Simplicity with a Bit of Lush

A big crock of chicken noodle soup accompanied by drop biscuits for lunch and I am a happy gal.  I do like to try and lush up these simple fairs once and a while, and pretend I've elevated my table to a little French bistro or a an Italian café. I've been looking up "mock" recipes to get some ideas on how others are getting more of the taste of  five star dining on both a budget and also a realistic time frame.  Here are a few tips I have recently discovered.

Garlic-even if it is just garlic powder, adds so much flavor to quick breads and drop biscuits. No matter what I am making, lately I've been adding a touch. Even if the garlic flavor isn't noticed, it changes the  original flavor just enough to increase flavor. We often end with more noodles than sauce when we make pasta dishes. Garlic mixed with olive oil and a good vinegar, and then tossed through leftover pasta makes a nice little cold pasta salad, perfect to take among for lunch with some canned tuna. Better yet, mix some of the tuna in, serve over some greens, for a lush salad that won't remotely resemble the summer potluck salad my great aunt brought out each 4th of July.

Dried herbs-of course having fresh right outside your door would be better, and I plan to do some container pots once it warms up, but having a pantry full of thyme, oregano, basil, parsley, and even premixed like Italian seasoning, added to meats, sauces, gravies, or soups brings a unique flavor profile beyond your supermarket staples.

Browning meat with an onion-why I haven't been doing this forever, I do not know.  The "oniony" taste mellows, but the extra caramelization and flavor seared into the meet elevates the simplest  cuts to higher taste.  I did a flash frozen chicken breast yesterday morning  for the soup, and the extra earthiness the browning of the onion and chicken together had made the hubby think I had bought a chicken stock from our local deli. The broth tasted so much richer, even though I used mostly stock cubes, adding the then diced browned chicken and onions, along with using a little water to get every bit of browned juice and onion from the fry pan. I have posted a lot of pictures of soup, but this might be the best batch I've ever made.

Savory jams and jellies/fruit jams and jellies used as ingredients- The last time we went for dinner at the wine  bar of which we have a membership, I ordered the grilled cheese.  This was no ordinary grilled cheese. Smothered between the bread and cheese was a tomato jam that made my mouth water. On our trip to the UK, the cheese toasties had an onion marmalade on them-quite tasty. I tried to do the same at home using the pepper jelly I had made last fall from the gift banana peppers, and wouldn't you know, it was equally as delicious. The combination of sweetness from the jelly sugars with the earthiness of the vegetable, blended with the nuttiness of the cheese was incredible. I've used that jam, along with some peppered apple chutney, to cook and serve alongside pork chops, pork tenderloins and chicken.  At this same wine bar outing, hubby had a turkey burger with a lingonberry jam and mayonnaise spread. I have since played with mixing jams and jelly's with mayonnaise, barbecue, or ketchup for sandwich spreads and dipping sauces and we have had some delicious combinations.

I could add more, and think I will over time.  I'm not at all a food snob, but I do appreciate a well prepared meal, and the care and artistry that  quality chef's can put in their dishes. If I can elevate our simple fair with a few  ingredients used in intentional ways, I am all for that.  I would love to hear your ideas on how you Ramsey up your dinner table and lunch boxes.

I am down to my last jar of pepper jelly, with lot's of ideas.

Lean and Lush Latte

I want to do a plug for a terrific site called The Lean Times written by Viviana.  Lush Living  Her motto is Lush living made simple.  The Lean Times is one of the first bogs I stumbled across before I ever knew what blogging  was.  The message is simple- living lean does not have to mean living always without a touch of class and splash, and occasional indulgences.  She writes weekly menu plans, ensuring little waste, but has some really delicious recipes made with simple fare. She writes about dressing with style-not trends. She's not at all a fashion or food "snob", but she does highlight how sacrificing all the time makes life pretty dull.  As other  writers have said frugal living, simple living, and priorities are all relative to an individual. I like a good deal, but not at the expense of others-whether that be cheap clothing from questionable sources, or food loaded with unrecognizable ingredients, or from animals kept in squalid conditions. I'd rather have less things of quality, than more of crap, at least in theory, but so hard to sometimes stay true to in practice when trying to stretch a budget. It is about intentionality with our money, and aligning the money with our own values.  But I digress.

What I really wanted to write about is how I think there is nothing more lush than a rich and frothy latte, being sipped from a generous sized mug, with great music on, and a good book in hand. Earlier this week there was a story link going around the internet on how to make a Latte or any other espresso drink at home without the expensive machine and gadgets. I tried to find again, but couldn't find the same one, but there were a dozen others. While  I love a good coffee, I am not a fan of the high coffee house prices for the specialty drinks. On vacation last spring, our hotel had a Nespresso pot in the room, and every day housekeeping filled it with  new pods.  It was so delicious and creamy, and as the only coffee drinker, all mine.  It probably saved me over $100 in coffee house expense over two weeks of mornings. If you haven't seen it, the hot water  pours through the pods and it creates a  creamy coffee drink that  looks and tastes like espresso made with steamed and foamed milk.  I never remember what is a latte,  cappuccino, café au lait, or café Americana.  Whatever it should be called, it was awesome, except for the little pods. I looked on line, only way I could buy them at home, and not only are the pods pricey, but the single use container is wasteful.  I guess they can be recycled at Sur La Table stores, but no multi use alternative.  My hubby bought me a Keurig a couple Christmas's ago, and there are a variety of reusable filter baskets.  I love the Keurig for getting that quick cup, so using it with my own bagged coffee, I set out to make my version.

Here is my Keurig, with the little red basket for holding my own coffee.  I used clearanced $1.48 bag hazelnut. A couple months back I scored 4 at that price at Target.

 

Next was getting my milk ready.  The article said to use 2%, but I only had skim.  I forgot I did have 1/2 and 1/2 so could have put a little in to give some fat. The directions called for shaking the milk up-I have dandy covered glass tiny bowls for this, until foamy then heat in the microwave. 

 

I brewed on the 10 ounce setting to get a nice strong cup.

 

Here is the steamy frothy milk, and the strong rich coffee.  I simply poured the  bowl of milk probably a 2:1 coffee to milk ratio, into the coffee mug.

 

The finished drink had the nice caramel color, and the foam did stay on top.  If I had used some fattier milk, it would have been foamier and richer. I would say not quite Caribou or Starbucks, or Costa, but pretty darn  lush. 

To estimate cost, I'll use about  $ .10 for coffee, and $ .25 for milk, so $ .35  latte. If using a coffee house premium full price bag of coffee at $8.00 a bag, still under $1.00 compared to $4.00 prepared by a barista.  I think from start to finish, including clean-up was under 5 minutes, so beats the clock compared to waiting in line.  There are many recipe's out there if you want to try some variety.  A women at work squirts Redi-whip on her break room brewed coffee and calls it cappuccino. I'm pretty plain Jane-just milk or cream with regular coffee most days, mostly because I am a multi-cup a day consumer.  But for a change and a little special treatment,  this was a fun little test to see if a home concoction really could compare to coffee houses. While not quite the same in taste, I think my reading nook in my living room has more ambience in which to sit, sip, and indulge my caffeine fix.

 

What about you?  How do you reframe saving pennies in ways to add richness and lushness to your life?