Newsweek's November 29 2010 issue's cover story was about the great differences between rich, nutrition and environment-conscious eaters and poor, nutrition and environment-oblivious eaters in America. It was an interesting article, but I have some comments.
I object to the divisive and sensationalist language, such as the comment that "America is a place of extremes, and what you eat for dinner has become the definitive marker of social status..." That is ridiculous. Like pretty much everything, America is a place of relatively normal distributions. Sure, the ultra-rich have gotten ultra-richer over the decades as they manipulate our government, but the overwhelming majority of citizens are in the big middle of the bell. Secondly, there is no way that dinner is the definitive marker of status. A third party looking at my great dinners and small apartment compared to someone with a six-figure income who owns a big house but eats fast food is not going suggest that I am of higher status.
The article talks about 50 million Americans living in food insecurity, one third of whom are have very low security, and ties this phenomenon in with poverty, but then goes on to point out that poverty and reliance on food stamps linked to obesity, but it fails to discuss the connection between food insecurity and obesity. The connection is not obvious, and any astute reader should ask "how are so many people obese and not getting enough food at the same time?" There is no talk of metabolism. When a person does not eat regularly, even within the course of a day, that person's metabolism slows down, burning fewer calories and storing more as fat because the body (hypothalamus) worries that the irregularity of food intake is a sign of impending starvation for a time. The body wants to build up fat stores and use as little energy as possible so that the person can survive until food is available again. When a person on supplementary nutrition assistance (SNAP, not really food stamps anymore) squanders the rations before the next month, eating a lot for a while then having too little food for some time, the metabolism drops and much fat is created during the weeks of plenty. A problem is impulsive shopping and impulsive eating when assistance is renewed, or when a paycheck comes in, instead of thoughtful planning and rationing.
The article does point out that "Lower-income families don't subsist on junk food and fast food because they lack nutritional education.... Lower-income families choose sugary, fat, and processed foods because they're cheaper -- and because they taste good." This is key. Education is not the problem. The problem is that the kind of person who is likely to be poor (impulsive, poor planning, poor insight) is also the kind of person who insists on buying unhealthy food. Cost is a red herring. I prove constantly that a SNAP budget is adequate for healthy eating. When SNAP recipients are given the opportunity to buy discounted healthy food, they do not buy more than they usually do, but instead use any savings to buy more unhealthy food. They don't want more healthy food. People Like Us showed that whole grain bread could not be given away in a poor neighborhood. There is not enough demand, and that is why there are so few stores in poor neighborhoods that sell good food.
The author follows a single mother SNAP recipient and her two kids and their eating habits. The mother spends $100/week on food, which is less than the maximum SNAP allotment for a family of three, so I'm guessing that the mother makes more money than the poverty line. $100/week for three people is not great, but it's doable to get healthy food. A super healthy breakfast can be made in two minutes for less than $1, but instead the mom takes the kids to a bodega each morning to buy processed foods and soda at many times the price. The mom only recently stopped getting doughnuts and lattes at Dunkin' Donuts because of the calories, totally oblivious to her massive daily waste of precious money. Several nights each week she gets fast food takeout for dinner. She makes homecooked meals on the weekend when she has more time and energy, but the article doesn't explain why she doesn't make enough to last the whole week.
The authors (Ian Yarett and Jesse Ellison) only skim the issue of a soda tax, though they present a snippet of each extreme side of the argument. I am absolutely in favor of massive taxes on soda and other "foods" that directly contribute to health problems. I am also in favor of prohibiting SNAP funds from being used to buy them. It is appallingly stupid to use tax money to help people develop health conditions that more tax money will have to go towards treating. Let's instead sensibly tax the harmful actions, and use the revenue to treat the damage they cause, at least. Nudge people away from harmful decisions, prevent harmful corporate manipulation of people, and behave efficiently with our money in ways that actually serve the American people.
If we have a more self-aware, patient, and thoughtful population, we will have fewer issues with poverty, obesity, violence, and nearly any other problem. The real sources of the problems we have here are the materialist and capitalist drives for immediate gratification of desires, insensitivity to our own internal states, and the lack of conscious monitoring of the ramifications of our actions.
2010-12-01
2010-11-04
Fettuccine with Gorgonzola Sauce and Scallops
I went a little fancy last night, but still without breaking the bank. I made some fettuccine while making other pasta, and Trader Joe's continues to be a good source for Gorgonzola at $5.79/lb. The local supermarket had sea scallops for $8/lb, which is a special treat for me, and asparagus for $2/lb. I won't pay for heavy cream, and I turned all my milk into yogurt, so I used yogurt in the sauce and it worked just fine.
Whole Wheat Fettuccine:
1 cup flour, 1 egg, 2 Tbsp milk
$0.50, 500 calories
Gorgonzola Sauce:
1/3 lb Gorgonzola cheese - $2 - 500 calories
2 Tbsp butter - $0.19 - 200 calories
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp flour - $0.02 - 50 calories
1 cup plain yogurt - $0.37 (organic, homemade) - 80 calories
splash of lemon juice
splash of sake (or whatever white wine is lying around, optional)
Scallops:
8 sea scallops, 1/2 lb - $4 - 200 calories
1 Tbsp butter - $0.10 - 100 calories (not all consumed)
pepper
Asparagus:
1/2 lb asparagus - $1 - 30 calories
1 Tbsp olive oil - $0.05 - 100 calories (not all consumed)
pepper
Read all this first. You'll be juggling around the stove. Start cooking the pasta, frying the asparagus in oil with pepper in a skillet, and frying the garlic in butter in a small pot. When the garlic is browned, whisk in the flour to make a garlicky roux. When the roux is foamy, whisk in the yogurt (cream, milk, whatever) and bring to a simmer.
Remember to drain the noodles when they're done, and set aside. Also set aside the asparagus when it is done. Toss a tablespoon of butter on the skillet when the asparagus is off, turn up the heat, and sear the scallops for about 2 minutes on each side. Crumble up the Gorgonzola and whisk it into the sauce until it melts. The scallops will have slightly crisp golden ends, and be so tender in the middle. I used Alton Brown's method, but I may go for longer time at a lower heat in the future. Do not use a non-stick skillet.
The pasta and sauce alone run under $3.50 and about 1400 calories. This whole decadent meal ran $8.50 and 1800 calories, or $4.50 and 900 calories per stuffed person. Even after breakfast, a hearty PB&J, and an apple in the afternoon, we come in comfortably at the average daily budget for someone receiving supplementary nutritional assistance.
Whole Wheat Fettuccine:
1 cup flour, 1 egg, 2 Tbsp milk
$0.50, 500 calories
Gorgonzola Sauce:
1/3 lb Gorgonzola cheese - $2 - 500 calories
2 Tbsp butter - $0.19 - 200 calories
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp flour - $0.02 - 50 calories
1 cup plain yogurt - $0.37 (organic, homemade) - 80 calories
splash of lemon juice
splash of sake (or whatever white wine is lying around, optional)
Scallops:
8 sea scallops, 1/2 lb - $4 - 200 calories
1 Tbsp butter - $0.10 - 100 calories (not all consumed)
pepper
Asparagus:
1/2 lb asparagus - $1 - 30 calories
1 Tbsp olive oil - $0.05 - 100 calories (not all consumed)
pepper
Read all this first. You'll be juggling around the stove. Start cooking the pasta, frying the asparagus in oil with pepper in a skillet, and frying the garlic in butter in a small pot. When the garlic is browned, whisk in the flour to make a garlicky roux. When the roux is foamy, whisk in the yogurt (cream, milk, whatever) and bring to a simmer.
Remember to drain the noodles when they're done, and set aside. Also set aside the asparagus when it is done. Toss a tablespoon of butter on the skillet when the asparagus is off, turn up the heat, and sear the scallops for about 2 minutes on each side. Crumble up the Gorgonzola and whisk it into the sauce until it melts. The scallops will have slightly crisp golden ends, and be so tender in the middle. I used Alton Brown's method, but I may go for longer time at a lower heat in the future. Do not use a non-stick skillet.
The pasta and sauce alone run under $3.50 and about 1400 calories. This whole decadent meal ran $8.50 and 1800 calories, or $4.50 and 900 calories per stuffed person. Even after breakfast, a hearty PB&J, and an apple in the afternoon, we come in comfortably at the average daily budget for someone receiving supplementary nutritional assistance.
2010-11-03
Ricotta: Ravioli and Pumpkin Pie
Ricotta was on sale, so I bought some and decided to make it into a ravioli and a pie. After learning from my mistakes while making pasta, I have settled on a method that has been working pretty well for me:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
This ingredient set doubles well, also. Most pasta recipes that I have found use less fluid, but they also tend to use AP flour or special pasta flour that I don't see at my supermarket. Whole wheat flour seems to be thirstier, and if I use any less liquid, I end up with a crumbly dough that falls to pieces. Mix up those ingredients (I just use a fork and my hands on a cutting board) until you get an evenly-moist wad, roll it into a ball, cover and let rest for half an hour (I put a big mug upside-down over it).
For each cup of flour that you used, tear your dough ball into three pieces, if you are using a pasta machine instead of a rolling pin. Pound down a piece and roll it out. On my machine, I rolled the sheets down to a size 2, except for one piece that I rolled to a size 1 as an experiment. A ravioli that I made with size 1 dough broke in the boiling water, so I recommend using size 2. You may have to experiment, too, since I don't know how to communicate that thickness.
I used a drinking glass to cut out circles from the dough sheets, and kept rolling the scraps together until all the dough was used. I took a circle, brushed it with a mixture of egg and water (1 egg was more than enough to brush all the ravioli). Then I put a heaping tablespoon of ricotta in the middle of the circle, covered it with another circle, and crimped the edges together all around with my fingers. As an experiment, some I just pushed down, others I dug in with my fingernails, and others I folded over the edges to make a stronger seal. None of the raviolis opened around a seam, so it didn't seem to matter how each was sealed, except aesthetically.
I made some spaghetti, too, and draped it over a dowel rod to dry.
The ravioli sat out for a while before it was time for dinner, and I don't know how that affected their cooking. I carefully dropped them into boiling water until they were all floating, about six minutes. I took out the ravioli with a skimmer. I used an 8 oz can of tomato sauce that I heated in a pot with minced garlic and spices, and I dusted everything with some Parmesan (just Kraft).
They were pretty good. Whole wheat pasta is an acquired taste, and ricotta cheese has very little flavor. I am sure that they would be better with different kind of cheese inside, or some spices. This was a very basic experiment, and I think it worked out well enough. All the ravioli together cost about $1, and had about 700 calories. Quite a bargain for dinner for two. Add some green veggies.
The pie cost about $5 to make:
2 eggs - $0.20 - 140 calories
1 cup ricotta - ~$0.60 - 320 calories
3/4 cup brown sugar - $0.30 - 540 calories
1/2 tsp salt
nutmeg
cinnamon
16 oz canned pumpkin - $? - 175 calories
Pre-made graham cracker crust, store brand - $1 - 880 calories
4 oz Pecans - ~$1.25 ($5/lb) - 800 calories
Beat the eggs in a bowl. Beat in the ricotta. Stir in the pumpkin, brown sugar, salt and spices. Pour into the pie crust (yes, I am so lame for using a pre-made crust). Put pecans on top. Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes.
Very easy to make. Each slice (1/8th of the pie) costs about $0.60 and has about 360 calories.
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
This ingredient set doubles well, also. Most pasta recipes that I have found use less fluid, but they also tend to use AP flour or special pasta flour that I don't see at my supermarket. Whole wheat flour seems to be thirstier, and if I use any less liquid, I end up with a crumbly dough that falls to pieces. Mix up those ingredients (I just use a fork and my hands on a cutting board) until you get an evenly-moist wad, roll it into a ball, cover and let rest for half an hour (I put a big mug upside-down over it).
For each cup of flour that you used, tear your dough ball into three pieces, if you are using a pasta machine instead of a rolling pin. Pound down a piece and roll it out. On my machine, I rolled the sheets down to a size 2, except for one piece that I rolled to a size 1 as an experiment. A ravioli that I made with size 1 dough broke in the boiling water, so I recommend using size 2. You may have to experiment, too, since I don't know how to communicate that thickness.
I used a drinking glass to cut out circles from the dough sheets, and kept rolling the scraps together until all the dough was used. I took a circle, brushed it with a mixture of egg and water (1 egg was more than enough to brush all the ravioli). Then I put a heaping tablespoon of ricotta in the middle of the circle, covered it with another circle, and crimped the edges together all around with my fingers. As an experiment, some I just pushed down, others I dug in with my fingernails, and others I folded over the edges to make a stronger seal. None of the raviolis opened around a seam, so it didn't seem to matter how each was sealed, except aesthetically.
I made some spaghetti, too, and draped it over a dowel rod to dry.
The ravioli sat out for a while before it was time for dinner, and I don't know how that affected their cooking. I carefully dropped them into boiling water until they were all floating, about six minutes. I took out the ravioli with a skimmer. I used an 8 oz can of tomato sauce that I heated in a pot with minced garlic and spices, and I dusted everything with some Parmesan (just Kraft).
They were pretty good. Whole wheat pasta is an acquired taste, and ricotta cheese has very little flavor. I am sure that they would be better with different kind of cheese inside, or some spices. This was a very basic experiment, and I think it worked out well enough. All the ravioli together cost about $1, and had about 700 calories. Quite a bargain for dinner for two. Add some green veggies.
The pie cost about $5 to make:
2 eggs - $0.20 - 140 calories
1 cup ricotta - ~$0.60 - 320 calories
3/4 cup brown sugar - $0.30 - 540 calories
1/2 tsp salt
nutmeg
cinnamon
16 oz canned pumpkin - $? - 175 calories
Pre-made graham cracker crust, store brand - $1 - 880 calories
4 oz Pecans - ~$1.25 ($5/lb) - 800 calories
Beat the eggs in a bowl. Beat in the ricotta. Stir in the pumpkin, brown sugar, salt and spices. Pour into the pie crust (yes, I am so lame for using a pre-made crust). Put pecans on top. Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes.
Very easy to make. Each slice (1/8th of the pie) costs about $0.60 and has about 360 calories.
House Cleaning Soup
Sometimes you find yourself with a fridge, freezer, or pantry full of small amounts of things or old things that you have any particular idea for, and that might head to the compost heap if not used soon. Those are the times for House Cleaning Soup. Chuck it all in a pot, spice it up, and simmer for a few hours. I just made about a gallon of delicious soup, and I think it ran me about $5. Here's what I had lying around:
Cauliflower, half a head on its way out chopped
a quart of chicken jelly
a little bit of leftover rice
3 carrots, finely chopped
3 celery ribs, finely chopped
spinach, a few ounces frozen in a brick at the back of the freezer
some button mushrooms
some scallions
a big can of diced tomatoes
a cup of water
7 ripped up dried arbol chili peppers
minced garlic
a little S&P
2 frozen cod fillets, chopped (added towards the end of cooking)
You could use anything, though. Just about any vegetables or meats can get thrown in a soup. It's better than wasting food. My co-eater did not like the spinach, though.
Cauliflower, half a head on its way out chopped
a quart of chicken jelly
a little bit of leftover rice
3 carrots, finely chopped
3 celery ribs, finely chopped
spinach, a few ounces frozen in a brick at the back of the freezer
some button mushrooms
some scallions
a big can of diced tomatoes
a cup of water
7 ripped up dried arbol chili peppers
minced garlic
a little S&P
2 frozen cod fillets, chopped (added towards the end of cooking)
You could use anything, though. Just about any vegetables or meats can get thrown in a soup. It's better than wasting food. My co-eater did not like the spinach, though.
2010-10-15
Salmon Cakes with Sake Cream Sauce
Doesn't that sound like something you'd get at a fancy restaurant? It was pretty inexpensive and easy to make, and delicious!. I saw a 1.75L bottle of sweet, unfiltered sake for $7, and figured I would be able to find recipes to use it in. I also had some canned salmon in the pantry from a sale once upon a time, and the canned stuff is no good to eat my itself. Canned salmon has to be mixed with other things, and you'll need to pick out some vertebra and skin, but it's about a quarter the price of fresh salmon. Wild Alaskan salmon is on the list of sustainable, environmentally sound commercial fish.
1 14.75oz can of Bumblebee wild Alaskan pink salmon, remove the bones and skin - forgot the price ($2.50-4?) - ~600 calories
1 cup breadcrumbs - about a quarter of a $1 can = $0.25 - 330 calories
1 onion, small, finely chopped - ~$0.50 - 70 calories
1 tsp cayenne pepper! - $0.07
mix that all up in a big bowl until the salmon pieces are small
2 Tbsp soy sauce - negligible
2 eggs - at $1.29/dozen (Trader Joe's) = $0.22 - 140 calories
mix that into the salmon mixture until everything is moist
in a small pot:
1 Tbsp oil - $0.06 - 100 calories
1 Tbsp minced garlic - $0.05
sautee, turn heat to low
2 Tbsp butter - at $3/lb = $0.19 - 200 calories
2 Tbsp flour - at $3/5lb = $0.03 - 50 calories
add the flour slowly while stirring, let it dissolve and the mixture start to turn brown (a roux)
add 1/2 cup plain homemade yogurt or milk - at $6/gallon (organic, TJ's) = $0.20 - 40 calories (skim)
1/2 cup sake - ~$0.50 - ~150 calories
1 Tbsp lemon juice (from concentrate) - ~$0.06
stir for a bit on heat, then set aside off heat
Pack the salmon mixture into cakes. I made six that were almost an inch thick and 3.5" in diameter. Heat some oil on a skillet at low-medium heat. Fry the cakes for about 4 minutes on each side, until the contact area turns golden brown.
If you make six cakes, each will have about 200 calories plain, plus 90 calories with sauce if the sauce is evenly distributed. This is a tasty dinner for three for $5-6, depending on how much the can of salmon is.
This recipe reflects what I did last night, with two fixes: I used 2 Tbsp of oil to start the sauce, which was more than I needed, and I splashed in too much lemon juice, which overwhelmed the other flavors. The recipe I found online called for a cup of cream, but cream is expensive and essentially milk with 18% fat, so I had no qualms about making a little roux and adding skim yogurt to get a little thicker and richer sauce. Milk would do too, but I've been turning all of my milk into yogurt and using it on cereal, burritos, and soups just fine. I bet that you could use any white wine instead of sake, and I've had cream sauces with Chardonnay and Champagne. Cayenne pepper rocks in any fish dish! Use it!
I should take more pictures of what I make.
2010-09-27
What is a Food Stamp Budget?
Every once in a while some group or other challenges its members to eat on a food stamp budget for a time to raise awareness of food security issues. How much money is in a food stamp budget, and how do we evaluate if it is the right amount?
Let's turn to the USDA's FAQ for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Scroll down to the bottom of the FAQ. A person whose net income is at or below the poverty line ($903/month for a single person) gets $200/month worth of benefits, which is about $6.67 per day. Each additional person in the household increases the poverty threshold by about $312/month, and results in an another $150-167/month in benefits, depending on how many people there are in total. The decrease in benefits per additional person makes sense because of economies of scale. I happily feed two of us for less than twice the cost of feeding just myself. A family of four gets about $5.56 per person per day.
My immediate reaction is not only to say that it is easy to live at the poverty level of income, but also that SNAP benefits are extremely generous. I spent years supporting myself below the poverty line, and I still spend less on food for my household of two than SNAP would allot. Besides my experiences, let's look at some statistics from the USDA. A two-parent and two-child family earning less than $56,870 (average $36,380) in 2008 spent an average of $9000/year/kid. I would love to see the standard deviation for that, and the average for families earning less than $13,000, or even $13,000 to the top of the bottom overall national quintile if none of the study participants were in poverty. A family with $56,000 inflates these averages with its discretionary spending, so we don't know what amounts of money are actually necessary. An average of 18% of the $9000 went to food, which comes to $1620/year/kid, or $135/month/kid. So, the amount of SNAP benefit for each additional kid in a family is roughly 11-23% more than many families spend on average.
A single parent spends about 2/3 as much on the kids per year, which probably gives us a much better approximation of what amount of spending is actually necessary, but we don't see in the report what percent of this smaller amount of money goes to food. If a kid costs $6000/year, or $500/month, a family in poverty will see progressively larger problems with more kids, since the poverty line only gets bumped up by $312/month/person. Except that the $6000/year figure includes a bunch of assumptions that fit the USDA model for families who are not in poverty. About $2000 of that would be housing, and people below the poverty line tend to qualify for housing assistance such as Section 8. Health care might be about another $500, and people below the poverty line tend to qualify for Medicaid, and children for SCHIP. There are pieces of information missing from the puzzle, but overall I can find few complaints with the poverty cut-offs and SNAP benefits allotments.
The complaint about SNAP benefits is of course that they are too high on average. And there is evidence that people with more SNAP funds than they need may use them to buy more unhealthy food that damages their health and unnecessarily burdens our health care system and country.
My other complaints are that the system seems too rigid, and does not obviously take into consideration differences in cost of living by geography. As seen in the USDA report, rural areas are cheaper to live in than urban areas, and the urban south is cheaper than the urban northeast. Perhaps the SNAP benefits are high because they have to be able to feed people who live in expensive areas, and people who live in cheap areas just get a big windfall of steaks and whatnot. The USDA does say that "Eligibility levels are slightly higher for Alaska and Hawaii" because food costs more in those states due to transportation. I am only looking at the federal maximum allotment levels, and different states may have different policies that better reflect their costs of living by area. In the future, I will look into the policies of my state and select other states.
Let's turn to the USDA's FAQ for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Scroll down to the bottom of the FAQ. A person whose net income is at or below the poverty line ($903/month for a single person) gets $200/month worth of benefits, which is about $6.67 per day. Each additional person in the household increases the poverty threshold by about $312/month, and results in an another $150-167/month in benefits, depending on how many people there are in total. The decrease in benefits per additional person makes sense because of economies of scale. I happily feed two of us for less than twice the cost of feeding just myself. A family of four gets about $5.56 per person per day.
My immediate reaction is not only to say that it is easy to live at the poverty level of income, but also that SNAP benefits are extremely generous. I spent years supporting myself below the poverty line, and I still spend less on food for my household of two than SNAP would allot. Besides my experiences, let's look at some statistics from the USDA. A two-parent and two-child family earning less than $56,870 (average $36,380) in 2008 spent an average of $9000/year/kid. I would love to see the standard deviation for that, and the average for families earning less than $13,000, or even $13,000 to the top of the bottom overall national quintile if none of the study participants were in poverty. A family with $56,000 inflates these averages with its discretionary spending, so we don't know what amounts of money are actually necessary. An average of 18% of the $9000 went to food, which comes to $1620/year/kid, or $135/month/kid. So, the amount of SNAP benefit for each additional kid in a family is roughly 11-23% more than many families spend on average.
A single parent spends about 2/3 as much on the kids per year, which probably gives us a much better approximation of what amount of spending is actually necessary, but we don't see in the report what percent of this smaller amount of money goes to food. If a kid costs $6000/year, or $500/month, a family in poverty will see progressively larger problems with more kids, since the poverty line only gets bumped up by $312/month/person. Except that the $6000/year figure includes a bunch of assumptions that fit the USDA model for families who are not in poverty. About $2000 of that would be housing, and people below the poverty line tend to qualify for housing assistance such as Section 8. Health care might be about another $500, and people below the poverty line tend to qualify for Medicaid, and children for SCHIP. There are pieces of information missing from the puzzle, but overall I can find few complaints with the poverty cut-offs and SNAP benefits allotments.
The complaint about SNAP benefits is of course that they are too high on average. And there is evidence that people with more SNAP funds than they need may use them to buy more unhealthy food that damages their health and unnecessarily burdens our health care system and country.
My other complaints are that the system seems too rigid, and does not obviously take into consideration differences in cost of living by geography. As seen in the USDA report, rural areas are cheaper to live in than urban areas, and the urban south is cheaper than the urban northeast. Perhaps the SNAP benefits are high because they have to be able to feed people who live in expensive areas, and people who live in cheap areas just get a big windfall of steaks and whatnot. The USDA does say that "Eligibility levels are slightly higher for Alaska and Hawaii" because food costs more in those states due to transportation. I am only looking at the federal maximum allotment levels, and different states may have different policies that better reflect their costs of living by area. In the future, I will look into the policies of my state and select other states.
2010-09-10
Potatoes Anna
This five-ingredient potato dish turned out quite well. I got it from What Einstein Told His Cook, but I had to change a couple things.
First, clarify some butter. I did this the day before. I only clarified a half pound. Just toss some butter sticks in a pot on the lowest possible stove setting. When it is all melted, spoon off the top foam (and keep it as a flavorer for popcorn or potatoes), then pour the center clarified butter into a storage container. On the bottom will be some white milk solids, and I don't know what they're good for. It may be easier to separate the layers if they are cooled and solidified, but I didn't do that. The reason to clarify butter is that it raises the smoking point by about a hundred degrees F, so you can cook things in butter at higher temperatures without burning it. It also removes a lot of lactose, which you care about if you're lactose-intolerant.
2 lbs white potatoes (Yukon golds, whatever)- ~$1.20
4 Tbsp melted clarified butter - ~$0.35
salt, pepper, garlic powder - $0.05
Slice the potatoes into 1/8" slices (just eyeball it or use a machine). Preheat your oven to 450 F. Use about a third of the butter to coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet. Put down potato slices in concentric rings or a spiral in the skillet, slightly overlapping or not. Brush with butter, then sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Repeat layers of potato/butter/seasoning until you are out of potato. Pour on any remaining butter.
Turn a stove burner up to medium. When you hear sizzling, turn off the burner and put the skillet in the oven. Cooking time will vary. Mine took about 70 minutes. The potatoes will be golden on top, and make sure to use a spatula to check that the bottom later is crispy and brown.
Ideally, you're supposed to be able to flip the whole thing onto a plate. I don't have a plate that big, and it was not a big deal to cut into slices, spatula out, and flip the slices over onto plates.
This is a great side dish for six for about $1.60 and 1000 calories, or about $0.27 and 170 calories per person. Very tasty. Do NOT put ketchup on this. It's great how it is, which is covered in butter.
The original recipe called for 4 medium potatoes in an 8" skillet for 30-35 minutes, but I used 4 enormous potatoes in a 12" skillet, and mine took twice as long. The original also said to have the lid on, but this trapped so much steam from the potatoes that dripped back down that they were getting a little mushy instead of crispy, so I took the lid off.
First, clarify some butter. I did this the day before. I only clarified a half pound. Just toss some butter sticks in a pot on the lowest possible stove setting. When it is all melted, spoon off the top foam (and keep it as a flavorer for popcorn or potatoes), then pour the center clarified butter into a storage container. On the bottom will be some white milk solids, and I don't know what they're good for. It may be easier to separate the layers if they are cooled and solidified, but I didn't do that. The reason to clarify butter is that it raises the smoking point by about a hundred degrees F, so you can cook things in butter at higher temperatures without burning it. It also removes a lot of lactose, which you care about if you're lactose-intolerant.
2 lbs white potatoes (Yukon golds, whatever)- ~$1.20
4 Tbsp melted clarified butter - ~$0.35
salt, pepper, garlic powder - $0.05
Slice the potatoes into 1/8" slices (just eyeball it or use a machine). Preheat your oven to 450 F. Use about a third of the butter to coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet. Put down potato slices in concentric rings or a spiral in the skillet, slightly overlapping or not. Brush with butter, then sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Repeat layers of potato/butter/seasoning until you are out of potato. Pour on any remaining butter.
 |
This is a great side dish for six for about $1.60 and 1000 calories, or about $0.27 and 170 calories per person. Very tasty. Do NOT put ketchup on this. It's great how it is, which is covered in butter.
The original recipe called for 4 medium potatoes in an 8" skillet for 30-35 minutes, but I used 4 enormous potatoes in a 12" skillet, and mine took twice as long. The original also said to have the lid on, but this trapped so much steam from the potatoes that dripped back down that they were getting a little mushy instead of crispy, so I took the lid off.
2010-09-09
Homemade Yogurt
I've mentioned that I eat Dannon Light & Fit yogurt pretty often, and I buy it only when it's on sale at $0.50/6oz. I came across instructions for making yogurt in a slow-cooker (one of my favorite appliances) and figured I'd try my hand at it. It was remarkably easy. I used a three-ply aluminum core stainless steel pot to speed things up, but you'll want something that holds on to heat well, not a cheap thin pot. I found other information online (Wikipedia) to corroborate and refine the technique. You will need a decent thermometer.
1 qt of milk at ~$4/gal = ~$1
1 Tbsp yogurt
Heat the milk to 180 F and maintain that temperature for 10-30 minutes. A longer time should result in a thicker yogurt as the heating process makes the proteins play nicely with each other. Let the milk cool to about 115 F, then whisk in 1 Tbsp of yogurt. The goal is to integrate the yogurt "starter" at 113 F, but adding it in will reduce the overall temperature of the mixture. So, if you're adding cold yogurt, maybe do it when the milk is at 117 F, but room-temperature yogurt can be added at 115 F. I don't remember enough from physics to figure it out exactly. There are 64 Tbsps in a qt. Ideally, you will hold the temperature at 100-110 F for the next four hours. I just put the lid on my pot, wrapped it in a towel and put it in my oven. Every couple hours I turned the oven on low (170 F) for twenty seconds. Since I wasn't maintaining the right temperature, I left the pot in for six hours, and some people leave it for 8-10 hours. Then I moved the pot to the fridge.
The yogurt was quite tasty. I had a bowl for breakfast with Grape Nuts cereal and honey. The yogurt will be thicker at the top, and will be much thinner and less sweet than grocery store yogurt overall because most American commercial yogurts add starches, sugars, and gelatin that thicken, preserve and sweeten it. This picture was taken after half the yogurt was eaten. You may see the difference in thickness between the glob of top-yogurt and the surrounding bottom-yogurt.
There are many things you can do with yogurt besides stirring in some honey or fruit jam. It can be used in dips, sauces, and in some drinks and entrees. I will try to find some good dishes to make.
Save a bit of the yogurt you make to be the starter for your next batch. You can make as much as you want in a batch, but keep the 1:64 ratio of starter to milk. The milk turns to yogurt as the bacteria from the starter eat lactose and poop lactic acid, which brings the milk proteins together. The acidity helps protect the yogurt from unwanted bacteria. The yogurt should keep well in your fridge for about 10 days.
Depending on what yogurt and milk you buy and what your price thresholds are, making your own could cut your yogurt expenditures to 1/2-1/6.
1 qt of milk at ~$4/gal = ~$1
1 Tbsp yogurt
Heat the milk to 180 F and maintain that temperature for 10-30 minutes. A longer time should result in a thicker yogurt as the heating process makes the proteins play nicely with each other. Let the milk cool to about 115 F, then whisk in 1 Tbsp of yogurt. The goal is to integrate the yogurt "starter" at 113 F, but adding it in will reduce the overall temperature of the mixture. So, if you're adding cold yogurt, maybe do it when the milk is at 117 F, but room-temperature yogurt can be added at 115 F. I don't remember enough from physics to figure it out exactly. There are 64 Tbsps in a qt. Ideally, you will hold the temperature at 100-110 F for the next four hours. I just put the lid on my pot, wrapped it in a towel and put it in my oven. Every couple hours I turned the oven on low (170 F) for twenty seconds. Since I wasn't maintaining the right temperature, I left the pot in for six hours, and some people leave it for 8-10 hours. Then I moved the pot to the fridge.
The yogurt was quite tasty. I had a bowl for breakfast with Grape Nuts cereal and honey. The yogurt will be thicker at the top, and will be much thinner and less sweet than grocery store yogurt overall because most American commercial yogurts add starches, sugars, and gelatin that thicken, preserve and sweeten it. This picture was taken after half the yogurt was eaten. You may see the difference in thickness between the glob of top-yogurt and the surrounding bottom-yogurt.
There are many things you can do with yogurt besides stirring in some honey or fruit jam. It can be used in dips, sauces, and in some drinks and entrees. I will try to find some good dishes to make.
Save a bit of the yogurt you make to be the starter for your next batch. You can make as much as you want in a batch, but keep the 1:64 ratio of starter to milk. The milk turns to yogurt as the bacteria from the starter eat lactose and poop lactic acid, which brings the milk proteins together. The acidity helps protect the yogurt from unwanted bacteria. The yogurt should keep well in your fridge for about 10 days.
Depending on what yogurt and milk you buy and what your price thresholds are, making your own could cut your yogurt expenditures to 1/2-1/6.
2010-09-01
Food Stamp Nudges
Back when food stamps actually were stamps (they may still be in some places, but there has been a change to magnetic strip cards), I had an idea for a possible nudge. I had read that there was a problem with people using too much of their allotment at the beginning of each month, then running short of food at the end of each month. I thought that if the stamps were printed in four different colors, people would be subtly encouraged to spend them proportionally by week, with more stamps of one color for the extra days at the end of months over 28 days. Of course, this wouldn't be applicable to cards.
Another problem with buying most groceries at the beginning of the month is that fresh produce and meats would spoil before the later part of the month. The food stamp program, as implemented, encouraged people to buy processed foods that would last longer. This is nutritionally sub-optimal, contributing to health problems that already plague the American poor.
Now, Western Massachusetts is doing an experiment to see if offering a 30% discount on fresh produce will encourage food stamp users to buy more healthy food. That may be a substantial incentive, but it does not overcome the challenges of impulsivity and spoilage. This plan may also have negative unintended consequences, as we already have evidence that making healthy food cheaper just encourages food stamp users to use the savings to buy more junk food, increasing caloric intake and not improving nutrition. If this experiment reproduces the earlier findings that cheaper healthy food worsens obesity or health outcomes for food stamp users, we will have to consider other options, such as making unhealthy food more expensive.
Also, of course, there is the more effective paternalistic approach, which would be to only allow food stamps to be used for healthy foods. Food stamps can be seen as an investment that taxpayers are making into the overall health and well-being of citizens, and indirectly into productivity. If food stamps are being used in such a way that increases health care consumption, such as treatments for diabetes, heart disease, etc..., also on the taxpayer dime through CMS and state-reimbursed uncompensated care as well as increasing health care costs for everyone as hospitals shift costs to other payers, then we are all seeing a smaller and smaller return on the investment. If food stamps were used to help people be healthy, and minimize health care consumption, we are all getting a better return on the investment, and the people using food stamps will have better lives, even if they complain about not being able to buy the junk food they want.
Another problem with buying most groceries at the beginning of the month is that fresh produce and meats would spoil before the later part of the month. The food stamp program, as implemented, encouraged people to buy processed foods that would last longer. This is nutritionally sub-optimal, contributing to health problems that already plague the American poor.
Now, Western Massachusetts is doing an experiment to see if offering a 30% discount on fresh produce will encourage food stamp users to buy more healthy food. That may be a substantial incentive, but it does not overcome the challenges of impulsivity and spoilage. This plan may also have negative unintended consequences, as we already have evidence that making healthy food cheaper just encourages food stamp users to use the savings to buy more junk food, increasing caloric intake and not improving nutrition. If this experiment reproduces the earlier findings that cheaper healthy food worsens obesity or health outcomes for food stamp users, we will have to consider other options, such as making unhealthy food more expensive.
Also, of course, there is the more effective paternalistic approach, which would be to only allow food stamps to be used for healthy foods. Food stamps can be seen as an investment that taxpayers are making into the overall health and well-being of citizens, and indirectly into productivity. If food stamps are being used in such a way that increases health care consumption, such as treatments for diabetes, heart disease, etc..., also on the taxpayer dime through CMS and state-reimbursed uncompensated care as well as increasing health care costs for everyone as hospitals shift costs to other payers, then we are all seeing a smaller and smaller return on the investment. If food stamps were used to help people be healthy, and minimize health care consumption, we are all getting a better return on the investment, and the people using food stamps will have better lives, even if they complain about not being able to buy the junk food they want.
2010-08-28
A Real American
This has been a great year for gastronomical innovation. KFC really threw the gloves down when it came out with the Double Down, a sandwich that uses fried chicken for the bun, with bacon, cheese, and sauce inside. Though initially subjected to ridicule, the DD has endured well by being tasty and healthier than much of its competition (unless evaluated per calorie). Eventually, more sandwich innovation appeared. Friendly's introduced a hamburger with grilled cheese sandwiches for buns, the Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt. Denny's now has a Fried Cheese Melt, a grilled cheese sandwich with fried Mozzarella sticks in it. At some fairgrounds you might find a cheeseburger topped with chocolate-covered bacon in a Krispy Kreme donut bun. Inspired by all this inventiveness, I decided to build an homage to the American spirit of sandwich creation. I give you the Real American:
What you see here is a burger with cheeseburgers for buns, and each cheeseburger has bacon for buns. Yes. Go ahead and read that sentence again.
Step 1: Construct the buns
I cut Tyson hardwood smoked thick-cut bacon in half (use any kind you like, I just got what was on sale for under $3.50/lb and looked meatiest), then wove the halves together.
Step 2: Cook the buns
I microwaved the buns between paper towels for 6 minutes, two buns per plate. I have experimented with many ways of cooking bacon, and microwaving is fast and easy to clean up while producing evenly-cooked, flat, crisp bacon. These buns held together great, were nice and crisp, and not too greasy on the hands.
Step 3: Make burger patties
I used Laura's 92% lean ground beef because it was marked down for sale before expiration. Of course, use whatever you want. I mixed in garlic powder, pepper flakes, and Worcestershire sauce, then hand packed the patties to be thin and fit the buns after cooking shrinkage. The Worcestershire sauce added a really great flavor. These patties are about 3 oz each and some change.
Step 4: Cook the burger patties
They cooked up great in my cast iron skillet, and I thought I took a picture, but it looks like I forgot.
Step 5: Assembly
Assembly was a piece of cake. First sub-bun:
Bottom "bun" (Colby-jack cheese):
The burger, topped with sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, and chevre:
Top "bun":
Step 6: Eat that mammer:
This was absolutely delicious, and I will make it again. Worcestershire sauce, caramelized onions, and goat cheese rocked out on this sandwich. The Real American was dinner for two people.
Broken down:
6 slices of bacon - about 240 calories - about $2
10 oz of lean beef - about 400 calories - about $3
1 oz Colby-jack - about 110 calories - about $0.25
a mushroom - negligible
some onion - negligible
.5 oz goat cheese - 35 calories - $0.25
seasoning - negligible - about $0.10
7 paper towels - about $0.10
Total: about 800 calories, about $5.70 not including utilities or equipment.
Step 1: Construct the buns
I cut Tyson hardwood smoked thick-cut bacon in half (use any kind you like, I just got what was on sale for under $3.50/lb and looked meatiest), then wove the halves together.
Step 2: Cook the buns
I microwaved the buns between paper towels for 6 minutes, two buns per plate. I have experimented with many ways of cooking bacon, and microwaving is fast and easy to clean up while producing evenly-cooked, flat, crisp bacon. These buns held together great, were nice and crisp, and not too greasy on the hands.
Step 3: Make burger patties
I used Laura's 92% lean ground beef because it was marked down for sale before expiration. Of course, use whatever you want. I mixed in garlic powder, pepper flakes, and Worcestershire sauce, then hand packed the patties to be thin and fit the buns after cooking shrinkage. The Worcestershire sauce added a really great flavor. These patties are about 3 oz each and some change.
Step 4: Cook the burger patties
They cooked up great in my cast iron skillet, and I thought I took a picture, but it looks like I forgot.
Step 5: Assembly
Assembly was a piece of cake. First sub-bun:
Step 6: Eat that mammer:
This was absolutely delicious, and I will make it again. Worcestershire sauce, caramelized onions, and goat cheese rocked out on this sandwich. The Real American was dinner for two people.
Broken down:
6 slices of bacon - about 240 calories - about $2
10 oz of lean beef - about 400 calories - about $3
1 oz Colby-jack - about 110 calories - about $0.25
a mushroom - negligible
some onion - negligible
.5 oz goat cheese - 35 calories - $0.25
seasoning - negligible - about $0.10
7 paper towels - about $0.10
Total: about 800 calories, about $5.70 not including utilities or equipment.
2010-08-25
Coupons
Coupons seem like they would be a major part of grocery gaming, but they really haven't managed to become a significant factor for me. I only end up using coupons a handful of times each year. Coupons come to me in my primary grocery store's weekly flyer and in an envelope and a magazine of coupons in the mail aggregated by a third party company. Newspaper subscribers typically get coupons on Sundays, unless that's changed over the years. I've looked into websites such as coupons.com, but I just do not find enough useful coupons to justify the time it takes to find them.
On these internet sites, which typically require registration with some personal information that they will sell in exchange for giving you access to the coupons, I find many coupons of negligible value for products I don't want. Sugary cereals, heavily processed foods, total junk I don't buy. The coupons provide savings along the lines of $0.75 off if I buy 3. So, not only do shoppers only get about $0.25 off each item, they have to buy three items to get the discount. Lame.
In our modern information age, as newspapers lose readership and grocery stores use membership cards to track shopping patterns and direct incentives, I get good prices for the things I buy due to periodic store discounts without coupons. For example, Dannon Light & Fit yogurt is usually marked as $1.05 for 6oz. That is a crazy price that I will not pay. But for about a week each month the store marks down the price to $0.50 for 6oz. Then I buy 20 of them. When I see coupons for that product, it's remarkable for them to give me $1.00 off for buying two 4-packs. The 4-packs are priced differently than individual cups, and even using the coupon when the 4-packs are on sale rarely brings the price down to $0.50 per cup.
What cognitive phenomena go on when we see coupons? Anchoring is definitely taking place, in which the regular price (artificially inflated) serves as the anchor to which we compare the discounted price so that we feel like we're getting something for a lower price than it's worth even when the discounted price is higher than the product's worth if we stop to really think about it. I think also that the coupons serve as advertisements that cause us to think more about the product than regular advertisements do, and that thinking activates more parts of the brain that contribute to purchasing decisions. It has been found that we get more neurologically excited (dopamine in the anterior cingulate cortex, for example) at the expectation of how satisfying a product will be than when we actually have it. It takes a lot of mindfulness to recognize that you won't really be as happy as you expect you will if you buy a freezer-full of frozen pizzas with a dollar coupon. Off the topic of coupons, this is a contributing factor to obesity as people try to eat until they are as satisfied as they expected they would get.
So, my experiences trying to find a good source of useful coupons have led me to generally avoid such a waste of time. I tend to rely instead on the grocery store's weekly sales.
On these internet sites, which typically require registration with some personal information that they will sell in exchange for giving you access to the coupons, I find many coupons of negligible value for products I don't want. Sugary cereals, heavily processed foods, total junk I don't buy. The coupons provide savings along the lines of $0.75 off if I buy 3. So, not only do shoppers only get about $0.25 off each item, they have to buy three items to get the discount. Lame.
In our modern information age, as newspapers lose readership and grocery stores use membership cards to track shopping patterns and direct incentives, I get good prices for the things I buy due to periodic store discounts without coupons. For example, Dannon Light & Fit yogurt is usually marked as $1.05 for 6oz. That is a crazy price that I will not pay. But for about a week each month the store marks down the price to $0.50 for 6oz. Then I buy 20 of them. When I see coupons for that product, it's remarkable for them to give me $1.00 off for buying two 4-packs. The 4-packs are priced differently than individual cups, and even using the coupon when the 4-packs are on sale rarely brings the price down to $0.50 per cup.
What cognitive phenomena go on when we see coupons? Anchoring is definitely taking place, in which the regular price (artificially inflated) serves as the anchor to which we compare the discounted price so that we feel like we're getting something for a lower price than it's worth even when the discounted price is higher than the product's worth if we stop to really think about it. I think also that the coupons serve as advertisements that cause us to think more about the product than regular advertisements do, and that thinking activates more parts of the brain that contribute to purchasing decisions. It has been found that we get more neurologically excited (dopamine in the anterior cingulate cortex, for example) at the expectation of how satisfying a product will be than when we actually have it. It takes a lot of mindfulness to recognize that you won't really be as happy as you expect you will if you buy a freezer-full of frozen pizzas with a dollar coupon. Off the topic of coupons, this is a contributing factor to obesity as people try to eat until they are as satisfied as they expected they would get.
So, my experiences trying to find a good source of useful coupons have led me to generally avoid such a waste of time. I tend to rely instead on the grocery store's weekly sales.
2010-07-14
Love Summer
From June to October each year you will probably find that prices drop radically for whatever produce is ripe at the time. A local farmers' market should not be necessary to enjoy the low price result of massive spikes in supply, but it might help. Each week's shopping brings me delicious, healthy, and inexpensive treats. Last week saw cherries for $2/lb. Blueberries have been $5/qt, sometimes dipping to $4. Strawberries have been $2-2.50/lb. Watermelons are $4-5. A head of romaine is $0.69. Tomatoes, usually quite expensive because they are costly to ship safely, are getting cheaper, and it will soon be the time when people put bags of them out in front of their houses with collection cans for money. Corn on the cob is popular now. I always look forward to September when the orchards give us over a dozen kinds of fresh apples.
Do not be afraid to buy produce that is almost too ripe. My local non-chain market has an area for "seconds", and I have gotten some real bargains. I just bought four acorn squash for $0.50 together, and made a 10-bowl batch of squash soup for $3 (halve and bake the squash for 40 min at 350 F, then peel; add a pint of chicken stock from the last chicken you cooked, a half-pound of cheese (I used colby-jack), two onions, and some spices, then puree in a food processor (adds maybe $0.25-50 amortized depending on how often you use your processor)). I also get piles of tomatoes on their way out, and make fresh salsa (great for chips, chicken, or fish) and gazpacho. When November rolls around, it'll be applesauce time! Also there will be more squash in the fall. Overripe bananas are present all year, and can give you a quick and cheap banana bread. I also got a big bag of discounted but delicious grapes just because they had fallen off their vines.
Cold Winter leaves us with roots, old gourds, a pantry of cans and bags of grains and nuts, but Summer is a wonderful time for a rolling variety of inexpensive and healthy fresh fruit and vegetables. My only food complaint about Summer so far is that the heat ruined the sourdough starter I had out. Sourdough seems to just be my Spring treat.
Do not be afraid to buy produce that is almost too ripe. My local non-chain market has an area for "seconds", and I have gotten some real bargains. I just bought four acorn squash for $0.50 together, and made a 10-bowl batch of squash soup for $3 (halve and bake the squash for 40 min at 350 F, then peel; add a pint of chicken stock from the last chicken you cooked, a half-pound of cheese (I used colby-jack), two onions, and some spices, then puree in a food processor (adds maybe $0.25-50 amortized depending on how often you use your processor)). I also get piles of tomatoes on their way out, and make fresh salsa (great for chips, chicken, or fish) and gazpacho. When November rolls around, it'll be applesauce time! Also there will be more squash in the fall. Overripe bananas are present all year, and can give you a quick and cheap banana bread. I also got a big bag of discounted but delicious grapes just because they had fallen off their vines.
Cold Winter leaves us with roots, old gourds, a pantry of cans and bags of grains and nuts, but Summer is a wonderful time for a rolling variety of inexpensive and healthy fresh fruit and vegetables. My only food complaint about Summer so far is that the heat ruined the sourdough starter I had out. Sourdough seems to just be my Spring treat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
