Tightening My Belt -- My Personal Challenge for One Month in 2010

[Ldychef2k]

It would be an honor if you did. Thank you.

I changed hosts recently, so all the buildup stuff and the early Challenge stuff is at the old site qjcp.blog.com.

I think I repeat myself repeat myself too too much.

Thanks Ldychef2K . . . I was hoping you might have something to add. I think I need to read your blog.

 

[FarmerDenise]

For the first 5 years of my life I was raised on potatoes. It was the cheapest food my mother could get! And I still love potatoes.

Potato latkes, mashed potatoes, potatoes boiled in their skins, fried potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato soup, potato dumpling, potato salad...
and we didn't even know about baked potatoes...
Mom would just serve them with different stuff and that made all the difference.

 

[ducks4you]

1) Organize the pantry. Put newest in back, oldest in front. If it's old but edible, eat it
2) Clean out the freezer. Did you do like I do, and not label everything? Eat what's good, throw what's bad, if you even SUSPECT it's not good, throw it away
3) Look long and hard and what I have in jars (canned yourself) and what you have in cans. Inventory those and think of creative ways to eat them (...sardines with tomatoes, and pears for dessert---YUMM!!!!)

Seriously, this is a GREAT exercise in using up you old reserves. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

What is your favorite potato recipe, FarmerDenise?

That's ok, Ldychef2K, I have found myself repeating myself a lot lately too. You are the master of frugal living, as far as what I have noticed on here, so your blog is on my must-read list.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

2) Clean out the freezer. Did you do like I do, and not label everything?

How did you know? Have you been looking in my freezer?

Yep . . . this was needed anyway, so it'll be a great exercise.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I don't have just one favorite potato recipe.
I think I posted my mother's potato dumpling recipe here. I'll look for it.

I love potato salad. I use lots of hard boiled eggs in mine and homemade relish. I pour pickle juice over the still warm potatoes. They soak up the liquid. Then when you add mayonaise, you don't need as much and the potatoes have a nice flavor and are not dry.

I love mashed potatoes and have tried all kids of different recipes and love each and every one of them. Although I always make the plain old mashed taters.
I grew up with mashed potatoes, a bratwurst and applesauce served up next to the mashed potatoes.

On fridays we had potato boiled in it's skin, mom would peel it and cut it in half, then she would put sour cream on it with chives and we would have pickled herring with lots of the onions, that came with the pickled herring. I still love that one too, but the sour cream we have here in the states is different, than what we had in Germany.

For my mother's homefries, she would use bacon (it came in long chunks, still attached to the skin) she would cut the bacon up real small, no more than 1/4"x 1/4", sautee it to render the fat, then she would sautee chopped up onion until they were just starting to get a lttle brown around the edges. Then she woudl add the cooked chunks of potatoes and fry them until the outsides were crispy. The onions often got almost burned. This would be served with eggs sometimes. But usually it would be our main meal, seved with mustard.
Now when I make it, I usually add peppers, since I have them either in the garden or the freezer. I will add other stuff too, depending on what I have available: tomatoes, ham, sausage, garlic, green onions, corn, black olives, squash.

I have a few other favorite potatoe recipes. I'll try and remember to look them up for you. As a broke young mother I relied heavily on potatoes for our meals. I just have to find the recipes and I have a lot of my belongings in storage :/

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Those recipes sound good. I will have to try your method of making a potato salad. I still have not found a recipe for potato salad that I really like.

Mashed potatoes is my all time favorite, but I really like roasted potatoes too. I try not to fry too many foods . . . but that does sound good.

 

[TanksHill]

I have kinda been doing the same thing. I have been working my way through the deep freezer. Turkeys from the holidays, full hams, that duck I cooked a while back. Then adding in very inexpensive seasonal veggies and finishing it off with canned pears and such for desert.

Turn one meal into two or three. One night a week I do a pot of pea/ lentil/ or bean soup. I had the ham bone from the ham above. Etc...

Eggs are your friend. Just keep saying it over and over.

Hey I would take MP up on his creativity challenge. I can see yummy things in your future. Smoked sausage, deer meat, kilbasa.... Some of my friends and I frequent a pantry where you get all kinds of seasonal veggies and some basics for 25.00 bucks. We usually sit around and try to get creative with just what they give us. I am lucky in that regard because my family is not picky.

Good luck with it though. Let us know how it goes.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Eggs are your friend. Just keep saying it over and over.

Ha ha . . . I know that rationally, but my taste buds don't always agree. :/

Thank you for the well-wishes. I hope to keep you all updated. Maybe I will post our menus and our costs.

 

[Occamstazer]

Gotta share my potato salad. It's my favorite thing ever, I just don't make it often, because carbs kill me.

Dice up equal portions of white and sweet potatoes, and boil until tender. They take different cook times, so use two pots.
Mix a dressing of mayo, apple cider vinegar, and brown mustard. Add black pepper and TONS of fresh chopped dill. I like to add diced onion and diced celery for bulk and flavor. Add hard boiled egg if you like, and definitely add bacon pieces.

It's almost a whole meal