Budget Cooking Blog Nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award

As I stand on the brink of my 100th posting since starting my blog last August, I was pleasantly surprised to learn recently that Budget Cooking Blog has been nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award by www.royaghorbani.wordpress.com. Thank you so much for nominating my blog! It’s an honor to be recognized!

The nomination is a pay-it-forward type recognition in which select bloggers are asked to nominate 15 fellow bloggers who not only write a fun and entertaining blogs, but have been supportive and helpful to their fellow bloggers.

When a blogger receives the nomination, they are requested to:

• Nominate 15 fellow bloggers.
• Inform the bloggers of their nomination.
• Share 7 random things about yourself.
• Thank the blogger who nominated you.
• Add the Versatile Blog Award logo on your blog post.

When I wrote my first blog in early August, I had only recently learned what blogging was! Since then, I have developed many rewarding and interesting relationships with a wide variety of people whose work I respect and enjoy reading every day. These writers not only write fun and entertaining blogs, but have been extremely supportive and helpful throughout the whole process of launching and developing my blog.These include, in no particular order because I love them all:

Guapola

Madison Woods

The Big Fat Noodle

Frugal Feeding

Running Sunflower

The Sweet Kitten

Military With Zero Waste

Married With Food

Whatever The Route

Mother Meets the Road

The Tracey Show

Pursuit of Happieness

The 2 Beths

Tinkerbelle 86

West of the I

Seven Fun Facts About Myself

7. Whle working as an usher in high school, I once tried to kick “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks out of Wrigley Field because I didn’t recognize him. I’m a White Sox fan.

6. I once served a room service cheeseburger to the King of Soul, James Brown.

5. Despite being a classically trained chef, I could eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and before I was married, I frequently did).

4. In high school, I played guitar in a band called Blackjack. We sucked.

3. I attended Notre Dame during the awful Jerry Faust football years. Two years after I graduated, the Fighting Irish won the national championship under Lou Holtz.

2. My hobby is doing laundry. I’m not even kidding.

1. I have written a screenplay and am about halfway through my first novel.

Thank you again for this honor. It is nice to be recognized for all the hard work that goes into writing a daily blog!

Meat Free Mondays – Black Bean and Roasted Corn Chowder

Of roux, Gravy Master and bread bowls.

You and I need to have a serious talk. About roux.

Roux is a thickening agent made out of any kind of fat and any kind of flour. The two are whisked together to make a thick paste and cooked until the flour taste is gone. When roux is added to a soup or sauce, the flour and fat granules abosrb the liquid, resulting in a thicker, denser product.

Black Bean and Roasted Corn Chowder in a Bread Bowl

You can make a slack roux and tight roux (ie soupy or stiff), blonde roux and brown roux (ie light or dark), depending on what you are making with it. The proper proportion of roux is 2 parts fat to 3 parts flour.

For today’s recipe, I made a tight, dark roux out of vegetable shortening and all-purpose flour. It cooked it until it was just short of burning because I wanted it very dark.

I wanted the chowder to have the caramel color and denisty of a good gumbo, even though it obviously is not a gumbo because it lacks any kind of meat protein, file (pronounced FEE-lay, a thickening agent made out of ground young sassafrass leaves), or okra. I got pretty close, but I still had to add a few drops of Gravy Master, a magical meat-free chef’s secret liquid used to darken soups and sauces.

Bread bowls are a great way to increase the “wow factor” for when you make soups and stews. They are surprisingly easy and inexpensive to make. I made a simple rye bread dough and formed it into small round loaves. After the bread was cooked and cooled, I hollowed out the loaves and brushed the interior with EVOO and returned them to a 350F oven for 15 minutes. The oil forms a kind of seal that keeps the soup from oozing out when you fill it.

For this recipe, I used the last of the Farmers Market corn, which I soaked in water for about 30 minutes then grilled in the husk for about 20 more minutes, then cut from the cob when it cooled. This gives the corn a nice smoky flavor. But you could use canned corn kernels.

Black Bean and Roasted Corn Chowder

30 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups cooked corn kernels

2 TBS EVOO

1/2 white onion

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 celery stalk, diced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

2 serrano peppers, ribs and seeds removed, diced

1 jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds removed, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 TBS cumin

1 TBS chili powder

4 cups vegetable stock

2/3 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup all purpose flour

Juice of 1 lime

1/2 TBS fresh thyme (or 1 TBS dried)

Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

A few drops of gravy master (ssshh, that part’s a secret!)

1/4 cup cilantro leaves (for garnish)

Fat-free sour cream (for garnish)

Tortilla chips (for garnish)

To build the roux, heat the vegetable shortening (or butter) in a sauce pan just until melted. Whisk in the flour until it forms a tight paste, then continue whisking until it turns a dark, chocolatey brown. This will take about 10-15 minutes. Set aside.

In separate pot, heat vegetable stock. When boiling, quickly whisk in the roux and continue whisking until liquid tightens significantly, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, put a soup pot on the fire. When hot, add EVOO. When smoking, stir in onions, carrots, celery and all the peppers and cook until onions translucent, about 10 minutes. Add beans, corn, garlic, cumin and chili powder and stir together. Add thickened vegetable stock, bring to boil, then reduce to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the lime juice and thyme and adjust color with Gravy Master, if necessary. Season with S&P to taste.

To serve, ladle into bread bowl, sprinkle with cilantro leaves, top with dollop of sour cream and a single tortilla chip.

What are some of your favorite meat free recipes? Why not share them in the comments section below? And thanks for looking at my blog!

Head-to-Toe Pumpkin Soup

It’s autumn and pumpkins are everywhere – grocery stores, garden centers, Farmer’s Markets, pumpkin farms.

So what does one do with all these pumpkins? In my case, make a horrible mess. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Pumpkin Soup

First things first: pumpkins are edible. In fact, they are delicious. Basically, you cook them like most other edible squash, such as acorn, butternut, spaghetti. But our culture fetishizes carving them into scary jack-o-lanterns, so many people think edible pumpkin only comes in a can.

Large pumpkins are for decoration. They are purposely overgrown and the flesh is too pulpy. Cooking pumpkins are the medium sized ones, about the size of a large softball. The smaller ones make cute serving vessels.

A while ago, I picked up a cooking pumpkin and a couple of smaller ones to make pumpkin soup, but I didn’t get to it until yesterday. Pumpkin soup is easy, but there are multiple steps. And it can be dangerous, as we’ll see.

A few days ago, I cut the cooking pumpkin in half, removed the guts and seeds, sprayed both sides with cooking spray and roasted it in a 375F oven for about 35 minutes until it was soft. When it cooled, I scooped out the meat, threw away the skin and refrigerated the roast pumpkin.

Yesterday, I pulled out all my ingredients and went about making the soup. All was well until it came time to blend it. In a commercial kitchen, I would use an immersion blender, which is a giant version of one of those blending sticks that used to be popular for making smoothies and such.

Sadly, I don’t own one of these, so I used my blender. I filled it about 3/4 full with hot, chunky pumpkin soup, held down the lid with a dishtowel and flipped it on.

The soup exploded out of the blender and went all over everything — me, the windows, the curtains, the ceiling, the ceiling fan, one of the dogs, everything. It seems when the blades kicked on a burst of steam blew the lid off the blender despite my holding it down. Fortunately, nothing was injured except my pride.

The next batch, I only filled the blender 1/3 full, pulsed the toggle switch, rather than throwing it full throttle, and held the lid down tight. No more trouble.

So while pumpkin soup is not difficult, be careful when blending it. If possible, use an immersion blender. If not, let the soup cool before blending it in small batches. You can always reheat it later.

I’m going to go towel off now. Here’s the recipe:

Pumpkin Soup

2 TBS whole butter

1 medium onion, diced

3 carrots, peeled and medium chop

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 gypsy peppers (only because I had them, not critical)

1-1/2 qt chicken stock

4 cups mashed pumpkin

1/2 cup apple juice

1 green apple, peeled, cored and chopped

2 tsp chopped fresh ginger

1 TBS dried thyme

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground allspice

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup sour cream (for garnish)

1. Cut pumpkin in half, scoop out guts and seeds, pan spray then place flat side down on cooking sheet and roast in 375F oven until soft, about 35 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool, scoop out meat and refrigerate until needed (can be done days ahead of time).

2. In large pot, melt butter over medium flame. Add onions, carrots, celery and peppers and cook until translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute, then add pumpkin, chicken stock, apple juice, apple, ginger, thyme, cinnamon and allspice. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for about 15 minutes.

3. Blend with an immersion blender, or allow to cool and carefully blend in blender in small batches (1/3 full). Reheat if necessary.

4. For garnish, whisk together 1/2 cup of sour cream with 1 TBS cold water. Pour into squeeze bottle and zig zag over soup. Add thyme or parsley sprig for a color.

A note on pumpkin seeds: When you clean your pumpkin, rinse the seeds in a colander under cold water. Remove everything except the seeds. Spread out on a sheet pan, pat with paper towel, then dry overnight uncovered.

The next day, cover sheet pan in foil (pumpkin seeds pop like popcorn) and cook in 350F oven for about 25 minutes. Allow to cool. Eat while pitching a baseball game.

Do you have any cool pumpkin recipes? Why not share them in the comments section below? And thanks for looking at my blog!

That’s right, Banana Bread!

Want to hear something weird? I get excited whenever our bananas start to go bad.

Because that means … wait for it … banana bread!

Bananas on the Turn

See, brown, mushy bananas are perfect for banana bread. The older a banana gets, the more flavor it develops. Have you ever eaten a banana that was still a little green? Almost no flavor at all, right? Now try one that has a few brown spots on it. Mucho flavor.

Let that same banana age another day or two and you are in for a culinary treat.

I love banana bread because it sounds healthy but is actually a sugary,  chocolatey indulgence: “What are you eating?” “Banana bread.” “Oh, okay, that’s good.”

I chock my banana bread with chocolate chips, so it kind of tastes like banana flavored chocolate chip cookies. There’s also a ton of butter in it, so it’s texture is dense and filling. My love for banana bread is tempered by the fact that I can’t eat very much of it without getting full.

Banana bread, still slightly warm from the oven with a hard brown crust on it, is like nothing else in the world. You don’t need to slather it with butter or add anything to it at all, except maybe a late winter afternoon and a cup of hot tea.

Now that’s living.

About 30 years ago, my mother and her friends collected recipes from all the ladies in our parish and published them in a book, ”The St. Catherine’s of Alexandria Cookbook”.  A lot of the recipes are kind of dated, or at least not nutritionally ”correct”, but I think that’s what I love about them. They are kind of like a document of how life was when I was growing up.

This banana bread recipe is from that cookbook.

Banana Bread

1/3 cup butter (5-3/4 TBS)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

3 TBS sour milk (or sour cream or buttermilk)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 bananas (the riper the better)

1 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Bake in greased bread pan at 350F for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I realized I haven’t had any baking recipes until now in this blog. That’s partially because it’s been warm out and baking goes more with cooler weather. But I admit that while I enjoy baking, it’s not my strong suit. Like they say, cooking is art, baking is more like chemistry.

But to improve I must focus on my weakness, so more baking. Plus it’s getting cooler out, so baking makes more sense now.

What tried and true recipes do you like to make for a cool autumn afternoon? Why not tell us about them in the comments section below? And thanks for looking at my blog!

New Online Coupons Coming

Online couponing is red hot right now. Look for my blog on maximizing your savings through couponing. Coming Tuesday.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/7173550-420/printable-grocery-coupons-from-couponmob.html

Budget Cooking: Burn Notice

My name is Dan McCullough. I used to be a chef. Before that, I was a writer, but not a food writer. I wrote for newspapers, which were these big sheets of paper with writing and pictures on them that somebody delivered to your doorstep each  morning.

About 17 years ago, dissatisfied with the path of my journalism career, I enrolled in culinary school and traded  in my press pass for a chef’s toque.

Dan before he was a chef

Ever since then, I have been hanging around the restaurant industry in a variety of jobs – executive chef, dishwasher, the chatty bartender, the anxious restaurant manager, the overworked purchasing agent, the snooty server, the grouchy fry cook, the salad girl, the guy who takes out the garbage, you name it.

I’ve worked in fancy French bistros, rock’em sock’em banquet halls, busy downtown bars, and four different casinos.  I’ve gone to work in tuxedos, chef’s whites, t-shirts and cargo shorts, and designer suits.

Now, thanks to troubling economic times and an unexpected layoff, I suddenly find myself with enough time  on my hands to reflect on these experiences and write about them.

In other words, I got burned.

And I couldn’t be happier.

I’ve had a lot of amazing experiences and have met all kinds of terrific people along my journey, but up until now I haven’t had time to process much of it. I can’t wait to get started.

So much has changed since the last time I sat down to write. For one, people write blogs instead of articles. These are published on the internet rather than in magazines or newspapers. These are read on iPhones, iPads and Kindles, things that were unimaginable
back in the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

But much has remained the same.  People still want to know how they can feed their families delicious, nutritious meals without going over their food budget. They want to know how to turn the essential human experience of preparing and eating food into something fun and enjoyable.

That’s where I come in: I can do  that!

If this blog were to have a mission statement, it would be:

“I want to share my experiences in the restaurant trade in a format that both informs and entertains; to help the home cook provide the best possible meals at the lowest possible prices; and to share insider industry tips and techniques for making the cooking  experience efficient, affordable and fun.”

Sure, you might call that turning lemons into lemonade, but isn’t that what life is all about? Adapting to  change?

My  last job, I had to get up at 3:45 every morning so I could take the L downtown where I would check in deliveries on loading dock by 5:30 a.m. Before that, I spent three hours/day driving back and forth between Chicago and my job in New Buffalo, Michigan.

So today, I’m actually grateful  to have some time between soul-crushing jobs to step back and reflect, to think about what it has meant and to try to pass on some of the things I’ve learned.

On USA Network’s television show  “Burn Notice,” ex-spy Michael Westen (played by the terrific Jeffrey Donovan) intersperses tips and techniques he’s learned in the spy trade with stories about helping people in trouble. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. It’s a pretty good show.

That’s kind of what I’m aiming  for here. Although I’m certainly no former special forces agent like Michael, I think I can still use my experience to help people out during stressful times.

Except maybe without the trigger-happy ex-girlfriend.

So I hope you join me on this new journey. I promise to keep it fun and snappy. I hope to publish about twice per week. Maybe less if I have job interviews (So far that hasn’t been an issue).

Let’s see where this journey takes  us!