegetables, fruit. Tami gave us four gimmes: salt, pepper, oil, and butter. Because I am making a dessert to take to a party on Saturday, I threw butter into my budget since I needed more than just a smear on some toast. I opted out of Costco because I think that’s cheating. The membership is something like $40 (see, I don’t even know anymore) but the cost of volume, as I discussed before, is a large cost up front that people on food assistance likely don’t have available to them. In a few instances, I took down the price of things like flour, sugar, brown sugar and added them to my costs without purchasing them since I have all of those things at home, taking care to note the amount used is less than or equal to the amount I theoretically purchased.

what i bought for the week

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chinese cellophane noodle soup

NaBloWriMo day #10.

Before we get to Colorado pictures and the recipe…

You’re probably noticing a theme here with the Quaker Oats-Good Bite promo to fight hunger, my participation in Eat on $30 starting Sunday to raise hunger awareness, and now… Macy’s has launched a massive campaign called Come Together to Fight Hunger. Their goal is to raise awareness, raise money, and feed 10 million people suffering from hunger by involving the public in local events and matching individual donations dollar for dollar. The donations go to Feeding America.

There are three ways to be a part of this effort:

1) You can host a dinner party and request that instead of host(ess) gifts, your guests make a donation to Feeding America. Go to Macy’s Come Together page for more deets.

2) You can donate $1 directly at any Macy’s register. One dollar can feed dinner to SEVEN people.

3) You can shop for the cause at any Macy’s and get special in-store savings on October 17 (Saturday). A portion of the $5 in-store ticket sales will help Feeding America. [Why not all $5? I don’t know – I encourage you to ask.]

Oddly enough, I went to the Macy’s in Boulder a few days before BlogHer Food 09 and picked up a hoochie mama leopard-spotted shirt (it’s not THAT hoochie mama, but it’s comfy and I can photograph people, dance, and hold a white Russian in my hand while wearing it) which you can see on Susan’s post. I figured my typical Patagonia attire in the sticks was not going to cut it in San Francisco. While purchasing the shirt, I also bought a $5 ticket for a special event in the store next Saturday, October 17. I hate shopping, but someone in the house (not I nor Kaweah) is in need of a wardrobe update and because part of the $5 ticket went to Feeding America, I figured it was a good thing. I had actually forgotten about the sale until Tami mentioned Macy’s Come Together campaign to me.

But there is one more minor detail.

********* GIVEAWAY *********

Because I’m spreading the word about this on urb, I have received TWO (2) $25 Macy’s gift cards to give away to two (2) of my readers! The rules are as follows: Tell me the name of your favorite food charity or the name of a local food bank or local organization that feeds the hungry (even if you don’t know of one, it’s easy to google). Leave one comment on this post before midnight (MST) Friday, October 16. If you leave multiple comments you will disqualify yourself from the drawing. I will select two winners using some scientifically approved random and ridiculous method – most likely involving The Dog. I know I have several international readers, but Macy’s does not ship internationally nor do they have stores outside of the US. However, the cards can be used by anyone. If you live outside of the US, you can still use the cards as long as your purchases are shipped to a US address (good time to get chummy with your stateside pals). Good luck!

Our deck was reading in the low teens this morning and there was an inch of fluffy, light, dry snow. Friends in Boulder were tweeting that they had 2-3 inches on the ground. UPSLOPE! Typically, our weather comes from the west, over the Continental Divide. It usually rides on a hellish wind too. But on the occasions when we have an upslope, the weather comes from the east and sometimes Boulder gets more snow than we do. Jeremy and I can always tell when it’s going to snow in Boulder – it’s when you can smell Greeley (to the northeast) on the air. What does Greeley smell like? Cow shit.

wanna go for a walk?

It was the perfect morning for a walk with Kaweah. There wasn’t any ice on the ground, just lovely, powdery snow. The sun hopped in and out from behind the clouds and snow continued to rain down in that friendly, gentle way that reminds you of the holidays. It’s only October and I am getting very excited about the holidays in no small part because of this glorious weather.

the aspens are done

ducks were swimming about in the distance

happiness is…

It is officially soup weather! I love soup of any kind, the hearty soups, the noodle soups, the puréed soups, the bean soups, the thin soups, the broths, the borderline soup-stews, the heady soups. They’re all great in this weather which will last up to and sometimes into May for us. My favorite soups are the ones that remind me of my mom’s cooking. My mom worked a full time job, raised two daughters, cleaned the house herself (kept it like a museum it was so spotless!), and cooked dinner every night after she got home from work. Mom made homemade chicken broth so that I still cringe when I taste canned chicken broth to this day (some chicken broths are better than others). When I met Jeremy, he was Mr. Picky Eater. Made me crazy. These days, his eyes light up when I tell him I’m making this soup for dinner. Progress.

making pork meatballs

boil them in water to cook (and save the broth!)

**Jump for more butter**