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The Kitchen Recessionista

So, here we are, in a recession. Let's eat!

The Joy of the Buy Nothing Group.

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Some yogurt jars I offered up on Buy Nothing.

It all started innocently enough: I had some leftover Halloween trinkets and toys that weren’t given away during trick-or-treat time, and I decidedly did not want to keep them for another year, storing them away someplace “very safe” that would be forgotten by the next Oct. 31. They didn’t really fit the bill for a Goodwill drop-off, and none of my friends with kiddos wanted them. I lamented this situation to my friend Denise with no shortage of dramatics.

“You could post them on Buy Nothing,” she offered.

“Huh?” I replied, as eloquently as I could.

“Buy Nothing,” she repeated patiently. “Surely your neighborhood has a group. Check Facebook.”

Two days later, my Halloween toys had departed, almost by magic, from my front porch. And with that, I was hooked.

Buy Nothing groups have been around for quite awhile now, and most are like my neighborhood group, which is to say quite active. Also, quietly active: The BN community had been scurrying around my very street for years without my ever getting a whiff. But once I was in, I was IN – and many of my items were OUT, zooming out the door at record speed.

If you’re unfamiliar (as I was) with the concept of Buy Nothing, here’s a primer: The movement consists of hundreds (thousands?) of hyperlocal communities, mostly centered on neighborhoods or other close-proximity areas, where members both give and take freely from one another. Have some excess wrapping paper? List it on Buy Nothing! Need a baby monitor because your cat careened through a china cabinet and was thus laid-up for 10 days? Ask for it on Buy Nothing! See a set of Super Mario Bros.-themed pint glasses offered by a neighbor on Buy Nothing? Ask to be considered! 

And while sometimes someone will offer a “quick pick,” one of the group’s mantras is “Let it simmer.” Members are encouraged not to let the group become a first-come, first-served experience, but rather one that is equitable to all, in all professions and on all schedules. This is especially helpful with the more popular and sought-after offerings; sometimes the likes of an Instant Pot can garner a dozen requests straightaway.

Since joining Buy Nothing back in 2020, I’ve both given and taken freely. I needed a new set of martini glasses for New Year’s Eve one year, and lo and behold, here came a beautiful set just a week or so after I started looking! I found myself in possession of several bottles of carpet cleaner when just one would do, and before too long the excess bottles were waiting on my porch for pickup by a neighbor. We’ve started puzzle and board game “round robins,” a traveling collection of items to be picked through and added to from stop to stop. We’ve helped furnish apartments for Afghan refugee neighbors and people just starting out. And we’ve made friends in the process!

In this age of overabundance and excess, it’s a great thing to be able to circulate items through the neighborhood based on what the community needs. And did I mention it’s free? You can’t get much more recessionista than that! Have a look at the Buy Nothing website or your social media channels to see if you can find a group in your own area. You’ll fit right in!

:)

Vegetarian Travel Guide: Delice & Sarrasin, New York.

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Delice & Sarrasin, 178 W. Houston St., New York, NY
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily
Menu: https://delicesarrasin.com/menu
Suitable for: Vegans, vegetarians, lovers of good French food

Visiting Delice & Sarrasin has become a Christmas Eve tradition for LeeLee and me on our holiday jaunts to New York. Quite frankly, it’s also become a nearly-every-trip tradition when we come up to the city for a weekend, a show, a concert … you get the picture. We can find pretty much any reason to visit Delice & Sarrasin when we’re in town – and we’re never disappointed.

Now, this time when we took an Uber to the restaurant after Christmas Eve church service, we were surprised when the driver pulled over in front of an unfamiliar spot. Sure enough, there was the awning which read “Delice & Sarrasin,” but this location was not at all as we remembered. We hadn’t lost our marbles, it turns out (well, not about this, anyway); the restaurant moved earlier this year from its decade-long residence over on Christopher Street. The space is much bigger, and while it has a slightly different vibe from the old location, it’s still just as wonderfully cozy with a pop of elegance. A perfect combination for a French restaurant in the Village!

Though we were a few minutes early for our reservation, we were seated right away and settled in with a glass of wine – a merlot-cabernet for LeeLee and a Riesling for me. My Riesling was great, but the merlot-cabernet was SO good that I elected to join Team Red for my second glass! But I’ve yet to come across a bad wine at Delice & Sarrasin – whatever you choose will be great.

The restaurant’s menu is always a challenge – completely vegan, all delectable, it’s very hard to make any choices and it’s incredibly easy to fall prey to decision fatigue. But take heart! You can’t make a bad choice.

From the cheese plates to the French onion soup to the “escargots,” your appetizer options are incredibly varied depending on your whims of the day. On this particular visit, we chose the baked brie with bread and potatoes, and when it arrived, it warmed the heart and the stomach with its piping-hot, creamy goodness, tasting for all the world like a dairy-based brie. Better, in fact! If it had been socially appropriate I would have licked the serving dish afterward.

Next it was time for the main course. Now, it’s here where I have a confession: As many wonderful entrees as there are, and as many as I’ve gotten to try from LeeLee’s plate, I always order the exact same thing for the main course. I’m a little embarrassed about this – what kind of food writer AM I, anyway?! – but the heart wants what it wants, and in my case the heart wants tagliatelle aux fruits de mer. Tagliatelle pasta with a variety of vegan seafood – it does this Gulf Coast girl’s heart so very, very good. In the case of Christmas Eve, I can explain my repetition away by saying I’m just adhering to the vegetarian version of the Feast of the Seven Fishes, but quite honestly, I can come up with any excuse to order it. At once hearty and light, with pronounced piquant oceanic notes, it’s a wonderful feast for the erstwhile seafood lover who no longer loves actual seafood. 

LeeLee, ever the explorer, tried something new to us both: The Poulet Basquaise, or Basque chik’n (pictured at the top of this post). I snuck a taste (or several), and WOW, what a treat this was! The chik’n legs were so tender and succulent, and the sausage was perfectly spicy. The tomatoes, onions and peppers that served as the base of the sauce came together in beautiful concert, and the whole shebang was presented atop a bed of semolina to thundering applause. One taste in and I was hooked; I think I’ve found my replacement for the tagliatelle on our next visit!

Finally, it was time to move on to dessert. Now, I am partial to the orange crème brulee, but this time around we decided to try something new, and before too long we both landed on the La Suzette crepe, with is a crepe flambe with Grand Marnier, cooked in lemon and cashew butter. We certainly enjoyed it, but I found the orange liqueur and the lemon juice to be a bit too tart for a sweet treat (though I certainly finished my share, so please don’t cry for me!). LeeLee, meanwhile, did not find it too tart at all, lemon-lover that he is, so I suppose your mileage will vary based on your temperament. While I think I will go back to the crème brulee next time, we were both very happy to have tried one of the crepes (and I see plenty of other options to try on future visits!).

Ninety minutes or so after we arrived, we rolled out of the restaurant fat and happy. I can’t think of a better Christmas Eve mealtime tradition than Delice & Sarrasin – and encourage you to add it to your docket the next time you find yourself in New York! You won’t be disappointed. We’re already looking forward to our next visit; knowing us, it won’t be long!

:)

Vegan Butterscotch Candies.

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Before we discuss today’s candy excursion, a confession: I have yet to bake a single thing this holiday season. Oh, my spirit has been willing, but the time has been so crunched! And you know what? That’s perfectly OK. Sweets are good any time of the season, and if friends and neighbors don’t get their deliveries till after Dec. 25, we’ll call them New Year’s candies and move right on along. I haven’t had a recipient yet who refused my baked goods due to a date on the calendar.

I started a love affair with these candies nearly four decades ago and can’t remember a holiday season without them. Some of my first Christmas memories involve me standing on a kitchen chair so I could see over the counter, watching my mother mix the fixings for butterscotch candies on the stove, then carefully spooning them out onto aluminum foil to cool. Her original recipe had a chocolate-butterscotch blend, but when I developed cocoa-induced migraines in college (a travesty, that!), I moved the party to a butterscotch-only recipe instead. My cocoa-fueled migraines have abated at this point in my life, but I like the butterscotch-forward recipe so much that I’ve kept it!

While this recipe didn’t start as a plant-based concoction, I’ve taken the liberty of making it one. Dairy-free butterscotch chips are easy to find now both in specialty shops and on Amazon (I like the King David brand for meltability), and the rest of the ingredients are naturally vegan, so it’s just not all that difficult to do. And if you want to add a bag of chocolate chips back in, be my guest! We’re all for variety here. :)

The recipe’s below.

Print

Vegan Butterscotch Candies.

A holiday treat that will make friends everywhere you go!

  • Author: KitchenRecessionista
Scale

Ingredients

2 bags of butterscotch chips (or one bag of butterscotch chips and one bag of chocolate chips)

1 5-ounce container of chow mein noodles

8 ounces unsalted roasted peanuts

Instructions

Before you get started, line a countertop or table with aluminum foil. This will be important later.

Pour the chips into a large pot and turn the heat to Medium, stirring constantly. Once the chips have completely melted, add the noodles and peanuts and continue to mix until everything is well coated with butterscotch (or butterscotch/chocolate).

Working as swiftly (and smoothly!) as you can, spoon out the mixture one spoonful at a time onto the foil until you’re out of melted butterscotch, at which point you can feel free to lick the spoon and the remnants in the pot. Let the candies cool for several hours, store in an airtight container and give out to all your friends and family!

:)

The Holidays, Man.

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Tell me something: Is it me, or are the holidays absolutely flying by this year? I know, we all say this every year, but something about the way Christmas falls this time around – on a Monday, yielding a long weekend of holiday reverie – makes the whole month of December feel even more compressed. I’m sure I can’t be alone in this … right?

For me, one way to save some time and carve out a few minutes to myself is to rely on my easiest, heartiest and most comforting meals this time of the year. I have no problem sacrificing creativity for comfort food during the holiday season; it’s a trade-off I’m more than willing to make.

So if you’re like me, pressed for time and looking for the easy path wherever you can find it at the moment, you’re in need of some fast-cooking, quick-to-the-table meals to take the stress out of your evening dinner routine. Here are some of my favorites that I lean on every single year. Maybe they’ll become some of yours too! Have a go-to of your own that you’d like to share? Drop it in the comments!

Crockpot Cowboy Stew: This dish is always a crowd-pleaser and yields leftovers for days!

Backyard BBQ Chili: A treat for gameday, a lazy day or any day! 

Easy Instant Pot Hoppin’ John: Add a little Cajun flair to your day – any day! – with this impossibly easy Hoppin’ John recipe.

Vegan Hamburger Helper: A childhood comfort meal, re-created! It comes together in a snap.

Instant Pot Old Faithful: This infusion of black beans and rice is relied on so heavily in our home that we call it simply Old Faithful. It’s always there for us!

Instant Pot “Tuna” Noodle Casserole: After going vegetarian more than 20 years ago, I never thought I’d have tuna noodle casserole again, but this recipe proved me wrong.

Vegan Sausage and Egg Breakfast Sandwiches: These sandwiches feel so decadent, and yet they take no time to put together. Serve them up for breakfast or brunch – or breakfast for dinner! 

:)

On Prepping for the Next Recession.

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Are we in a recession or aren’t we? 

I’m going to be honest: That question sort of galls me. Definitionally, no, it doesn’t seem that the U.S. has dipped into a recession quite yet (though when I’m feeling salty I can easily argue the opposite view), but when it comes to the aspects of daily life, it’s hard not to feel like a recession is looming on the horizon at best, and sitting on the front porch at worst. So with that in mind, it doesn’t mean anything that we’re not officially in a recession yet. Many of us are already feeling the pinch, are we not?

So whether we’re in a recession already or not, in terms of how I’m thinking about my household finances, it really doesn’t matter. I’m preparing for a downturn and I encourage you to do so as well.

What does that look like on the heels of nearly three years of global pandemic, here in the Year of our Lord 2022? A few things right off the bat:

Clipping coupons. Now, I’ve never been an extreme couponer, and to be honest I find that coupons often lead me to purchase items I wouldn’t have even bought otherwise so I often stay away from them – with one key exception. One of our local grocery store chains, Harris Teeter, has started sending out $10 off coupons, good for one week each for a month. I’ve dutifully clipped them, pinned them to our family tack-board, and when the new week of shopping rolls around I fold it up around my store loyalty card before going to shop – that way I won’t forget them at home, which is easy to do!

Cooking at home. Granted, the pandemic has broken our habit of going out to eat multiple times a week, but I must admit I’d been looking forward to ramping that back up! But with restaurant prices being what they are right now, and with me keeping one eye on the financial future, we’ve kept our dining-out budget scaled waaaaay back. In exchange, I’m working to add a bit of spice to my weekly meal plan just so it’s not a constant rotation of beans and rice (we don’t call it Old Faithful for nothing!), salads and pasta all the time. For instance, on Saturday we enjoyed Sushi Night at home – what a treat!

Scaling back future leisure plans. Coming out of the acute phase of the pandemic, LeeLee and I had been looking very forward to going to see some shows again, as well as ramping back up on our beloved travel. Right now, we’re admittedly feeling like we’re in a bit of a liminal phase with this – we don’t want to NOT plan for travel and entertainment, but we don’t necessarily want to raise the stakes on anything either until we figure out what’s going to happen. Now, I could very easily just not allocate any money whatsoever to the aforementioned, and maybe 2023 Hope will think that is what I should’ve done. But at the moment I’m taking a bit of a middle ground – not throwing money around wildly, buying up tickets to every show in town and booking airline reservations from hither to yon, but rather booking some refundable hotels, eyeing some airfares that I can easily exchange for airline credit if necessary and keeping tabs on the concerts and performances I’d REALLY like to see, prioritizing those well above anything that warrants just a “This sounds nice.”

As you well know, this blog was created during the last major recession in 2008-09. We’ve been here before. We survived. And we can – and will! – survive again. There’s no need to panic (a relative liquidated her entire stock portfolio at the very first dip this summer – please don’t do that!), but there is a need to be cautious. Maybe even a little wary! That wariness is what gives us our edge and keeps us sharp. After several years of hypervigilance against a dread disease, I must admit I am not super-excited about keeping up that level of vigilance against a potential economic downturn, but I also know I can do it – and so can you.

We’ll get through it, one meal at a time!

:)