Common Cuisine |

How is world news affecting you these days? I try not to pay too much attention, because I have a vacant house for sale in this faltering economy. I have tried to limit my reading of the newspaper, at least until that gets resolved. The only thing to be accomplished by reading all about the mortgage crisis and the impending recession is to get me uptight about a situation that is out of my control for the moment.

But there is something going on that I cannot ignore. Have you noticed yet how the news of what’s going on “out there” is starting to be reflected in your monthly expenses? We recently moved to a different region of the country, at which time I made the switch to organics for meat, dairy, and some select produce. To me this explained the significant increase in my weekly grocery bill. But as I have begun looking longingly back at the ordinary apples and milk in hopes of saving a few dollars, I am not seeing as much of a price spread as I remember. What happened when I wasn’t looking?

It seems that food prices globally are responding to increasing pressure from multiple sources: Severe weather in Australia and Argentina, among other places, has diminished supply, at a time when producers’ reserves are down, due to increased standards of living in the huge countries of China and India.

In addition, as oil prices continue their stiff climb, higher fuel cost leads to higher production and transportation cost, which gets factored into the end cost, which consumers pay. To help counteract the fuel factor, some of our usual sources of food have been reallocated to become fuel resources. But now higher corn and soybean prices are increasing the price of feed, which in turn increases the price of poultry, meat and dairy products. The summers when we could buy twelve ears of corn for a dollar, or even two, are gone.

To put the squeeze from yet another direction, our US economy is in a fragile situation, if you believe the news. Falling interest rates mean higher inflation, which means your money buys less than it did not too long ago. Natural gas and electricity are increasing in cost due to a shortage of supply; home prices are falling due to a culture of poor lending practices among the mortgage industry, finally correcting itself.

And all of those factors are being reflected in the bottom line on my grocery receipt, which according to some research reflects a five percent increase over last year. The painful realization is that many staple items such as milk, eggs, beef and wheat have increased between 25 and 50%.

The natural principle at work here is that economy is built on a balance between supply and demand. Prices of products are always fluctuating; sometimes there is a bit more supply, sometimes a bit more demand. In an ideal capitalistic economy, demand will slightly outpace supply. Right now, the equation is unbalanced with too much demand for food resources, and a food supply that has been globally diminished on multiple fronts.

The good news is, the equation will naturally right itself, sooner or later. Growers will increase their production of needed crops, because with more demand they can get paid more for growing them. Governments will eventually change policy to encourage greater production in areas of need. Higher cost of transportation may lead us to increase consumption of locally grown produce and goods, as well as take the step into more fuel-efficient vehicles. If critical markets slide or crash, perhaps that will bring a relief to the high price of oil (which still seems to mystify those of us outside the oil industry as to its true cause). Long term, there are good results to come from this imbalance.

In the meantime, it is time to take action. What are you doing to protect your family budget at the grocery? In the next few weeks I will be discussing responsible and effective ways we can make our food budget stretch to the max.

My mommy support group finished up for the school year yesterday. What a fun group that has been to be in! While I love many things about the group, you might guess that my very most favorite part of each session is that it starts out promptly at 9am with a hot buffet breakfast. We all take turns participating in the potluck, but half of the contributions each time are assigned to be Meats. This can include egg and cheese dishes as well, but a large percentage of the meat table each time is devoted to sausage. Yummm!

I believe our location in Texas accounts for the emphasis on this mystery meat. I never thought of Lil’ Smokies and BBQ sauce as a breakfast dish before (to say nothing of the chips and queso), but I sure like it! The best are the link sausage kolaches, in which a fat polish sausage link about 4 inches long is baked inside a pastry. Holy goodness, thank you to Rolf for popularizing this Czech breakfast delicacy in College Station.

There are other things I have really enjoyed about MOPS. See my non-food-related thoughts at my Family Blog.

Yesterday, as we shared an exotic luau themed luncheon, we got all excited to hear about saving money through coupon clipping. My friends and I have decided to try to make it work for us. I’ll blog more about it as we move along!

Meanwhile, see the recipe for our interesting lunch, Hawaiian Haystacks.

I read an interesting article last summer about the decline of the Red Delicious apple. Apparently the variety we get in our markets today is a far cry from the apple people fell in love with a hundred years ago. In response to consumer demand, growers developed the apple to have a more appealing bright red color and more durable thick skin.

Reds do last up to a year in cold storage, and make a beautiful display. However, due to playing with the variety maybe too much, the quality of Red Delicious has declined significantly in the last 20 to 30 years, to the point that few people are buying them anymore. Other varieties like Gala and Fuji are on the rise as the dominant sweet red apples.

As I read this article I began to understand why, for so many years, I have been disinterested in Red Delicious apples to the point that I will hardly eat red apples at all for fear of eating a Red Delicious by mistake. But it turns out the problem is not so much with the apple itself as the fact that it is difficult to tell when to harvest it for optimum flavor.

This is good news, because one of my three apple trees is a Red Delicious. It did not bear fruit this year due to severe wind damage last year. And I am glad for that because my Golden Delicious tree went haywire, producing several thousand apples by my best estimate. I have had enough to do with the fruit from one obnoxious tree and one tree (a Jonagold) with light production. But after reading this article, I have hope that I can harvest that Red Delicious tree next year in waves, and catch as many apples as possible at their peak of ripeness and flavor. I’ll let you know how they grow.

When you think in terms of the Essential Pantry and Build A Meal, shopping should be simple. Then build your menu around what you have in stock.

You will find that your Essential Pantry items are a little different than the suggested list. Try to replace your essential items as you run out of them. Check the sales flyers each week to see what is on sale, and choose to replenish those items.

In the produce section, pick out a few veggies and a few fruits to be your basics for the week. I tend to buy what’s on sale.

In the meat section, choose two or three kinds of meat, planning to use each one twice. I buy a lot of boneless skinless chicken breasts when they are on sale, and freeze them in 1 meal portions for later. Then another time I buy a couple of roasts on sale, or sirloin steaks, or pork loin, and freeze them. That way I’ve always got a good price, but also have variety.

Round out your trip with cereal, milk, bread, and whatever you like for lunch and snacks, and you should be set.

Here is a list of what I find necessary or at least useful in my everyday cooking adventures. I wish I had a list like this when I was selecting items for my wedding registry. It would have saved me from backtracking to collect these items over the next several years. On the other hand, it has made it easy for me to come up with a Christmas list every year!