Frugal Hacks » food

Cooking with sour milk

kimc — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:32:03 +0000

There is a difference between sour milk and spoiled milk. There's no need to toss milk that has gone past its date or developed bit of a sour smell or taste. While you might want to avoid using it in eggnog or pudding, you can still use it in a myriad of ways.

Changing recipes for sour milk

When cooking or baking with sour milk, you often won't need to alter the recipe at all. It's perfect for pancakes, biscuits, cornbread, cakes, and other quick breads. If the off-taste is mild, it's also fine in gravies and sauces where the seasonings and other additions will cover any hint of an off-taste.

In baking, if the taste or smell of your milk is noticeably sour you might want to add just a touch of baking soda to to the dry ingredients offset the tartness; 1/4 tsp. for each cup of milk should be enough to correct the flavor. If the recipe calls for baking powder, you can decrease baking powder by 1/2 tsp. for each 1/4 tsp. of baking soda you add.

Sour milk as a substitute for buttermilk

In recipes that call for buttermilk you can freely substitute sour milk, though the consistency will be a little thinner. You might want to use just a little less to offset the difference in consistency.

Making your own sour milk

If your recipe calls for buttermilk and you have no sour milk waiting in the wings, you can easily make some. Just add 1 Tbs. of vinegar or lemon juice to each cup of milk. Stir and wait 5 minutes, then use as desired. The taste won't be quite the same as buttermilk, but the milk will be chemically similar and will act the same in a recipe.

Health benefits

If you are trying to use less baking powder because of health concerns, sour milk makes it easy for you to use to baking soda instead.

Baking powder is double acting: it contains both an acid and an alkaline, which interact with each other to create the carbon dioxide bubbles that cause our baked goods to rise. It will take some experimentation with individual recipes, but usually you can substitute 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for each teaspoon of baking powder.

The baking soda provides the alkaline part; sour milk will provide the necessary acid to activate the baking soda. If your recipe doesn't call for milk, add about a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice with any liquid called for in the recipe.

Recipes for sour milk

Quick & Easy Sour Milk Biscuits

Hot, fresh biscuits from scratch on the table in 15 minutes!

2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 cup sour milk (or put 1 Tbs. vinegar in a measuring cup and add fresh milk to the 3/4 line)

1/4 cup oil or melted butter

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add liquid ingredients all at once, and stir til flour is moistened. Knead 25 turns in bowl.

Roll 1/2" thick on lightly floured surface, cut with a small inverted drinking glass and place on ungreased pan.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 450. Split with a fork and butter while hot. Makes about 10 biscuits.

Quick & Easy Sour Milk Pancakes

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup sour milk (or put 1 Tbs. vinegar in a measuring cup and add fresh milk to the 1 cup line)

1/4 cup oil or melted butter

1 egg

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Add liquid ingredients all at once, and beat just til smooth. Do not overmix.

Cook on a hot greased griddle til bubbles burst. Flip and cook til lightly browned on the bottom.

Makes about 10 pancakes.

Still feeling unsure of yourself? Allrecipes.com has a good selection of recipes that use sour milk. Food.com has even more. The headmistress shared some of her favorite recipes for sour milk here.

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All Things Considered

DL — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:42:21 +0000

Leafing through the pages of the book I had just purchased as part of a wedding gift, I couldn’t help but wonder if I too might benefit from this approach to bread baking. Slated to be sent to a newly married young couple seeking to be make wise lifestyle choices, this book of healthy artesian bread recipes looked like something they might enjoy. I convinced myself that I could easily justify the cost of the book if I purchased one for myself. I had been buying store-bought bread of late because of our very busy pre-wedding schedule. The book would pay for itself if I applied the recipes in just one month’s time.

Fortunately, I have learned when making decisions to give myself some time to mull over all the ramifications of a decision. Making homemade bread is often a priority in our home. We purchase wheat berries from a co-op and grind them to make fresh milled flour. Now, though, with Daughter newly married, and me solo kitchen woman again, I needed to renew my bread baking skills.

On the plus side of my analysis of the decision to purchase this book was that serving homemade bread with a meal makes me a blessing to Husband and Youngest Son. Not only are their taste buds enhanced but I have found my men are much more content leaving a meal with grains in their stomachs. The pantry closet gets opened less and the meal seems more appreciated.

Lately I had seen a great deal of blog chatter regarding artesian bread and it was mostly favorable. My only experience with baking an artesian bread was the recipe for Cuban bread found in The Tightwad Gazette read some years ago. My family enjoys this bread and I have made it on numerous occasions. The thought of improving my bread baking skills and providing my family with yummy bread was a real temptation. What particularly intrigued me with this particular book was the many different kinds of grains used in the process of making bread more healthy. I have access to many different kinds of grain.

However, what kept coming to mind was that artesian bread seems to be best made on a daily basis. Although I love bread fresh out of the oven, I had to remember that I live in South Texas. The thought of turning on my oven every day to 450 degrees was not a pleasant thought. Especially since frugal me tries to live without the air-conditioning whenever possible.

My summer bread making plan usually consists of baking several loaves on one day and using the freezer as my depository. This keeps the house cooler on the non-baking days and also keeps kitchen time to a minimum on hot days. From what I was reading, this didn’t seem to be the best plan for the baking of artesian bread.

So for now taking all things into consideration, the decision to buy the book is no. As much as I would like to add artesian bread to my baking repertoire, where I live has to be considered. Maybe if we were heading into “Winter” (does happen here once in awhile), but I can feel that heat is just over the horizon. So for now, I will stick with my old recipes and be forgoing yummier, easier bread.

I am wondering though if any of you have found a way to make artesian bread work for you if living in a hot spot like I do?

P.S. When I wrote this post I had no idea that baking bread was the topic on Kimc's blog Inashoe. Check this out for some excellent information!

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Being Prepared for 2011

DL — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:39:18 +0000

Thinking how best to comply with Husband’s request, I decided to do a bit of internet research. Being concerned with some reports he had read, Husband wanted me to use some emergency funds to provide a hedge of protection for our food budget. He’s far from a “doomsday prophet,” and I take his concerns seriously.

I am the planner in the family and Husband the problem solver. As the planner, I often take the position that there need be no problems if there is planning, (but that is another story.) So even with the myriad of wedding details taking up every nook and cranny of my mind, I decided to tackle this issue in a timely fashion. Let me make clear, my “research” was not thorough or complete, however, I did get the sense that food prices would be escalating as the year progressed and experience was already telling me that this process had begun.

Recently, on a shopping trip, I overheard a store employee telling a customer that the cost of soda was going to double in a few months. After my research, I could now understand why. Corn was being projected to increase in costs by about 43%! This would definitely increase the price of corn syrup which I believe is used in soda production. The increased cost of soda in itself would not be a hardship for my family. More for health than financial reasons, soda is only an occasional treat. Corn syrup is not in my pantry either, although I am sure we do consume products from time to time which include this questionable item.

Because of some other research I had done some time back, I was actually trying to only buy organic corn products these days due to the way corn is being grown. That means buying organic popcorn in bulk for a snack or to be milled for cornbread and purchasing frozen organic corn at Costco. Our big “corn addiction” would be tortilla chips. Where I live, these are a staple. It seems every home and restaurant serve them. Now, I was seeking to also purchase some of these in organic form.

My quick research seemed to imply these items would be increasing in cost:

Wheat
Meat
Cereal
Dairy
Coffee

Now my dilemma is how to wisely be prepared and make some purchases that will be a benefit as costs increase. I already have wheat berries on hand, but think I will continue to purchase some more. I always buy butter on sale and keep a stash in the freezer. Up to this point, I had been waiting for the price to go down, but now I am thinking I should stock up before the price goes even higher.

One of the things I must take into consideration is that where I live the heat makes storing grains challenging. I do have some plastic buckets, but not as many as I would need. Glass jars work well, but my pantry can only hold so many. Our freezer often has oats on the bottom shelf, but right now it is filled with food for the future wedding.

And then there is the idea of using some emergency funds. I think it is a great idea to be prepared with extra food on hand, but I want to be careful not to “eat” up my emergency account. I think I would need to buy back my purchased food with my monthly food budget in order to guard against fuller stomachs and a smaller bank account.

If I sound confusing I have a great excuse! One more month and Daughter walks down the aisle and there is so much to be done. However, I do want to be mindful that life still goes on and I want to be wise about this busy year ahead.

Anyone also thinking this issue through? What are your plans? What foods do you think would be wise to purchase now?

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Frugal Flavors

DL — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:20:56 +0000

Scanning the multitude of ice cream flavors to make a choice for a dessert for guests, I realized that I always seemed to be drawn to vanilla. Wanting to expand my horizons a bit, I checked out some of the more “exotic” flavors. Finding one I deemed to be a bit more exciting, yet safe, a half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream was put into my shopping cart. (I also bought some vanilla.)

My ice cream trip made started me thinking about flavors and the frugal life. I decided that I am an ordinary, frugal “flavor.” A bit resourceful, always seeking to find the best deal and desiring to be a good steward of my money, but my frugal life is not lived with great creativity and pizzazz.

New Daughter, wife of Firstborn Son, however, is truly an exotic frugal flavor. She might be a pistachio or cherry mango as her frugal life has a definite artistic bent and I love it! Finding a piece of bark and some empty bottles on a walk with Firstborn Son, she transformed her fireplace mantle into a beautiful work of art. Having an empty spot over her couch and keeping a careful budget, she used a large piece of cardboard cut to fit the spot exactly and then is making a wonderful memory collage of pictures from her childhood and that of Firstborn Son’s.

The many extra books that are waiting for a bookcase are artfully stacked in colorful piles through out her living room. A red flannel picnic tablecloth now graces the door going outside from New Daughter’s kitchen and the matching napkins make a lovely window valance. Acorns off a tree and tiny berries given to her by the child of a friend, fill the rim of her candlesticks.

One of my favorite frugal creations is the table she made for a bedroom corner. Having a 45 pound white plastic bucket filled with wheat berries for the making of home made bread to find a place for, New Daughter covered the bucket with an adorable 3 tiered ruffled apron given to her as a bridal shower gift. Topping the bucket with a another gift, a hatbox, this “table” not only hides the bucket, but provides a special touch to the room.

One of the things about this frugal life that I enjoy most is the diversity of all those who participate. The creativity and resourcefulness that I see in the lives of others is such a delight! Truly there can be blessings in learning to make do with what is on hand or re-purposing objects otherwise of little use. This can be done with the flair if a cherry mango or the simplicity of commonplace vanilla, but all make the frugal life delicious!

So, tell me, what frugal flavor are you?

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Does cooking from scratch cost more?

kimc — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:52:57 +0000

Cooking from scratch isn't always cheap.

When I was first married, my husband brought me home to a classic bachelor pad. The cupboards held nothing hot dog buns. The fridge held beer and bratwurst - oh, and a bottle of mustard.

On my first trip to the grocery store, I had two choices. I could buy a few prepared meals and we could eat for a day or two on $20, or I could stock the kitchen with staples. I chose the latter and spent over $100. Yes, I could have started smaller, but I was fresh out of a household of 12 and hardly knew how to shop for two.

On the bright side, that $100 fed us for a long, long time.

It may not be cost-effective to make biscuits from scratch if one batch of biscuits is all you're going to make. You can buy a can of biscuits for fifty cents, while making them from scratch would require a bag of flour, a can of baking powder, a jug of milk, a box of salt, and a bottle of cooking oil.

But if you add a bag of sugar and some eggs, you can also make your own pancakes, muffins, crepes, and shortcake. With a bottle of vanilla and perhaps some butter, you can add white or yellow cake (iced, if you like), shortcake, vanilla pudding, cookies, and vanilla cream pie.

With yeast, the possibilities explode.

In the interest of simplifying, I have added a few items to my grocery list. How is this simpler? Because these few new items allow me to stop buying a far greater number of items that I can now make from scratch. An added bonus: the homemade versions are nearly always less expensive, more nutritious and generally taste better too.

Here are a few recipes you might want to try at home:

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Chicken Soup

DL — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:46:05 +0000

It started out to be chicken soup. While putting ice back into the freezer, I had seen a chicken carcass in a Ziploc bag. Dumping the contents of this bag into my crockpot and quickly covering with water, I turned the temperature to high and added the lid. Continuing to rummage in my freezer, I found my collection of plastic containers with leftover broths and liquids from previous culinary adventures. After making a good soup broth from the cooking of the chicken rack, the liquids in these containers would add flavor to my concoction.

Remembering I had some chicken breasts in my larger freezer that needed to be cooked, I decided to wait until they were a bit less frozen before adding them to the crockpot. I would use some of this meat to make my chicken soup a bit meatier and save the rest for a future casserole. After some time, I came back into the kitchen to add the breasts and realized that what I had assumed to be a chicken rack was really a bag of garbage meant for the trash. As where we live is known for hot weather, I often put garbage in a Ziploc bag until trash day so as not to create a smelly trash can. So now I had a nice mess in my crockpot and my chicken soup plans needed a rewrite.

Deciding to cook my now defrosted chicken breasts in a pot of water on the stove, I again made a plan. However, after opening up my saved broth and liquid containers treasure, I decided to nix the chicken soup and make what we call “hodge podge” soup. There in my collection of leftover liquids was my favorite ingredient for soup, the broth from a previous night of cooking salmon in melted butter with lots of dill. Removing the cooked chicken breasts from the pot and setting them aside for another meal, I dumped the rest of my concoctions into the pot. A broth from a recent brisket celebration meal, some vegetable cooking water and more broth from other chicken cooking ventures contributed to a delicious aroma beyond compare.

After a bit more time on the stove, I cooled this soup base and refrigerated it until the next day. This additional time for flavors to unite would add more character to my hodge podge soup. Now the fun part comes, when I see what needs to be used up in my freezer and fridge. A few frozen mixed vegetables are left in a freezer bag. What about those meatballs that need to be used? Some rice too goes in the pot and dinner is a true success! Husband comments on how delicious the broth of this soup is! I added a loaf of homemade bread and a nice salad as complement.

Making soup from leftovers of this and that is my favorite kind of frugal cooking. Freezing left over juices or broths from the cooking of meat seems to intensify the flavors. Another advantage is that the fat comes to the surface and can be scraped off and discarded if so desired. In most of my homemade soups I will sauté and add onion, garlic, and sometimes celery. But because many of these items had been added in the original cooking, it was necessary to add these for flavor. The only down side I see to this frugal cooking experience is that it can be hard to duplicate the soup again!

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Making My Plan Work

DL — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:53:55 +0000

Holding calendar in hand while checking freezer and pantry shelves, it seemed like a good plan. With some special celebrations in the beginning of the month and houseguests expected towards the end of October, my idea had been to eat some creative and resourceful meals in the weeks between, using the resources on hand. This would give ample opportunity to concentrate the food budget purchases where most needed.

The middle of the month, however, proved to be a bit busier than first anticipated with a wealth of unexpected although much appreciated invitations. Coupled with my own desire to have a dear friend over and create another celebration of sorts, my middle-of-the-month menu was not going to be as simple as I had first thought.

Now I stood in the kitchen with my list of meals needed for the upcoming events we would be attending, as well as for the food for my own get-together, and I knew a menu strategy was necessary. On top of all this, I had a busy schedule with little time to prepare before each event.

Seeking to use this day at my disposal to forge my plan, I decided to tackle the Friday night event first. A dessert was needed that could be eaten without utensils. Cookies immediately came to mind, and since I buy oatmeal in bulk and had some in the freezer, oatmeal cookies should be fine. It was then that I realized that the brown sugar was gone! I told myself to find a substitute and dashed for the computer. It turns out that 1 cup of sugar mixed by fork with 1 tablespoon of molasses could suffice. These cookies could also be taken to the church cover dish on Sunday along with a main course. Two chicken racks that I kept in the freezer for such a time as this came to mind, and into the pot they went. Covered with water and spiced up by some chopped onion and celery that really needed to be used, the chicken soup got a start and would cover the church main dish and dinner for tonight.

Working backward, the Saturday birthday party was next on my list and I was glad to see some frozen fajita chicken that is delicious when cooked slowly in a crockpot. Not having anything easy to make as a side dish, I finally decided there would be time to make deviled eggs before we would need to leave. I had already dealt with the Friday get-together and now was ready to tackle my luncheon for the next day. This was going to call for some creativity as I scoured my available resources. Baked potatoes with sour cream might work and I could add cheese and crackers and make a spread of cream cheese with jelly on top. Egg salad sandwiches would complete my meal, and my double batch of cookies could be stretched to provide a simple dessert!

Then the call came and lunch needed to become breakfast. Well, the egg salad could become an egg casserole. But what would I use for the meat that makes the casserole so good? Rifling through the freezer, I discovered a bag of frozen shrimp from a recent sale. This would be great! I added chopped green pepper to my egg creation and found a recipe for coffee cake that would use my extra sour cream.

Taking the time to think through each requested meal and being willing to use what I had on hand paid off. I would be able to satisfy the food needs and still be faithful to my budget plan. Those little budget “leaks” that plague me when not I’m not prepared or do not take the time to think through my menu had been plugged.

My favorite breakfast casserole recipe is:

5 eggs slightly beaten
1 cup of milk (evaporated or regular)
2 slices of crust-less bread (homemade whole wheat is best, but any will do)
2 handfuls of grated cheese (cheddar is our favorite)
½ pound of meat (sausage, ham, bacon, what ever you have on hand)
Salt, pepper, onion powder, celery seed (whatever is to your taste)

My favorite part is that this can be made the night before and refrigerated. I usually double this recipe and then bake in a 9” by 13” pan. Try 375° for about 40 minutes. It’s done when it feels firm to the touch.

Do you have a favorite recipe when you are using what is on hand at your house?

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How to can raw meat in a flash

kimc — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:20:11 +0000

It's easy, I promise. You need little more than a pressure cooker/canner, jars and lids. Oh, and raw meat. Plan on using ~2 lbs./quart, or a little more if it needs trimming.

We buy boneless skinless chicken on sale for this, though you can do it with nearly anything. Preseasoned fajita meat is delicious this way!

Start with clean jars. No need to sterilize - they'll get sterilized during processing. Put your lids in a small pan of water to simmer, following the manufacturer's instructions.

Cram meat into jars, trimming fat if desired. Leave 1" to 1 1/4" of headspace. Use a plastic spatula to release air bubbles caught between the glass and the meat. Add one teaspoon of salt/quart, if desired - no need to stir in. It will be thoroughly combined during processing.

Wipe rims of jars and apply lids. Screw on bands.

Process in your pressure cooker according to directions. For me, this basically means I set the 7 full quart jars down on the rack inside the cooker with 2 quarts of hot water. Cover and heat on high until steam blows out the vent for 10 minutes. Set the pressure regulator on top and watch the dial until pressure reads 11 lbs, then set a timer for 90 minutes. Check regularly and adjust heat to make sure pressure stays at or above 11 lbs.

It's that easy. When it's done, let the cooker cool until all pressure is gone. Remove lid, and let it cool another 10 minutes. Gently move your jars to a place where they can cool undisturbed for 12-24 hours, setting them on a wood or cloth-covered surface. Remove bands and store.

Your meat will be fully cooked and ready to enjoy.

Important: always follow instructions for your particular pressure cooker/canner. This is a summary of our own method - check for an FDA approved recipe for maximum safety.

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If you must eat out…

kimc — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:16:52 +0000

Do it like this. Be sure to read the fine print, but even with fine print this is a great deal! I found some of our favorite restaurants listed in my area, and others that we would like to try but didn't want to pay full price. Stock up for date night, for gifts, and just for fun.

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Outsmart the grocery store

kimc — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:56:35 +0000

I just wanted to take a moment to share a worthwhile link. I consider myself a reasonably savvy and experienced grocery shopper, feeding 12 on a very modest budget, but I learned a few things from this list:
50 Sneaky Grocery Store Tricks That Trim Your Wallet and Pad Your Waistline

My favorite:

Sale items are out of reach. Let’s say a can of tomatoes is on sale. You search for it, can’t find it and instead of making your own marinara sauce, you opt for a pre-packaged option that’s high in fat and salt. Grocery stores know most people won’t bother to ask or seek out a sale item they can’t immediately find, causing you to buy the less healthy and more expensive option.

And I often let myself get fooled by this one:

Multiple buys. Grocery stores love to run promotions for multiple purchases with the worst food on the planet such as soda and chips. You don’t need one bag, much less the three for $7 batch.

This was a little intriguing to me. Do you ever fall for it, or think others do?

Produce at the front of the store. Research shows that produce is placed at the front of a store because shoppers will stock up and then feel less guilty about not-so-healthy purchases elsewhere in the store.

And I've had dark suspicions about this one for a long time:

Pricey house brands. We’ve been conditioned to think the off-brand is always cheaper. This isn’t so. Many name brand are competing with house brands and know it, so they can be cheaper based on ounces per unit. Read the label and don’t assume you’re getting a better deal.

That was 4. Read the other 46 tricks.

My own observation: Have you noticed that store brands, which used to imitate the packaging of national brands, are beginning to look cheaper and more generic? I think they are reacting to the struggling economy. While they used to strive to look like the higher quality products, now they want consumers to perceive them as being less expensive. Generic packaging does the trick, often convincing buyers that they don't need to do the math and compare unit price - anything generic must be cheaper, right?

What sneaky grocery store tricks have you figured out? Which ones have you fallen for?

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