General Rule #4

Cheap wine is wonderful among good friends.

Under $10 bottles means you can have over more friends without breaking the bank, and we've had some tasty bottles of cheap wine. Also, you don't have to know much about wine to pick some out: when in doubt, pick one with a label you like. We've happened on some good ones that way.

A use for extra tequila

Last winter, a friend gave me a bottle of mezcal. (Mezcal is similar to tequila, but has a smokier flavor and the worm in the bottle.) Since I don't make very good margaritas and don't drink much of it anymore, the bottle and its tiny sombrero seemed destined to sit in my cabinet indefinitely. Then I thought, chicken gets marinated in lime juice, there's lime juice in margaritas, so why not combine them? This is such a favorite recipe, half the bottle's gone already! I've used lemon juice instead of lime and it still tastes great.

• two chicken breasts
• large splash of olive oil (2-4 tbs)
• same amount of lime juice (2-4 tbs)
• grated lime rind (0.5-1 tsp)(opt)
• a shot of mezcal or tequila (and maybe another one for the cook!) (1-1.5 tbs)
• spices (whatever you have: cayenne pepper, dried japalenos, aleppo, chipotle, chili powder, red peppers, etc...)

You'll need a baking dish large enough to accomodate the chicken and the sauce, a lid or foil for the dish, a small sauce pan, and a sealable plastic bag for marinating the chicken.

• Combine the olive oil, lime juice, tequila, and spices (as desired, I recommend at least some paprika for color, and about a tsp of cayenne, a little chili powder, a good shake of dried japalenos and aleppo peppers if you're feeling bold) in the bag, add the chicken and marinate in the fridge for at least 10 minutes (more if you can). Putting the bag in a bowl will keep the marinade around the chicken a little better, as will flipping it over partway through.
• Heat the oven to 350F. Put the chicken in the baking dish and the marinade in the saucepan and bring the marinade to a boil. Make sure it boils for at least a full minute.
• Spoon or brush some of the marinade onto the chicken, cover and bake until it's cooked through, 15-25 minutes. Flip the chicken over halfway through and spoon/brush a little more marinade on it.
• Serve with the extra sauce in a bowl. This goes very well with rice.

It's bad, what to do?

What can you do with food that isn't be good to eat anymore?

Sprouted potatoes- plant outside, in the dirt.
Sprouting carrots- cut off the top and put it on a wet paper towel or sponge, or suspend it with toothpicks over water, and watch it grow.
Sprouting sweet potatoes- suspend over water with toothpicks and watch it grow for a fun science experiment.
Bad oranges and lemons- cut into pieces and grind them up in the garbage disposal to clean it.
Bad onions that are still papery- boil with eggs to make a natural dye.
Avocado- When it goes bad, it's over. You can't save it.

Pizza, improvised

It was snowing very hard one Sunday that my boyfriend was visiting when I lived in Terre Haute, IN, and we couldn't get our cars out, much less drive on the roads, but I had little to nothing in my fridge. Our options were: call the dodgy Chinese resteraunt behind me again or walk to the Dollar Store about a mile away. We'd had bad experiences with the Chinese food before, so we grabbed out coats and hats and started trudging. We ended up with some string cheese, lunch meat (ham), canned pineapple, and a packet of pizza sauce mix (spices and a thickener.) During the football games that afternoon, I made a simple dough with the last of my flour and yeast. The packet spice mix called for tomato paste and water, but I used condensed tomato soup and no water instead, because that's what I had. We assembled the pizza out of those ingredients, chopping up and sprinkling the string cheese on the pizza, tearing up the ham and putting it on with the pineapple. I happened to have a little goat cheese in the fridge, so I threw that on my half since I don't care for ham. It was wonderful.

Souper Douper Soup

I usually stock up on canned vegetables at the grocery when they have a sale, and then stack the cans up in the back of the pantry. I don't eat enough vegetables so when the fridge gets empty, I find myself with some meat in the freezer and enough canned vegetables to build a fort. Some Souper Douper Soup is just the thing to use up that beef from the freezer, clear out several cans of vegetables, and use up the last little bits of other things.

• stew beef (or hamburger, etc.)
• olive oil
• a few stalks of celery
• an onion
• a few cloves of garlic(optional)
• 2 big cans of Veg-All
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• a bay leaf
• fresh ground pepper (to taste)
• a big pinch of thyme (about a teaspoon)
• a red pepper
• whatever else is in the fridge or cupboard that can be thrown in and might blend (a can of corn, can of weird zucchini, green beans, that half-empty bottle of V-8, a dash of catsup, etc.)
• Any other herbs that strike you (opt.) (Parsely is good, or a bit of marjoram)
• You could add a quarter to a half cup of barley, rice, kasha or pre-cooked pasta. Or any kind of beans (pre-soaked if dry, or canned). (optional)

You'll need a medium pan for browning the beef and some of the veggies and then a soup pot with a lid to cook it all in.

• Brown the meat in the pan in olive oil and move the meat to the soup pot.
• Chop up the celery, onion and garlic to your desired size and sauté them in the same pan. Move them over to the pot.
• Dump everything else in the pot and cover with water. Heat to a boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer for an hour or two.
• Serve with deli bread or old toasted hamburger buns and bits of cheese or another drizzle of olive oil (and red wine or cold beer!) It gets better the next day, too. Don't worry about making too much: it can be frozen in Cool Whip tubs, Tupperware, etc. for another meal

General Rule #2

If you think that something in your fridge is too bad to eat, don't use it. If it smells bad or rancid, or is the wrong color, throw it away. There are leftovers and then there are leftovers. If you've got leftovers, it's time to go to the grocery.

Easy cooking improvements

One easy way to make your food taste better is to use better spices. Our pick for spice brands is Penzeys Spices. Their quality is superb, and you can really taste the difference, especially in their mixes. They offer spices in large bags and mail-order, so you can easily stock up on often-used spices and herbs. Additionally, they give some suggestions for use of each spice or mix on the container label. An easy recipe is to just sprinkle some Italian Herb Mix or Lemon Pepper on chicken, bake with a little olive oil, and then squeeze a lemon (real or pre-juiced) over it before serving. Paired with a canned vegetable, this makes a tasty and quick meal.