teas and tisanes | thekalechronicles

Saturday morning I began my day with the last of the tahini-beet muffins I made last week, a blood orange and a cup of decaf coffee with half and half. Then I walked to the bank, where I withdrew forty dollars, which I hope will be enough to cover this week’s grocery shopping.

I like having money in the bank — in fact, I feel uncomfortable if my business account falls below $200. Today it is at $65.00. I could have left the $40.00 in there, but I also like having fresh, healthy things to eat and I like supporting local farmers, especially the ones who bring vegetables to market in the winter.

I walked from the bank to the farmers market where I purchased two bags of kale for $10.00 for salads (I still have potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, garlic and a few Brussels sprouts from previous weeks). Then I stopped at the Pane d’Amore booth to look at loaves of bread. I can bake my own bread and sometimes do, but I have a busy week and did not want to commit to baking bread. I also have tortillas and ready-made pizza crusts on hand, plus a loaf of challah in the freezer.

The bread that called to me was the Oaty Oat bread. I bought a loaf for $7.25, making use of my .25 bag discount. Farmers market total: $17.25.

On my way home, I decided to stop at the health food store because they have a sale on navel oranges. I can eat them as snacks, juice them, make orange syrup or orange curd to enhance baked goods. I can make orange rolls for breakfasts or snacks or orange-cumin bread. I can add them to salads. I still have lemons, limes and blood oranges at home. I bought a four-pound bag of organic oranges for $8.99.

I have a white board in my kitchen where I list things I want to buy soon. I decided to stop by Safeway and get just those items: sour cream, red salsa and flour. I lucked out because all three of them were on sale. I bought unbleached bread flour — I had been looking just for unbleached flour, but unbleached bread flour was on sale for $3.17 for five pounds. Because I am not planning on making an angel food cake or delicate pastry this week, I bought the bread flour, saving myself more than two dollars (Regular flour ran $5.45 and was bleached). Safeway total: $9.77.

Home again, I unpacked my groceries and put them away, except for one bag of lacinato kale. I sat at my kitchen table removing the leaves from the central stems, which allowed me to rest from my load-bearing walk. When my glass bowl was full of kale I added the usual suspects: fresh-squeezed lemon juice, minced garlic, tamari and a heaping tablespoon of tahini.

By the time I had made the salad, I realized that what I wanted for lunch was a big salad and a slice of bread with jam. I dished a big bowl of kale salad and crumbled some feta into it to make it more substantial. I cut the end slice from the oat bread, cut the slice into two halves and spread one with some marionberry jam I had received as a gift and the other with lingonberry preserves from a past baking box (More on that next week).

What goes with bread and jam? Tea. I made a pot of Irish Breakfast Tea to take the chill off the afternoon. I buy loose tea from Canada — here is my tea rant for your reading pleasure.

Saturday dinner: Homemade burrito: tomato wrap, shredded greens, refried beans, sour cream, salsa (I’m trying to organize a protest about cuts to Social Security so I needed something quick); chocolate pudding.

Sunday: An early political meeting, three loads of laundry and a breakfast bread pudding made up of half a loaf of challah from the freezer, three eggs, a quart of whole milk, juice and zest of one orange, vanilla, nutmeg and a handful of sugar, baking at 350 F. Breakfast drink: mocha made from fresh coffee, leftover cocoa and half and half. Lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza. Snack: bread and jam.

Monday: Breakfast bread pudding with a handful of frozen blueberries, coffee; Lunch: kale salad with roasted almonds, homemade pizza, bread and jam, black tea with milk (hungry and cold today). Dinner: homemade burrito.

Tuesday: Breakfast bread pudding with blueberries, coffee with half and half. Lunch: kale salad, homemade pizza. Snack: toast with butter and jam. Dinner: homemade burrito

Wednesday: Breakfast bread pudding with blueberries, coffee with half and half. Lunch: roasted cashews from the bag (bad day, spent most of it in bed). Dinner: kale salad, homemade pizza

Thursday: Breakfast out: a friend treated me to breakfast to celebrate my upcoming birthday. Very frugal for me, not so much for her. Bonus: Chestnut Cottage where we ate gives you a free pastry on your birthday, so I snagged a cinnamon roll to eat tomorrow. Late lunch: kale salad because I ate a big high-calorie breakfast. Dinner: a few sections of orange and a lot of water because I was not hungry.

Friday: Breakfast cinnamon roll from Chestnut Cottage, coffee with half and half. While the cinnamon roll heated and the coffee dripped I shredded Brussels sprouts for a later salad and doused them with olive oil and lemon juice to marinate. Later I will add matchstick pieces of green apple, dried cranberries, roasted cashews and yellow mustard. Lunch: Brussels sprouts salad and oatmeal bread. Dinner: pasta with pesto and Brussels sprouts. Snack: two chocolate-covered caramelized almonds.

Note: I am not recommending skipping meals, nor am I skipping meals to save money: I am reporting to you what I actually do, what I actually spend, and what I actually eat in case it gives you some ideas about how to eat more frugally in challenging times. I promise you that I enjoy eating the food that I prepare — if I didn’t, I would switch it up and make something different.

painting shows January fruit, vegetables and tulips from the farmers' market

January Bounty. 12″ x 12″ gouache, watercolor and watercolor pencil. Sharyn Dimmick

One of my Saturday habits is to journey to the Berkeley Farmers’ Market — I go if I can at all justify a trip because I like walking through the market and seeing what is there. I usually go with my friend Margit. We walk up one side of the market and down another. Today I stopped to buy black trumpet mushrooms, cilantro, small red grapefruit, a couple of jumbo artichokes, carrots, fresh lemongrass and a bouquet of orange tulips because January is a month of orange and green, fueled by greens and citrus. Then I found a twenty dollar bill on the ground and promptly bought a bottle of vanilla palm syrup (I had tasted it months before). I saw many things that I did not buy today: attractive displays of tiny red kabocha squashes that would make adorable soup bowls, tulips in purple, hot pink and a variety of reds. I could stare at the tulip stand for ten minutes and not get my fill.

You can walk through the market tasting things. At one stand the vendor handed me a slice of raw milk cheddar cheese. At Frog Hollow Farm, they had a whole row of preserves with tasting spoons: my favorite was a mild Meyer lemon marmalade. The artichoke farmer had tiny squeeze bottles of his preserves so I was able to taste the Tayberry jam that I had bought on a previous visit but have not opened yet.

I have no idea what I will cook this weekend: I have blogged about things I am still eating, such as romanesco with gorgonzola, and black bread. I have cooked some things that were edible but not worth writing about. In my refrigerator I have several celery roots, parsnips, green garlic, baby bok choy, braising greens, eggs, milk and cheeses and sourdough starter. On the counter I have winter squash (delicata and buttercup), seven tangerines and eleven oranges. We have potatoes in our potato bin and a couple of yams. Shall I make soup from one of the recipes I’ve saved, a celeriac version of Five Euro Foods’ Jerusalem artichoke soup or a sweet potato and carrot concoction inspired by Kat at Sensible Lessons? If I simply cook the artichokes in water with lemon and a garlic clove and we eat them with lemon and butter, what is there to blog about? We eat three meals a day. Sometimes I cook three meals a day. Sometimes we eat all leftovers for a few days: I shred cabbage on the mandoline and serve it with the last of my orange-tahini dressing and a couple of helpings of leftover romanesco with gorgonzola. My freezer is full of citrus peel to candy. There is plenty to cook and plenty to eat and yet…

The blues are still dogging me around, but January doesn’t care. Tulips bloom in profusion and a grower hauls them to market. The sun shines again although the morning temperatures require long underwear. I paint a picture of my tulips and most of my other Farmers’ Market finds. I acknowledge that January in the Bay Area is easier than January many places: we have no snow, no ice. This year we have little mud and rain. I have fingerless gloves and silk long underwear and cashmere sweaters for when the temperature dips. I have the radio for company, the Saturday folk music shows, my cat on the love seat, my mother in the next room watching T.V. I am healthy. I am counting my blessings for you and for me, but I am not convinced that I am blessed in the moment. Count the miracle of electricity that powers my computer and the wondrous WordPress templates that let me drop things into them. Count ears to hear. Count fingers to type. Count eyes to see the glorious colors at the market.

Try something. Okay. I made polenta croutons, which I have been wanting to make since I first saw them. I thought, “Make something fun.” I put in extra Parmesan because I like Parmesan and wanted to make sure I could taste it. I used polenta instead of cornmeal because they were called “polenta croutons.” Alas, the 1 tsp of cayenne overwhelmed the other flavors even with the extra cheese. I was not happy with them. I think I might have the kitchen equivalent of a “black thumb” today: if I had started with 1/4 tsp of cayenne I could have always bumped it up in a future batch, but I followed the recipe for the spice level.

I have run out of flour. Well, not exactly. “We” have run out of flour: I have some that I bought for a baking contract that I am carrying out for a friend, but we have run out of shared “household” flour. This morning I made sourdough waffles with the last 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour — I had to use cake flour and whole wheat flour to make the batter, which tasted frighteningly sour. I added another tablespoon of sugar. The waffles were fine once I had folded in the egg whites and baked them — just fine, though, not outstanding.

I make lemongrass tea. Not much of a recipe to that: cut up some fresh lemongrass. I slice it in rings from the root up toward the top of the stalk. One stalk makes a couple of large mugs of tea, plus a little more. I use one stalk of lemongrass to 3 cups of water. I put in a little minced fresh ginger for a little sweetness and a little kick. I let it simmer for awhile while I go do other things. Technically a tisane rather than a tea (there’s no “tea” in it) it is nice to drink when you want more hot fluids and can’t take anymore caffeine. I store what I don’t drink in a glass jar in the refrigerator. It’s good hot in the winter and cold in the summer. If you want it sweet, put a little honey in it or make simple syrup. Lemongrass is in season in northern California right now, part of the January bounty: it freezes well if you want to save some for later. January will pass. The food in the fridge will be eaten. Meanwhile, enjoy the tulips and make yourself a cup of tea or a lemongrass tisane.

Frugality and Eating, Week 3

January Bounty and Lemongrass Tea

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