Cheap Eaten

[karstopography]

I think Po boys is still a seafood market, we’ve gotten shrimp, oysters, and crab there. I think the Barons aren’t doing anything commercial on shrimp these days, but could be wrong.

One of the mysteries about our area is how difficult it is to find local picked out blue crab meat at the markets. It is almost always from Mexico and while sold as fresh, it’s obvious by the flavor some sort of bleach or bleach like preservation method has been used.

We used to crab with the chicken neck string dip net method. Then when I lived in Surfside, I would put out a couple of crab traps when I went out in my kayak to fish. By the time I was done fishing, I’d generally have about a dozen large blue crabs and an occasional stone crab with the big claw. At that time, Christmas Bay was open to oyster cooning and I’d bring home 2-3 dozen when I went out in the kayak. With the fish, crab and oysters, I had my protein covered very nicely. I year around rented a 3 bedroom house 5 blocks off the beach for less than a 1 bedroom cost in town. Not sure why I left, it was a pretty good setup.

[worth1]

The last time I bought anything from Barrons was in early 2000 something.
Had some guys pool some money together and my last living brother and I went there from Bastrop in his new Dodge diesel bob tail one ton trailer puller.
I drove and he was holding on to his seat the whole way there and back.
Showed him how to run a 6 speed diesel on the back farm roads.
We picked up about 100 pounds of royal red jumbos.
My wife was flabbergasted when we got home as to how fast the trip was.

[RIPGaryColeman]

Hello all

I bought this chicken at Smart N final in Chula Vista CA for 5 bucks. It just spent 90 mins at 400 F.

Sitting on carrots cut lengthwise, 3 different peppers (anaheim, bell, Jalapeño) and lots of celery finely diced, large blocks of sweet onion, potatoes and cauliflower.
butter, olive oil, drops of rice vinegar, garlic, paprika, sprinkle of smoked salt,

Cookies going in, chicken coming out.

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Finished product

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[Nan6b]

Oh, DANG that looks good! I'm coming to your house.

[karstopography]

Beef Tenderloin, free, well sort of. I give my dad fish and vegetables over the year and he then gave me a whole choice beef tenderloin, this was a few weeks ago. I cut it up into ~2” steaks, then froze them. Yesterday, I thawed two and grilled them on the BGE last night.

Sweet corn is now 5/dollar, bought 4, cut it off the cob. Tossed that fresh off the cob corn in with half a garden bell pepper and one small jalapeño diced up into a skillet with butter. Other side dish was sliced garden cucumbers tossed with sour cream and dill. Had the last of the blackberry cobbler, berries foraged, for dessert.

So all I really purchased for the meal was the flour, butter and sugar for the cobbler and the corn and sour cream. Cobbler is a butter hog and two sticks plus a couple of tablespoons go into this cobbler. Two sticks in the crust and a little extra to dot the berries. Blackberries freeze like a dream and can be used for a year. I pick enough berries in April (beachside blackberries ripen here in April) for a few cobblers over the year. 5-6 cups go into the cobbler. I have a couple of spots I get them. Rattlesnakes are a possibility, but I’ve yet to come across one. Beach blackberries are very sweet and I have to back off the sugar in the recipe, otherwise, the cobbler is too sweet. Beach blackberries are extremely prolific and it doesn’t take long to get several cups, but they burn up/raisin in the sun so it’s best to get them after a rain or early in the morning. Coastal fog in March and early April protects them and allows them to get large, but by mid or late April the fog is mostly gone. One of those little unique microclimates. Move off the beach ten-fifteen miles, the berries are totally different, not as sweet and a month or more later in the season.

Butter runs about $3/# here, a little more sometimes, a bit under occasionally.

[karstopography]

Thawed out a couple more beef tenderloin steaks. Did these with the cast iron sear, oven finish to Rare/Medium rare. Wife likes hers more on the medium rare end, daughter and me, more towards rare.

After a 5 minute rest, those get sliced and tossed with Aldi Feta cheese crumbled, Aldi spinach/arugula mix, Aldi Butter lettuce mix, 90 something cents a quart USA grown Fresh Strawberries from Aldi. By far, the best strawberries I’ve bought this year. Sweet, fragrant and not woody.

Btw, I sound like an ad for Aldi, but I discovered their bags of California lemons. These are big lemons with loose type skins and fresh fragrant, really far superior to the hard, smaller HEB lemons.

Back to the cheap dinner. Salad was drizzled with fresh garlic infused EVOO, good, rich, thick, sweet aged balsamic vinegar and tossed. 1.5 pounds of filet fed three adults. 8 ounces each, more than enough.

[worth1]

Dry roasted chicken thighs and legs with garlic powder, black pepper, and salt in a cast iron skillet.
No idea what the sides will be if any.
Maybe rice.

[PlainJane]

Tomato, onion and bacon tart using Thorburn’s Terra-cotta.
1 pkg frozen puff pastry, thawed in fridge the day before.
2 onions, lightly caramelized. Mustard, 3 slices cooked bacon, crumbled, and fresh basil.
(My tomatoes and basil)

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[Sue_CT]

NOT so cheap eats. Pandemic pricing? They were organic, but STILL, 2.00 each? I didn't buy any.

Pandemic pricing? by Susan Albetski, on Flickr

[karstopography]

Had about 6 cups, after coring and peeling, of ripe to very ripe red tomatoes (Mostly Carmello). Mashed the peeled skins and trimmings against a very fine strainer and got another cup of tomato juice from those. Added 2-3 cups of chicken broth to that plus a little sea salt. Simmered 30 min. Added about a dozen Italian Basil leaves to a couple of cups of the cooled tomato broth and processed with an Immersion Blender. Returned that to the soup pot and added a cup of cream and stick of unsalted butter. Heated through and stirred, then served.

Served with grilled cheese sandwich. My wife’s high school friend is a baker and brought us a loaf of her bread along with the starter. I toasted the bread in a buttered skillet with Aldi’s Gruyere/Swiss blend.

The soup was suspiciously very much like La Madeleine’s Tomato Basil Soup. Very delicious. La Madeleine, a mostly regional french bakery/restaurant chain, is coming to our little hamlet. I thought I’d make a clone of their tomato basil soup recipe to celebrate.

Between the cream, broth and cheese, maybe there are four or five dollars in this meal with a most of a pot of soup, a cup of cream and half the cheese leftover.

[Nan6b]

A bunch of potatoes (skin on), 2 onions, & celery, quickly chopped in the food processor, cooked until thick. Oleo, flour & milk to make a cream sauce, plus pepper & garlic salt. A very quick, easy, & cheap potato soup.

[RIPGaryColeman]

I'm starting to fine tune this puppy.

Used rub del norte, ( a dry rub with salt, garlic, cumin, black pepper, onion) on the bottom of the bird, and rub rojo (salt, garlic, pepper, paprika, cascabel) on the exposed side.
Under them are carrots split in half, 1/2 in strips of poblanos, plus finely diced celery and shallot.

2 types of zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli and red potatoes.

Fluid source was a michelob ultra mixed with the final jar of tomato sauce from last year's stash.

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[pepperhead212]

I made an unusual snack yesterday, using one of those kohlrabis from my garden. It's something I've been making since I discovered a recipe for peeled broccoli stems, back in the 80s, and my Mom would save me her broccoli stems, back in the days that she cooked. It consists of sliced stems, or kohlrabi, which tastes even better, salted an hour or so, rinsed, then cooked briefly in some sesame oil and hot oil (or just sesame oil), just enough to coat all of the pieces, then cooled. Good warm, too, as a side dish. And I always add some nam prik pao at the end. I've eaten about a cup of it, so far - can't eat much at a time!
Kohlrabi slices, cooked in hot and sesame oils, with Nam Pric Pao stirred in. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Nan6b]

Love kohlrabi, in a casserole with ham, peas, & cream sauce.

[maxjohnson]

I've had a breakthrough. I managed to make the inside of the sourdough bread tender like marshmallow. Some improvements I made are:
-Add olive oil as one of the ingredient.
-Make sure the dough is more stiff than wet.
-Knead for 15minutes and rest before baking.

Also close the lid of the dutch oven for the last 30min of baking.

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[Sue_CT]

Beautiful!

[MissS]

That bread looks divine.

[worth1]

Going to make something I haven't had in years.
Macaroni and a can of diced tomatoes.
My mother used to make this all the time growing up in the summer.
"Mom I'm hungry."
"Eat some cold macaroni and tomatoes."
Not a great fan of it but not a hater of it either.
My family ate one heck of a lot of tomato products throughout the year all from the garden.
Probably gonna have it with some tuna fish salad on the side.

[Nan6b]

My mom loves cheesy mac with her homegrown tomatoes on it.

[worth1]

I was going to make mac and cheese from the left over mac and tomatoes and decided not to.
Instead after I ate a huge bowl of it for supper last night this morning I made macaroni salad.
Simple ingredients are.
Mayonnaise.
Yellow mustard.
Sweet relish.
Dill relish.
You could go over the top with other stuff like onions garlic and red sweet peppers but I like to keep it simple.
It's a huge bowl so If I want I can add more spices later since I cooked a whole one pound sack of it.
Along with it I am thawing out some frozen BBQ chicken I made some time ago.
BBQ sounds right for some reason since it is our nations Flag Day today.