Asymmetrical Information

One can eat cheaply without doing your own cooking if you know where to go and aren't entirely squeamish. For example, I have a Chinese takeout "restaurant" right around the corner where I can stuff myself for less than five dollars and not eat the same thing twice for a month. Unfortunately, by the looks of the place they have more important things to do than clean and their command of English is none too good--I guess "No mushrooms please" is a phrase they should learn.

One good sized stewing chicken that runs about $6 will provide PLENTY of protein for me for a week, plus a few days of soup from the stock. Am I on the dole, scraping by on gleaning rights? Nope, just rolled up excesses of food and drink (in reality, more accurately called "entertainment expenses") on the old VISA and now have scheduled a Year of Austerity. I spend about $100 a month on food, skimp on almost nothing... just avoid the overly-processed and have far greater dietary habits to boot. How hard was it? Not.

I spent years trying to get my teenagers interested in cooking at home. The reason? "You're going to be college students, and then you're going to be recent graduates in your first job, and you're going to be poor!" Maybe not grinding poverty, but eating out is not something that you can afford too often at that stage of your life. Most of the time I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall. But this year my oldest has moved off campus, and I get regular e-mails asking for recipes and instructions.

I suppose it's like much of what you know after you graduate -- you don't know the fact, but you know where to find it.

I prefer barley to rice. It's got more flavor (a bit nuttier, with oatlike overtones), more nutrients, a lot more fiber, and fewer calories per cooked volume.

Most groceries have it either next to the rice or next to the dried beans.

Forget it; this topic is yet another that has become largely faith-based. For many there is a quasi-religious need to believe that a substantial percentage of the population is unable (or without extreme hardship) to acquire sufficient nutrition, and to state otherwise is to violate a Tenet of the Faith, and thus threaten to shatter the prism through which they view the world. The last time you posted on this topic, someone of The Faith exclaimed that an entire roasted chicken was insufficient for a meal to feed four people. The topic is immune to rational discussion.

Just wanted to throw in my fast/easy/cheap concoction:

1 can of Mexican stewed tomatoes ($1)
1 can black beans, drained ($1)
3-4 cups cooked rice (less than $1)

Put the tomatoes and beans in a microwavable bowl and heat. Plate the rice, and pour the bean/tomato mixture on top. Delicious, nutritious and satisfying, 2-4 servings for less than $3.

If you're feeling really decadent, shred some cheddar cheese on top.

Will, I must say that I found your post unreadable, due to the overwhelming condescension exhibited towards the people you write of.

Yes, Barbara, and that is my intention.

Make 1 cup rice according to the microwave instructions on the box...

"Box"? Who are you, George Soros? I buy my rice in 25 lb bags!

When I was in College I was so disgusted by the meal plan my freshman year I figured out a way to get out of it my sophmore year and arranged to get the meal plan money from my parents. Since I ended up going seriously into debt my Freshman year ordering take-out I took the money my parents gave me and paid off credit card bills, meaning I had approximately $50 per month to buy food with.

I would buy a huge package of pasta and a vat sized jar of plain tomato sauce. I would keep on hand a head of garlic, a selection of spices and salt and peper and every day I would walk to the local market and buy one vegetable per day. That was dinner. I would also buy one meat product per week. Chicken breast was generally the most useful.

When I got board with that I would make Ramen Noodles ala Kate. This consisted of 1 package of ramen noodles (8 for one dollar). Boil the noodles as directed. When the noodles are ready drain them and put them in a frying pan with one egg, a little soy sauce, half the package of "oriental" seasoning provided and a little parmesan cheese. If I had an onion on hand I would soften some chopped onion in the frying pan and add that to the mix. I know it sounds gross but it was very tasty!

I supplemented my meager rations by attending departmental teas. The English department had a tea every Thursday, the French department had one every Tuesday, The Physics department had one on Wednesday and I could have all the fruit and cheese I could eat.

But that peas and rice thing sounds really good and I think I will try it.

Maybe its just my southwestern upbringing, but almost any rice dish can be made to taste wonderful if, prior to cooking, you chop up one or more serrano peppers and add a healthy dose of comino (cumin) to the mixture. Onions can help too, and they are one of the cheapest vegetables you can buy.

When I was a starving college student a lot of my meals consisted of single-pot rice mixtures based on this. You could put other vegetables such as squash or cabbage on top of the rice along with any meat you might be able to afford (chopped up, of course, so no part would be raw) and do the 20 minute rice cooking number. Once the 20 minutes were over I turned off the heat and let the pot sit covered for at least ten minutes so the rice would soak up the broth and the meat (if any) would continue to cook.

It was good, cheap, and fast. I still make it, but not every day like I once had to do.

Was that the real Barbara Ehrenreich who posted above? I didn't know such big shots visited this site. That does sound like something she would say.

Barley's good. Lentils are better. Brown lentils (not red!), rice, carrots, shallots, bit of flour for a roux, and some of those scarily cheap cured pork things you find in the dodgier parts of the butcher's case for flavor, and you've got a tasty stew that'll last you three days. Costs less than I spend on a decent martini these days, when you can find one.

If you really want to eat: a) nutriciously; b) cheaply; c) deliciously.....get yourself a significant other from China (preferably Sichuan province). Using vegetables, rice, noodles, spices, condiments, tofu and cheap cuts of meat (or seafood), it's simply astounding how well one can eat on less than $30 a week -- even in a an expensive east coast city.

I happen to have seen real food-poverty first hand, and it looked something like this: A sack of potatoes, tap water, and *maybe* one head of celery or a few carrots, shared among a family of seven, with the next payday more than a week away.

The other low-income persons/families I've known weren't even close to that, at least in terms of food security. Rent insecurity, utitlities insecurity, and those sorts of things were always one financial emergency away but a basic subsistence level of food was available, at least.

I spent years trying to get my teenagers interested in cooking at home.

I aquired that interest on my own (but with a competent mentor available -- aka "mom"), and can testify that if you pursue it far enough, it has another good use: One can eat many of the dishes that would cost $10-20/plate in a decent restaurant for under half the cost, at home.

(I rather wonder where Jane buys her meat, though. Ever since the mad cow epidemic, the market price on beef has been such that even a full $100 worth of filet mignon won't fulfill dinner for twelve unless we're talking about the "Aroma Diet," or else if half of the dinner party wants to go Vegan for an evening.)

Well, Sam's is a good place to start. Their meat is really good, and my family just bought a six-pound tenderloin butt of cow (the part that filets come from) for about sixty dollars. It was a damn good tenderloin butt of cow, too.

I've been poor (in college, and as a child), and my stepbrother is poor now (disabled, living on $330 a month). Food is not the problem. You can eat (not necessarily healthily) on $10 a week. Rent is the problem, laundry is the problem, heat is the problem, the phone bill, keeping the car working, and untold "emergency" expenses like buying new shoes when the last pair fell apart are the problem. 'nuff said.

It’s too bad our host does not live in Houston, Texas. We pay next to nothing for food. A store near our home sells a 10 pound bag of potatoes for only 99 cents. A dozen medium eggs go for a mere 58 cents. There is a “day old” bakery that practically gives away bread and other bake goods. What is the difference between fresh and day old? I haven’t the foggiest notion. They both taste the same.

I often prepare dinner for around 2 to 5 people. Only the better cuts of steak push the costs up enormously. Other than that, I spend no more than about $3.50 per person. Some pasta dishes bring down the cost to $1.50, including dessert.

"Just wanted to throw in my fast/easy/cheap concoction:

1 can of Mexican stewed tomatoes ($1)
1 can black beans, drained ($1)
3-4 cups cooked rice (less than $1)"

"2-4 servings for less than $3"

Wow, you must live in an expensive area of the country. In Houston, I can get the cost down to about $1.50 for the same items.

Anonymous: I don't know about filet mignon (raw hamburger isn't at all to my taste), but for any cut I've ever bought, $100 would get more than 10 pounds of beef. That's enough for several dinners for 12, although you also need vegetables (cheap) for vitamins and starchy foods (very cheap) to add calories.

About 1/4 pound of meat fills a persons requirement for protein (even assuming that the rest of the diet is utterly protein-free, which isn't true except for sugar, lard, and beverages). More meat might taste good, but it's just burned for calories or converted into fat for storage. Is filet mignon over $30/pound?

Barbara Ehrenreich needs a logic refresher - if Will's post was unreadable, how could she determine its tone?

(please read the above in a condescending tone)

Risi Bisi (rice and peas)

1.) Over medium heat, melt 2 tbs. butter and 1 tbs. olive oil in a soup pan.

2.) When foam subsides, sweat 1 small onion, chopped, in pan.

3.) Raise heat to high, and add 1 cup uncooked split long-grain white rice, and saute for 1 minute until some of the grains turn translucent(watch it close...don't burn the rice!!)

3.) Quickly add 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock/broth and 3/4 cup of a delicate, dry white wine (an inexpensive frascati or soave will do).

4.) Add 3/4 cup of frozen peas and 1/2 tsp. of salt.

5.) Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover tightly with lid. Cook for about 20 minutes. Should come out ever-so-slightly soupy, a la risotto.

6.) Add parmesano just before serving.

Okay. Now I'm hungry.

I learned to cook once I joined the Boy Scouts and found the patrol managed to burn hot dogs and beans! But I came from a large family, so I still have a hard time cooking for only two. When I make spaghetti sauce, I use a #10 tin of sauce plus a #10 tin of whole tomatoes. A couple of chopped onions and some diced garlic cloves. Add the usual spices. Simmer for a couple of hours on the weekend. Can be varied with meatballs, sweet Italian sausage, or plain hamburger meat and/or chicken. The sauce, due to its acidity, will keep for a month in the frig. Not counting the meat, the cost is under $10 for approximately 12 quarts worth. (I use one of my 20 quart pots so I have room to add the meat once it's cooked.) With meat, you have about 16 quarts.

Spaghetti sauce is really easy to make and also easy to vary. Use it on pasta, for lasagna, chicken parmigiana, etc.

Yeah, try eating cheap when you're on a low-carb diet (and don't snicker about that- it's doctor's orders for me). Only thing on Jane's menu I could touch is the chicken. My goal is $5/meal. Living in Boston, that's around half of what it costs at the schwarma stand so it makes a difference, but not as much.

Parker, I think what she must have meant was that it was not graspable. As the Not Late but Evermore Great Ed Koch likes to say, "I can explain it to you. I can't understand it for you."

But Jane, why the packet of instant oatmeal? Is it a storage issue? If not, you can throw a half-cup of water, quarter-cup of quick-cooking oatmeal, and (opt.) a pinch of salt in the 'wave for one minute (in a bowl of course, you lurking smart-alerks out there, and covered - I have great cereal bowls just the right size to be covered with a saucer if I don't feel like plasticizing my breakfast or wasting my precious expensive baking parchment), and achieve the same results in the same amount of time. If it's flavorings you need, heck, throw in some cinnamon and brown sugar and pecans and maple syrup and jam and applesauce and vanilla and... Um, maybe I should be saying "or." With dry flavorings like sugar and spices, you could even premeasure the whole (dry) works into your own "packets" - zipper sandwich bags or other small containers, or even the bowls you'd use if you have a few - and "just add water," as they say.

And try it made with milk instead, if you consume dairy. YUM. Just don't boil the milk - one minute per half-cup should be just about right for getting it hot enough to "steep" the oats.

The other thing you can do more easily with non-packaged oatmeal is to eat steel-cut (Irish) oats, which are expensive and do take longer but add a texture and nuttiness that's a fine treat. You can pre-soak them overnight to reduce morning cooking time.

And finally, if you should chance to go wild and make oatmeal for the whole household and then everybody wakes up and says, "Just coffee for me, thanks," the leftover cooked oatmeal makes a KILLER whole wheat bread, the recipe for which I'm happy to share. REALLY hungry now.

I like the flavourings, which is part of it. The truth is, I'm trying to switch to a higher fibre breakfast, but I've never really gotten into oatmeal. I'm trying to make the transition via instant oatmeal, which I'm currently making in the microwave. When I've really gotten to like it, the eventual goal is to make myself steel cut oatmeal in the mornings, with a little maple sugar or fruit.

But I'd love that whole wheat bread recipe, if you'd like to share. Post it here, if you like, or email me if you'd rather keep it secret.

My favourite winter cheap supper is like Denise's a grain/bean combo. Prices here are typical supermarket value-range type prices.

1/2 onion (5p)
1 can plum tomatoes (19p)
250g pasta quills (10p)
Beans, pre-cooked at home from 150g dried (20p)
Small amounts of oil, salt, pepper, herbs.

Start the pasta per package instructions. Chop onion and fry in a little vegetable oil. Crush tomatoes and add to onions, also add bay leaf, oregano, etc. to taste. Add cooked beans. Simmer for 15 minutes or more. When pasta is done, drain pasta and add. Correct seasoning.

Serve with half a loaf of homemade bread (about 5p made with cheapo white flour).

Feeds two adults (with some left over for tomorrow's lunch), for 59p (about a dollar).

I bought a small chicken for Christmas for £2 and it held out for 2.5 meals (and we ate a lot on Christmas. The 0.5 is for the chicken stock into which I put a lot of vegetables as well as the last of the meat).

Parker, read the original discussion a bit further down the page that led to this one. Will made the same comment word-for-word about "my" book.

Mindles or Jane could easily out me by IP address if they chose. In the interests of fun, I hope they won't. I won't be posting again.

I'm interested and amused by those of you who think the "poor" should cook their expensive, pre-packaged food items in their non-existent microwaves.

Do you actually understand what "poor" means? I mean...while you can easily turn rice and some vegetables into a gourmet meal with the addition of a few spices, you have to be able to afford the spices first, don't you?

A couple of the commentors here do seem to understand the concept "poor" but most of you don't.

Anne, more than 74% of poor people in this country own microwave ovens. As it happens, I don't; it's an unnecessary expense, and it wouldn't fit in my tiny apartment anyway. I used the one at work, and having worked both blue collar and white collar jobs, I can safely say that rare is the workplace without one.

Besides which, that dish works equally well on the stovetop, taking only a little extra time to bring the water to a boil.

Yes, there are people with no access to either a stove or a microwave. But those people are usually homeless, or living in some sort of assisted living facility, and they have much bigger problems than finding a thrifty food plan.

Herbs and spices are pretty cheap at the ethnic stores and street markets, too. I haven't priced it out lately but I doubt I spend more than £20 a year on herbs and spices, counting fresh ginger, garlic, horseradish and coriander, and also the packets of seeds for the windowsill herbs I grow.

It's hard enough to get educated, middle-class professionals to make smart choices about food. How do we expect poor people, many (if not most) of whom are poor precisely because they make stupid choices on a much larger scale than salad vs. cheeseburger, to be any different?

I will listen to people trying to improve poor peoples' diets when they figure out how to get them to hold regular jobs and not have babies when they are 16.

-cwk.

Snob -- That was the point of the original discussion, whether (1) cheap food can't be found or (2) that one big hurdle for the poor is judgment combined with lifestyle expectations.

I agree with you that judgment is a huge factor. The very existence of the rent-to-own industry is testimony to the level of judgment of many of this nation's poor.

Snob: There's the rub now isn't it, but this whole discussion stems from an earlier post.

And don't let the lefties hear you saying that people should suffer the consequences of their own poor decision-making skills, they're liable to call you a facist.

Around here lots of the cheaper apartments even come with microwaves.

Don't knock vegetarianism as a way to eat cheap, either. I know, I know... people must have their meat. I don't object. But if you came to my house, you'd see pretty good impersonations of all sorts of meat-based meals. I'm not talking just tacos, either. My meat-eating relatives love to come over for dinner. :)

Anne, there are indeed people too poor to be able to buy a microwave oven, or even to have access to a stovetop. These people have no way of picking and choosing what they get to eat, and anyone who attacks them for eating what they can, whenever they can, is a heartless idiot.

But that category contains very, very few people. If you can buy a color TV, you can buy a microwave. (Some ridiculous fraction of poor households contain a color TV — 97%?) Even if you can't buy a microwave, you likely have a stovetop. If you have a stovetop, you can make nutritious and varied and tasty meals extremely cheaply. Really, with a fridge, a freezer, a stovetop, and the lousiest supermarket on earth, you can feed yourself cheaply and well if you know how.

The interesting question is why no one is interested in teaching the poor how. If the problem really is that they simply don't know how to take advantage of the food resources that are there, isn't this the very best possible opportunity to make a maximum of difference with a minimum of outlay? I don't understand why this isn't an obvious project.

I don't mean any obnoxious business of badgering people into relinquishing their Big Macs; I just mean making information available about how to cook good, nutritious, cheap, tasty food using rudimentary kitchen implements and staples you can get from any grocery store. I am afraid that the activist instinct doesn't lead that direction; the activist instinct is to sue McDonald's, which isn't exactly to the purpose. Lawsuits are much more colorful than free cooking classes. Also more lucrative.

More on Irish/steel-cut/pinhead oats here. They're delicious with butter, honey, and yellow raisins, mmmmmm. You'll never go back to rolled. You can buy them bulk at your local healthfood shack for about 75¢ a pound give or take.

The place to buy cheap meat in NYC is Western Beef.

My microwave cost under $40 at Walmart. It's a small one, but quite adequate for me and my wife. And before you tell me about all the poor people that can't afford $40, find out how much they spend on cigarettes, TV's, shoes, soda, etc.

Now, I have sympathy for some of the ones that don't have a place to keep a microwave or a power socket to plug it into. That is, if they're homeless because housing costs more than their job pays, after numerous regulations have reduced the supply of housing and increased the cost of construction. OTOH, some of them are in the streets because they like living that way.

What's the difference between Henry David Thoreau and a modern day "shopping cart lady"? There was no social services to harass him. There was no zoning commission or building inspector to tell him he couldn't live in a structure based on a packing crate. And when he did need to earn a few dollars, he could find odd jobs day by day or hour by hour, without having to show a social security card, have parts of his wages sent to several different government accounts, fill out a bunch of paperwork, and all the other things that make hiring short-time workers too much hassle for the employer.

A nice piece of london broil usually goes for between $1.90 and $3.00 a pound at the stores I go to. There are a variety of other good meats to be had for up to $5.00 a pound.

markm - That's is actually the sort of thinking that made a conservative/libertarian type out of me in the first place. I read Walden in high school, loved it, and gradually came to discover that one is simply not allowed to do that anymore.

Jane, I'll post that bread recipe tomorrow AM if you wish; a sleeping baby has my arm pinned at present and I can't get to it easily. But I ought to go on a bit about making real wholegrain bread and how to deal with bread flour without over-flouring during kneading and such, so as not to end up with a dry loaf. So if you'd rather I didn't take up the comment space, let me know & I'll email instead (this to any interested person).

Re: instant oatmeal, if you're gonna, I recommend Quaker's "for women" variety (what a marketing ploy!) in the vanilla-nut-or-something-like-that flavor - it's delicious! But I hate rewarding them for trying to catch me in their dayspa-and-minivan web, so I don't buy it any more. (Yeah, I do drive a minivan. Sigh...)

First of all, 90 percent of discarded microwave ovens either work or need a new fuse (specialty item, almost $2.00 at the appliance parts store). I've never bought a vacuum cleaner either.

For us, the key has been knowing how and where to shop.

How to shop consists of maintaining a price database (spiral notebook or good memory will suffice) so you know if a "sale" price is actually a bargain.

Here in Milwaukee, we buy most of our meat at Lena's Market, where we are just about the only white customers. This week they have pork steaks for ninety nine cents a pound, and boneless skinless (why pay for that stuff) chicken breasts for a buck sixty nine. A while back we stocked up on pasta at the Savon warehouse in the factory row between downtown and the expressway. We got twenty pound boxes of bronze die radiatorri (holds sauce like nothing else) for thirty nine cents a pound.

Note that we do this out of preference and habit; we are debt free with a mid-six figure net worth.

A little olive oil, some raw garlic and a few dried chili flakes in the bottom of a bowl are pasta sauce just waiting to happen. Throw in hot pasta fresh from the pot and you've got dinner. If you really want to go nuts, add some dried oregano and grated parmesan. If I were lucky I'd find a cheap source for real parmesan, but even the grocery-store stuff is better than nothing. Dried pasta is cheap, and it keeps forever so you can stock up when you've got cash or it's on sale … or, in the best possible case, both.

I also approve of steel-cut oats, but I'm kind of surprised that nobody has mentioned grits or polenta. Cornmeal plus some kind of liquid equals food. It's not glamorous food, but it's cheap and almost infinitely variable.

I know this isn't precise terminology, but just to keep it straight I refer to cornmeal cooked in water as polenta and cornmeal cooked in milk as grits. Grits are a great alternative to oatmeal in the mornings; I like mine with butter and plenty of black pepper. But polenta is where the real fun is.

Basic polenta is just cornmeal cooked in water in the same ratio as oatmeal: four parts water to one part cornmeal by volume. By itself it's very bland, but if you're skillful with the salt it can be pretty tasty.

If you have it, add grated cheese and some butter. If you really want to go crazy, start with some onion or garlic (or both) sauteed in olive oil, then add the water and bring it to a boil, then add the cornmeal and stir, then add the cheese. Darned tasty. And you can add practically anything else you have. One time I made a polenta with chopped stuffed olives and a tablespoon of mustard. Delicious? Heck no. But it fed me.

I like to mix steel-cut oats and cracked wheat (a half-cup of each, two cups of milk; let soak overnight in the frige, microwave in the morning, breakfast for two) with dried or fresh fruit.

If you use fresh blueberries, add them after the cooking; they "explode" and you get a blue soup (which is great for the kids!)

I have been experimenting recently in food that can be prepared only with the cooking utensils of a typical hotel room (sink with running hot and cold water, electric kettle, a surface you're willing to cut on, two cups and saucers), my Swiss Army knife (yes, I check luggage) and a plastic spoon.

This is not so much driven by poverty as a dislike of much of what makes up a hotel breakfast and some moral objections to paying so much for what I would eat, even if it's not me but the company that's paying. And yes, I do eat weird things for breakfast. But the methods apply regardless of the reason you lack cooking utensils.

Couscous is best. Unlike rice it cooks just by adding boiling water and letting it sit. It does increase in size nicely (it's great for hiking, you don't need to carry extra fuel to keep the water boiling like with rice). Apply a store-bought sauce on top for a meal that's filling and while not as cheap as making a sauce from scratch, cheaper than McDs. Also faster - cooking couscous is not that much slower than making a cup of tea. Or use Jeff's ideas for raw sauces. Raw vegetables add in the vitamins - I ate a lot of raw vegetables as a kid, not because Mum was trying to save money on fuel but because that was the only way one brother would eat most veggies.

Store-bought soup in a cup. They give the instructions on the packet. Ditto for those little packets of instant porridge (they say put in the microwave but they work just fine on the just-add-hot-water principle). 2-minute noodles will cook quite happily if you put them into the cups, add the boiling water and then cover the cups with the saucers and leave for about 10 minutes.

Dehydrated vegetables and fruit need longer rehydrating than the above, but if you take the time they can make the meal taste a lot better. Add to the top of the couscous/oatmeal/noodles.

Cheese, cut into slices with the knife, adds important fats & protein & flavour to the carbohydrate base. If the carbohydrate base is bread, no need to cook at all.

Presumably, you should be able to boil eggs by putting them in the kettle and taping the button down so it doesn't switch off once the water's boiling. This does depending on remembering to bring tape with you, which is why I can only offer this from theory.

If you have to have meat, small slices of salami or other dried meat added in do drive up the cost a bit, but reassure any determined carnivores that they are not actually vegetarians.

If you are feeling extravagant, peanuts also add fats, protein and a change of flavour.

I have been feeding myself breakfast and lunch for £7-£8 for 5 days for a week, and since I'm not actually paying for it I've been extravagant on the quality of the cheese and bread. If I replaced each breakfast and each lunch with a hamburger and small fries from McDs it would cost £14.90. It would be rather boring to eat dinner as well on the same principle, but no more boring than the voluntary diet of certain relatives of mine.

If only I could figure out how to cook potatoes (in this case, dehydrated is not an option).

Tracy:

On boiled eggs, the best way to hard-boil an egg (which should mean that soft-boiled would be even easier), even if you have a stovetop, is to submerge the egg(s) in cold water in a heavy saucepan so that they're covered by at least an inch of water, and turn on the heat. As soon as the water boils, turn off the heat, cover tightly, and let sit for (I think this depends on altitude:) 10-15 minutes. I usually do about 13 minutes, unless I get distracted or impatient. The egg(s) will be perfectly hard-boiled in that time, with no sulfur ring around the yolk and no exploded eggs, esp. if you're vigilant about catching the pot as soon as it starts to boil.

So... this is theoretical too because I don't own an electric kettle... but to soft- or hard-boil an egg in one, it stands to reason that if you fill the kettle completely (so you have plenty of water to hold the heat, in lieu of the "heavy saucepan") after putting in the egg(s), you don't need to tape the switch down to keep the kettle boiling. Just don't remove the kettle lid until however much time you require for a boiled egg has passed.

I would LOVE it if someone with an electric kettle would try this out...

Oatmeal bread recipe:

This is a long explanation and isn't for the faint-hearted, but this bread can be for the pressed-for-time if you have several short bursts of time during the day, or if you let the dough rise in the fridge overnight.

1 1/3 cups raw rolled oats (or 2/3 cup raw steel-cut oats)
2 c. boiling water
1 T. salt

Cook oatmeal in water until it begins to thicken. Add salt and set aside for several hours or overnight. OR, use the equivalent amount of leftover oatmeal (sorry, it's been a long time since I've made this bread and I don't remember what volume of COOKED oatmeal results from the above amount of RAW oatmeal), adding extra salt once you've determined that everyone's done with breakfast.

2 t. active dry yeast
1/2 c. warm water
3 T. honey
1/4 c. oil (optional)
5 c. finely ground whole wheat BREAD flour (not whole wheat PASTRY flour or just whole wheat FLOUR - you need the extra gluten from BREAD flour to get a nice high rise out of a fully whole-grain bread recipe)(or I guess you could add gluten, but I've never done that, so you're on your own there)

Dissolve yeast in water. Mix honey and oil into oatmeal. Add oatmeal mixture and yeast mixture to flour. This dough will be stiff. The best (or at least most fun, but also messiest) way to combine all these is to mound the flour on a clean board or counter, make a well in the middle, glop the wet ingredients into the well, then - with your forefinger - start swirling around the edge of the well, drawing in more and more flour until the wettest part of the wet is no longer going to bust through the walls of your flour volcano and flow all down your cabinets.

Knead at least 10 minutes by hand (I'd give it 5-7 by machine) before assessing the need for more water - as the gluten develops in the dough, the dough structure will improve, so if you add water too soon you may end up with sticky heavy dough. Depending on your flour's dryness (i.e. age, etc.), the dough, though stiff, may already be sticky; again, don't add more flour until you've kneaded a good bit. I usually use a dough scraper in the early minutes of kneading, and/or just pick up the whole sticky mass and whap it down on the counter repeatedly to get the gluten going.

If after 10 full minutes of hand-kneading the dough is still very stiff and hard to squish (I love these technical cooking terms), wet your hands and knead in the water on your hands. Keep doing this, just using the water from wet hands, until the dough is springy but not aggressively rubbery. To add flour, just dust the board and knead that amount in, until the dough texture is the same. I wish I could demonstrate, but this is the best description I can come up with.

Anyway, 20 minutes' hand-kneading total. Put the kneaded dough into an UNgreased bowl (no need for the grease, really), cover with a clean towel, and let rise out of drafts for about 1 1/2 hours. When you poke it at this point, the indentation should remain but the dough should not deflate by itself.

YOU get to deflate it. I use a rubber spatula just to press down the dough, then run the spatula around the edges of the bowl. Try not to break the nice smooth top surface of the dough - it's a great net of gluten that helps support the bread as it rises. So reform it into a ball by sort of tucking the edges back under the dough, keeping this smooth surface intact on the outside of the ball as much as possible, and let it rise again for about 45 minutes.

Deflate again, divide in half, and "round" each half: with the smooth top surface of the deflated dough facing upward on the counter, form your hands into the gesture of a fisher-person demonstrating the size of his/her catch, or Bush I on SNL saying "not gonna do it." Press the sides of your hands down on the edges of the deflated dough, then push those edges under the middle of the dough like "He's got the whooooole world... in His hands." Pinch the dough edges together with the sides of your hands. Rotate the dough a little; repeat. Keep doing this until you've created a puffy "mushroom" of dough with a little stump of pressed-together dough on the underside. This step helps you get extra lift out of the dough.

Let the divided dough "mushrooms" rest for about 10-15 minutes, covered. Shape the dough into 2 loaves, either in greased pans or on a greased baking sheet. Optional: soak some more rolled oats in warm milk for a few minutes, brush the milk on the loaves, then sprinkle the soaked oats on them.

Proof these loaves for 20 minutes or so (let them rise a little more), then bake about 45 minutes in a well-preheated 350-degree oven.

MUCH detail. But if you're able to make out my meaning in the detail, this is just about the lightest, tenderest, most delicious wholegrain bread I've ever had. I got the recipe years back from a cookbook of all-wholegrain breads, which emphasized the need to treat wholegrain flours differently from refined flours - hence all the extra shaping steps and such. I used to make it weekly for my family. Gotta start doing that again.

I have an electric kettle, Jamie, but I don't have any eggs right now. When I get some, I'll give it a try. It sounds like a great idea to me.

Markm,

Regarding Thoreau, you left out the part about his mother doing his laundry.

Michelle,

Who's attacking the very, very poor? I read all this as an attack on the idiots who claim the poor are being priced out of the food market.

Anonymous: I don't know about filet mignon (raw hamburger isn't at all to my taste), but for any cut I've ever bought, $100 would get more than 10 pounds of beef. That's enough for several dinners for 12, although you also need vegetables (cheap) for vitamins and starchy foods (very cheap) to add calories.

Any steak cut other than Eye of Round is running $10-15/pound at the major grocers here on the CO front range. Sam's Club and Costco might be noticably lower, but I haven't looked.

About 1/4 pound of meat fills a persons requirement for protein (even assuming that the rest of the diet is utterly protein-free, which isn't true except for sugar, lard, and beverages). More meat might taste good, but it's just burned for calories or converted into fat for storage. Is filet mignon over $30/pound?

Hmmm...I may have missed something here, and I certainly don't seek to promote gluttony, but when one throws a dinner party for 12 and serves a choice cut of steak as the meat dish, does one issue 1/4-pound servings to each guest and explain that it meets their protein needs?

Anonymous: I don't know about filet mignon (raw hamburger isn't at all to my taste), but for any cut I've ever bought, $100 would get more than 10 pounds of beef.

A quick FYI. "Raw hamburger" is usually called steak tartare when it's being fancy. :) Filet mignon. is a very tender cut of beef, and is one of the most expensive cuts. Typically it runs abour $15/lb in my local grocery stores.

Boy, anony, I want to be invited to YOUR dinner parties! You serve steak for 12?!? My dinner party menus are generally predicated on two main factors: how much prep-ahead time versus last-minute attention is required, and the best taste per $ I can come up with. Last time we entertained, it was chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, which is pretty much ALL prep-ahead-and-throw-in-oven, serves 8 or so hungry people, and, since it can be made with all legs and thighs (and is IMHO more flavorful for it) and is appropriately served with crusty bread and a salad, is a cheap centerpiece. It filled my requirements beautifully. Plus it helped me use up a bottle of vermouth that I'd never DRINK, for sure.

Please note, if any of you ever come to my house for dinner, I cook inexpensive food with at LEAST as much care and forethought as I'd put into expensive food (we just don't eat expensive food), so I beg that you not take offense if this dish turns up on the menu - it really is delicious.

I just got back from Kroger (I live in central Ohio). Cuts of beef other than rib steak, tenderloin etc. (i.e. prime cuts for grilling and eating without further treatment or long cooking) such as chuck, brisket, london broil, flank steak etc. were all around $3.00-3.50/lbs.

Triticale: if you want bonless/skinlees chicken breasts and you want to save money. Buy breasts with bones and skins and remove them yourself. It just takes a couple of minutes. Save the bones and skin in a plastic bag or container and freeze them. When you have accumulated a bunch of them you will be able to make a really super broth.

Otherwise, IMHO, chicken cooked with the bones and skin on is jucier and tastier.

Oh the art of kitchen-free cooking. MFK Fisher's "How to Cook a Wolf" may be of interest

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0865473366/002-7424462-2434418?v=glance

I personally try to avoid freeze-dried vegetables, as they have a lamentable effect upon my digestive system, but you can do a lot with raw vegetables, a veggie peeler, and a device that brings water to a boil (like a coffee maker that boils water). For example, carrots: you use the peeler to render the carrots into little shreds, pour the boiling water over, and the carrots are warm and cooked al dente.

My teen daughter's schedule from Jan until Dec. meant that we were not eating most meals at home. I started scoping out the storefront restaurants in our orbit. The burrito place was glad to learn about lettuce wraps--just like a burrito only you subtract the tortilla and add an iceberg lettuce leaf. Julio said it became a best seller at lunch with the Atkins crowd. The $5.00/two entry Chinese place turns into 4 meals, which is an acceptable $ figure per meal, and the refrigeration needs are pretty easily met (I had a folding insulated bag and you usually can get ice at most places.) The other Mexican place had caldo de pollo most of the time and you could subtract most of the rice and add some of the chopped salsa veggies for a really good soup. For breakfast the squeeze tubes of peanut butter with Oat O's or something of that nature is pretty good, combined with apples or oranges. We also added fruit salad from time to time.

My daughter and I also take pleasure in being "regulars" at the little non-chain restaurants. There's something about not being faceless, or part of a nationwide chain, that is satisfying.

Cook your rice or pasta, toss some salsa on top, and eat it. Got that idea from James Beard years ago, and I've done it many times since then. Yum.

Jamie - good tip about the boiling eggs in a kettle - though the 'tightly covered' bit implies it might require covering the spout, which brings us back to the remembering to bring tape issue.

I'm off that contract now, but will remember to try it again next time I'm cooking in a hotel room.

Tracy -

I think the heat loss thru the kettle's spout would probably be offset by the added volume of water - or you could maybe stuff a clean something-or-other (freebie plastic shower cap, if it's a high-class joint? rolled-up hanky or paper towel?) in the spout AFTER the kettle boils and turns off. Please... not while it's boiling or coming to a boil. I hereby state that I have no responsibility for anybody blowing themselves up with an electric kettle while trying to boil an egg.

But I'm so eager to hear how this turns out!

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