November Assessment, Well, Sort Of

Can anyone else believe it's already the 1st of December? I know I can't. Why only yesterday I was writing checks dated November 28th. Hmmm. So that's the kind of month it's been. Not bad, but busy. And a little confused.

I have all my food receipts in random places and I haven't kept track while I go along in the month as I usually do. Furthermore, we had family in town for several days this month and left to go out of town one day ourselves on our anniversary. And truly, I just really have no idea how much we spent on those days per person.

And then, finally, today, I realized it was December. We had a sort of blow-out leftover night and managed to eat, organize, and freeze much of the delicious holiday foods we'd enjoyed. Though I must confess that we also ended up throwing out more in one night than I've wasted in, I believe, any of the other months of this Cheap Eat Challenge year. Which is what happens when you get a little overwhelmed and lose track. After dinner, I re-introduced myself to my counter tops (we'd been growing distant). And then began The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with my kids and tucked them in and thought a little about my priorities this season. They didn't really involve sorting through last month's receipts.

So while I have my receipts from the food we bought in November, well, probably, somewhere in this pile of junk on my desk, I thought it might be interesting--for you and for me--to tally up how much the big Thanksgiving dinner actually cost. In time, money, and life-saving sanity. Because, you know, those things are much easier to tally than my messy pile (er, sort of pile) of monthly receipts.

Here goes nothing.

We fed 6 adults and 6 children. The food we made lasted, thank goodness, more than one day.

We ate turkey, stuffing, potatoes with gravy, sweet potato yummy casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls, croissants, sparkling cider, pumpkin pie, and chocolate pie.

I think I might have to dedicate this meal and perhaps a Thankful prayer to Aldi. It made this a lot cheaper than it would have been, while also tending to have, not local, but not super far away items either as it's a mid-western centered store.

Free range, local-ish (meaning it was raised in IN) turkey, about 13 lb.: $26.00 (Rivertown Butcher in Newburgh)
Red potatoes, 5 lb bag: $1.49 (sale at Aldi)
1/2 bag sweet potatoes, about 1.5 lb: $.49 (another sale at Aldi)
12 oz bag cranberries: $.99 (Aldi)
1/2 bunch celery: $.30 (Aldi)
3 carrots: $.25
sugar, approximately 5 C: $1.00
brown sugar, approximately 1 1/2 C: $.50
butter, 7 sticks or nearly 2 lb butter: 1.99 per pound at Aldi sale: $3.98
chocolate, 4-5 oz: $.80 (Aldi)
cream, 3 1/2 C or nearly 1 quart at 1.89/pint Aldi sale: $3.78 (embarrassing isn't it, to admit these things)
sour cream, 1 pint (for potatoes): 1.39 (Aldi)
dozen eggs: .89 sale at Aldi
2 apples: .20 (Aldi)
2 lemons (one in a crust, 1 in turkey cavity): .50 (Asian store)
pumpkin puree, about 15 oz.: .99 (Aldi)
walnuts, 1-2 oz: 1.00 (Aldi)
onions, 1 lb or so: .65 (Aldi)
white flour, 14 C or about 5-6 lb: 1.50 (Aldi)
salt, 2 C for brine plus seasoning: .30
3 bottles sparkling cider at 1.99 each: 5.97 (Aldi)
used mostly fresh herbs from garden: parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme--yup.

And the total is: $52.97 for the whole meal and several meals (though not as many as you'd think) thereafter or $4.41/per person, which still isn't bad--which is, in fact, a veritable miracle, until we realize that some of those small people weren't eating very much. Still, even if you just count the adults you're only looking at $8.82/person. Denny's can't even compete with that, and I'm not afraid to say, it was a good step better than Denny's.

How much time did it take? Well, a lot. I started making food the Wednesday before and started thinking about food a day or two before that. Also, as you may notice from the menu, I tried to keep it pretty traditional and simple, which was one of my goals this year. Also, I'm used to cooking, which you may have ascertained from the fact that I have my own food blog. However, I did do most of the cooking myself since other grown-ups were either not in town yet or entertaining children or running around fetching me things--both utterly essential duties. Had I had a kid in my arms for the making of the meal (my oftentimes method of cooking), it would have taken approximately 79 trillion hours plus baking times for this meal.

Did it make me crazy? Did I wish I'd just gone to Schnucks or Bob Evans for help. I'm struggling not to curse here when I give an emphatic "HECK no." Okay, it did make me a little crazy (but isn't that just part of making a Thanksgiving meal) and I've hosted Thanksgiving for a few years in a row now, so it was easier this time. But there were no tears, although a moment of watery-eyedness after the meal when I was cleaning up and broke a glass. But the food was so delicious and the company and ritual so divine, I wouldn't have traded it for any grocery or restaurant-made food. If I'd needed to, I would have scaled back on how much we made. I probably could have gotten away with turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, 1 pie, and the sparkling cider. We would have still been way full and plenty happy and things would have tasted great. But I had the time and will to do more so I did. I also wouldn't have felt too bad about cheating and buying a few prepared foods like pre-made croissant dough or pie dough or maybe even cranberry sauce if I'd had a big crowd or a big need. But, again, I didn't, so I did it myself.

And now, on to cookies, food gifts, ideas for the cheap and the fast, and at some point in time, Kip's fudge. Happy December. Here we go.

Diana's Apple Cake of Awesomeness (with Sauce of Beyond Awesomeness)

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

(This might not look like much here, but you should know that this is a picture of the cake after having been served up at a church party, then brought home in a cup, and rearranged the next day and photographed by me with all my non-skills. Frankly, I think it's doing pretty well for itself.)

Several weeks ago I attended a baby shower. Say what you will about baby showers and the cake that inhabits them, this shower had me laughing most of the time and over-the-baby-moon about the apple cake my friend Diana made. I mean, people, it was like true religion. Only less righteous. It was one of those things where you think you have a pretty darn good recipe (and I do), but then you have this and it's like discovering art or love. Oh love. Apples, sugar, spice, and everything nice sitting in a puddle of more sugar, spice, and BUTTER.

The shower was at 3:00 in the afternoon, but that didn't stop me from having--oh maybe an extra piece or two--even when my dinner and any shred of non-pig dignity I might still have was at stake. What can I say? The hosts are lucky they didn't find me after everyone had left, hiding under the table and consuming the rest. They're also lucky I didn't walk off with the leftover pan of the stuff (if only I'd brought a larger purse). It was just incredible--beyond incredible.

It was, in fact, so incredible that I was a little depressed. All these years, I'd been perfectly happy with my own humble apple cake, but now, now, I was ready to toss that aside. Seriously, it kind of bummed me out. The good news is that when I compared Diana's recipe to mine, they were surprisingly similar. Hers was a bit spicier and used butter in place of oil, which totally worked. And it was draped in the sauce of, well, frankly, the sauce of evil, but I love it too much to call it that--so let's go with 'sauce of awe,' which also--handily--contains assonance. I ask you, can assonance be evil, even if it does contain butter, sugar, nutmeg, and make you lick it off your plate, then spoon more on, and lick that off, and then repeat this process until you are veritably at death's door? I think not. Assonance is righteous. Ask your English teacher.

Diana's Apple Cake of Awesomeness (with Sauce of Beyond Awesomeness)
Makes 9x13 in pan (though for all that is righteous about your hips, you should make this for a party of halve it)
Cost: Who really cares? Make it.

For Cake:

4 C apples, peeled and diced
2 C sugar
1/2 C butter (1 stick), softened or even a bit melted for easier mixing
2 eggs
2 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix sugar and butter. Add eggs. Add apples.

Combine dry ingredients. Add them to your wet ingredients. Mix until incorporated.

Bake in lightly greased 9x13 inch pan for 35-40 minutes or until a fork comes out clean or with a few tender crumbs clinging on.

For Sauce of Evil Awe/Assonance (both righteous things):

1/2 C butter (1 stick)
1 C sugar
1/2 C evaporated milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
dash nutmeg

Melt butter and sugar in a sauce pan. Add milk. Stir until boiling. Take off heat. Add vanilla and a dash of nutmeg.

To serve: Cut cake into slices. Pour sauce over each slice and serve delicately to guests. After everyone leaves, be sure to check under the table and make sure I'm not there pretending to look for an earring in an empty pan of cake. Oh, gee, there it is; I'll just be leaving now with my very large purse.

Note: This can be served warm (Diana says this is best and I believe her) or at room temperature (still amazing). She even made this again the next week (I think she's secretly trying to kill me; that's okay. Note to Diana: I'm still alive; you'd better bring more apple cake over) for a church function and I took several pieces home for my "family." These pieces had already been dished up and draped in sauce and my "family" ate them the next day and my "family" said that it was just as good as ever. I forgot to ask them how they knew, but that's okay.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Linked to Sweets for a Saturday and Fusion Fridays

Fail-proof Caramel and Ideas for Frosting with Caramel

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it. Even in the late night light.

And it was good. But not as good as it looked and not as good as it sounded (chocolate pumpkin spice cake with caramel cream cheese frosting and ganache). You see, for the very reasons it looked and sounded so good, it was just trying to do too much. Way too much. As I ate it, I kept wishing it was pumpkin cake or chocolate cake or spice cake. With cream cheese frosting. Or caramel frosting. Or chocolate ganache. [For the record, the reviews were mixed. My brother-in-law said it was a masterpiece and my daughter who hates cream cheese frosting loved it enough to beg for it for her birthday this week.)

It was fussy too. And as I ate it, I couldn't help but pine for simple pumpkin-y muffins we had a couple weeks ago (don't worry, I'll get them up soon enough). Easy to make, easy to eat. Easy to add a little whole wheat flour to, thank you very much.

The best thing about this cake was that for it I made a perfectly perfect salted caramel. You should too. And with this fail-proof method you can. Only you shouldn't mix it with a cream cheese frosting. Because the cream cheese-y goodness will eat up most of the perfect caramel-y goodness and they're both too lovely to confuse like that.

Thus, today is a reminder about my fail-proof caramel (with an extra, even more fail-proof step compliments of my sister-in-law), so that any ice cream cravings you have at this time of year can meet their autumnal fullness. This sauce also makes a butt kicking gift.

And just to draw a metaphor because that's what people who spent large amounts of time in English departments like to do, let's also make today a reminder to keep the season simple as well. We should all try to remember that it's best like that.  


Note: If you are trying to make a good caramel buttercream frosting, I recommend one of two things.

1. Either mix 1 recipe of the below caramel into your normal vanilla frosting (not a cream cheese frosting--cream cheese has too strong of a flavor and the caramel gets lost). (If you use the frosting in this link, be sure to halve it or double the caramel below.)

2. Frost your cake with a vanilla frosting and then drizzle your caramel topping over it just as you would a ganache. It'll be gorgeous and you'll have some very caramel-y bites of goodness.

Fail-Proof Salted Caramel
adapted from Simply Recipes and New Best Recipe Cookbook
makes a good 1 1/2 C
Cook time: 20-30 minutes
Cost: $.86
(sugar: .16, cream: .50, butter: .20)

1/2 C water
1 C sugar
6 Tbsp butter, cut into chunks
1/2 C cream
1/2 tsp vanilla, optional
1/8-1/4 tsp chunky sea salt (optional, for salted caramel, yum)

1. Put water in a pan. Please do not use the cheapest, flimsiest-bottomed pan you have.

2. Pour sugar in a mound in the middle of the water in the pan.

Don't worry, the water will soak into the sugar. Putting it in a mound in the middle means crystals of sugar are less likely to get on the side of the pan, causing the final mixture to crystallize.

3. Put the lid on the pan and turn the heat to medium or just above medium.

4. Let it boil. Do not stir it or mess with it in any way.

La di da. This is going to take 10 minutes or so. You don't need to watch your pot too much at first. Do the dishes, make the kids lunch. Whatever. (Do NOT leave the kitchen and then forget you were boiling sugar.) This method of caramel making does take a little longer than just letting your sugar melt and adding butter and cream. However, at this point of the process, you don't have to be super duper attentive. Give it a glance here and there to see if it's starting to change color. Also, take a few minutes to get your other ingredients ready... (see step #5). [Note: You can remove the lid when it starts to boil as long as the sugar is entirely dissolved. If it's not, leave the lid on.]

5. Get your other ingredients ready.

At a certain point in caramel making, a little speed is required. It helps to have your cream measured and your butter cut. You can warm the cream if you wish (I used the microwave to get it warm--took me 25 seconds or so). It might make your life a little bit easier, but it's not essential with this method. (Cold cream--and sometimes even warm cream--can cause the boiled sugar to seize--or get kind of hard for a few seconds--worry not, even if it seizes, you just keep mixing and it will, um, un-seize--which is a totally technical term, I assure you.)

Here I'm going to update this post and add a tip from my sister-in-law--a tip which made this easier and less stressful and more perfect. Put your butter and cream together in the microwave and microwave (and mix) at 20 second intervals until the butter is melted and the mixture is warm. Then just pour this into your amber caramel. I believe this helps in a couple of ways. It doesn't foam as furiously. It doesn't seize. It mixes in faster, making it less likely for your perfectly amber sugar to burn while it waits to get mixed up. It's faster. And it's just easier.

6. When the boiling sugar turns the color of straw, remove the lid and REDUCE THE HEAT to medium low.

7. It's still going to boil for a few minutes, but watch it now. If you're stove is even the teensiest bit un-level, rotate your pan. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES STIR THIS MIXTURE. Let it boil until it becomes an amber color. If your stove really is uneven or the sugar is cooking in an obviously uneven way (this is how my stove is), give it the gentlest of swirls every few moments (if it's really really uneven, take it off the heat and swirl it so so absolutely gently with a spoon--I will not even call it stirring; it is like moving the mixture with a spoon). You don't want the melted sugar to swish up on the sides of the pan AT ALL.

This is a bracelet made of actual amber. This is the color you want.

But take care not to go darker or you will probably burn your caramel. If you are nervous as I often am, or if you are making this for guests or a gift, err on the side of light amber. It may not be as rich as complex as the amber caramel, but it will be un-burned and perfectly delicious.

8. When it is an amber color, it's time to move quickly. Don't get nervous, just be ready.When it's amber, take the pan off the stove and whisk in the butter (I use a flat whisk, but any whisk will do--don't use a spoon--too slow). If it seizes and seems to separate and get funky, just keep stirring. If it bubbles up (as it almost surely will), don't freak out, just keep stirring. All will be well. [Note: Again, as an update: Here you'll pour in the mixed/melted butter and cream mixture.]

9. As soon as your butter is incorporated, whisk in the cream--you're still moving quickly here, but you're almost done. When all is incorporated, add vanilla and sea salt if using. 

10. My friends, it is finished. And it is delicious. Stir it for another minute and pour it into a bowl that can handle some heat because it is really really hot. Put some on a spoon, blow it a lot, and taste it. Good, huh?

11. Allow it to cool in a bowl and then cover it for storage. It'll last quite a while just on the counter. It can also be refrigerated for really long-term storage (i.e. if you have a will of iron).

And now, at the end of this very long post, I have a confession. I burned my first batch. Oh, it wasn't the method's fault. I was trying to take pictures you see. And pictures are distracting and they take time to take, especially for me. First of all, I forgot to reduce the heat after I took the lid off. And then, I was trying to nail that right on perfect amber color and, um, my stove is not level and things just got away from me. By the time I'd clicked a few times, the sugar was burned. Just barely--just 30 seconds too long, but yes, it definitely tasted burned. It does give me the chance, however, to blab on a little longerdiscuss the color of your caramel.

The spoon on the right is burned, the one on the left is good (they'll both look darker in a bowl or pot--the one in the bowl above is the good caramel). You'll notice that there's a little place in between these two shades. The name of that shade is 'risk.' Hit it right on and you'll have the best most heavenly caramel to ever cross your lips (this will be easier with the melted butter/cream). It will be deep nutty sweet, complex, and perfect, but miss it and you've burned your sugar and there's no going back. If you wish to try to hit that mark, I have a bit of advice. Go there slowly. Turn your heat to low (as opposed to medium low) after the lid is removed and rotate the pan a bit as it cooks. Remember that your pan is hot, so even when you take it off the stove, it's going to keep cooking for a few moments (which is sometimes all the time it takes to burn sugar), so keep your heat at low which will give you a lot more control and a little more time after the pan is removed from the burner. If your heat/pan is too hot, you're going to go from perfect to burned too fast to get the butter and cream in there.

Now, go forth and conquer thy caramel sauce.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Linked to Sweets for a Saturday and Fusion Fridays