Basil, Sweet!

The fabulous $2.99 Sweet Basil plants at Trader Joes are the perfect excuse to make pesto, and a 8+ hour shift at KGO is the perfect excuse to make White Bean & Basil Spread with No-Kneed "Awesome" Bread.

My frugal pal Vanessa gave me the tip to use cashews instead of pine nuts in pesto. You still get that sweet, mellow, nutty richness, but at half the price. I also replaced Parmesan with less-expensive Asiago with no complaints from the co-workers who gobbled it up.

White Bean & Basil Spread

1/4 cup toasted, unsalted cashews
2 large cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup fresh arugula leaves, packed
1/4 cup Asiago cheese, grated
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cans (14 oz) white kidney (cannellini) beans, drained & rinsed*
water or chicken broth as needed

Place the first 5 ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and whirl to combine. Add the beans and puree until smooth, adding water or broth to thin as needed.

Makes about 3.5 cups

*I usually use dry beans when I make white bean spreads, but I was short on time and the cans were only $.89 each at TJs - well within my limits of frugality

Little Green Onions

Did you know you could re-grow green onions? You can! I feel a little like Dr. Frankenstein - I have the power to re-give life!

Just cut cut the onions a couple of inches from the bulb, stick them in an inch or so of water and set them in a sunny spot. Soon you'll see green shoots sprouting up - cool!

Keep doing it as long as you can, adding more water as needed. You should get 3-4 re-growths from your onions.

It's A Book (well almost...)

I received an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of The Frugal Foodie Cookbook this week and boy does it look great! The cover and interior layout designers did such an amazing job - yay!

Kale Krisps!

My friend Danielle and her family were going out of town for a couple of weeks and in the midst of all of the backing and scheduling, she realized that she had a fridge full of fresh fruits and veggies. She hated to toss them, and could only eat so much - so she put out a call to her friends to come on over and grab a bag of organic farm produce as well as garden-variety grocery store goods.

My grab bag included a beautiful bunch of Tuscan a.k.a.Dino Kale. I knew that Mr. Meat & Potatoes and Young Master Picky would be less than inclined to eat it no matter what I did to it. but that the Gourmet Gals of the book club would love a to nibble on a basket of Kale Krisps.

These earthy little snacks have are great with cocktails, and have pleasantly bitter aftertaste. Don't be alarmed when they crackle loudly in the oven, or fill the house with a smell similar to cooked Brussels sprouts.

Kale Krisps

1 head Tuscan or dino kale, washed and cut into tortilla-chip-sized pieces (the stems are a little chewy, but tasty - go ahead and use 'em)
½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 300°F.

Place the kale pieces in a bowl and drizzle with vinegar and olive oil.

Turn the leaves a couple of times to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Arrange leaves in single layer on 2 large baking sheets.

Bake until crisp, about 30–35 minutes, tossing halfway through cooking time and turning down the heat down if they get too brown before they get crisp.

Transfer to a rack to cool.

Makes about 6 cups.

I don't want to alarm anyone....

... but there are TOMATOES on my plant!!


Photo (c)Max Starr - he did a good job, no?

Tray Chic

I just love saying "I have a meeting with my PUBLISHER" with an affected Jacqueline Suzanneque flourish. This week I had one at the Viva Editions office with the lovely and talented Brenda Knight and her new intern, Corinna.

And, because the Frugal Foodie wants to maintain her rep, I always try to bring a little snickety snack with me to a meeting. For this meeting, I brought Rosemary Flatbread and White Bean Spread with Chopped Green Olives - simple, cheap, easy and yummy!



I knew we'd nibble while we met, but that there would likely be leftovers I wanted to leave behind at the office for the folks to snack on the rest of the afternoon. So I needed to devise a frugal, attractive, disposable way to transport and serve the treats.

The solution...



I sliced off the bottom 2" or so of a small shipping box, then lined the box with some of the packing paper that it came with. One recipe of Flatbread fit perfectly, and I used a recycled hummus container to hold the White Bean Spread.

Looks good enough to eat, no?

White Bean Spread

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large white onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1/2 pound dry white beans, cannellini or Great Northern
1 tablespoon fresh or 1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano + additional for garnish
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 pound good-quality green olives, pitted and chopped
Salt to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large stockpot. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent. Add the beans, broth, and oregano and turn up the heat to medium-high. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium. Cover the pot and simmer until the beans are tender, about 2-3 hours. Check the pot every so often, adding more broth or water if needed the so the beans are always covered.

Drain the beans in a colander, reserving the liquid. Puree the beans in a food processor, adding reserved liquid if need to create a spreadable consistency.

Say Cheese!

For better or worse, the state of the economy is such that there are amazingly talented people who have time on their hands, so my pals photog Steve Aja and Susan Eslick came over to do a one-day photo shoot of recipes from The Frugal Foodie Cookbook

I cooked 15 recipes in 2 HOT days, and was amazed at how good Susan and Steve made everything look. And, I learned a few food styling tricks as well, such as 7-up + coffee + salt makes perfect "champagne"


Where you or I may see a funky, faded swing, Steve saw a perfect place to pose a serving of Tout Le Fruit Crisp and a cup of coffee


The lovely and talented Ms. Susan Eslick

The results from the shoot will be posted soon - and they are beautiful!