Something out of Nothing
By now, you know I'm not shy or private. I have friends who are, I love them, and sometimes think it would serve me to shut up and divulge less. Too late for that. But even divulgent extroverts tend to keep their cards close when it comes to money. I talked in this post about grocery budgets and lots of us came clean about what we spent. I thought that felt good, but I know I'm strange. I had really been stewing over our $150/week expenditure--I don't think it's extreme to say I felt guilty about it, even. And whenever a car repair or doctor's bill came up, I'd think, "If I spent less on groceries, this wouldn't be so stressful." You all helped me get over that. Thank you.
Yesterday I had an incredible mind-clearing session with Penelope Bell. Penelope specializes in teaching leaders, entrepreneurs, and teams how to transform stress into greater success--folks who need or want some sort of breakthrough. Even I don't want do divulge every detail of our amazing session, but I what came to light was my relationship with money. All my hang-ups, fears about not having enough, and even bigger fears of making money someday--what if I'm not as generous as I say I'll be? What if I am successful and alienated from people in my life who are struggling financially? What if I won't know how to function when worries about money don't occupy so much brain space? I can't overstate what a momentous conversation it was for me. Penelope has led workshops on Women, Money, and Identity (don't worry--she and I share a dread of Suze Orman) and I didn't know how much I needed to talk to her until I was sitting across from her. I felt known, cared for, enlightened, and gently directed to some next steps in my life.
Another thing we talked about was this blog. Notice how I work it into conversation whenever possible? I am infatuated. But I told her what joy I get from helping people take care of themselves and their families on a budget, and how the current economic climate favors people like me (and lots of you) who have been making something out of nothing for years. What I talk about here isn't something new. Last week, my Mom's friend Ellen posted a comment about a picnic she and my Mom shared together several years ago. When Ellen asked my Mom how she made the delicious new potatoes with pesto, my Mom bashfully said, "Well, I had some leftover caesar salad in the fridge. I put it through the food processor and poured it over the potatoes." And I'll bet all of you have stories of making do, making something out of nothing, whether it's dinner or a gift you cobbled together for someone when you couldn't afford to buy anything.
A few days ago, the larder was low, and this has been one of those months for us--everything coming due, I haven't had any work, and I've calculated exactly when I can go to Costco to get more diapers. I know there are some "Amen, Sister!" echos out there. When Yancey goes to the station, he needs to take 24 hours worth of food with him because he can't leave the station to get it. This means that, before a shift, I'm often scrounging through the fridge trying to come up with three meals for one seriously calorie-burning guy. Yancey is such a hard worker. Amazing. And NEVER complaining. One of the gifts I can give him right now is feeding him well.
I love that I can freely scrounge in front of you and even brag about it. I found some hard red wheat berries. Told you--scrounging. They take forever to cook, so this isn't something I could have done if I hadn't been thinking ahead. That's one thing about scrounging--sometimes it can't be last minute, which is a problem I have with all those 30-minute meals the magazines and cookbooks love to highlight. Often, the ingredients are prepared (like roasted red peppers in a jar, for instance) and EXPENSIVE. Scrounging often takes a lot more forethought. Cooking dried beans or grains doesn't make for a quick dinner, even though it's cheap and nutritious.
So wheat berries, and not many fresh veggies around. What I ended up with was cilantro, curly parsley (my favorite!), pickled ginger, ribbons of chard from my garden, green onions, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Something out of nothing (Okay--you're right. My pantry isn't nothing, but humor me). Someday, it might not be like this, but we might as well talk about it together while it is, right? Or you can go talk about it with Penelope and wonder how 35 years couldn't produce the kind of insight you had with her in an hour. Thanks, Penelope.
Wheat Berry Salad with Pickled Ginger and Sesame Oil
You can use all sorts of other grains here--bulgur, barley, quinoa, brown rice. See this post or this one for more about cooking and using grains in cold salads. If you don't have pickled ginger around, you could use some little chunks of candied ginger. If you don't have that, peel and VERY THINLY slice some fresh ginger and let it soak in rice vinegar for 30 minutes. Drain, and add. And if your fridge is fuller than mine happened to be, you could add broccoli, baked tofu...many other things.
2 cups wheat berries
1/2 c. finely sliced green onions
handful chopped fresh cilantro
handful chopped fresh curly parsley
1/4 c. pickled ginger (I used the bright pink Kizami Shoga variety, available at Viet Wah or Uwajimaya)
4 Tb. sesame oil
3 Tb. soy sauce
2 Tb. rice vinegar
1 ts. sugar
red pepper flakes
2 Tb. toasted sesame seeds
salt or more soy sauce to taste
Rinse wheat berries, and cook in lots of boiling water for 50-60 minutes until soft. They will still be really chewy. Rinse with cold water and drain.
Combine wheat berries with the rest of ingredients, tasting as you go and adding more of anything to your liking.
July 16, 2009
Reader Comments (15)
There are many things about this blog that inspire me, but this one is note-worthy. We've been slowly increasing our pantry staples with $4 bottles of stuff. For any one Asian recipe, there are 4 or 5 of these bottles. And in the past, I'd declare "I am never spending $20 on condiments for one meal!".
But very slowly, I've been adding a bottle as I can. Just today was sweet chili sauce. Since I started reading your blog, I've also added: sesame oil, hoisin sauce, and rice vinegar. (Ok, we've already gone through one hoisin bottle - the massive one - and are well through our second.)
The point is that these little gems have added SO much in variety of flavors and "zing" in our mouths. That with the lemons, cilantro, green onions and parsley - I feel like we always have stuff to make a flavorful dinner.
Thanks muchly!
Well said, Sarah. Which is exactly why I LOVE your blog - it is just like having a conversation with you. I enjoy how candid you are! And I LOVE, again, grazing through my fridge to find what I can make for dinner - nice to find someone else that doesn't run to the grocery story for every single meal. Also, meant to comment on yesterday's posting about MJ - I feel the same way you, and many others, do. One thing is that it has really given me a platform at work to chat with people about what we really value...that part has been good. OK - made the bundt cake for small group ladies tonight...man, does it way a TON! I was surprised when I moved it from the cooking rack to the cake stand. It looks lovely and I can't wait to try it - thanks for the great recipes!!
Since you have lots of bloggie friends named Beth, I should try to distinguish myself with an initial as well...but now I'm going to end up saying exactly what Beth D (great name, btw) said: I love your blog. It's my favorite. I like it better than Smitten Kitchen, better then 101 Cookbooks...I love IPOL because it's real. Straight up real. This is how I cook. This is how we eat. These are the things I think about. I can't relate to Pioneer Woman's million acre ranch and fancy three dishwasher kitchen - although it's lovely to get a sneak peek into that life. But I can relate to feeding a family on a limited budget and still putting priority on generousity and giving. Keep it up, and know that we love reading your own little mind-clearing sessions that you post here.
as i told you while camping, chris and i credit our generosity with money to you and yancey. you taught us so much (like 14 years ago!) about what it means to honor relationships over how much they may cost in dollars. you guys always picked up the tab, lavished your hospitality on us, served us the best bottles of wine and showed us what it meant to put money behind the importance of spending time together. thank you. that has been a very important and lasting life lesson for us as a couple.
I am so thrilled for you and your breakthrough conversation this week! Looking forward to hearing more personal insights from you as a result. That is, if you don't mind sharing...
I have been reading your blog for a couple of weeks now and I can't get enough. You have inspired me recently to be more intentional about using up everything in my fridge, and my grocery bill has decreased as a result - yay! Thank you for your honest, insightful musings, great recipes (I have made 2 galettes in the last week!) and beautiful pictures. I look forward to reading your blog each day!
Hi Deidra! Thank you for reading and commenting. I love to hear that your grocery bill has decreased and that you've been enjoying the conversation here. Welcome!
Question: What the heck is a wheat berry? And where do I buy such a thing? And how is this the only use for them?
Ack, you are so right about those quick-fix meals in cookbooks and magazines using a lot of expensive ingredients. It's so much cheaper to plan ahead with these kinds of things, like making your own bread, soaking some beans, and using whole grains. I'll be the first to admit I don't always have the discipline to follow through with that philosophy, but there is this great alchemical rush that comes from turning cheap bulk ingredients into delicious food, or as you say, something out of nothing.
Yes! Any special links to info about this grain. Never heard of it.
Hi Theresa! You can find a good, short description of wheat berries http://blog.healthyeats.com/blog/2009/02/24/meet-this-grain-wheat-berries/" rel="nofollow">here. It's the kernel that flour is made from. I got mine bulk at the local chain of co-ops here in Seattle (that PCC to you, pds!) and shouldn't be hard to find at a grocery store with a decent whole grain bulk foods section...
immediately bookmarked. LOVE that quesadilla, I've been craving something like that! You blog is great, i love the healthy and frugal approach, my kind of girl ;) Can't wait to follow your posts!
Just in case you EVER wonder, and you most certainly should not, if you are making a difference in this world. Here's what I did today...
Cleaned out my fridge and found some extra spinach that needed to be used ASAP. I was planning on making a little sausage/tomato pasta for dinner and thought, maybe I'll just throw in the spinach. I did and it was delicious. It may sound little, but I'm kind of a "stick to the recipe" kind of girl. And I'm learning to improvise and be a bit more creative. Prior to the Leftoverist, that would have gone straight into the garbage. I also noticed that my cleaning the fridge process was MUCH less work and MUCH less to throw out because I'm USING it all!
Thanks bunches for your inspiration!!!
Sarah, you are a GEM! I'm giggling, because I packed up some foods to take to Lake Wenatchee area for a big family gathering in honor of our son Kevin's wedding to Annie----total delight for us all----and I'm quite certain that I would not have had the foresight prior to your blog to thaw some wheatberries from MY FATHER's last hard red winter wheat harvest* in 1987----yes, 1987,---to make bread for the assembled family including all of my sisters and their spouses and grandchildren to enjoy! (I didn't even know until 2 years ago that any of the wheat berries still existed; my Spokane sister Evie brought them out of her freezer and gifted me with them, so into MY freezer they went!) So I soaked and partially cooked these OLD wheatberries----"Liggett's Last Harvest",--- and added them to the No Knead Basic Bread ala Mark Bittman; I was not without trepidation due to their age, but we enjoyed this personal investment/tradition added to the family music making and general DELIGHT we all experienced in our 3 day stay in a big old unpretentious lodge, all together! I missed you and your blog while I was gone, but could hardly wait until I saw you at church to share this with you------and I've returned to this posting! THANKS and BLESSINGS!
* These winter wheat berries grew on a hillside 160 acres south of White Swan, Washington, well higher up the hill than irrigation allows, and near "The Slide Ranch" and "Slide Lake"; my Dad loved adding these wheat harvests to the world's food resources in his retirement! I'll bet you can visualize our acres from your friends' property, to the Southwest and further uphill from theirs. It can't be more than 3 or 4 miles away. Winter wheat is sown in the fall, sprouts and grows to several inches' height before winter snows, and then finishes its lifespan the next spring/summer; it's a leaner yield than would grow in irrigated areas, but it was healthy and high protein/nutrition! We were proud of him.
Wow, Lynn! What great stories (as always). I am so tickled that you managed to miss this blog even while on such a wonderful trip.