Tips and tricks (or feed the piggybank too)

Recipes: Fresh fruit smoothies, Minestrone, Corn muffins

Don't you just hate it when you have to throw out food? It's so wasteful and unnecessary. When you're cooking for two, it happens pretty often that you can't eat a perishable food fast enough to use it all before it spoils. I've really put my freezer(s) to use to solve this problem. I'm lucky that I have a chest freezer as well as two refrigerator freezers, but even if you're dealing with just one normal refrigerator freezer, you can use these tricks.

Bacon

Take a pound of bacon for instance. Unless you're eating bacon and eggs every day (tut-tut, all that fat!), two people are probably not going to get through a pound of bacon before it goes bad in the refrigerator. And if you buy the half-pound package instead, it's going to cost a lot more. So here's what you can do: Open your pound of bacon when you get it home and take out two slices. Curl them into a circle and put them in a gallon freezer baggie. Then do that for the rest of the pound, separating it all into 2-slice portions and curling each one so it stays pretty much separate from the others. Then put the bag in the freezer. When you need bacon, you can easily separate out as many 2-slice portions as you need and either defrost them in the microwave, or, if you're using them for bacon flavor in a cooked recipe, chop them while frozen and use them as is.

Tomato Paste

Speaking of frozen, it just frosts me that most recipes call for a tablespoon or two of tomato paste, and yet the stuff comes in a 4 oz. can. Plus it spoils in a heartbeat even if you put it in a plastic container, but if you put it in the freezer, you can't get that one or two tablespoons of paste out when you need it because it's frozen solid. Drat. That, of course, is why the folks that invent these things put tomato paste in tubes. And what a surprise, it's a lot more expensive! Here's an easy way to use the tomato paste in the cheap little can, have it easily accessible, and still keep it fresh until it's gone: Once you've opened the can and used the tablespoon you need for your recipe, scrape all the paste left in the can into a quart freezer baggie. Leave a corner of the bag unsealed and carefully push all the air out before sealing completely. Then smash the paste in the bag until it's flat and about 1/4 inch thick. Put it in the freezer. When you need a tablespoon of tomato paste, it will be easy to break off a tablespoon-sized chunk.

Summer Fruit

This is definitely the time of year for fresh peaches, nectarines, and apricots plus all kinds of yummy berries. Wouldn't you love to have the taste of these delicious fresh fruits in the middle of winter too? Why not buy a case (usually 12) of peaches or a giant box of organic strawberries and freeze what you can't eat now before they get too ripe? Fruit is usually less expensive when you buy it in bulk rather than individually, although sure enough it all ripens at the same time. Here's how to keep it to use later: Slice the stone fruits and spread them out on a cookie sheet. Put it in the freezer and then slip the frozen slices into a gallon freezer baggie for storage. Or spread washed and stemmed strawberries or blackberries on the cookie sheet and then store them in a freezer baggie once they're frozen. Do the same for bananas that are getting too ripe - slice them and freeze them. Frozen fruit is great for smoothies all year long - you get the fabulous taste of the fruit when it was at its best, plus the cold of the frozen fruit chills the smoothie so you don't have to add ice and dilute the yummy-ness. Yay! Here's our recipe for fruit smoothies.

Fresh Fruit Smoothies (makes 2)

In a blender, combine:

• 12 ounces milk (1 1/2 cups). I use 1%, you can use whatever you like, including soy milk.
• A heaping 1/4 cup of protein powder. I use whey protein powder, which is sweetened with stevia. You can use another protein powder, like soy protein, and if it's not sweetened add a tablespoon of honey or agave.
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt, or lemon flavored, or whatever you like
• Half a banana, cut in chunks. These can be frozen or not. If not, then at least one of the other fruits should be frozen as the smoothie tastes best when cold.
• 4 or 5 slices of another fruit, frozen or fresh, like peaches, apricots, nectarines, pineapple or a handful of frozen or fresh berries, like strawberries, blueberries, blackberries.

Blend until foamy. Pour and enjoy!

One last tip and this one is a time-saver rather than a money-saver. Who loves to chop onions? And yet so many recipes call for it. Here's the easiest way I've found.

Chopped Onions

Cut off the stem end of a whole onion (not the root end, which holds the onion together). Turn the onion over and cut it in half through the root. Strip the outer peel off both halves of the onion.

Take one half and put it cut side down on your cutting surface. The root end should be on your left if you're right-handed, and on your right if you're left-handed. Slice into the onion at intervals all the way around, cutting almost to the root. Then slice crosswise across the onion, and all the pieces will fall to the cutting surface already chopped. Discard the root piece, then do the same for the other half, and you have an entire chopped onion in no time flat. Magic!!

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. One more tip . . .

Parmesan Rinds

When a piece of Parmigiano-Reggiano is finished and you can't grate or shred any more cheese off it, do you throw it out? NO! You save it wrapped in the fridge to use in soup. Throw it in and let it cook in the soup - it adds so much flavor! Then just take it out before serving. Yum.

The next recipe uses chopped onion, like many do, so you can practice. It also uses a Parmesan rind. This delicious minestrone, "big soup" in Italian, is a combination of recipes and techniques from Alice Waters and Marcella Hazan. It can be either vegetarian or not, depending on whether you add the optional sausage. Either way, it makes a wonderful light summer dinner, especially if you can use fresh vegetables from your garden. Or from the farmers' market. Let's cook!

Minestrone

• 1 14 oz can cannellini (white kidney) beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 medium red or yellow potatoes, cubed (you can leave the skins on)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• Piece of Parmesan rind, about 2 inches
• A handful of green beans, washed, tipped, and cut into 1-inch lengths
• 3 or 4 ripe Roma tomatoes, cored and chopped
• A big handful of kale or spinach leaves, washed and cut in ribbons
• 2 medium sausages, mild or hot, parboiled and sliced (optional)

Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the chopped onion and carrots and cook for 15 minutes.
Add the chopped garlic, the cubed potatoes, thyme, bay leaf, and salt and cook, stirring, for 5 more minutes.
Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil. When boiling, add the green beans and the Parmesan rind and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the tomatoes and the kale, if you're using that, and cook for 15 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Taste for salt and add a little if needed.
Add the beans and the cooked sausage, if using, along with the spinach, if you're using that instead of kale (spinach cooks much quicker than kale). Cook for 5 minutes. The minestrone should be thick, but if it's too thick, add a small amount of water.
Remove the bay leaf and the Parmesan rind. Serve in bowls with Corn Muffins (see below) and drizzle each bowl with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

Corn Muffins

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cornmeal
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 4 1/2 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1 egg, beaten

Turn the oven on to 350 degrees F to preheat.

In a large bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well with a fork. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter and egg - beat the egg into the milk/butter and add to the dry ingredients. Blend just until mixed...do not overbeat.

Spoon mixture into greased muffin cups. Bake at 350 about 45 minutes.

This recipe makes 9 muffins in my cast iron muffin pan (they are medium-large size). That's a lot of muffins for two people; however, they are delicious warmed up for breakfast, possibly with honey. They also freeze well in a freezer baggie, and then you can serve them by thawing them out for about an hour and heating them in a low oven.

If you use a muffin pan with smaller wells, adjust the baking time down a bit and bake until golden brown.