Something Out of Nothing: A One Time Event

The roundup is up! Come have a look. Click Here! After due consideration, including consideration of my own laziness, I am hosting, for those who may be interested, a one time blogging event. I am particularly interested, myself, in the sort of recipe which is a happy lifesaver for an impecunious, struggling student, or anyone, such as yours truly, who is at the end of a pay period, and not feeling very flush. I think this event should be entertaining, and useful too. I hope so. This is what I propose:

I'll be looking for an email, by April 2nd, of the permalink to a post about your favorite, splendid and delicious bargain recipe. This should be something made with inexpensive, obtainable ingredients, and should not require much in the way of special equipment to prepare. I do not mean, however, that it should not be unusual. To the contrary, I'm hoping to see some exciting food I never would have thought of for myself. Nor should you feel that you cannot include a small amount of a more luxurious ingredient-as long as it can be obtained in small enough quantities to be affordable. (For example, you can get saffron in quite small quantities, and dole it out to good effect. There is, however, no quantity of beluga caviar which is affordable. Likewise, a recipe requiring a quarter of a cup of saffron, if such a thing exists, will cost the earth.)

The aim is to to assemble a collection which will be a boon to the starving student/artist...or anyone who likes to eat lovely, lovely food, and cannot, or cannot always, pay top dollar. Much of the very best food has been invented by cooks dealing with adversity and lean times. I'd like to see what we can assemble.

If you have already posted about your favorite, tried and true, delectable but thrifty dish, which is so wonderful and so cheap that you cannot top it, then you can send along the permalink to your previous post. Otherwise, please post by the April 2nd date, and email the permalink to lindy_toast at hotmail dot com. I will do a round up in the following week, and hope it will be of use to all of us. Show us how clever you are, and make something out of nothing, or nothing very much.

The empty kettle picture is a detail from a Chardin still life.

Comments

[Tania]

Great idea, Lindy! Even as I type this, I'm already trying to decide which of my thrify meals is the thriftiest, not to mention to tastiest. I will certainly be taking part!

[sam]

I just made something which fits the "thrifty" category which I am agoing to blog about because so many people asked me for the recipe. ALthough I will probably post it before the deadline, I will remember to send you the link and you can see if it is suitable.

[farmgirl]

What a wonderful idea! Now to think of a recipe. . . That illustration is beautiful, by the way. I love the colors.

[anapestic]

Here in the DC area, we can buy a dozen Beluga eggs for under a dollar. It's a good deal, but so far I've had very limited success with separating the yolks and whites for the itty bitty souffles.

[lindy]

Tania: I'm looking forward to your thrifty/delicious post.
Sam: I'm sure it will be just the thing. Actually, I kind of thought quite a few folks might have already posted about their favorite thrifty dish, which is why I invite everyone to send all those links anyway.
Hi Farmgirl: I added an annotation for the picture. I love Chardin still lifes (lives?) with food and the like. As far as I know, no chicken portraits, though.
'pestic-But you've never been one to shy away from a culinary challenge...and think of all the,er, craft projects you can make with the tiny cartons.

[Alanna]

Great idea! There's a wonderful little book/cookbook along the same lines, A Cookbook for Poor Poets (and Others).

[farmgirl]

I will have to investigate this Chardin. I am embarrassed (after all those art history classes) that the name is not ringing a bell. Oh, chicken portraits are a rare breed (ha ha ha--geez, now you've given me the chicken humor virus). I did just take three lovely photos of chickens this morning, but they're, um, those other birds. Realized I hadn't taken a single picture of them with the new camera. And they were posed so nicely in their sunny window. But I'm not saying I'm actually going to post it or anything. . . : )

[farmgirl]

That would (duh) be post them or anything. With all this round the clock lamb checking, my brain has turned to scrambled eggs. Ouch. That one hurt even me.

[lindy]

Alanna-Thanks for the visit. I hope you will be sharing your favorite poor poet meal.
Farmgirl-Egging me on? (Where do you suppose that expression came from?)

[reenie]

my sometimes favorite poor artist meal is:

A very large "Idaho" type baked potato, craked open and swathed with sweet butter, gray salt,and black pepper.....topped with an ex-tra large fresh poached egg!

with a side of wilted kale! and a good ale!

[Pamela]

What a great idea for an even, I'll get my thinking cap on. I made a Thai soup yesterday out of the contents of my fridge since the stuff needed to be used or get chucked out, would that count?

[lindy]

Reenie: Thanks for the idea, sounds simple and good indeed.
Pamela: Sure it would count, as long as the leftovers in the fridge were not fancy and expensive to begin with! Looking forward to hearing from all of you. Just send me your permalinks by April 2nd (I passed up April 1, figuring a round up would be work enough, without being fooled.) I will do the round up as soon as possible thereafter, but before the week is out.

[farmgirl]

Oh this is great news. I thought the deadline was today. I have the perfect recipe, planning to make it today. And then attempt to photograph it, LOL. I have developed a sudden fear of food photography. It has to do with my camera--it's incredible outdoors but has decided to be cranky in the kitchen. As I was washing dishes and staring out the window a little while ago, I actually considered photographing all finished dishes outside now! Anyway, I can't wait for this round-up, and I hope I get my entry done. You never know around here, though. . . : )

[Denise]

My submission for Something Out of Nothing is my lentil-broccoli salad. here is the link to the recipe on my food blog, What I'm Cooking Now:
http://whatimcookingnow.blogspot.com/2006/03/portabello-mushrooms-stuffed-with-warm.html

Denise

[lindy]

Denise-I just happened to spot this, and will include you in the roundup. But please, folks-if you have a last minute submission e-mail me-don't leave it as a comment! I will most likely miss it if you do. As I said in the post, email the permalink to: lindy_toast at hotmail dot com. Thank you.

[Riana]

HI! I just made Matzo ball soup out of practically nothing...and used the left over celery and radishes floating around the crisper to make the soup base.

http://garlic-breath.blogspot.com/2006/04/celery-matzo-ball-soup.html

['mouse]

Oh, darn, I'm here by way of Music and Cats and turns out I've arrived to the party late. I think I'll play along anyway and send in a belated entry if I can get one typed up.

[Rustie]

Hi ! Your site is very interesting. Thank you.

[lindy]

Hey 'mouse-I know you from Bakerina, no? Just send the link along if you like and I'll tag you on to the end of the roundup.

Thanks Rustie.