This blog is intended to be about week-long grocery adventures on a reasonable budget, but since I am still working out the kinks with that whole concept, so last night is a good moment to diverge.   We were in Boston last week (Sister Hazel had a sweet concert at the Paradise Rock Club), therefore the last weekend was a drain on the dining-out budget.  This weekend, with work catch-up and chores, we stayed home for dinner faced with a quagmire: how to exercise the canines.   Steak night was the simple answer. 

Might as well diverge from the divergence for a moment; one of the main reasons we went to Boston was to eat at Rocca.  I met Tiffani Faison in Foxwoods last year; fittingly I was tasting a dish that was my absolute favorite from the evening only to realize who made it.  So, with the weekend planned we headed out to Boston.  I did not make reservations ahead of time, but did call on Saturday to check table availability when I first noticed something was wrong: the phone was disconnected.  Few Googles later it became clear, Rocca Kitchen Bar closed for business on New Year's Eve.   Major bummer to my weekend. 

Anyways, so the criteria for Steak Night were "Tasty and Simple".   For $66.85 I felt we got that down pretty well; that's less than half of what I would have spent at the Grill Room.    Personally, I like spending time in the kitchen, so cooking only helps me enjoy the meal more.   Steak offers a delicious treat that's also very simple.  Some balk at the $15-25 per pound costs of steak at Whole Foods, it's totally worth it. It's still less than eating out.   The Top Loin cuts were on sale at $13 per lb, totally worth it.  Now typically I go for grass-fed and dry-aged, but Sunday night the selection was slim, so the sale option was the best option.

One of my favorite accompaniments to red meat is celery root; and personally I like it raw.  The easiest thing to do, I find, is to make a simple celery root slaw with equal amounts celery root, carrots, and apples; lemon juice to preserve color; salt and pepper to taste.  Celery root is common in WholeFoods, but I remember a time where it was a rarity.   I typically buy the local carrots which happen to be giant and easy to peel.  I had apples in my fridge; living in Maine, apples are a staple.  The celery root slaw tastes best when grated on hand-grater, but the food processor just speeds things up massively.

Aside from the obvious indulgence of red-meat, 2lbs worth, we also did a creamed baby spinach.  Again, a simple preparation of blanched spinach reduced in shallots, cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  The baby spinach was a toss up between some bagged choices and the organic, plastic-box, greens Whole Foods carries.  The bagged stuff looked pretty old - I refuse to buy anything that shows age, the spinach in bags had a few rotting leaves.  Gross, but I am sure it is hard to notice.  In any case, the organic baby spinach in boxes was the best choice, so we went with that.

We also did some left-over smashed potatoes, but that's nothing special.   A little starch goes a long way with a steak dinner.  The point is, for $67 we bought some great ingredients, but also a bottle of a 2008 Gueno Carlet that stood well with the strong flavors of the meat and sides.  It was an enjoyable evening that combined a fun time in the kitchen with simple, yet delectable, food.

 

 

We overbought this week, so the magic number is between $100 and $150.  The polenta and chicken lasted two days.  The rest of the week was burgers, pasta, plenty of lunches, and desserts.  Between cereal, breads, deli meat, and lots of fresh vegetables, we still have a fridg-load. 

This week the Whole Foods chicken breasts were on sale, so we used them in two dishes. Tasewise, their chicken is  better than regular supermarket's stock; it actually tastes like chicken.  If you don't believe me, take a few bits and make a chicken stock, then see which one tastes better.  Same goes for their eggs too: they taste better and stay fresh longer. 

While in the store, we also saw blocks of cheddar on sale and organic, grass-fed, beef.  Grass fed beef - especially ground beef - does not compare against conventionally raised.  The reasons for it are quite simple:  cows evolved to eat grass, while conventional farms use corn-feed.  When feeding cows corn-based products, cow's natural digestive process have a delicate balance of ammonia-urea cycles that keep them healthy;  grain disrupts those cycles and causes toxification.  To counter this, farms have to use additional additives and chemicals to maintain cow health.  If that's not enough, most conventional ground beef is doused in ammonia to keep it from growing e-coli.   So, fresh grass-fed beef should be an obvious choice.

Back to food: beef was on sale.   That was a compelling argument to make burgers and sweet-potato fries. 

Overall, the food this week was simple, and on a $150 food bill we have plenty to get us through the weekend.  Not to mention that included coffee, chocolate, and a few other treats.

 

The last two weeks we seemed to do better with $150.  So last night we got bags full of veggies and a few proteins.

Today our meals consisted of a light breakfast with coffee.  For lunch, I prepared a chickpea soup that came out of a Top Chef quickfire challenge.  For the most part, it was a simple onion/garlic/curry base with broth and chickpeas.  I made it extremely spicy - admittedly the Serranos I used had a bigger kick than I expected - topped with an herbed yogurt and macerated jalapenos.  Combined with a simple sandwitch, it made a very exciting lunch.

Dinner was a toasted Polenta (made from scratch) with a chicken cooked in a leek & mushroom cream sauce.  Absolutely tasty with a bottle of wine and scotch for dessert. 

We also have plenty leftover to last the week. 

This $100 a week experiment has been a total failure so far.  For the past three weeks we tried to do groceries on $100, which meant we ate out a lot. I spent evenings at Nosh, Little Seoul, Benkay, Figa, Ottos (new favorite for pizza), Tu Casa, and a few others, barely putting in time in the kitchen.  Our plan for the spring is to supplement our groceries with community supported agricutlure from Firth Farm; meanwhile we might have to raise the budget. 

So things have not been working out so well, mostly due to a busy travel schedule and missed shopping trips.  Since I started the blog idea, I made two normal Whole Foods trips which did end with $105 each.  Last week we did a bit of a repetition of the first week I wrote about, and that was an overall success.   Other than that, I've been to Florida, Washington D.C., and Connecticut in the last 4 weeks, so life has been crazy.  Not to mention with hosting Thanksgiving, the Thursday dinner bill is now at $350 and has plenty of time to grow.  I'll come back to this soon. 

We are hosting Thanksgiving this year, a slight change in life's pace and a long overdue venture.    The goal was to do a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a twist: a subtle Turkish theme (no pun intended).  As we prepared our menu and tested the recipes, it became apparent that many of our dishes carried through a similar theme.  So Dine In Portland will be dining at home; here is a short run of our Thanksgiving Day Menu.