SquareParents.com - Cool Stuff For Cool Parents

Old School

Written by The Square Parent Tuesday, 07 October 2008 00:00

The Old School Sesame Street episodes have charm; the new ones are all about slick production.

The 70s episodes were produced on relatively low budgets, which forced a lot of creative animation, and a lot of very DIY stuff. The songs especially from the old episodes are also head and shoulders above those of the new.

In short, watching the 70s episodes, it's plain to see that what had been originally great about the show when it first aired has been stripped away leaving the program in name only.  Somewhere along the way, the charm was filtered out.  

T Bone With Onions

Written by The Square Parent Monday, 06 October 2008 00:00

T-bone as in steak. Meaty, delicious, and often pricey, the T-bone is all of this and potentially much more.  Alas, much of the potential and part of the cost of the T-bone goes into the trash can. Most commonly in the US, when you get a T-bone steak, either at home or out, what you'll have on your plate is... a steak with a T-shaped bone in it. Right. If you go to some other places in the world, you'll be very hard-pressed to find any kind of steak on the bone.  Why?  Because after someone's eaten directly from it, the bone is then useless, a waste of part of the cost of the steak.    

So here's a multi-tasking trick: buy a T-bone steak, or several, cut the meat off of the bone, and save the bones in a Ziplock freezer bag. When the bag's full, make a stock out it, and then use the stock specifically for soupe a l'ognion Francaise. 

Why French onion soup?  Properly made, onion soup is a great way for a toddler to try onions. Onions can be one thing that the kids don't particularly like, understandably, because of the pungent sharpness; a lot of adults don't like onions for that reason. But if you can introduce the onion to kids in an innocuous and indeed delicious format, you'll have just broadened their little palates that much more.

The kid(s) can watch you make this easily enough, and since there are only a couple of things going on, they should be able to follow along; they'll also be even more likely to eat it.

Besides, it's cheap and easy.

The key is often in the stock.  Many recipes call generically for "beef broth," which many people take to mean the stuff in the carton in the supermarket that sells for $2.69 a quart, contains a ton of salt, and tastes sort of metallic. 

• So make your own stock with recycled beef bones, not a big deal. 
• Then pick up a few onions and slice them.
• Put the onions into a  large frying pan with some oil over medium heat, sprinkle with salt, and let them cook for a while, stirring occassionally, until they turn brown.
• Add brown onions to the stock and allow to simmer for a few minutes, until hot.
• Ladle soup into ovenproof crocks or bowls almost to the top, float a slide of toasted French bread on top, then top with a slice or two of provolone cheese. 
• Place in a hot oven until the cheese browns. 
• Chow down.  Soup will be hot.

And there is.  Cheap, easy, and when it's cool enough for the kid(s) to eat, if the onions have been sufficiently caramelized, chances are they'll like it, lose a bit of their onion squeamishness, and have an introduction to a culinary classic, even if it is French.  

Keep Paying It Forward

Written by The Square Parent Wednesday, 01 October 2008 00:00

There are many ways in which food can be multi-tasked and multi-purposed, from which everyone benefits. The idea of pay-it-forward is loosely based on French cooking, in which very little goes to waste, but instead is re-used to create something entirely new. None of this comes from a specific formula or recipe per se, but is a systematic way of approaching and managing and getting the most of what you've already purchased. None of this is new, either, even in the United States. It's simply knowledge that was lost when the hard times became good times like nobody had ever seen, and there was an explosion new and exotic foods, including TV dinners, Doritos, and Twinkies.

A professional French kitchen is extremely labor-intensive, even when taking some obvious shortcuts not sanctioned by the classical masters. Obviously, huge amounts of work and painstaking detail are not practical or even desirable given time and other constraints of the modern American household. But there are little things that can be done that are practical and easy, and which will yield better food that the kids will eat, too. 

It takes some effort, but don't think of it as a chore. Think in terms of creating value.

For example, consider an ordinary chicken. Common and industrially produced, the bird is a relatively inexpensive source of protein that unfortunately often suffers the indignities of chemical alteration through processing, being coated in salty bread-like stuff, deep fried, and then thrown into a plastic bag to see another day in the frozen food section of a supermarket or shoved through a drive through window into a waiting car. You're paying for this added "value." 

There's nothing wrong with roasted chicken, and if done properly is one of the better meals you can eat, even made at home from an industrial bird.

But that's only the beginning; the food lifecycle of a chicken can continue for quite some time with some reasonable effort that can be easily managed in the modern home, which has many advantages, such as a freezer.

So go to the grocery store, and buy a whole chicken, 4 to 5 lbs, from the refrigerated poultry section. Not a big deal. Pound for pound, this comes out to one-half to one-quarter of the price of frozen nuggets.

Then

Cook the chicken. If you must have chicken breasts for dinner, remove them, like with a knife. Season properly and don't overcook.  You'll be left with a chicken carcass, which should then be seasoned and go into a 350 degree oven for about an hour. 

Then

From the remainder of the carcass, you have cooked chicken for chicken salad. Wait for the chicken to cool, or jam it in the fridge if you don't have time to deal with it. Pull whatever meat is on the bones and make some chicken salad out of it, then take it to the office for lunch.

Branching Out

If you have leftover chicken salad, half a cup or so, take whatever's left, place in the mini food processor with a little mustard and shallots or green onions, and process into a paste.  Viola, chicken spread, and far superior to the stuff that comes in those little cans.

Then

Make stock by placing the chicken carcass into the crock pot along with some random vegetables (onion, celery, carrots) and a couple of quarts of water in the morning, and cook it on low all day. When you return later in the day, you'll have fresh chicken stock. All you need to do is strain the stock through a strainer and when cool, remove the remaining chicken meat, which won't be very much, but some. At this point, discard the bones and vegetables.

You'll have the basis for chicken soup for everyone. If the kids like alphabet soup, add some alphabet pasta, and throw in some frozen vegetables and chicken meat. This is good alphabet practice, too.

Chances are that it'll be better than the canned soup from the supermarket, and certainly much less expensive because your soup was made from the stuff that you'd otherwise have thrown away. Don't forget to add some salt. 

Branching Out

Cooked chicken meat can be used to make chicken croquettes for example.  Food TV has a basic version, but there are more recipes out there that are even easier than this. Or make some chicken spread. Or make chicken wontons. Whatever, just find a way to use what you have.

Then

Freeze the remaining stock in a one-quart Tupperware container and as cubes in several ice cube trays. When the cubes are frozen, remove from trays and store in a freezer bag.  Chicken stock made in the method described has many many uses for different things: make soup; make sauces; use as a braising/cooking liquid.  

Then

Use the stock to make a side dish of lentil beans.  Buy a pound of lentils for $1.29, and make half of a package at a time.  Lentil beans are cheap, and although quite bland when cooked with water, they turn into something great when cooked with chicken stock.  Additionally, they're nutritional powerhouse.  Don't forget to add salt.

Branching Out

Take any leftover lentil beans, maybe half of a cup is all you'll need, and put into the mini food processor with some green onion and curry powder or cumin, whatever, and there you have dip. 

And all of this fundamentally started with a chicken and some inexpensive vegetables.

This is just an example of what can be done, and the example has potentially quite a few applications. It takes a little practice, but the trade-off of effort for savings can be well worth it.  The best part ais that you end up with better food.  

Pantry Basics

Written by The Square Parent Wednesday, 01 October 2008 00:00

Eating cheap and well requires some that some specific items be kept as staples in the pantry.  Some are frozen, some are canned, some come in plastic bags, but they all have one thing in common -  none are standalone ingredients, and all are intended to be used in many different ways with other ingredients to make something new.

Use a simple value-added approach to make something.  Make ingredients from previously used ingredients, then combine with the staples to make something entirely new.  Give the leftovers to the kid(s) for lunch, or take to work.

The following is a brief list of basics and add-ons, and is definitely not comprehensive.  

• Dry lentil beans.
• Canned black beans, and red and white kidney beans.
• A decent selection of spices, including curry powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, allspice, whatever.
• Parmigiano reggiano cheese.  A block may be expensive, but a little bit goes a long way, and it has the shelf life of plutonium.
• Sugar, flour, rice, and dried pasta.
• Cans of tomato paste, preferably bought in bulk.
• Red wine and balsamic vinegars, and maybe some flavored oils to be used sparingly.
• Extra virgin olive oil and canola oil.
• Potatoes and onions.
• Canned tuna, including at least one can of decent Itialian or Spanish stuff in olive oil.

This basic list will provide the buidling blocks or addition to hundreds of cheap meals, and mostly decent stuff too.  Generally speaking, better quality is better quality, but better quality is not always necessary, there are still many good meals to be made with lesser-quality ingredients.  Additionally, it's usually less expensive to buy in bulk, although it may not be desirable to do so - who wants to be stuck with a pound of ground cinnamon?

The items from this list will be referred to in other places on this site as offhand vocabulary but this is a starting point.

How to Get Rid of Baby Stuff

Written by The Square Parent Tuesday, 23 September 2008 00:00

Within the first year of bebe's life, many people are typically addled with so much baby stuff, they don't know what to do with it, expect for pack it away into basement, attic, or closet until these spaces are utterly filled with the stuff.  Since we all have too much, and it's useful for a very limited time, something must be done with it all.  Make no mistake, all of it will someday end up in a landfill somewhere.  Even after you've passed it on and given it away, and maybe the receiver of the gift has given it away, soemwhere along the line, someone will throw things out.  

The solution to this is creative giving, which can range from subtle suggestion to an outright blitz. 

The blitz is the most fun.  Find a neighbor with a child younger than yours, and then bundle all of your old stuff into an age-appropriate bundle.  Then, keep the bundle ready in your living room, and when you see them outside, coming home from somewhere or doing casual yardwork, grab the bundle and lay it on them. 

"Oh, little Nalbert's getting so big, he's going to need some clothes." 

And there it is.  But which clothes to give away? 

• Since you're doing this in an obviously genuine spirit of giving, try to give away only the nicest things.
• Avoid giving away monogrammed items, or peices with your kid's name on it.  It's really important to avoid this accident for obvious reasons.
• Be season-appropriate.  Giving away a snowsuit in April will turn what would be a nice gesture into an obviously obnoxious unload of crap.    
• Make sure the parents will have a use for it.  If you see little Nalbert with a different beanie on his head each day, but the same pair of striped socks, don't give away another beanie.  Instead, give away as many plain socks as you can. 

In short, be observant and use some of your newly-found parental wisdom.  And always give things away with a genuine generosity, even though you are also multi-tasking to get rid of some stuff.

You can also make a buck off of your stuff by selling it at a flea market, or on Craig's List, e-Bay, or any one or another online marketplaces.