After due consideration, including consideration of my own laziness, I am hosting, for those who may be interested, a one time blogging event. I am particularly interested, myself, in the sort of recipe which is a happy lifesaver for an impecunious, struggling student, or anyone, such as yours truly, who is at the end of a pay period, and not feeling very flush. I think this event should be entertaining, and useful too. I hope so. This is what I propose:
I'll be looking for an email, by April 2nd, of the permalink to a post about your favorite, splendid and delicious bargain recipe. This should be something made with inexpensive, obtainable ingredients, and should not require much in the way of special equipment to prepare. I do not mean, however, that it should not be unusual. To the contrary, I'm hoping to see some exciting food I never would have thought of for myself. Nor should you feel that you cannot include a small amount of a more luxurious ingredient-as long as it can be obtained in small enough quantities to be affordable. (For example, you can get saffron in quite small quantities, and dole it out to good effect. There is, however, no quantity of beluga caviar which is affordable. Likewise, a recipe requiring a quarter of a cup of saffron, if such a thing exists, will cost the earth.)
The aim is to to assemble a collection which will be a boon to the starving student/artist...or anyone who likes to eat lovely, lovely food, and cannot, or cannot always, pay top dollar. Much of the very best food has been invented by cooks dealing with adversity and lean times. I'd like to see what we can assemble.
If you have already posted about your favorite, tried and true, delectable but thrifty dish, which is so wonderful and so cheap that you cannot top it, then you can send along the permalink to your previous post. Otherwise, please post by the April 2nd date. I will do a round up in the following week, and hope it will be of use to all of us. Show us how clever you are, and make something out of nothing, or nothing very much.
The empty kettle picture is a detail from a Chardin still life.