Polish Cabbage Soup

This is a tasty soup recipe from Poland that a friend sent me. Ethnic and inexpensive! 

1 pound kielbasa or other cooked, smoked sausage,cut into 1/2-inch slices
4 cups chicken stock
2-3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small head of cabbage, cored and shredded
1 large onion, chopped
2 tsp caraway seeds
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker or large pot.  Cook tightly
covered on high heat or simmer over a very low flame for 5 to 6 hours.
Serves 4 to 6.

This would be great with some homemade crusty bread and whipped herb butter.

Photo Credit: Bumbleybee

Photo Credit: Traveler’s Tales

What do you get when you take thirty separate travel stories from thirty separate writers, all focused on one of the romantic destinations in the world? A very objective snapshot of what it’s like to live there.

Having done so for two years myself, I enjoyed this book on a personal level. I think Italy is an absolutely magical place to live. Which is probably why my favorite excerpt is the interview with Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun.  Hearing my own thoughts echoed by a fellow expat made me long for an afternoon of wine tasting in the countryside again.
Other shorts that stick in my memory? One person’s dunk into the Grand Canal (nearly did that myself once) and the excerpt on what standing in line means in Italy. If you are planning a trip and want to get in the mood, or are interested in taking a stroll down an Italian memory lane, 30 Days in Italy just might be for you.

Want to celebrate seafood on a shoestring budget? With this entrée you’ll be dishing up romance and building up your travel account at the same time. Bonus? This is another one of those recipes you can basically eye-ball in order to come out with the batch size you want.

Two main keys to saving money on this meal? Bulk canned clams and DIY white sauce mix. Bulk canned clams can be purchased at either Sam’s Club or Costco. If you don’t have a large warehouse store near you, you can at least get the 28 ounce size cans of clams on Amazon. One large can get yield a large batch of creamy clam sauce from which the leftovers can be used for either chowder or dip. Talk about a multi-purpose recipe.

Here’s what you need: one giant can of clams (juice reserved), one package of reduced fat cream cheese, an amount of white sauce mix suitable for the size of the batch you are making, olive oil, dried Parmesan or Romano to taste, an optional amount of skim milk or fat free half and half,  sea salt and cracked pepper corns.

Mix the white sauce mix with the clam juice instead of water. This will really nail the flavor element without unnecessary salt additives from standard seafood bases. Add in the reduced fat cream cheese and allow to melt, along with any amount of the milk you feel is necessary to give you the desired “weight” to your sauce.  Too much sauce mix can easily result in a wall paper paste type of consistency, and if this happens, it is easily thinned out with milk. Add in the clams, a bit of olive oil and seasonings. You can either make this on the fly, or slow simmer in a crock pot, providing you don’t over-cook things until the milk solids separate. 

While certainly suitable for a fettuccini or linguini noodle, I feel penne is an often overlooked option for medium weight sauces. With this in mind, I served my most recent batch of white clam sauce with Garofalo’s new addition to their signature line, the whole wheat penne rigate.  The ridges as well as the hollow space inside the pasta make for an excellent vehicle of flavor. 

Looking for an affordable way to sex it up and take the entrée to the next level? Consider some chopped scallions or fresh parsley for a garnish, along with some freshly grated specialty cheese.  Serve with a nice organic white wine or a decent boxed blush spritzer. Then, meander out to the patio for at-home al fresco dining on the cheap.

When a colleague turned me on to Garofalo’s schiaffoni pasta as something to try out, I thought, how different can it be? In a word? Hearty. Even at a full 15 minutes in boiling water, this stuff was just reaching al dente. While the recommended sauce pairing was a tomato basil, I took one look at the size and shape of the noodles and knew it was going to require something way more hard core.

My answer?  A heavy meat-based vodka sauce with crushed tomatoes, olive oil and a liberal dose of Italian seasoning. Basically the kind of sauce you can eyeball, but if you need the full specifics, here’s a link. Just scroll down to the bottom of the article.  I also served a homemade rosemary-thyme seasoned batter bread with a bottle of Our Daily Red, a decent organic wine we drink a few times per week.   

Between dinner and desert, we could barely walk. I’m telling you, this schiaffoni is certainly not for the faint of pasta heart. My husband’s just about the most hard core spaghetti fan I know and usually has no problem inhaling a couple or three plates of even the heaviest pasta dinner. He was hard pressed to finish plate one, even as much as he loved it.

The oval shaped tubes are already quite large, and cooking of course enlarges them a fair bit. We ended up with individual noodles that were about the size of traditional raviolis only much sturdier as I mentioned. Yummy for sure, and definitely for the heartier sauce recipes in your repertoire. So the next time you’re having some serious eaters over for dinner and want to make sure you’re on you’re  “A-game”, try out the schiaffoni. They’ll notice for sure.

I admit it. I’m an Italian food groupie. So whenever I can incorporate the flavors of the country I love with time saving simplicity, I go for it. Such is the case with this super simple carbonara.

What you need:

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  1 pound of spaghetti, a handful or two of minced left over sale priced dinner ham, olive oil, minced garlic, three large eggs, one cup of grated Parmesan cheese from the pasta aisle, one quarter cup of skim milk. (I use premixed powdered to save pennies. It works fine.) Optional: chopped scallions, chives or parsley and shaved curls of aged Asiago.

  
  

What you do: In a separate pan (with fairly steep sides), heat up olive oil, garlic and minced ham pieces.  Put the one pound of pasta in to boil for about eight minutes. (If you like it slightly al dente.) In the meantime, crack the three eggs into a container and whisk briskly with a fork. Add in the one cup of grated Parmesan and continue to mix thoroughly, adding the skim milk as you go. Set the mixture aside. When the pasta is finished, drain and transfer to the ham, oil and garlic pan immediately. Start stirring with your pasta server and dump in the beaten egg / cheese / milk mixture. Then grab a spoon for your other hand and start tossing the mixture to coat the pasta and cook the eggs from the heat of the noodles. Your ham, oil and garlic will get distributed as well. Serve on a plate and top with chopped herbs and a few shaved curls of a higher end cheese to sex it up if you so choose.

Pasta selected: I used Garofalo. It worked really well, and held up to the tossing and the sauce pairing.  Serve with a salad, crusty bread and a nice bottle of wine. Romance on a dime!

Photo Credit: Inga Beretta

Image Credit: Traveler’s Tales

An honest and hilariously funny look at life on the road with a young family. From Rajastan to Angkor Wat, Paris and Pisa to the Monte Verde Cloud Forest of Costa Rica, David Cohen shares the trials, triumphs and tribulations of life on the road through a collection of letters written to family and friends during the twelve month odyssey he and his wife Devyani shared with their three young children.  Volcano hiking, touring the Louvre, dodging civil unrest in Cambodia and surviving some harrowing moments on an African Safari, the Cohen family accomplished what many people are still only dreaming of. Disengaging isn’t a simple process, but if you’re willing to give it a whirl, this family’s adventure is nothing short of inspiring. An honest source of information on what it might be like to try it out for yourself.

I love quesadillas, but have never had much luck at the full sized flip without spilling all the ingredients over the stove. My solution? Put the tortilla in the frying pan with a bit of cooking spray or oil, and only put the filling ingredients on half of the flat bread. Then fold the other half over and proceed to cook like you would a grilled cheese. Much easier to flip this way. When cooked, cut into three triangles per filled tortilla.

Quesadillas are great for the ethnic food lover on a budget because you can make them as elaborate or as basic as you like. Pinching major pennies? Go with cheese only in the center and some budget brand or homemade salsa for dipping. Got a little more pocket change? Add in some chopped scallions and an additional dipping sauce like sour cream or guacamole.

These are also a great way to use up leftover chopped chicken or sliced up leftover bits of steak from dinner the night before. If meat isn’t your thing, I’ve often made these with spinach for a little extra punch.

Also, for those of you on a major shoestring who find even the pre-made tortillas a bit too expensive, here’s a recipe for a homemade bulk tortilla mix you can keep on hand around the house. Particularly when you are on a budget, these can really amp up the wow factor in the overall taste of a meal. I like to make it in at least a large enough batch to fill a one gallon food storage container. Then I only have to make the dry mix once every couple of months.

Photo Credit: Jspatchwork 

Specifically for those interested in eating and drinking their way through Florence, as well as those interested in a cooking class or two. I was particularly pleased to see one of my favorite restaurants the world ‘round: Il Latini. Emily Miller includes recommendations for actual cooking schools, tips on where to eat in various sections of Florence and the surrounding area, and a helpful explanation of various food terms and types of restaurants found in country. Thorough.

Photo Credit: Ten Speed Press

I’ve been missing Italy of late, so it was a pleasure to try this recipe out. The three ingredients needed? An aged Asiago, a cured speck and a bed of arugula or other mixed dark greens.

Simply put a bed of the greens on each plate, put three to five thinly sliced pieces of the speck on top (arranged to your visual preference) and shave off some large curls of the Asiago using a carrot peeler or cheese shaver. Since this dish is really all about the drama and enjoying the full flavor of a few special ingredients, it helps if you can be a bit artistic with the cheese distribution as well.

If you would like a little extra, drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil and top with some fresh cracked peppercorns. I’ve also modified this a bit to include balsamic vinegar, some grape or Roma tomatoes and some onion slices. Add a nice bottle of wine and your favorite crusty bread and you are all set for a simple stylish dinner.

I have to say, this meal really brought back memories. The speck we used was Speck Alto Adige, and the cheese was Asiago Pressato, both from the northern part of Italy and both available from IGourmet.Com.

The speck held its own with a smooth, slightly smoky flavor which was mild enough to compliment the Asiago. And the cheese itself was particularly yummy. We’ve enjoyed it in the carpaccio, shaved on a fresh tortellini and on its own with a nice red wine. It is mild however, so bear that in mind when you choose your specific pasta filling or potential sauces. The Asiago Pressato retails for about 10 dollars a pound (not bad even by deli counter prices in my neck of the woods), while the speck is a bit pricier at around 28 dollars for a 1.5 pound package. However, because it is a cured meat it lasts a long time. Used sparingly, you can make this worth the purchase for special occasion dinners. And compared to going out for a high end meal? Peanuts!

Photo Credits: Colangelo PR and IGourmet.Com, respectively.

The Penny Pincher’s Passport to Luxury Travel, by Joel L. Widzer

If you’re looking to save travel bucks without sacrificing style, this title by Travelers’ Tales Guides will give you major can-do strategies. Joel Widzer covers techniques, programs and strategies for receiving high end luxury treatment with hotels, airlines and rental car companies.

He also addresses such topics as where to invest your tip monies, traveling against the grain for cost savings and developing program loyalties to get the most for luxury upgrades across the board. If you have champagne travel taste on a Motel Six budget, this book might be just what you’re looking for.