Can green be (economically) lean?

I'm beginning to think that this little undertaking might end up being good for the waistline, as well as for the wallet. Where I would normally tend to snack mindlessly, or grab bits of this or that without a thought, I'm now so focused on every dime that I am NOT eating anything unplanned. At over $3 a go, there will be no ham, egg and cheese sandwiches from the local bagel shop on the way to work. Not to say that cheap, unhealthy choices don't abound, because they sure as hell do, but I'm currently trending more towards whole food items made quite simply. In an effort to do a little advance planning for the week ahead, I've got a pan of beans and greens working on the stove (kale, some hot Italian sausage, cannelini beans...love it!), and a couple sweet potatoes baking in the oven (easy to turn into a hearty lunch with some salsa and black beans).

It's not escaping me, either, that this is pushing me towards eating as the Gospel According to Michael Pollan (of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" fame) would encourage us to. Lots of whole foods, with a focus on vegetables and fruits, sourced locally when possible, and supplemented in small doses by meats. There's no doubt that I live in an area where agriculture flourishes to an almost ridiculous degree. If one lives in, say, Manitoba (Hi, Mum and Da!), you're going to have different constraints. To that I would say you have to get to know what thrives in your area, and make the most of it. My folks up north have abundant, cheap sources of meat and fish, and no one in the world is a more vigorous preserver of garden produce than my mother. And when your growing season is about 3 minutes long, that takes far more planning and skill than I possess!

As many aspects of our lives become curtailed by rising gas prices, it can't help but to be reflected in our food costs as well. The further things travel, and the more climate controlled they must be to arrive "fresh" at their destinations, the higher their accompanying price tags must be as well. Where local foods from farmer's markets have often been thought of as more costly in comparison to their mass produced and shipped grocery store brethren, they not only more honestly reflect the cost of food production, but are becoming competitive with similar items shipped from afar. With the tremendous social, environmental and dietary benefits that can result from sourcing one's diet close to home, I am increasingly hopeful that doing so can be accessible to all parts of a community, not merely the affluent and well-intentioned.

In related local food news, Hudson appears to be on the verge of beginning a food co-0p! While it appears to still be in the rough planning stages, I love the heart of the idea. And as Hudson proper lacks an actual grocery store (city residents have to wend their way out to Greenport for actual grocery stores, which, to the many people with no vehicles, means either a pricey cab ride or a long slog), so to have something like this right in the heart of the city could be a tremendous asset. I do worry that prices may be prohibitive, but hope that there will be ample promotion of affordability via member participation that it could be accessible to everyone. Definitely something to look forward to and support!

Ok, that's enough proselytizing for now. Plus, I'm hungry and dinner's ready, so I'm going to go stuff my face. For those of you keeping track at home, we are now looking at...

Today's groceries of $13.99 and 2 slices of cheese pizza at $3.78, which brings us to...

Balance: $128.59

It's not all Ramen over here....

Sigh...I had such big plans for high productivity today. In my idealized world, I would have created a carefully planned grocery list, planned a week's worth of meals, done all my weekend errands and cured some tropical disease. There are weekends when this actually happens, and I am a machine of efficiency. (Well, my progress with tropical illness is slow, but I'm a geologist by training, so I'm guessing the learning curve is steep.) That so did NOT happen today. It's been an emotionally stressful week, which likely didn't help, but I'm willing to bet that neither did playing Spades until 4 am, either. Oh well...too tears in a bucket, and all that.

I did manage to drag my ass to the Farmer's Market this morning, although not at my normal bright and early hour. I was vaguely hopeful that arriving so late would make my chocolate croissant lust moot, as they tend to sell out by 10 am, but no such luck. And, as I have no will power whatsoever, I had to get one. (Thank you, France, for creating breakfast pastries so delightfully buttery, light, and filled with chocolate...I owe you one.) My big bag o' wonders from my CSA got picked up, too, and as the photo above demonstrates, I'll be well supplied with greenery this week! I'm a bit alarmed at the sheer volume of lettuce that needs to be consumed, but a friend recently mentioned a southern recipe for wilted lettuce that involves hot bacon grease, and well...hell yes, I need to try that!

All the veggies pictured are part of my weekly share, so the only items I purchased outright today were a wedge of cheese and the aforementioned croissant. I'm still working my way through a lot of pre-experiment supplies, so I don't feel that I'm fully in the groove of the budget yet. As those things dwindle, though, we'll see how I fare.

I guess I'll have to do some planning and shopping tomorrow, as I hereby officially declare today a wash, and plan to retire to the couch with a movie and version 2.0 of my afternoon nap. Let's hope that for the sake of productivity I don't get roped into any more late night card games.

So, with today's market treats and some curry chicken from the Chinese take-out near work last night (all told, $11.81), we are now at:

Balance: $146.36

Also, as you can see, I'm having a hell of a time with the photo part of this blog. Since my computer went to be with Jesus and got re-built, I lost my old photo software, which I at least sort of knew how to work. So, bear with my wildly sized photos for a bit until I figure the new stuff out, please!

Mostly Math

I figured I'd better work out the monthly amount my CSA share from these fine folks is running me, so I can budget accordingly. As I'm splitting my share with a friend this season, the breakdown for me ends up at $37.60/month. Not bad at all, considering that this will keep me awash in abundant greens all summer, plus berries and veggies as the growing season progresses.

My Saturday morning forays to the Farmer's Market in town are one of the utter highlights of my week. Hudson's a small town, so familiar faces (and often, their accompanying canine companions) abound, and live music and people watching (oh, NYC weekenders, how you amuse me!) are ample entertainment while hemming and hawing about the cheese o' the week. I won't lie, however...I'm a bit anxious that my Saturday morning chocolate croissant is a luxury I might not be able to afford, and that would veer towards tragedy. We'll have to see how it goes.

So, with a couple of small items purchased today, and incorporating the CSA costs, we are at....

Balance: $158.17

Plum Tatin & Fair Food Confessions

Let me preface this blog with an admission...I know I tend to rhapsodize on and on about local, fresh food, wine pairings, and all other manners of total snobbery. And yes, I do like all those things. However, when it comes to late summer in Columbia County, there comes a time when that all falls by the wayside. That time is County Fair time. It is ostensibly possible to eat real "food" at the Fair...there are Greek gyros, and BBQ and so on. But for the love of god, that is NOT what a fair is about. For my money, a fair is a chance to people watch that surpasses even Wal Mart on a Saturday morning, hoot and holler at racing pigs and rodeo, and eat anything and everything that can be dumped in a deep fryer.

This year, I went with the firm intentions to do just that, and boy, did I ever. My lust for corn dogs makes no sense even to me, but it does dictate that they be the first thing I eat every year, and that at minimum, it's going to be two. With mustard. And a burned roof of the mouth, because they're thermonuclear, and I can't wait a minute for them to cool. I am not going to quantify everything that was consumed that day, mostly because I don't want to give you future blackmail material, but believe me when I tell you it was too much. Of everything. And that I lay prostrate on the couch that night, desperately wishing that there had been a deep fried Pepto Bismol booth.

That is all a long winded way of saying that this week, my body wanted nothing but fruit and veggies. The mere whiff of fry grease made my stomach clench and had me looking around for a chance to win an enormous plush frog. It was with tremendous relief that I went to the market this Saturday to load up on produce. And while I know that before long, the abundance will taper off as the snap in the air turns into actual cold, that day is not here yet. We're still awash in greens, zucchini, winter squash, root veggies, apples and plums. My body has been happily re-establishing equilibrium with kale, sausage and potato soup this week, and lots of apples and cheddar. And I've been hitting the gym with religious fervor, hoping to work off those deep fried Oreos.

This was the first time I'd bought this particular kind of plum...I believe they're known as Italian plums, and they're longer and more oblong than the average supermarket ones, and while they have a very dusky blue exterior, they have a yellow interior and an almost smoky flavor.

While I'm not usually an enormous fan of making French food myself (who the hell's going to make veal stock? Or confit anything at home?), I'd just been to a particularly inspiring Alsatian wine dinner for work, and was feeling in the mood for something French and plum-y. I was also in the mood for the 1997 Riesling we'd had, but at $80/bottle, I think perhaps that's going to be put off for a bit. (Seriously, though? Best, most complex white wine I've ever had. It was insane. Spinach, blue cheese and walnut all in the glass...in a very, very good way.) Anyhoo...after some futzing about in cookbooks, I found that I had everything it took to make a plum tatin, which is sort of a plum upside down cake sort of thing. The traditional recipe involves apples, which I will likely end up doing because I have a metric shit ton of them, and this is terribly easy to do. So without further ado....

Plum Tatin

(bastardized from Ina Garten)

Ingredients

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the dish

8-10 Italian prune plums, halved and pitted

1 3/4 cups sugar, divided

2 extra large eggs, at room temperature

1/3 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or cognac, if you have it. I was feeling a bit French, and for reasons we won't go into here, always have a lot of Hennessy around.)

1 cup plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9-inch pie (or Pi!) dish and arrange the plums in the dish, cut side down.

• Combine 1 cup of the sugar and 1/3 cup of water in a small saucepan and cook over high heat until it turns a warm amber color. This will be easier to determine if you use a light colored saucepan, but if not, keep a close eye. And if you're really anal, it'll be about 360 degrees on a candy thermometer . This takes a while, but once it's almost ready, the difference between heaven and burnt to shit sugar is seconds, so don't leave it unattended. And for some reason, don't STIR this mixture...just swirl it about. I don't know why, it just says so in every recipe, and I am a rule follower.
• Pour amber-y, molten liquid over plums.
• Meanwhile, cream the 6 tbsp of butter and the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar in your ever-ready stand mixer (or whatever) until light and fluffy.
• Lower the speed and add the eggs one at a time.
• Add sour cream, zest and vanilla or cognac and mix until combined.
• In a s small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, and with the mixer on low, add it to the butter mixture. Mix until just combined.
• Pour the cake batter evenly over the plums and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the cake part comes out clean.
• Cool for 15 minutes, then invert the cake onto a flat plate. This always terrifies me, and isn't always successful, but this time, it worked out fine.
• Serve warm or at room temperature.
• Gild the damn lily with vanilla ice cream or whipping cream.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Saturday Morning Idyll

Around here, Saturday morning is invariably Farmer's Market day...I have to go pick up my CSA share of veggies, and do as much of my weekly shopping as possible. This being late summer in the Hudson Valley, there's not much that one CAN'T get at the market, and it's hard not to walk away with one of everything. (I repeat frequently to myself..."I am just one woman...what the HELL would I do with all that eggplant?".) While I fully intend to do a make-my-northern-family-envious market post shortly, this is not it. It's not even going to include a recipe. Because while I believe in a hearty breakfast as much as the next person, I can't always face the dishes such a meal produces, and sometimes, simple and unadulterated is best.

So, every Saturday, I stock up on whatever fruit is irresistible that day (today I was lured in by white peaches), and a chocolate croissant from the bakery stand. Once I've gotten home with far more kale than any human ever truly needs (apparently, it's a vegetable that flourishes like kudzu up here...), I make a cup of the best coffee in the world, take my treats, and head out into the yard. And there I try and let my brain shut off for at least a half hour. It's the most peaceful part of my week, usually, and I think it's due in part to the ritual of it, and in part because it takes so little effort to be delicious. I've done nothing more arduous than boil water for the French pressed coffee, and it's heaven. A book at hand is nice, though not necessary. Two big black Labs dozing nearby and sporadically eyeing the peach are really all the entertainment and company I need.

I hope we have a long autumn this year...I'm sure as hell not going to sit out there with my parka in the winter, and this is a damn sight cheaper than Canyon Ranch.

Have a wonderful long weekend, y'all...whatever that looks like for you!