The HNJJ CHEF

Today the Hillsborough NJ Journal is introducing its CHEF series:
Cheaper, Healthier, Easier, Food.

American’s are supposed to be trying to eat more frugally and healthfully with less shopping and preparation time, while returning to basic comfort food.

Rumor has it that the media is aware of this, but I don’t see it.

A recent news show featured a segment on “…easy, healthy quick, affordable...” food, although the chef did admit it was the “high end” of affordable. It included salmon, out-of-season asparagus, fresh chives, and fresh lemon zest. [High end? You think?] And I’m not sure where the healthy part comes in; they used butter and 5 egg yolks in just one recipe.

The food channel’s idea of easy includes sevich. Their quick includes Nicoise salad, and chicken-fried veal in jalapeno sauce. Paula working on blue-crab, gazpacho, and fettuccine chicken salad. Their Italian “working lunch” includes one item that I recognize and have in my house: beans. [Actually, without knowing what kind of beans…maybe I don’t have them here.]. Their 30-minute meal menu and the Contessa’s fast elegant supper didn’t include one thing from my well-stocked pantry or freezer, so I guess the first 30-minutes involves getting ready to go to the food store and driving there.

Their comfort food does include meatloaf and mac-and cheese. Oh, wait, that’s Truffle mac-and-cheese. And the meatloaf ingredients include..uhm…forget it. Well, they also offer that comfort staple garlic shrimp casserole.

So…thoroughly disheartened with the possibilities, I began looking through the day-to-day recipes that we have been using, sometimes for decades. With one of us being lactose intolerant and the other a recent heart attack survivor, many of our old-time recipes have been adjusted to more modern healthier ingredients.

And what does the CHEF mean?
Cheaper than dining out or using expensive unusual ingredients.
Healthier than the previous formulas or the sodium-laden canned stuff.
Easier than most of the recipes we have found.
Food. Just plain everyday food. Ingredients that we are likely to have in the cupboard. Stuff we don’t have to go buy in a specialty store.

##
What started this?
Checking last year’s HNJJ statistics, one of the posts that continued to get hits was about my mother’s turkey carcass soup, a post that was meant to be more about my mother that her recipe, but it didn’t work out that way. [I have refined that recipe and will try to get that one redone in time for Thanksgiving.]

##
Every week or two I’ll post a recipe. There aren’t a lot of them, but there are enough to add a few to your recipe collection.