Well, I have been tracking my food consumption for 4 days now. The good news is that I have lost 3 pounds LOL. There really isn't any bad news, expect figuring out what individual servings of foods cost is harder than I thought it would be. Oh, and I eat an awful lot of pistachios, but I kind of knew that anyway.
So far, on December 12th I consumed $38.60s worth of food, the 13th saw $32.00 slide down my gullet,on the 14th it was $47.76 and so far today I've munched my way through $37.00.
Today, we had French Onion soup for lunch, this can be really inexpensive, but since I used butter to fry the croutons and the onions, and the cheese was imported Gruyere, it wasn't. It was very good though and worth every centavo. Let's face it, I am not trying to be frugal, just getting an idea of what I spend on food every day.
I don't like the taste of Mexican butter very much it but I have a big block of unsalted in the freezer.That is what I use when I cook it tastes fine melted but to spread on toast, we indulge in imported butter. Our favorites are either the Danish butter or the one imported from New Zealand, I'd buy butter from California or Wisconsin if I could find it.
Imported cheeses are available here, for a price. As for Mexican cheeses, I love them with the possible exception of daysi, but I have heard that there is a more tasty brand of daysi out there. I like manchego, I use it all the time, in ham and cheese sandwiches, in quesadillas anywhere I would have used Monterrey jack. I like queso Oaxaca too, that is great anywhere you want a melted cheese. And you can eat it out of hand like string cheese.
I've heard that the cheese that the Mennonites sell is very good, but I have a hard time buying food from people whose personal hygiene is suspect. Of course, I would sweat too if I was dressed like them, so maybe I am being unfair.
Oh, and the soup cheese, the queso sopero. I wasn't sure what to do with it, but I used it instead of Parmesan on fettuccine Alfredo and it was very good. My Alfredo recipe is this,cook fettuccine, drain, toss with butter, pour media crema over it, sprinkle cheese on top. Simple and fattening. I have learned not to have it as a main dish, rather as a side dish.
One of the cheeses I also use is panela, which is a sort of farmer's cheese. When I make either saag panir (panir with spinach) or mateer panir (peas with panir) I use panela instead of making yogurt cheese from scratch. I have also mixed panela with cottage cheese to stuff manicotti or make lasagna. It makes the cottage cheese drier.
Oh, and you can buy cottage cheese here, in the familiar plastic container or by weight in the deli section. It's called queso cotage.
Interesting. Mimi really likes the panela, I do too, and I've been looking for ways to use it. I'm afraid that all we've used it for so far is on crackers.
ReplyDeleteOh jeez! I'd never considered the Mennonites hygiene before! They do make very good cheese, at least the ones in Belize do. Also, ice cream. You are right though, they must be sweating a lot under all those clothes. Well, the Amish in Belize are the ones that wear a lot of clothes, the Mennonites wear fairly normal stuff but the women have mid-calf cotton dresses and a do-rag on their head. I think I'm just going to go with the idea that they are German so they must be clean. Right?
I'm with you on the Mexican butter. It just doesn't taste like butter to me. And I've seen the Mennonites making cheese in Mexico. Hairy arms in the vats and a cigarette hanging from their lips. I always think of that when I start to buy cheese made in Chihuahua.
ReplyDeletejonna and billie, I started this long reply and my power went out! I can't remember what I wrote, but I am sure it was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteMexican butter tastes okay when clarified, which is why I use it for cooking, it must be the solids that jar with my tastebuds. Next time that I am bored I am planning on making ghee with it, that seems like the perfect compromise.
Yeah, the only people who seem to be cleaner and more hygenic as a people than the Germans are the Swiss. I guess I am stereotyping but it's been my experience.
regards,
Theresa