The Goods Are Odd

There is a real joy in feeling resourceful, even with simple things. One of my favorite things to figure out is how to stretch the use of something and my least favorite thing is to waste food. The main focus of all this writing here has been how to eat well on a budget, but this doesn’t start with buying cheap food. The goal in my relationship with food is to be able to get just what I need from basically the highest quality food I can find and then do the most I can with that food. The best example of this is paying 6.99 per lb for a pasture raised chicken and then using the meat for at least two meals (for two people) and making three or four quarts of stock. This creates lots of food with a higher up front cost but savings down the line and a serious prevention of waste- of food but also, especially important, food packaging.

I stopped buying pre-made breadcrumbs not right after Alice Waters told me to make my own (via her book The Art of Simple Food) but when I stopped (mostly) eating wheat/grain products that aren’t fermented or soaked. The whole wheat panko we used to buy came in a plastic container and didn’t really get used much anyway. Now, I throw the heels of our Alvarado St. Sourdough Sprouted Grain (double whammy) sandwich bread into a waxed paper bag. Last night was the first time I actually remembered that I had that bag of heels on the top of the fridge and also had a distinct use for tasty breadcrumbs.

Two heels made plenty of crumbs for a 1/2lb of fish (which is just the right amount of fish for two people, another reason not to balk that the high cost of sustainable fish per pound- you don’t need very much)

I used our sauerkraut pounder, the instructions I’ve seen say to use the food processor, but that was too dish-intensive for something supposed to be simple. You could also use an empty bottle. I have  seen recipes that advise for bread to not be totally stale, which mine was…it turned out fine. If you can’t use actually stale bread, than what’s the point?

As neat as I think the breadcrumb resourcefulness was, I think this post is really just way to get in a word (at last) about my love for the waxed paper bag. It is a great alternative to plastic, which, for many foods, performs better due it’s ability to keep out moisture but allow the food to breathe, especially important for bread and cheese. A good ziplock, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil alternative. I highly recommend getting a pack of these compostable, handsome, handy items.