I was asked by my food bank, Three Square, to participate in an awareness raising activity. For 5 days I will cook for John and I and spend only what Food Stamp (now called SNAP) recipients get. Hold onto your hats folks – it’s $4.06 per day per person. That’s NOT a lot of groceries people! I agreed to do this to help raise awareness because I know what it is like to worry about food and nutrition. Food writers, critics, politicians, volunteers and local celebrities have all been asked to participate to shed some light on how tough it is to eat HEALTHFULLY on $4/day. We have all been asked to share our thoughts and experiences about the challenge.

John and I are financially able to purchase whatever we want to eat, whenever we want to eat it, and for that I am truly grateful. This was not always the case. I grew up poor, in a rural community. Hand me down clothes, free school lunch, we had eggs for dinner because we had chickens, but we always had fresh produce in the harvest months because we grew our own. Mom canned and made jam (and this past fall, for the very first time, I canned my own tomatoes and the peaches from my tree).

John’s childhood, while having taken place in NYC, was not all that different financially; his family was on the Food Stamp program briefly when he was young as well. Because of my background I get a little antsy if I can see the shelves in my pantry or the fridge. (Moment of truth – Even though it is just the two of us at home now, I still think I don’t have enough food if I can see shelves. This mania kinda drives my husband a little nuts.) Because we know how crucial this issue is, John and I decided to participate as a couple for the SNAP Experience. I honestly feel that by participating in this challenge if I can outrage one person, make one person get involved with their Food Bank, cause one person to get active politically, then I have done my job.

Because John and I DON’T have to worry about a grocery bill, I just buy what I want/need and pay at the checkout; I had to do some research to remind myself how to stretch those grocery dollars. Other than looking at the price of meat to see if it will be cheaper on base (it is most of the time), I almost never look at prices (disgusting, I know). Here are the things I have learned by looking at the ads, coupons and shelf pricing:
• Produce, dairy products and meat are EXPENSIVE! If I bought what I normally buy, there is NO WAY I could eat for $4.06 for one meal let alone the whole day!
• Cereal and milk are off the charts! And I am not talking about Froot Loops here! Good, healthy, whole grain cereals are upwards of $4 a box – there goes my whole day’s allowance! You can get sugary cereals that are NOT the best nutrition choice for about ½ the cost of a whole grain cereal.
• Whole grain, high fiber bread costs 3 times as much as white bread or bread labeled as “whole wheat” that is NOT whole grain.
• Inexpensive foods like pasta, white bread, rice and beans may all be good for you in the short term and in moderation (if you leave out the powdered cheese blue box crap), but in the long term and in large quantity they lead to obesity, diabetes and other health problems. If this is all you can afford to feed your family what waits down the road for you in the health arena? And who is going to pay for it?
• The weekly coupons are mostly for things that aren’t healthy choices (crackers, processed foods, cookies, etc.). Even though they CAN be purchased with SNAP monies, they aren’t good eating choices, but they are CHEAP with the coupons. For many SNAP recipients a full belly is more important than eating wisely, so they are forced to choose poorly because it is the cheapest option.
• Almost no one offers coupons for dairy, meat or produce unless you buy something NOT so good to go with it!

We have been encouraged to use store loyalty programs and any other money saving options we can employ to stretch our dollars. I learned that the Fresh & Easy rewards program has to be converted from “points” to dollars online before you can use the rewards – thanks Lillian for the heads up! I love the weekly Fresh & Easy coupons because they are dollars off your entire purchase so they CAN be used for meat and produce, but they don’t accept manufacturer’s coupons at all. The advertised items on the front of the flyers are called “loss leaders”. The store is HOPING you will go in to buy that one incredible deal and then do the rest of your shopping there. The best way to stretch your buck is to go get those few things and LEAVE, doing the rest of your shopping where the other items you need are on sale.

Next week I will let you all know how I did with this challenge. We started yesterday, even though everyone else is starting today, because I have to travel on Friday for business, and since I will be eating out (no means to cook), it wouldn’t be feasible. As I type I am brining a 12 lb. turkey that I got on sale for $3.66.

This week’s Food Memories are drinks with an old High School Pal at the Cosmopolitan, dinner and great beer with my main squeeze at Public House, working to get the garden ready for planting season, lovely cider and ancho chile glazed game hens (The Splendid Table’s Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s recipe) and shopping the sales for the SNAP Experience.
Suanne and I at the Cosmopolitan

The Glazed Game Hens

The fab beers we tried at Public House

Until next week, go out and make your OWN Food Memories!

Yeah, I probably am. There, I admitted it in print, never to be retracted!

A few months ago I found myself chuckling over a streamed debate between Vegas food writers Al Mancini and John Curtas. Watch it here (Many thanks to Al Mancini for allowing me to share the link). They “argue” about whether there should be standards of attire and other things to make the dining experience enjoyable for everyone, and they are equally tough on one another. Initially I found myself, wholeheartedly, agreeing with Al in that food is meant for everyone and just because you don’t fit the mould of a banker-dressed diner that you shouldn’t be kept out of fine dining establishments. And I still do agree with him for the most part. I have to agree with John though on something else, and it goes back to my pet peeves blog. Basic manners should be adhered to when dining out.

I don’t care so much when we are at a more casual joint and spending $100/couple to eat, but when I am spending upwards of $100/person for dinner (before bar, tax and tips) I think certain rules/niceties/manners should be followed:
1. If you aren’t wearing a yarmulke, take your F*CKING hat off at the F*CKING table! Oh, and BTW – baseball hats are for keeping the sun out of your eyes while playing sports, they are NOT a fashion item! Knit hats are to keep your head warm; they are NOT a fashion statement!
2. If your date is dressed up, do you think it would be too much to ask that you put a jacket on over your T-shirt and jeans? I do not have a problem with jeans, I wear them every day. But if I was all dolled up and John wore jeans and a T, I’d be pissed. I see this here in Vegas more than anywhere else. It seems gals go on vacay and want to glitz it up and guys don’t feel the same way about it. Just put on a funky jacket guys and all will be well.
3. Keep your cologne to a minimum please. I want to taste my food, not your eau de toilette.
4. Say “please” and “thank you” to your server/s. They really do bust their asses trying to make a good meal a pleasant experience.

Now go ahead and color me old, I am approaching a milestone…but I remember going to nightclubs and they had a “no jeans, no T-shirts, no sneakers” policy. These days, of course, that isn’t a tenable solution or format with some jeans costing as much as the GDP of a 3rd world country, but people knew how to clean themselves up. Ah for the days of Cary Grant when all the men were outwardly gentlemanly and the women were outwardly genteel. Notice I said “outwardly”.

Now as for the food, while the food was great at this place filled with patrons with no manners, the environment wasn’t what we had wanted for a celebratory dinner. (If you know me personally, you know where I went for my 24th wedding anniversary, so I won’t mention them here.) I just think this place will be relegated to a lunch spot with “The Posse” or a bar dining locale. And there is nothing wrong with that – I have a slew of places in that category in my mind.

I dream of walking into a bar where the rule is “We serve no crap. If you want a Bud, MGD, Mich, or Coors you have to go someplace that serves shitty beer”. I want to go to a restaurant where the waitstaff says to the patrons, “Gentlemen remove their hats at the table”. I want to be present at a time when the “house sport coat” has to come out because some guy didn’t wear a jacket to dinner (Moment of truth – I always see this in the movies, but I have never seen it happen in person). I guess I once again want what I can’t have!

This week’s Food Memories include a lovely foie gras as part of a tasting menu for our Anniversary dinner, Jack’s first NYE on the town, and being the designated driver for a gals’ lunch to celebrate friend Janet W’s birthday.

Super strong beer that was gifted to hubby from his sister – we couldn’t figure out how to open it because of the way it was sealed!

A Xmas gift from my love – I know it sounds nasty, but it reminds me of when I was young and thin.

The gals at Mon Ami Gabi for Janet W’s birthday.

Ok, I started writing this blog several days ago about something else entirely, but I had to change gears.

This morning my hot water heater exploded all over the garage, so without any caffeine I went to the Lowe’s store to arrange to get a new one installed today. Mission accomplished. On the way home, I drove thru Del Taco (don’t judge me – I wanted a quesadilla and I didn’t want to dirty any dishes that I would have to wash by hand with water heated on the stove). I asked for a large diet soda to go with it – I needed caffeine, remember? When the attendant read the order back she called it a “Macho” diet soda. WTF?
1. I can hardly be called “macho” and
2. Since when is it ok to make up your own designators for sizes?

Oh, wait a minute….I know! It’s all the fault of Starf*cks, I mean Starbucks. I rarely go there since I don’t drink coffee, but occasionally I will go in with son Jack for a tea. I refuse to play their silly games! It is small, medium, large and extra large. That’s it. Why does SB have to have 3 words, all meaning LARGE, to describe their sizes of drinks? And don’t give me that crap about a “vente” meaning 20oz and a “trenta” being 30oz. I am not buying it! I totally grasp the idea of creating words to make food or drinks trademarked (Big Mac, Whopper, etc.) or specifically linked to your store, but sizes? Holy bat shit Batman – they have succeeded! I am talking about those retailers. Damn, I fell into their trap!

Ok, so while I am on a roll, here are my other food related pet peeves:
• Men who don’t take their hats off at the table, unless it is a yarmulke
• Full ashtrays at the bar (again, don’t judge me)
• Bar snacks that have been sitting out – I don’t want anyone else’s hands in the dish
• Wait staff with long hair that is not pulled back
• Anyone who goes into a fast food place and needs to read the menu – guess what, it STILL hasn’t changed since the last time you were in there
• People being rude to wait staff because they think it makes them look cool, rich or important. Here’s a quarter, buy this clue, it doesn’t – it makes you look like an ass!

And a non-food related one:
• People who use the handicapped stalls in restrooms when they can CLEARLY use the standard ones.

As I write, my kitchen looks like a bomb went off in it, or as my Mom used to say, “It looks like who did it and ran”. I cooked for a fundraiser last night and I was so exhausted that I just loaded what I could in the dishwasher and left everything to be done this morning….mistake. Now I wait for the plumber.

It’s my biggest baking season of the year and I know there are several of you anxiously waiting for your cookie tray. Don’t worry, I’ll get around to it, but at this rate it might be a Happy New Year gift.

This week’s Food Memories include take out Chinese brought by my loving hubby while I was mourning the passing of my dog, Bosco.

This week’s pic has nothing to do with this blog, but I found it among the files….and yes, I really DID make that.

Until next time, go out and make your OWN Food Memories.

It took me forever to write this, between the cleaning, cooking and more cleaning, and by the time I had it finished it was Black Friday, so I just decided to save it and give it to you today. I hope it was worth the wait.

It’s that time of year again. For most people it means shopping, turkey, cranberries and chaos. For me it also means remembrance and thinking of the people who are no longer around. Those who have passed, and those who live elsewhere. Of course when I remember them I also think of the FOOD we ate and the experiences surrounding them.

Let’s talk first about Gram. First she was Grandma Lea (yes, part of my name comes from her), then she was Gram, then when our kids started to speak she became GG (Great Grandma), then simply THE G. She was a horrendous cook, except for pot roast. (Moment of truth – I haven’t eaten pot roast since she died – no one’s was better.) Heavens to Murgatroid! I could tell you so many stories about bad food, but there are better stories. When I was little she had this tiled wall at the edge of the kitchen and you had to be as tall as the black tile line on the wall to get in the kitchen to cook. I realize now that it was an effort to keep the tiny crowded kitchen free of kids underfoot, but I used to stand on tip toes trying to get big enough to “cook”. It was at her house that I sat at the kids’ table with cousins, waiting to be “big enough” to sit at the grown up table and I was very jealous when Lorrie got to move up! It was her house that John and I visited on St. Patrick’s Day where we promptly informed her St. Patrick was an Italian so we were eating pizza instead of corned beef and cabbage (that went over like cussing in church!). It was also at this house that I shooed people of all ages out so I could work when I catered her Birthday Extravaganza in 1998.
Here she is at Landry’s on the San Antonio River Walk with Jack in 2004 – she wanted scallops and it was her birthday week.

As she aged and cared even less what people thought of her, the most rude and admittedly hilarious things came out of her mouth. She loved to flirt with all guys and was unabashedly open about it. For example, out to eat one night with friends and family, the waiter comes to the table and says, “Hi, my name is Adam.” THE G pipes in with, “Hi, I’m Eve.” Nancy told me she thought she’d choke on her drink. Then there was the “case a beer” incident. After not liking what was ordered, she sent it back and the manager came over and offered to get her something else. He suggested a quesadilla. Hearing impaired G says, “I can’t drink a whole case of beer”. Maybe he should have said it like Napoleon Dynamite said it? My favorite was an ice cream run to Friendly’s (you east coasters know what I am talking about). The waitress takes our order and G orders maple walnut ice cream with “wet nuts” (walnuts in maple syrup – I know, gross). As the waitress walks away, G grabs her wrist and says, “And don’t be stingy with the wet nuts either!” I thought my mother would stroke out right there at the table! She was irascible, difficult, snarky and I miss her all the time.

Of course I miss Nettie too (see my earlier blog about her). It was at my home in Texas that I served Nettie her first fried turkey. She tasted it with trepidation, but was delighted with the bird. Now SHE was a great cook and I can almost perfectly duplicate her chicken salad now, but her ham salad recipe seems to be gone.

And then there are the people, those alive, we no longer live near. I miss my JUGS in Texas (Nanette, Deb and Doreen). Each time I make cornbread dressing I think of Beth (aka Ethel to my Lucy). When laying out the buffet I can’t help but think of Dave Turner and Micki “Childress” from our days in Spain. I also laugh every time I think of Kevin Sullivan. His Mama “brought him up right” so he didn’t want to come to T-giving dinner empty handed, John suggested he bring wine and shared my then favorite winery. Kevin shows up with a CASE of wine – 6 red and 6 white – because he wasn’t sure how much to bring.

With the growth of Facebook and Twitter, OLD friends from long ago and far away are finding me and keeping in touch. I am thrilled (for the most part – tee hee).

Take time this holiday season to make the food that reminds you of your past. Ask your relatives to write their “secret recipes” down someplace so future generations can have them to enjoy. Embrace those people you love, and cherish the time together. Believe it or not, they won’t be there forever.

This week’s Food Memories were a conglomeration of the past and the present: Our first Thanksgiving in Spain (1988 – that’s a story for another time) and our first Thanksgiving with John’s sister (2011), sushi with cousin Christine at Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood, son Jack coming home and raiding the pantry (I loved that!!), turkey dinner with 20 people in attendance and finishing that meal with friends.

Enjoy this week’s photos:

Me with my new potato ricer T-giving 2009

Prep Monkeys at work for dinner

The Kitchen Crew – handsome hubby on the left

The Sisters in Law

The JUGS in Texas – 2004 – yes I know it is a New Year’s pic – but I wanted you to see them.

Until next week – go out and make your own Food Memories!

My vacation was fantastic, thanks for asking, and thanks for being patient while I was away. While there I met a few people that told me, unsolicited, they were reading and sharing my blog. Completely unexpected awesomeness! THANK YOU!

Today we are a “disposable society”. Everything we buy from food to clothes to household items comes to us in disposable packaging. There are some dining establishments where everything is disposable – and not just fast food joints either. This was NOT always the case.

In the far past people brought their own containers to their local general store and bought their dry goods in bulk, weighed out by a helpful counterman. People had their own ceramic crockery at home for the storage of butter and cheese which they mostly made themselves. As shipping procedures became more widespread, items were packaged for shipping in durable wooden crates, tins, glass canisters and reusable burlap sacks. At this point, still common, even in the age of shipping, were home-style stores where you could get sauerkraut, pickles, charcuterie items, cheeses and baked goods made on premises. Of course the bakery aspects are not lost on us now, but few places make their own goods any longer, mores the pity, but that is changing. At the advent of cheap packaging and shipping (rail), products were able to be dispersed far and wide and national brand recognition ensued. But still in the midst of this there was a reusable component to the packaging. Think tins of Saltines and Oreos, wooden crates of Schlitz and Pepsi Cola, wooden barrels of pickles, all bound for your local grocer. When a customer purchased a food item, they were also purchasing a reusable container that they could use for flour, sugar, rice, etc. and thrifty housewives did so, even using small tins from tea for their “pin money”.

Once shipping, media and brand recognition entered into the picture, we came to the age of “Mad Men” (Moment of Truth – I am “Joan’s” older sister who is WAY more fun). Oftentimes what is ON the package is more important than what is IN the package. And those “Mad Men” quickly became aware of who to target and how to market to those people. I would venture to say that the majority of the price of any product on the shelves these days (with the noted exception of generic or store branded items) can be attributed to advertising costs. TV and mag ads are worded to make you think you NEED these products to fit in, feel cool, or be better in some way and if you DON’T buy them that you are a bad parent, horrible person or lax member of society. We all know this to be true (think McDonald’s Happy Meal, Viagra, and ProActiv to name a few).

So why am I talking about this? Well…last week on my way to the SEMA auto show and stuck in traffic in a less than fabulous part of town, friend Lynn and I were driving past a yard sale and she asked, half kidding, if I wanted to stop and look. We were halted, in stop-and-go traffic, so I looked out the window and lo and behold there was a HUGE crock. An old pickle crock, without the knobbed lid, sitting in the grass. I literally jumped out of the car,while it was stopped to be sure, into traffic, which was also stopped, and went and bought it. Just like that. Check out the size! The Diet Pepsi can is there for size comparison.

It hit me that I have always liked to have tins, boxes, cans, crocks and reusable bags. I began my own “green” bag trend at the grocery store in 1988. I collected tins of all shapes and sizes. And I love old soda, beer and wine crates. I don’t just let them sit around collecting dust most of the time either. I actually use mine for storage. What’s incredibly fun for me is to remember the circumstances when I found said container. I used to have more than 100 collectible tins, I have since divested myself of the majority of that collection and I now only have a few. I kept the ones that meant the most to me – like the brown plaid one from my great grandmother’s house that she always kept butterscotch candies in.

The downside is that most companies only put out a reusable container during the Holidays and then of course because it is “limited edition” they charge a premium for them. I do think the vintage ones are kitschy and more interesting and definitely more fun to have.

So what am I going to do with my new crock? Probably use it as a beer bucket or a sangria receptacle for parties. Because it is Marshall ceramic stoneware (TX) it naturally holds heat and cold so I think it will work out beautifully for those tasks.

Enjoy this week’s pics:

This former beer bottle is now my olive oil dispenser. I just shoved a wine bottle spout in it for a seal and pouring convenience.

Some of the collection that remains. Yes, those are honest to goodness old beer cans, the kind you had to open with a “church key”. Rest assured they are empty!

Once upon a time this contained a German Christmas Stollen (cake) – now it houses cardboard bar coasters from Germany and England.

This week’s Food Memories include a luxurious vacation at the Loew’s Portofino hotel in Orlando, eating breakfast with Fred & George Weasley, being allowed to order for the entire table at Emeril’s Tchoup Chop, singing Happy Birthday to Sister Janece with Joey Fatone and friends while we drank beer in the piazza and Brazilian BBQ for Sister Janece’s birthday dinner with Mom, Dave & John.

Until next week, go out and make your own Food Memories!

Although I know there aren’t THOUSANDS of avid readers, I do know I have a small loyal following, so this note is for you.

I’m taking a week off to create some Food Memories with the family. Next week’s postings will resume on Monday as usual.

In the meantime, go out and make your OWN Food Memories with YOUR loved ones.

Until next Monday (the 14th)…..