DIMDS in the kitchen...with less

I am a great one for bookmarking (and now pinning) recipes and projects to save for "someday" when I have the right tools/materials/space/time. But guess what? I hardly ever do. I watched my mom put aside projects and recipes that we didn't have the space or materials for my whole life and watched her never get around to them again. And you know what? It sucked, and she regrets it.

I felt the same way about home cooking, especially filling my freezer with delicious home-cooked convenience food so I could rely less on cans and drive-thrus. It would be great to have delicious, healthy, frugal food in the house at all times. It would be great if...(if I had the space, if I had a big freezer, if I had a bag sealer, if I had enough storage containers, if I had a week to do it and clean up, if we ate more casseroles) And then I kind of decided to just shut up and go for it. I took some of the recipes I had been meaning to try and decided to make them work, even the ones that call for a dutch oven, a food processor, or sizes and shapes of equipment that I don't have.

I bought a slow-cooker last year. It's kind of the wrong size for me, because five quarts is too big for 1 or 2 people, but it is awesome for a whole pork roast or beef roast. Which, in turn, is awesome for my freezer. Same with a whole crock of marinara or refried beans. Between the slow-cooker and the freezer, it is surprisingly easy to make home-cooked meals that I can pull out later at a moment's notice. I'm always surprised when I do it how easy it is, but I haven't quite made it a routine.

When I was going through a crazy cooking weekend recently, with 2 kinds of beans, marinara, plus dinner for 4 and a loaf of bread, I realized I didn't really have that many tools out. I kept out a cutting board, chef's knife, peeler, and my 9-inch cast iron skillet, which I have been carefully seasoning for about a year now. I have finally gotten it to the point where it cleans up really easily and it is basically everything good about non-stick with only a fraction of the worry about scratching it. During this weekend of mega-cooking, I went through every wooden spoon in the house and a couple of saucers-as-spoon-rests. And you know what? It all worked out just fine, and I managed 3 meals with only one load of dishes in the dishwasher.

Although I often pine for the day that I will have everything I could possibly want at my fingertips in my kitchen, I often come back to earth with a thud when I realize that someone (and it would inevitably be me) would have to wash all that fancy stuff and put it away again. And really, there are very few things I can't do with my simple kitchen equipment.

Here are what I believe to be the basics for Cooking It My Damn Self:

• Large skillet, stainless steel or seasoned cast iron (you can get old cast iron cheap from a yard sale or thrift store and re-season it)
• 4 to 6 qt heavy-bottomed soup pot
• A couple saucepans with lids
• Chef's knife, kept sharp
• Paring knife
• Cutting board - plastic goes in the dishwasher, which is great if you sometimes use it for meat, or vegetables that stain
• A set of wooden spoons
• A set of rubber spatulas
• Can opener
• Vegetable peeler
• Cheese grater
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons

When the time comes, it's nice to have a potato masher (for potatoes or beans), a whisk for baking, some baking pans, and I do love my slow cooker. But I could eat pretty well with none of these things. Luckily, I once had a roommate who foolishly bought lots of expensive kitchen stuff and then flew to another city to become rich and famous and left me lots of nice things. I've also gotten some fabulous gifts, like my chef's knife, a set of cookie sheets and some mixing bowls that have made my cooking easier and more pleasant. Other than that, the cheap stuff and hand-me-downs have held up just fine, thanks.

My kitchen is by no means complete. There is still a list of things I would love to have that I think would let me cook different kinds of food, or in more appropriate quantities. For example, I have my mother's old Kitchenaid, but the attachments got lost when one of us moved and need to be replaced. If I had an stick blender I would be the smoothie QUEEN! If I had a food processor, nothing would stand between me and a freezer full of pesto. I could even use a second loaf pan in case I ever decide to double my bread output.

But for now, I'm happy with my fairly simple little kitchen. What kitchen essentials can you not live without? What has turned out to be a waste of money or space?

Slow Cooker Marinara

My new blog crush is Budget Bytes. I referred to Beth's recipe for crockpot refried beans when I went bean crazy recently, and I pinned her black bean quesadillas and slow cooker marinara, among other recipes. Now I am drooling over her no-knead breads, so jealous of how fluffy they are!! (My last few loaves have been a little dense, but tasty.)

One feature I love on her site is the cost breakdown for her meals. I'm on a self-imposed low food budget, and I'm trying to do as much make-ahead convenience food as I can for when my school and work schedules pick up in the fall.

I decided to try the Budget Bytes slow cooker marinara, since I had the crockpot out from yesterday's beans, anyway. Plus I am having fantasies about freezers full of homemade food.


I increased the recipe based on what I had, so I used:
2 large cans (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
1 large can tomato puree (what's the difference in terms of how they work in a sauce? no clue.)
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 yellow onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
3 bay leaves
fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

I chucked everything in the slow cooker except the basil, and set it on low for 8 hours. There were 2 reasons for waiting on the basil. First, I didn't want to cook fresh herbs in the slow cooker for 8 hours, because I thought it would be a waste. Second, I didn't have pants on anyway and the basil is growing out back.

The cost came out a bit lower than the Budget Bytes' breakdown, not that I'm competitive or anything, mostly because I got my tomatoes on sale.
3 cans of tomatoes, $0.67 each = $2.00
1 can tomato paste, $0.50
2 onions, who knows, can we call it $0.50?
Spices - let's call them a dollar so I don't have to do that math.

So for roughly $4.00, I have the equivalent of 3 jars and change of homemade pasta sauce. Considering I buy my jarred sauce at rock bottom prices, unless it's an emergency, I think I will probably break even on cost and come out ahead on flavor. I'll take it!

The verdict: It's smooth and has a deep flavor, a little bitter. It's a little much just on bread, but perfect on a bowl of pasta. I added some red pepper flakes and garlic powder at the end, and totally forgot to put the fresh basil in. I have to use some basil before the bugs eat the rest of it. Ugh. I bagged it in quart bags, squished them flat, and put 4 bags in the freezer, right on top of my crockpot refried beans. It's going to be a delicious fall!