Slashfood Ate (8): The Friday evening goodie bag

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Oct 31st 2008 @ 6:03PM

Each week, I link up eight food-related stories and blog posts from the previous week that somehow caught my eye or tickled my fancy (this week, it's mostly sweets, soups and eating on the cheap). Here's the list for this week:

One way to save money in the kitchen is to do the processing yourself. Culinate breaks down the difference between cutting up a chicken yourself and buying it pre-skinned and quartered.
On Minimally Invasive, Amy uses inexpensive pork necks to make a deeply flavored and warming ragu.
For those of you who like lots of mashed potatoes (or applesauce), but don't like the work of peeling, invest in a Peel-A-Meal electric peeler.
Need a good, professional way to get your knives sharpened? Try doing it by mail!
Orangette serves up a Tomato Soup with Red Onion and Cilantro Stems. Sounds delicious and economical.
Deb at Smitten Kitchen makes a batch of Salted Butter Caramel Sauce. There are no words for how good that sounds to me right at the moment.
Want to eat less meat and but still eat well? Here are some quick and simple vegetarian dishes to check out.
CityMama's Best Split Pea Soup ever has me adding ham hocks and dried peas to my shopping list.

Filed Under: Slashfood Ate
Tags: cheap eats, CheapEats, link love, LinkLove, slashfood ate, SlashfoodAte, soup recipes, SoupRecipes

Chew on This

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-03-2008 @11:19AM Rt said... The part about the pig necks was true comfort food. As my sister says, I never met a starch I didn't like. Pasta is tied for first place with corn, potatos, bread, and rice (did I leave one out? :).

The part about the price of chicken was astounding. WOW! What are they feeding those chickens in Portland? Those prices are easily three times what we pay in Florida.

Seriously, I have boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the freezer I paid $1.50/lb for (but I shop sales and know how to freeze meat :) Frequently you can get them on sale for $2.39 (or less), $2.99 is a common regular price.

The 'lesser' cuts (tho I happen to like dark meat from any fowl) are often under $1. 'Split' breasts can go for 88 cents (but SweetBay seems to be the only store to accomplish that) and leg quarters for 49 cents. Other sale prices are closer to $1/lb for either one.

I usually buy 10 pounds (sometimes more) and individually wrap it for freezing (in total there are three layers of coverings). For the many weeks when nothing is on sale I just grab a couple out of the freezer and let them thaw in the fridge overnite. This is in the fridge that came with my one bedroom apartment (my current residence).

I've heard wonderful things about Portland but I don't think I could afford to live there. $7.99 for chicken, wow.
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11-03-2008 @12:26PM Rt said... I forgot to mention the split pea soup. Keeping with the 'day of rest' theme my mother would always have simple meals (compared to the rest of the week, dad was a real 'meat and potatos' man and salads were alway served if you wanted one).

For Sunday it could be anything from waffles to hamburger with a fried egg on top. A popular after church lunch was soup 'n sandwich. The sandwiches were always grilled cheese (on rare occasion, when tomatos were abundant from the garden, an broiled, open-faced, cheese and tomato variation). The soup was either white bean or split pea.

The split pea soup was always made with the ham bone (and bits) left over from some occasion. It was thick and hearty - great in the cooler months but good any time.

I'm thinking bacon could be sub'd or added as an enhancement but we were frugal if nothing. At one point it was four kids (two 'bottomless pit' young males) and the two adults so mom did what she could with what she had.

I have had not had any other split pea soup except at a restaurant. That was so disappointing I quit trying to find a replacement.
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11-03-2008 @12:06PM Rt said... It would seem my comment about the split pea soup is caught in AOL limbo. Let's see how long this one takes to appear.
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