My son is back at college with homemade pizza memories floating around his head! In November I treated myself to a new Cuisinart food processor, and the pizza dough recipe that came with it is wonderful. On Saturday I made a homemade tomato sauce, we shredded several cheeses (mozzarella, goat and feta), and I set out the fixings for make-your-own pizza. This included spicy sausage, smoked chicken, spinach, arugula, mushrooms, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, and kalamata olives. The pizza was enjoyed with a nice Malbec picked out by my husband…all in all, not a bad send off.

I am still working this week’s menu…I have a recipe for a Guinness Beef Stew that I’d like to sample, and tomorrow looks as if it will be the perfect day to try it out. Wednesday – St. Patrick’s Day – will be a repeat of the meal I did last week (corned beef with Guinness mustard, horseradish cream, potatoes and glazed carrots). I will also bake my Cheddar Cheese-Stout Cheesecake I make every year for the festivities, and I am sure we will enjoy a black and tan (or two) that evening! I tried a Chocolate Stout Custard this weekend, but I wasn’t totally ‘wowed’ by it. I can’t decide if it needs tweaking, or if I need to drop it altogether. The verdict is still out on that one…

I am so excited – my new dishwasher is due to be installed tomorrow!! I have been researching and asking around for several months, and finally decided on the Asko 5893 model. I currently have 2 dishwashers, one of which needs to be replaced. The other one will need replacing soon as well, but I will try out this Asko model first. The next model down from this is the 5253 and doesn’t have quite as many bells and whistles. I want to see if I will actually use the extra features (and how well they work) before paying the extra money for them when I replace my second dishwasher. The outside of both models is identical; the difference is in the configuration of the baskets, number of programming options and drying cycle options.

I have a suspicion my wall ovens will need replacing within the next year. The cleaning cycle on my top oven gives me an error code whenever I use it, and the light doesn’t work (yes, I have replaced the bulb). In addition to that I have had it serviced twice over the course of its life, both times were electrical issues and expensive fixes. I would love to replace it with a Wolf double wall oven, but the price is steep…I have to wait a bit on that upgrade. To put it in perspective, it would take about seven month’s worth of savings on my Jewelry Diet to pay for it…so unless my oven actually goes kaput it is off limits for now. But a girl can dream!

I am extremely happy with the beef short ribs I made tonight. I ordered them from Burgundy Pasture Beef and was able to get the slab-style ribs normally reserved for restaurants. They happened to have extras the day I ordered….Hooray for me!! They were phenomenal!!

I braised them as I usually do – in a porter ale (I used a Kona Pipeline Porter, which I also drank with my meal) – and finished with a maple-horseradish glaze. I drizzled the reduced juices over creamy golden mashed potatoes, and served a salad made up of heirloom lettuces, roasted beets, cucumber, radishes and shavings of Parmesano-Reggiano – topped with a homemade mustard-maple dressing.

I think I have mentioned Burgundy Pasture Beef in a prior post. I first ordered from them in January. The quality of their meats has been incredible! They raise 100% grass fed cattle and even process their own meats. Lamb, Pork and Poultry are also processed there, brought in from sustainable nearby farms. The lamb I made on Monday was delivered from Burgundy Beef, and it was the best lamb I have had the pleasure to serve to my family. So far I have tried pork chops, ground pork sausage, lean hamburger, lamb and short ribs. The sausage had a bit more fat than I am used to, so I may stick with the Whole Foods mild Italian, but since I have extra I will certainly give it another chance. In my freezer there are more meats to sample, including a couple of roasts, some tri-tip, tenderloin tails, and a whole chicken. I look forward to each and every future bite!

Burgundy Pasture Beef offers tours from time to time, and I would love to get a group together to visit and witness first-hand a sustainable farm in action. They have a boucherie on site where their meats can be bought in person. They even offer hamburgers made-to-order from their own grass fed beef! I have a feeling the long drive down there will be well worth the effort.

Such a wonderful week!!! My son is home from college on Spring Break, and I am making sure to fit in all of his favorite meals. Last night we had a rack of lamb, roasted in the oven with garlic and onions, rosemary, thyme and oregano…I coated the outside with mustard and horseradish, then added a breadcrumb mixture containing garlic and herbs. On the side I served mashed sweet potatoes – mixed with butter, a little brown sugar, chipotle powder and salt – a green salad, bread (leftover rolls I found in the freezer from Thanksgiving – yum) and a sour cherry sauce to go over the lamb. As I told my boys last night: “That lamb died with purpose!” My whole house smelled delicious, and when I woke up this morning I could still smell the aroma from last night’s dinner. It made me hungry all over again!

Tonight I will be making another favorite I am sure I have mentioned on here in the past: Beef Short Ribs Braised in Porter – topped with a maple syrup-horseradish glaze. I will serve that with mashed golden potatoes and salad. He has requested Corned Beef for tomorrow night since he will not be here for St. Patrick’s Day. I anticipate serving that with mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. I make an Irish Soda Bread that I serve with ‘Irish Whiskey Butter’ every year on St. Pat’s, and I plan to make that to go with it as well. It’s the butter that makes the bread special…it is softened butter mixed with Irish Whiskey and brown sugar. Any leftover corned beef makes a delicious hash for breakfast the morning after. When served with a fried egg on top it is raised to a new level, and served with leftover Irish Soda Bread (including that yummy butter) it is just so very over-the-top!

To end I leave you with this Irish quote I found: “•A boy’s best friend is his mother and there’s no spancel stronger than her apron string.” It somehow seemed appropriate….

Last week was a devastating week for several friends and family members. One friend experienced a fire whereby the house they had grown up in was completely burned to the ground; another family member had a huge tree fall on her house, which destroyed the house, but fortunately no one inside was hurt; and the most devastating: a friend lost her husband, who she has been with for more than 25 years, in an automobile accident. Just tragic. This has left me in a state of shock, yet also has given me a renewed sense of gratitude for my family and friends, and a fresher outlook on what truly matters in my life. It is so easy to get bogged down with everyday life and get caught up in life’s trivial dramas. It is so easy to let the little problems of life take over and become large ‘mountains’. It is so easy to forget to say ‘I love you’ to our loved ones. And it is so easy to hide behind a computer instead of actually spending time with one another…

If you are reading this, please take a moment to acknowledge those in your life who mean so much to you – give them a hug, write a note, pick up the phone…anything. Just let them know how important they are to you. I hope that at the very least something good can come from all of last week’s tragedy…and I am pulling for a much brighter week this week.

This is the final week of the “Jewelry Diet”. I have not tallied all of the grocery receipts, but the last notes I made showed me coming in around $7 per person, per day. Definitely not my goal of $5, but also a pretty decent savings over what I typically spend per month. I briefly considered including my dogs – 2 chocolate labs – in on the total daily allotments when they ate a wedge of Parmesano-reggiano. I had briefly set it on my kitchen counter so I could answer the phone…that lovely bit of cheese was one of my indulgences, carefully budgetted into my menu, so I was not so happy with them that day!!

What have I learned from this experiment? First and foremost I have learned that with a little planning and some flexibility it is NOT difficult to eat good, wholesome food on a budget. We ate well. I know that if we were in dire need of saving I could have cut back even further…it would have taken a bit more creativity, but it could have been done.

Second, I have learned that when unnecessarily putting your family on a budget – especially when they are not used to being on one – DO NOT TELL THEM!! If I had said not one word to my family (one member in particular) they would never have known. I did well keeping the foods and portions the same…

Third: We did eat well; however, I discovered that despite the fact the foods I eat are ‘pure’ and wholesome and un-processed, I don’t eat enough vegetables. I do well with everything else. We eat whole grains (breads, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, quinoa, etc.) and plenty of fruit; the meats we consume are from grass-fed, humanely raised animals. We may possibly eat the minimum daily recommended amount of vegetables, but I’d say it’s borderline…this is something for me to work on.

Fourth: As much of a Whole Foods advocate as I am, they are not perfect. I was disappointed to find out much of their ‘365’ brand of frozen vegetables, which are labeled organic, come from China. I did a little research and discovered there really are farms in China classified as organic; however, I worry that with all of the pollution in China the acid rain negates a lot of the organic effects. I have not delved deeply into the matter, but I plan to spend more time researching and sorting fact from fiction. It is so convenient to stock up on frozen vegetables for those times I don’t have a lot of time to spare, and their brand was an inexpensive and good-tasting choice…

The big question: Will I continue my ‘Jewelry Diet’ in the months to come? This experiment highlighted the fact that we spend a lot of money on food. Being on a budget this month, I did not waste much food at all. And I ended up going to the store only once, at most twice, per week…this forced me to plan my meals, which is often the most difficult part of making dinner in the first place. My goal is to keep this going; however, I am not going to be quite so restrictive if I want to make a particular meal that happens to cost more.