Herb Saver

My herbs not only die in my garden but they also die in my fridge. My refridgerator seems to dehydrate my vegetables, fruit, and herbs overnight. The herbs always get it the worst though. It is very frustrating to spend $2.99 on herbs and then wake up the next morning to find them wilted and useless. It is just as frustrating if you get your herbs from your friends for free. I've considered spending money on herb savers such as this one but then I took a closer look at these kinds of things and realized that those herb savers are just tall plastic containers that hold a little bit of water and that limit the amount of air that goes into them. Instead of dropping $30, I saved one of my take-out containers, poured an inch of water into it, cut the ends of some cilantro I bought, dropped the cilantro into the container, placed the cap on top of the container, poked some holes into the cap using a steak knife, and placed it in my fridge. The next day I checked it and it worked like a charm. The leaves were hydrated, green, and so fresh smelling. I gave it another three days...still beautiful. After a week, it was still fresh but the water had browned so I rinsed out the water and put it back in. The cilantro was still good after three weeks! I kept checking it, rinsing out the water, and even cut the ends after a week and a half and the cilantro stayed fresh and beautiful! Problem solved, it was so easy and FREE!

Use Your Friends For Their Herbs

There was once a point in my life when I thought I could maintain an herb garden. I had visions of pots around my front yard or my back balcony full of basil (sweet and Thai), mint, cilantro, thyme, and parsley. I had dreams of going to my pots, clipping basil leaves, and never having to spend $2.99 for a sorry little plastic container of half wilted basil ever again. I even made a trip to Home Depot and got soil, gardening tools, and large pots. But my herbs wilted and withered away. My dream garden would never be.

Lucky for me, my friend Jazmin has a green thumb and has created a beautiful herb garden with almost every herb that I would need for cooking (except for some Asian ones that I might need to get her to grow for me next spring.) She is also very willing to feed my addiction to cooking. She supplied me with some thyme last week and it just happened to be the same week that both Safeway and Giant had whole chicken on sale for $0.99 a pound. I had roast chicken on my mind. In particular, this Barefoot Contessa recipe. I've made this recipe before and it is good.

1 (4-pound) roasting chicken - $2.29 per pound at Whole Foods
Sea salt -Free from previous purchase
Freshly ground black pepper - Free from previous purchase
1 large bunch fresh thyme - Free - gift from Jazmin
4 lemons - $0.69 each
3 heads garlic, cut in 1/2 crosswise - $2.99 per pound
2 tablespoons butter, melted - Free from previous purchase
1/2 pound sliced bacon - Free from previous purchase
1 cup white wine - Free - Brought for the dinner by Monali
1/2 cup chicken stock - $1.39 per can

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers and pat the outside dry. Place the chicken in a large roasting pan. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the thyme, reserving enough thyme to garnish the chicken dish, 1 lemon, halved, and 2 halves of the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Cut 2 of the lemons in quarters and scatter the quarters and remaining garlic around the chicken. Lay the bacon slices over the chicken to cover.

Roast the chicken for 1 hour. Remove the bacon slices from the top of the chicken and set aside. Continue roasting the chicken for an additional 1/2 hour, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove to a platter and cover with aluminum foil while you prepare the gravy.

Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the bottom of the pan. Add the wine and chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes, or until reduced by half. Slice the chicken on a platter. Garnish the chicken platter with the bacon slices, roasted garlic, reserved thyme and 1 lemon, sliced. Serve with the gravy.

For Christine and Monali who came over for dinner, I had to make some delicious sides. Especially for Christine, I made some roasted red potatoes. They were $2.99 per bag. I halved (or quartered) them, tossed them in some olive oil and butter, added half a head of garlic cloves, seasoned, and baked them at 425F for 45 minutes. We ate them with some sour cream. I also made some Shells and Cheese and added bits of the bacon that was roasted with the chicken into them. I topped off the shells with some shavings of an aged Percino Romano I found in the random cheese bin at Whole Foods. ( I love that cheese bin because you get to try out so many different cheeses for so little money. The hunk I got was only $1.08 and a perfectly good amount for our dinner.)

Monali brought a delicious salad which brought some beautiful color to our otherwise bland looking meal. It may look bland but that chicken was freaking amazing. The lemon and thyme gave the chicken a nice, fresh citrus flavor and the garlic perfectly infused the meat (not as intense as when I mince the garlic and stuff it under the skin though I like doing that too.)

Overall, the meal cost about $21.00 total. It fed three people for dinner and served for a great lunch the next day. This week, Giant has organic whole chicken for $1.59 per lb.

So the lesson of this post is to make lots of friends. Some of them might help you find high paying jobs. Some of them might help you carry some boxes when you move. Some of them can get you high quality herbs...for free.

Save Money at Whole Foods

If I were to rank the markets that I enjoy shopping at in DC, Whole Foods would probably rank second after Trader Joes. (H-Mart could be number one if they were located in DC.) Trader Joes was the first market that introduced me to gourmet products and they have great prices on cheeses and produce. That is why they are ranked first. They also sell Asti sparkling wine for $5.99 and I do like my sweet sparkling wines. But Whole Foods is a much prettier market to shop in and I appreciate that they carry a lot of organic and earth/people friendly products. Here is some advice I got from Whole Deals, Whole Food's magazine that has coupons and cooking advice:

• "Cut your costs in half. If you need only half a cabbage, sandwich, chunk of cheese, fish fillet, loaf of fresh bread, etc., we're happy to provide just the half you need." REALLY? I've wasted many loaves of bread because I just couldn't finish an entire loaf. And frankly, I NEVER need more than half a cabbage for recipes. This works for me.
• You can get volume discounts if you buy a whole case of or more of a certain item. This is good to check out for wine lovers. If you are buying enough for a big party, asking for the cost of a case may be worth it.
• Store Deals - You can sign up for the e-newsletter and get bi-weekly updates store specials here.

And this is just my tip. I like their bulk section for things like cranberries or raisins when I need them for recipes. A whole box of cranberries is too much to buy when I only need 1/2 a cup for a recipe so its worth it to me to go buy those items at Whole Foods.