A "RADISH"CAL EXPERIMENT

Old Mother Frugal is fascinated with how women during the Great Depression fed their families. In some cases, as with her own Old Frugal Grandma, fed other families as well as her own.

Old Frugal Grandma fed her family of four and other families in her apartment building. It was a walk-up in New York City and legend has it that she had her son as the runner up and down the stairs delivering food.

Her son is now 91 years old. If prodded, he will tell stories of his youth during the Great Depression.

From various readings, dandelion salads using dandelion leaves were common during those days. While staring at a bunch of radish on the kitchen counter that little bit of information posed the question in Old Mother Frugal’s mind…why are radish leaves tossed as trash? 

Dandelion greens are edible. Some greens gathered from foraging are edible. Beet greens are edible. Why are radish greens being tossed as trash?

A little bit of research and recipes pop up en masse for radish leaves or radish greens. The most popular of which appeared to be a sauté of olive oil and garlic, then adding greens.

With a sale on radish bunches, the radish experiment took off. Each bunch had 10 or 11 radishes to it with a bounty of leaves. This week, three bunches for $1.00. Not a heavy investment for a culinary experiment.

The leaves filled an 8-cup bowl. But as with any greens that cook, they shrink in size. In this case, 8 cups yielded a half-cup of cooked greens.

The culinary challenge began!

First experiment was adding the cooked radish leaves to an English Muffin breakfast sandwich with an egg and a slice of Baked Forest Ham deli meat. With such success, more radish bunches were purchased.

The next experiment was adding the leaves to soup. Old Mother Frugal found a bag of homemade gnocchi in the freezer. A meatless soup of cannellini beans, gnocchi and radish greens made for a delicious and eye-appealing entrée.

The last experiment was adding the leaves to a pasta recipe with cooked salmon, capers and olives in a marinara sauce.

So give that radish leaf a second thought before tossing into the trash. What you discard are valuable high concentrations of vitamin B6, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, calcium, and vitamin A. There are also antioxidants, protein and dietary fiber in radish greens as well as potassium and folic acid!

Apparently, Grandma knew best!

Sound the Bugle! Today’s tip: While the focus of today’s blog is the greens of the radish, the radish itself should not be overlooked as a source of wonderful nutrients.  A light summer salad of sliced radish coins with salt or with a vinaigrette dressing is a refreshing accompaniment to a meal and economical as well!

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW

Old Mother Frugal recalls reading books of Mother Goose nursery rhymes to her Mother’s Little Helpers when they were little babes. 

“Mary, Mary quite contrary…how does your garden grow?”

Ah…the tale of how the garden grows!

Fast forward several decades to an area in the yard designated for gardening.  Year in and year out, futile attempts are made to grow vegetables and herbs.

And year in and year out, the neighboring deer find their way to Old Mother Frugal’s small garden patch and nibble through her garden as if it’s their own appetizer patch.

This holiday weekend another attempt will be made to plant, with the intent to reap what will be sown. Besides the standard tomato, and zucchini plants, this year may include radishes. 

Old Mother Frugal has recently rediscovered this vegetable.  A local market sells them in bunches, right from the ground – mud included. That means, the greens are still attached to the tops of the radish.

When selecting radishes, search for the bunch with the most radishes. The price is the same whether the bunch has 8 radishes or 14 radishes!

Old Mother Frugal has been reading, with much interest, about foraging.  Locally, greens are treated with “fertilizer” from animals which prevent harvesting them for consumption.  

Which cycles Old Mother Frugal back to the local market for her "greens".

When buying radishes by the bunch with greens attached, it may seem so easy to just discard the radish tops as trash.  But have you ever considered cooking them for use in a recipe?  Much like spinach, kale or any “greens”, radish tops are edible greens.

Old Mother Frugal has used them on egg sandwiches and in soups. They can be used in pasta dishes, to make pesto or as a vegetable side dish sautéed in olive oil and garlic. With a bitter taste to them, it may taste like a mustard green or broccoli rabe.  

Fifty cents is a small investment for a bunch of radish. Use the radish in a salad, or in a sandwich for added crunch or as a snack. The use the bonus radish greens for an entirely separate recipe.

The next time you are in your local market seek out these bundles of red roundness with green leafy tops.  If you really don’t like them, well…there is always compost for your garden!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip:  Buying seasonal fruits and vegetables are good ways to save money in your food budget.  In summertime, scoop out watermelon pulp; use the rind to make relish.  Lemon, lime and orange rinds make for homemade cleaners.  Begin to use all parts of your food items before you toss your money in the trash!

                                                         RADISHES

          

ICE WATER BATH

                                                                  

SAUTE IN OLIVE OIL AND GARLIC 

                             SERVE ON ENGLISH MUFFIN WITH HAM AND EGG

NEVER MIND CLOUDY, IT'S RAINING MEATBALLS

Meatball multiplication and division. It’s a problem that originated over 40 years ago.

As a young bride, Old Mother Frugal brought to her bride kitchen recipes from home.

Among those recipes was one for Italian meatballs.  It was most likely a recipe passed down from one generation of Italian mothers to another in our family.

Back from a most memorable honeymoon, it was time to begin testing those non-existent cooking skills with a basic meatball recipe.

When the first batch was done, there were 20 tennis-ball sized meatballs for the bride and her groom. That was Old Mother Frugal’s first lesson in freezer cooking “cook once/eat twice”.  Alas, what else does one do with all those meatballs!

Fast forward 40 years to a few weeks ago when those gastric juices beckoned for Italian Wedding Soup. 

The freezer was stocked with half pound packages of ground chuck but that was too much for the soup.

Only two adults were dining that night. Defrosting two hamburgers seemed to be the obvious solution.  From there began the formation of tiny meatballs for Italian Wedding Soup.

Here is where the multiplication and division came into play….

Two hamburgers weighed half pound.

D-u-h…yes, the same half pound weight as in the packages of ground chuck.  Half of those hamburgers, one-quarter pound or one hamburger, would have been sufficient to make meatballs to feed 2 adults.

By the time the meatball mixture was made and the meatballs rolled into dime size balls, there were no less than 41 tiny meatballs for 2 adults.  Meatballs had taken over the kitchen.

As was learned over 40 years ago, the cook once/eat twice strategy is a frugal path to saving time and energy.  Old Mother Frugal just needs to revisit the lessons from her youth  of multiplication and division!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s Tip:  Serving a homemade soup before or with a meal is a healthy meal extender when trying to stretch food dollars. Soup is very filling; you need less of your entrée when serving your family or guests.

IT'S THOSE LITTLE THINGS

When Old Mother Frugal’s “One and Only” Mother’s Little Helper was seven years old, she wanted a food item at the grocery store. It was explained that Old Mother Frugal had spent all the grocery money and she’d have to wait before we could buy more food. She was assured there was plenty of food in the house and she’d have to make another request, one which was already in the pantry. Those of you that are monthly grocery shoppers most likely can relate to such a conversation.

A few days later, “One and Only” Mother’s Little Helper came home from school with a stack of cookbooks from the school library.  It was a 2^nd grader’s contribution to the food situation at home.  There was bound to be something in those cookbooks that Old Mother Frugal could use to make her something special to eat without spending money at the grocery store.

It’s a favorite memory.  So thoughtful. It’s those little things that mean so much.

It’s also those little things of food items that can be made so much of as well.

Old Mother Frugal has a passion of no food waste.  

The problem…those little items in the freezer can easily get lost and unused which defeats the entire purpose to re-purpose!

Today that changed…all those little things came out of the freezer and into cooking appliances for re-purposing.  A small container of chopped spinach, leftover homemade ricotta, marked down pizza down will transform into a calzone or pizza.

Packages of cooked chicken bones and cooked turkey wings with some veggie scraps and leftover vegetables into the largest crock pot in the kitchen for a low and slow stock.

Scraps of pork from pork loins and Italian sausage went into a large pot of homemade red sauce and three loaves of stale bread into the oven to dry for homemade bread crumbs. 

Yes, all these years later and it’s still those little things that can amount to so much!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s Tip:  Take inventory of what is in your freezer by writing the items down on an index card and tape to the inside of your freezer.  As you add/remove items, update your list.  It serves several purposes.  First, you will know what you have on hand. Second, instead of having that dazed, "deer in the headlight look" of “what should I cook for dinner”, a quick glance of your inventory may spark an idea or two!

THE BORED ROOM

Oh gosh!  How many times did Mother’s Little Helpers utter the words “I’m bored” when they were youngsters?  I wish I had a nickel, as the saying goes, for every time that phrase came out of the mouths of those babes.

If Old Mother Frugal recited those words when she was a youngster, Old Grandmother Frugal would say “If you have nothing to do, I can find something for you to do”.  It usually was not fun and it always required an expenditure of much energy on my part. Dusting the baseboards around the house.  Ironing the pillowcases.  Drying the dishes.  Hanging the wash to dry. Folding the laundry.

Obviously, Old Mother Frugal’s boredom was to be relieved by any chore Old Grandmother Frugal did not care to do, or so it would seem. Keeping busy was key to avoiding unwarranted chores. If not busy, it was equally obvious that there was a chore to be done, you just didn’t know it!

To this day, Old Mother Frugal has to stay busy.  There is a reel going ‘round and around inside her head “if you have nothing to do, I can find something for you to do”.  There are lists of sticky “Post It” notes on the refrigerator, the kitchen cabinets, the counter top, the oven door and even a list stuck to coupon box for shopping. Lists of busy work because with aging, Old Mother Frugal can’t possibly remember everything!

It was well into adulthood before Old Mother Frugal understood the lesson she learned about boredom and staying busy.  Productivity improves one’s self-esteem.  A sense of “mission accomplished” is a sense of pride.  Old Grandmother Frugal knew that you can’t put a dollar price on something like that.

Sound the Bugle: Today’s tip – when life seems crowded with chores and busy work, set a block of time to allow yourself to work on that task.  Write down what needs to be done. Organize the list as which to do first, then second and multi-task whenever possible!  

                                       COOKING ON ALL BURNERS

                             
                                         LET APPLIANCES DO ALL THE WORK