Rucy's Profile

Wood for resale and for your health (the less dust in your bedroom the better sleep you'll get - especially if you have pets). If you want something cushy as you get out of bed you can always add an area rug - or - leave your slippers right next to the bed (what I do).

Buy two or three bottles each of vinegar and olive oil, then flavor them individually, herbs – citrus peel – dried chilies. Drizzling a few drops on most any savory dish will give you the feeling that you’re living luxuriously but on pennies. I don’t recommend adding garlic, because the fear of botulism is real (slim but real), add garlic fresh when you're cooking. If you need recipes search for Michael Chiarello - or - go by your local library and borrow his books titled respectively Oils and Vinegars.

Roast in-season veggies on a pan but store them separately, when it’s time to make dinner you can pick & choose which flavors you want to eat that night. It means that from the same pan of veggies (whatever's in season and inexpensive) I’ll have meals that look and taste completely different with the addition of pasta, grains, legumes or flavorings: soup (chunky one night, pureed another), stew, pizza. For me that beats-all over having the same pot of stew every night. I eat Italian one night, Indian the next, Chinese the next, variety makes it for me. I didn’t mention meat or fish because I gave up eating those, though not for financial reasons, and it ended up saving me a lot but I have to be diligent about ensuring I get all my nutrients in other ways. Skip those ramen-only recipes, really, as you grow older you’ll find that having shortcut your nutrition earlier in life will cost you far more in terms of mobility, flexibility, and doctor’s bills. It’s not worth it – just challenge yourself to incorporate variety and nutrition in your diet now.

I grow or buy bulk in-season then I preserve it by canning or drying it in my home oven. I store the canned goods in boxes stacked in a small 2’x2’ area in the coolest part of my house, in the fridge, and also freeze some things (fruits, sliced, to make smoothies or pie). Whether I’m making tomato sauce or freezing peaches or making jam I make sure I can use it multiple ways. A basic tomato sauce (with the addition of an ingredient or two when cooking): soup or stew or vegetable juice base, pasta sauce, pizza sauce. Jam: on toast or scones, in cake or cupcake batter or added to the icing, used as a sweetener in iced tea. If I'm peeling an orange or lemon, the peel's added to a freezer bag, when there's enough I make a small batch of marmalade. My neighbors and I grow completely different produce, in a mild but foggy part of San Francisco, and we share the excess with senior neighbors, single parents, the local food bank and soup kitchen. We know people who need free produce, family or friends, they’ve signed up to help us during harvest and tree trimming seasons and get a share of our combined produce in-season... I firmly believe that if we can do this here it can be done most anywhere. If you see an unattended tree, ask the neighbor if you can help harvest, many seniors have lost their ability to maintain their fruit trees and need help in return for free produce.

If you take the time to understand how coupons work, it can be a big saver, I won’t spend time hunting & clipping so I pay for coupons through a clipping service and only buy ‘free product’ coupons. For the price of what I’d pay for 1 or 2 items at full retail I usually get enough of that product to last me a year or more (10-20 items). It doesn’t take much space to store, I set aside a 2’x2’ area in a cool location, and I rotate things in & out of boxes. It’s saved me a fortune this year and now, after having stocked up on grains & legumes in bulk, my monthly food bill is down to about $25 a month.

Sorry for such a long post but this is the topic I've been working on personally for the last couple years so I've been ferreting out every trick I can find.

Chocolate boxes for Valentine's Day...
Lime+macadamia nut heart-shaped waffles and portobello & shiitake mushroom 'bacon',
Meyer lemon poundcake.

To get more of the skin to slip off, after you've roasted them whole in-skin, invert a bowl over the top so the heat helps steam off the skin (5-10 minutes resting time usually does the trick and this works for roasting peppers as well). When they're cool enough to handle I either put on a pair of gloves, reserved for this purpose, or I hold onto a beet with one hand (or tongs) and use a grapefruit spoon to scrape off any stubborn bits of skin. If your hands are stained with beet juice scouring your hands with coffee grinds seems to do the trick for me.

Most of the people I visit, when I'm in England, rely on Delia's recipe though it includes prunes:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/date-prune-and-walnut-loaf.html

Personally I prefer one that includes apricots but if you're looking for a classic go with dates & walnuts - or - dates & walnuts & prunes. I'm sure she'll be touched by whatever version you choose - very thoughtful of you.

If you're going to do this, and in my experience it's Not worth the peace-of-mind you lose for just a few months worth of rent, store anything that when you return you'd be upset was missing or damaged (anything that's an heirloom or your favorite, no matter how small, even a favorite coffee cup). Find somewhere to store it safely, which usually means Not in the place your'e subletting, and then cross-your-eyes-for-luck that all goes well. It's also worth securing a damage deposit from the person you sublet to because you're ultimately responsible for any damage to the apartment. Ultimately for me, I'd rather have a family member or friend stay, someone who wants to visit my city for a few months than sublet to another stranger. I've done that a few times, and I'm always able to find someone who wants to stay in San Francisco for awhile and watch my pets, last time my cousin spent two months here working on her next novel.

Several magazines have been reincarnated this way, and you're so excited to see the masthead back on the newsstand that you add it to your shopping basket, only realizing later that it cost you $10-15. Just to see it's full of articles and pictures you've already seen???

No thanks!

Bring the magazine back proper!!!

I do, not just one but a lot of them, I use them seasonally. There's a particular angel wing cup I use in December. One with Spring flowers and a warming cover that I use in late Winter when I'm sitting inside watching the rain fall and beginning to plan the spring garden plantings. One I bought from a prop company, attributed to a television show, it reminds me of all the times my mother and I sat together watching the show when I was a little kid (it was Bewitched, I think it was in syndication by then, we used to practice wiggling our noses together like Samantha and Tabitha). So no cup that I think is 'perfect' for any one particular drink but they support great memories so they're all perfect to me.

I'm OK with someone helping me clear the table, but I never take the time to do the dishes when company's here, I'd much rather socialize at the table and have a long leisurely conversation. I honestly don't think I'm being a good host if I'm more concerned about cleaning up than ensuring that the evening is fun.

Now if it's just me and house guests, I accept their help, but I generally will put all the wrapping gear out and ask them to put the leftover food in the fridge while I hand wash a few dishes (copper drink tumblers, cooking knives) and slip the dishes into the dishwasher. We're usually done at the same time and can head back to the table or living room for more conversation.

@EMMA CHRISTENSEN, thanks, yes, both crispier and more golden. I also used to set the oven to broil, for the last 2 minutes, just to make sure it crisped as much as possible (oven ajar and watching carefully since every 10 seconds will make a difference with the broiler). In very short order, using this method, we came to genuinely prefer oven 'fried' over oil fried.