Simple Feast
What can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner; is grown in all 50 states; and had a war named after it? The potato of course. (The 1778-79 War of the Bavarian Succession was nicknamed "The Potato War.") The Incas of Peru, who cultivated hundreds of ancient potato varieties in terraced highlands, measured units of time by how long it took a potato to cook.
This marvelous crop provides more calories per acre than any grain or vegetable. While potatoes can be grown in a dazzling array of shapes, colors, and sizes, these days most of us rely on the russet Burbank, the white Katahdin, and several red varieties. "Yukon Gold" is gaining favor rapidly, probably because its creamy yellow flesh gives the impression of having lots of butter when it’s served.
In Texas, red potatoes are the passion, fittingly planted on Valentine’s Day and harvested in May. That is, if the weather permits. This year a capricious heavy rain, combined with 80 degree temperatures, doomed my farm’s potato crop to a rotting morass. So I am somewhat forlornly sitting inside today writing about potatoes instead of digging them.
I admit I was really looking forward to "new potato" season. I had the menu all planned out—boiled potatoes with butter and parsley, cream of potato soup, leftover potatoes fried for breakfast, potato salad, and shepherd’s pie. And I wasn’t the only one. Our neighbors were over twice last week to see if the potatoes were dug yet. Elderly family members who used to have farms of their own have been reminiscing about past potato harvests and lamenting the fact that senior nutrition centers these days don’t serve enough potatoes.
Highway food can be fun for a while—eating forbidden french fries at a fast food joint or sipping iced tea in the cool muffledness of a restaurant.
For salad lovers this is a heady time of year with more greens around than a person can shake a salad fork at.
Let’s say you’ve just walked into the grocery store and on the way to pick up some onions you notice a healthy sized mound of eggplant, with glossy, deep purple skin shining under the florescent lights.
FEASTING IS JUST half the story. To have "Sunday dinner" implies plainer weekday meals. Holiday banquets include foods not seen the rest of the year.
MY 1994 NEW YEAR'S resolution - to break loose from serious menu ruts by planning further ahead - has already led to more time at a favorite activity: paging through cookbooks.
PEOPLE OFTEN WONDER how they can afford high-quality food, such as locally made tortillas or organically grown vegetables. My feeling that anyone can afford such food was bolstered significantly by news of a booklet called The $30-A-Week Grocery Budget, by Donna McKenna ($5, RR1 Box 189, Casco, ME 04015). McKenna is a mother of four documenting many of the shortcuts I have found by accident. Her motivation is to keep food expenditures as low as possible while her husband finishes school. Mine is to save enough grocery money to buy previously unaffordable foods such as virgin olive oil, stone-ground flour, and fresh herbs. A person could do a little of each, using some grocery savings for non-food purposes and the rest for special foods.
The main trade-off is time, because you have to be willing to make more things from scratch. But before you quit reading here, be assured that it will take less time than you think. Besides, it's time you can spend listening to music or news on the radio, or talking to friends and family while you work.
Rule number one in gaining grocery dollars is to keep anything even remotely resembling convenience food out of your cart. No frozen waffles, box cereal, snack foods, juice in boxes, package cookies, sauces, salad dressings, etc. You can make all these yourself for pennies. A rich red spaghetti sauce takes 20-30 minutes to prepare--you'd have to spend 10 minutes of that anyway waiting for the pasta to cook. Refried beans take longer, but most of the soaking and boiling time can be spent doing something else.
To replace box cereal, make pancakes or waffles more often (try buckwheat, cornmeal, and whole wheat variations). Eat them with applesauce or homemade berry syrup, or make your own maple syrup from sugar, water, and flavoring (available in most spice sections). Make your own granola. Experiment with soups, cookies, and muffins. Substitute popcorn for potato chips.