Restaurant Widow

Typepad Blog Winner

I wish Typepad would have given me a blog for everyone! (ahem-hem) But, alas, I had to choose.  And the winner is..........

Jean from Dishing it Up Columbus!

Why did I choose her? Well, she and her man Bob are both good writers, and they are a little out of the demographic of a lot of existing bloggers here in town. Jean, please email me or leave a comment and I will give you your code!

For the rest of you, please do not hesitate to email me for advice or help starting or switching your blog to Typepad.  I would love to help you, weather you are a startup or an existing blogger.  If you are interested in a small class or classes I would be happy to arrange something.  

You may see links to the rest of the entrants here.

5 Ideas to Stretch Your Grocery Budget

After reading through the first round of comments asking about your grocery budgets, I starting thinking of small ways we could all save money.  I was amazed to read everyone's comments, to see how strict you adhere to your budgets, what you are willing to spring more for, etc.

I am by no means a budgeting expert! However I've been around a few kitchens in my day!

1. View meat as a flavoring agent, and not the main focus. I think this might be one of the easiest ways for meat-eaters to stretch their grocery budget.  Instead of buying expensive cuts of steaks and chops, look to flavor-packed cheaper items.  These items are frequently fattier, but you will be using them in far less quantity.  Consider, for example, bacon.  One strip of bacon per person in a pasta dish will add amazing meat flavor with very little cost.  Another benefit of bacon is that it is two ingredients in one - a meaty flavoring agent and a cooking fat.  Keep a jar of fat in the fridge (our grandmothers would never have been caught without one!) and strain your bacon grease into it.  Bacon fat is great for cooking eggs, potatoes, popcorn, biscuits - all sorts of things.  Sausage is another item which is flavor-packed, and a little goes a long way.  One link (4 ounces, typically) will flavor pasta, soup, greens, etc.  The same goes for pretty much any cured meat product (prosciutto, bresaola, pancetta)
2. Use ingredients with more than one use.  Always buy your chicken on the bone.  First of all, it is cheaper. Secondly, it's more flavorful. Thirdly, you can use the bones to make stock.  Keep a large plastic bag of bones in the freezer and add to it until you have enough to make stock.  Ham hocks are another ingredient perfect for this. One ham hock costs about $2 and will flavor an entire stock pot full of beans or greens.  Pick the meat from the hock when you are finished using it and add the (small but delicious) meat to whatever you have been cooking, and then add the bone to your bag of poultry bones.
3. Know what size to buy. Never, and I mean never buy peppercorns, vanilla beans, specialty salts, rice, beans, grains or nuts in small packages.  Buy in bulk at stores like GFS.  Buy bulk online. I'm going to talk more about this soon.
4. Get to know your specialty stores. I'll tell you know a few of my favorite secrets.  You can buy odds and ends of cheese at lots of cheese shops - Whole Foods (especially in Dublin) frequently has a basket of cheese ends, where you can purchase small quantities of expensive cheeses.  This next is one of my favorite secrets: at Carfagna's, you can buy cubed prosciutto ends for next to nothing.  You see, prosciutto (the cured ham from Italy) comes on a leg. This means that at some point, the leg can no longer be cut on a deli slicer. Carfagna's cuts this meat from the bone, cubes it, and vacuum packs it into 8 ounce packets (you can find them across from the produce, in the cured meat section). They are great for pasta - they contain quite a bit of meat which you can slice off if you are patient, there is a lot of fat, too - and they are also amazing for flavoring soup, beans, and greens.  Prosciutto also makes a great stock, which you can make from just a few of these cubes.  Of course, there is also the creme de la creme of "throwaways," the prosciutto bone itself. Good luck getting that one.
5. Learn "rustic" cooking.  Many old fashioned cookbooks are full of ways to pinch pennies.  The more I learn about the roots of cooking - particularly European cooking but also Asian - the more tips I learn on how to save money.  In an Italian kitchen, it seems as thought nothing is thrown away. Parmesan rinds are used to flavor tomato sauce (and to teeth babies), bean cooking water and pasta water become precious ingredients to use as thickening agents (they are amazing), and stale bread is turned into bread crumbs, soups, or dessert.  In Japanese cooking, kombu (a form of seaweed with an intensely savory flavor) is used to make stock; the softened seaweed is then used to make a variety of pickles. Shitake stems are used for flavoring. African-American slaves in our country were given harvest scraps to eat - turnip tops and entrails and the like.  Their ingenuity created a cuisine and a culture which is cherished today.

I am hoping to have 5 more thoughts very soon.  What are your tips?

Help! Tell Me Your Budget!

I know a year ago I said I wasn't going to start poverty blogging, but now that my income has been reduced by about 40%, well, it seemed like a good time to reconsider that idea.

I've been stewing this over in my gray matter for awhile now, because I've been noticing that I am avoiding my favorite meat purveyors at the farmer's markets lately because it just adds so much to my grocery bill.

However, I get fed tons of meals at work, and I don't have a family, so I don't have a very good gauge of the average family's budget, or what they consider expensive.  When I say I buy a $2.79/pound Amish chicken, do you laugh out loud at me? Sometimes when we have chicken I think "if we had to feed a family we would need 2 chickens."  (yes, that is how brilliant my brain is. I can do basic math)

I frequently hear people say they can't afford to eat locally, so I was hoping that some of my readers - from all walks of life - to let me peek into your lives a little bit.  

Just providing your weekly grocery budget would be interesting, but since I don't have a family, it might be more beneficial if you told me what you spend it one. I'd love to know if you buy processed foods, ready-to-bake meals, etc.  I am not asking to be judgmental in any way, I just want to know how I can help people make good decisions when buying groceries on a budget.

I would also love to know your dining out budgets, but maybe we can talk about that at a later date. I know we are spending WAY less on dining out these days, and we have been avoiding bars like teetotalers. We have also drastically decreased our spending on coffee drinks! I know it's frustrating for my readers when I don't do restaurant reviews - I am trying to do more inexpensive spots whenever I can!

Great Upcoming Events in Columbus

Summer is over, kitty cats.  it's time to dig out your sweaters and scarves and hoodies. Everywhere I look I see squash and gourds.

Fortunately there are still a few great chances to celebrate all things harvest, local food, and Columbus itself.

• This Saturday is a brand new event combining the best independent market and the best independent
  

  

   grocery store.  Both the North Market and the Hills Market are located very close to the Olentangy Bike Path, so you can begin at one market with breakfast and end at the other market! At the Hills Market, it will be Ohio Market Day, where there will samples and demos all day long.  The North Market hosts their annual Harvest festival, so there are great events no matter which market you choose.  The price of admission includes breakfast and a scoop of Jeni's Ice cream!
  

• Next up, we have Experience Columbus Days.  From October 9th-12th, Experience Columbus offers all sorts of discounts for attractions and dining.  This is a great chance to get out and see what our 
  

  

  fair city has to offer, so if you have friends who are new to the area or are always complaining that there's nothing to do in Central Ohio (aren't we over that yet?).  Print the flyer from the ECD website and take it along with you for the week for 50% discounts on great spots around Columbus such as the Zoo, CATCO, the Wexner center, and even the Wilds (plus more).  In addition, you can receive a 25% discount on meals from all of the Dine Original Columbus restaurants!
  

• Next week is also Local Foods Week from Local Matters.  There are lots of events across all
  

  

   economic levels.  In addition to the Market to Market event above, there are dinners at Alana's and
  

   Third & Hollywood, tours of school gardens, a tour of Jeni's Ice Cream kitchen (bring a coat - that freezer is COLD), tours of the Elevator and Columbus brewing companies, wine tastings, etc.  Celebrate all things Ohio Food. In addition to the events, the Liz Lessner family of restaurants will be donating portions of their sales on different days to support Local Matters.
  

What is Local?

If  there is one topic that comes up over and over again, it is what is local, exactly.  A tough one.  I thought I would weigh in with my personal thoughts.

These are my opinions only. I thought they might be a good place to start. I am sure there are things on this list that people will call me out on, and probably even some things I will change my mind about by next year, but let's start here anyway.

I grew up on a very small family farm. We grew almost everything we ate, and canned and froze tons of stuff so that we could enjoy the bounty even in the winter.  Of course, this is nearly impossible to do in the city, however I am very pleased by how many tiny urban gardens I have seen popping up recently.  It seems as though every time I drive to work I see a new garden, snuggled next to a parking lot or in a front yard; there are even a few houses near me who have front yards full of squash instead grass.

A few years ago I took part in the Eat Local Challenge.  Their rules stated that everything should come from within 100 miles.  You could make exceptions, of course, if you couldn't live without coffee or chocolate.  I took a compass and a map and drew a circle with a 100 mile radius from Columbus.  I was very pleased to see that it nearly encompassed the whole state.  I noticed that my CSA from Elizabeth Telling Farm was outside of the circle by about 22 miles.  But I figured that if Sandy was willing to drive to Columbus to give me my CSA, she was local enough to me.  This is how I arrived at my idea that "Local" meant "Ohio."  

We Central Ohioans are very lucky to live in such a nice state, where even the farthest reaches are a pretty easy drive.

So. I personally consider anything from Ohio to be local.

Beyond that, I like to select things which are close - ie, a day's drive.  Once again, we Ohioans are lucky to be a day's drive from about 50% of the country, which is what makes us such a successful place for distribution centers.

I like to find the best sources for great products from small businesses, such as Anson Mills.  Anson Mills is about 9 hours away in Columbia, South Carolina.  Founder Glenn Roberts is dedicated to resurrecting indigenous varieties of grains and beans which had nearly reached extinction.  I believe a few of his seeds even came from museums.  These days Mr. Roberts is even helping other organic farmers around the country grow their own nearly-extinct grains.  I first discovered Anson Mills when I worked at G. Michael's, where Chef Tetzloff used their products (even before Thomas Keller did, thanks to his training in Charleston).  Anson Mills' grits take forever to cook and are simply amazing.  So is the Carolina Gold rice, which is incredibly versatile - it can act as a non-sticky long-grained rice or be stirred into a creamy risotto.

While Anson Mills isn't technically a local company, they are one of the closest sources of rice, and they are doing amazing things for heirloom grains.  I will still buy locally-milled and grown cornmeal, of course, but I like to splurge on Anson Mills a few times a year. It was really nice when I worked in a restaurant where we always had about 4 30 pound bags of various types of cornmeal in our freezer.

Okay, now on to other things we can't make in Ohio.  Such as Olive Oil.  My go-to extra virgin olive oil is from Trader Joe's; it is an estate-bottled Organic oil from California.  

And then we get to the needful things in life that we really, really can't get in Ohio. Or really in our country, for that matter.  Coffee, for example.  Personally, again, I like to support locally-owned, locally-roasted coffee places.  That being said, I can be a complete hypocrite by frequenting evil evil Starbucks, although local spots like Crimson Cup are great for getting work done.  For beans, I like Yeah Me Too in Clintonville and Stauf's in Grandview.  I go to Yeah Me Too on Saturdays after the farmer's market, because they are on my way home.

For me personally, local always trumps organic for a few reasons.  First of all, because I can, in theory, drive to the farm and see for myself how the workers and animals are treated.  The same cannot be true for organic farms in Chile or even in Florida, where slavery - especially immigrants and children - runs rampant and organic standards are anything but.  Secondly, organic certification takes a long time and is costly - although I read recently that there are FARRMS loans and grants to helping farm get or maintain their certification.  Th rules for organic require a long period of observation (three years or more) of the farm before they can even apply; obviously they'll have to make money somehow during this process.

Furthermore, produce begins to lose nutrients as soon as it is picked, so the further it has to travel, and quicker it can go from the plant to my mouth, the better.

Again, I must reiterate that these are the guiding principles which work for me.  I am not saying they can work for everyone, or that I follow them 100% of the time.  Every once in awhile even I hit fast food or buy bananas, and of course there are certain products which simply can't be sourced locally.  I love Japanese food, and frequently buy products from halfway around the world.  

But these are my ideals.

Red Mango

please forgive the slightly less-than-stellar iPhone pic

Lately I've had a bit of an ice cream problem.  I'm not sure if it has to do with the waning summer or what, but I have been consuming a lot of ice cream.  I have replaced lunch with ice cream on a regular basis.  Just being honest. It isn't always Jeni's, although of course I've had my fair share of that.  I've been particularly fond of Hagendaaz chocolate peanut butter. Unfortunately, it is one of the most calorie-dense ice creams out there. You might see where this will eventually become a problem.

I first heard of Red Mango last year when a friend visited them while traveling.  I trust this person's taste, but I was still a little skeptical when she said it was great.

Red Mango is a franchise chain of Korean-style frozen yogurt (Red Mango and Pinkberry have been all the rage on the coasts, and they are finally starting to make their way inland).  Unlike the frozen yogurt fad of the 80s and 90s, where the yogurt was intended to be nothing more than a sickly sweet low-fat ice cream substitute, this is supposedly the real thing. Not too sweet with the authentic tang of real yogurt.

Columbus' brand new Red Mango store is located on Campus (old, real, North Campus) at around 15th and High, directly across from the main entrance of the Wexner Center. 

The space is sparse and clean - gleaming even (for now) - the walls are red but other than that there really aren't any decorations.  That's find with me, as I didn't plan to hang around socializing with freshman girls.  The girl working the counter was very helpful, asking first if I had ever been to a Red Mango store before she went into her spiel about the fresh fruit toppings (not sugar-filled sauces, just chopped fruit) and the dry toppings, such as cereal and dried coconut flakes.  She reassured me I could taste every flavor if I wanted.  Pretty good service for a new shop.

Hoping for something reminiscent of cheesecake, I selected original with graham cracker crumbs.  Indeed, the yogurt was very tangy and not too sweet, just as promised.  The graham crackers crumbs provided a nice texture with just a hint of sweetness and yes, hinted to the flavor of real cheesecake.  The yogurt is creamy with just a hint of the wateriness that reminds you there is no fat.  This is fine, because after snarfing down the entire bowl, there was no heavy feeling.

The medium (regular) size with one topping was $4.50.  I'm not sure I'll be able to shell that out every day, but I did start planning my next trip before I was finished with the treat.  For someone who can consume frozen treats in the amounts I can, indulging in a more expensive but low-calore treat might pay off if I want any of my winter clothes to fit.  (The medium size is right around 200 calories, according to Red Mango's website.)

Red Mango lists all sorts of healthy claims on their website, and while I know probiotics are good for you and all that, I think I'll just think of it as a less-fattening option when the ice cream monster starts growling.

info: Red Mango 1866 N. High St (Campus)

Would You Like a Typepad Blog?

Longtime readers and Twitter followers know that I think Typepad is the best blogging platform ever.  I don't care what everyone else says. They are the best. They answer their tweets and emails immediately - they actually feel like a company that's there to serve me (I know, it's so weird in this day and age). I've been with Typepad for nearly 5 years and it's probably the only brand I've used during that time that I haven't wanted to pull my hair out over.

At any rate, Typepad has recently released a new platform and they offered some of their blogging superstars a free blog to give away to one of their readers. 

So, I have a year's worth of fabulous Typepad service for one lucky winner!  

Please leave a comment if you would like to win; include a link to your blog, if applicable. If you'd like, you can tell us all what you write about or want to write about and anything else!

The contest will close Wednesday night at midnight and I'll announce the winner Friday by noon!

In the Case of Gustatory Indescretions

This might be one of the most romantic pictures ever taken of an antacid.  I'm not sure exactly what makes Brioschi so effective, but it is amazing.  Just in case you eat too much, or eat things you know will give you heartburn - like the half loaf of homemade bread I ate this morning - Brioschi will come to your rescue.  Locally you can find it at Carfagna's market (161 just east of I 71) and at some Giant Eagle stores.  It looks rather silly and tastes awful but it works wonders.  I add a little lemon juice and simple syrup to the concoction to make it a pinch more palatable.

The Importance of::SALT

Salt is one of the most important tools in a kitchen. It might be the most important item. For thousands of years, humans in harsh climates sustained themselves mainly because of salt. Salt meant preservation, and preservation meant survival. Salt adds seasoning, it adds flavor, it enhances flavor, it makes your mouth water. It is essential to our body. Many religions even use salt as a metaphor for their followers.

Salt has been much-maligned in our society; while doing some preliminary research to see if salt actually has a negative effect on our bodies, I came up with so many conflicting opinions that I decided to leave the subject neutral. I do know this: we can’t live without it. If you have a concern about salt intake, the best thing you can do is to stop eating most processed food. When you cook for yourself, you can control your own salt intake. I love all sorts of salt, and I think, along with beer, wine, bacon and popcorn, salt is proof that god loves us.

Things you haven’t been doing with salt that will make you a believer:

1. Salt meat. At home, Husband and I frequently coat meat in salt and let it sit on the counter for half an hour (the photo above shows this happening to an Ohio strip steak). When I am ready to cook it, I rinse off the salt, pat it dry, and cook it. You won’t believe the difference it makes. I’m not exactly sure why it works - if it’s the same as brining or not - but I know this is a similar process to kashering meat, so I am guessing it is drawing the blood out of the meat.

2. Cooking pasta. I can’t believe it when I go out to dinner and can tell that the cooks haven’t properly salted their pasta water. It really makes all the difference in the world. Here’s a test. Bring 2 pots of water to a boil. Let’s say each pot holds 4 cups/one litre of water. Leave one pot alone and add a tbsp of salt to the other. Boil a large pasta shape in each (penne or rigatoni). Taste them both side by side. Notice anything? The unsalted pasta just tastes blah, while the salted pasta tastes like everything it should - great flour. The salted pasta tastes like you could just add some good extra virgin olive oil and pepper and be good to go

3. Bitter foods. Because salt brings out sweetness, and tames the harshness of bitter foods. This includes citrus fruits (especially lemons and grapefruit) and melons. The next time you make fruit salad, add just a pinch of salt to a bit of sugar and then toss it with the fruit. Chances are the fruit will taste much sweeter with just a tiny pinch of salt.

4. Bread. Much like pasta, bread is far more delicious when it is well salted. There is something so amazing about the flavor when flour meets salt. I’m not sure if I can describe it, but when you have a good, salt and crusty loaf of bread, it is just so satisfying.

5. Butter. Making your own butter is so amazingly easy I can’t believe I haven’t been doing it for the past decade I’ve been learning to cook. Usually if I am baking or finishing a sauce, I will use store-bought unsalted butter. But for anything where the butter will shine, a good bit of salt is amazing. It gives buttered toast a whole new meaning.

Things to do in Columbus::September 16th Edition

I suppose the summer is winding down. The weather for the past few weeks has been amazing - just absolutely perfect...let's all remember this moment of perfect weather, and then we can bring it back up in the long dark days of January and February.  *sigh* I know some of you like winter, so perhaps you can enlighten me as to why it's so great.  I mean, I like wearing scarves and sweaters and having Christmas lights up and eating pumpkin pie and soup and stuff, but around January I start to go stir crazy.  All I want to do is curl up under the covers and hibernate until May.  I think this year I am going to pretend to be an ancient pagan and string lights up all over the house in a desperate attempt to tell the sun how much I need it and beg it not to die and to come back and warm up the earth and bring back the yummy tomatoes and strawberries and all. 

Okay. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about the ways we can still enjoy what's left of the warm and sunny days.

• I'm really excited about the Independent's Day Festival this Saturday.  It might be one of the best new festivals around - especially since it was started by the young artistic class of our fair city, who are fiercely independent and outside of the usual snobby art crowd. Oh, I'm sorry - in my opinion, some of the older, monied art crowd in the city sometimes come across as snobby. Perhaps they've forgotten that in this day and age, artists and writers and actors and musicians frequently have to work in the service industry, sometimes waiting tables, to support ourselves while trying to make money doing what we really, really love.  But I digress.  This Saturday, Independent musicians, artists, crafters, and restaurants will take over Gay and Pearl Streets.  You can read a very nice article about the event and see great pictures over at Columbus Underground. Best of all, the event is FREE!
• This Saturday is also the India Festival at Vets Memorial.  Admission is $6; there will be food galore, as well as a marketplace.  It would probably be a great place to take the kids.
• After these festivals, you can take in Waterfire with Columbus Opera
• All through the weekend, you can enjoy the Riverfront Arts Festival at Genoa Park downtown.  
• Lastly, this weekend is the annual Paw Paw festival in Albany Ohio (close to Athens).  As the name implies, the festival celebrates all things Paw Paw.  In case you don't know, a Paw Paw is a delicious fruit which is indigenous to America.  It's a very lovely sweet fruit with a custardy texture. It's slightly tart - the flavor is reminiscent of these grapes we grew when I was little; the skins were too tart and thick to eat (for everyone else) and they were my favorite part.  There is a common floral essence.  I never manage to make it to the festival because I'm usually working, but I am really going to try this year.

I hope you get out and enjoy the last of the summer in our fair city!