I am trying to cook frugally in this economy, and my mind says that anything that’s in the frig or pantry is essentially free. So for the past week I had 1/2 red cabbage and a few carrots and scallions so I made cole slaw, but we’ve already had that twice and there’s enough for a third side dish for both of us but we can’t eat it every meal.
Today I bought a small sliced grocery store Cure 81 ham, 1.75#. I crusted it with dijon mustard and honey and baked it along with scalloped potatoes (free), and had nearly everything I needed to make this corn salad at the last minute, instead of using cole slaw.
So Jim ran to the store for Dr. Pepper and frozen corn and I really messed with this dish and in order to get it to near room temperature I had to place the entire pan into an ice bath. It was good, but the flavors have to marinate in the frig overnight and we’ll see how it tastes tomorrow before I even try to re-create this adventure for you. The vinegar smell has permeated our place and still does even with a fan taking it out the windows.
The ham plan is to do a quiche for lunch tomorrow, with ham and fontina. Then we have a sirloin steak for tomorrow night and I still have some chimichurri for that with some home fries, corn salad and cole slaw for dinner. Nearly free! Perhaps ham sandwiches for lunch on Sunday with “free” rolls I froze a couple of weeks ago.
I’m even making Zoe’s own homemade chicken stock from our chix bones. At least it’s cheap to make but I can also control the salt as I steal from her stash for our meals.
This past year has been a very challenging one especially with the loss of my mom. Even though it’s a bad economy we hope for a better year in 2009 and thank friends and family for being with us on our shared journeys. Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 