El Cheapo Cooks

Remem­ber when fam­i­lies sat down  for din­ner and it wasn’t con­sid­ered as “Com­mu­nity Ser­vice” hours?

Remem­ber the impor­tant  moments of daily life and con­ver­sa­tion around the kitchen table?

Remem­ber the sup­per where every­one drank ice tea, ate fried chicken, and heard Uncle Chester tell how he dis­cov­ered Mar­i­lyn Monroe’s chew­ing gum on the bot­tom of his shoe?

Or while eat­ing Mom’s hot-cherry cob­bler when Sis­ter received news that she’d been cho­sen as the new “Sil­hou­ette Girl” for truck flaps.  Some­thing  else for Mom to brag about at  church.

Or the antipasta, spaghetti and meat­balls, and can­noli the day Uncle Vinny “Two-Toes” called from his new home. Though he couldn’t be with us  that day due a high bond, he said there wouldn’t be any more indict­ments and to bring him can­nel­loni stuffed with a shank?

Yes, such pre­cious mem­o­ries sur­rounded by food, fam­ily, friends, and parole offi­cers. Let’s bring back good food and good times to the fam­ily table before the next Grand Jury.

 

Start cook­ing!

Home-cooked meals need not be expen­sive or fancy, but they must be good and that’s not as hard as you might think.  All it takes is a few skills, about 20 basic recipes, some sim­ple kitchen tools, and the will­ing­ness to learn and practice.

Do you want your fam­i­lies best meal mem­o­ries to be from Chuckie Cheese or Taco Bell? No one on their deathbed ever talked about the pizza at Chuckie’s or the “cheese” on the nachos at Taco Bell.  But peo­ple do remem­ber the great meals around the kitchen table with fam­ily and friends.

Why cook? You’ll save big bucks, eat bet­ter, impress your fam­ily and friends, and enjoy the best meals of your life.  It begins in your kitchen.

Here’s the first les­son I teach every­one because it works!

“Don’t try to be the per­fect cook—try to be a bet­ter cook!”

It’s as sim­ple as that.  I’ll help you do it. Join me as you become a bet­ter cook.

I’ll teach you the shop­ping smarts, cook­ing skills and recipes that make it sim­ple. Whether you’re a begin­ner or a long time cook, you’ll learn new skills and meth­ods to ease your way to cook­ing success.

Look as this web­site as a man­ual for any­one who wants to cook and eat well as cheaply as pos­si­ble. If you can’t do any­thing cooking-wise now, this is a great place to start.

For­get your fears—there’s good eat­ing ahead and you’re in charge. Here’s an example.

“Why spend More than a dol­lar for 1 Hardee’s bis­cuit when you can make 25 bet­ter bis­cuits for LESS than $2.00?”

Want to Save money now? Here’s Easy Home­made Bis­cuits You Can Make Fast, Cheap, and Tasty

Whether you eat out or at home, food prices are ris­ing dra­mat­i­cally.  Some restau­rants are cut­ting por­tion size and qual­ity and still are rais­ing prices to break even. Those $50.00 restau­rant din­ners of 2008 have been replaced by a $50.00-a-week food bud­get. I’ll help you get the most out of that $50.00.

My own “Cheapo” phi­los­o­phy is “Spend what you need to spend, but not a dol­lar more.” Some­times it makes sense to buy a high-priced kitchen tool because you’ll use it daily or weekly for years. Other times, a sim­ple $10.00 alu­minum pan makes sense com­pared to a $250.00 stain­less steel roast­ing pan you might use twice before it goes in the garage or attic.

Look at the num­bers of bread mak­ers, salad shoot­ers, large stand mix­ers, pret­zel mak­ers, food-processors, Bel­gian waffle-makers, and elec­tric woks tak­ing up space in cup­boards and clut­ter­ing counter-tops. But when you need two impor­tant appli­ances like a sim­ple hand mixer ($30.00) or a blender ($30.00), you don’t have them or can’t find them.

Buy what you need first. No one cook­ing at home needs an elec­tric wok. You’ll always need a blender and hand mixer.

Keep a sense of humor. Laugh at your­self. You’ll have fun if you’ll do those sim­ple things.

Laugh­ing, a sense of humor, and the abil­ity to blame some­one else for your mis­takes, are as life-giving as the food on your plate.Cooking is the same way. You’ll make sim­ple and cor­rectable mis­takes and occa­sion­ally you’ll have a cook­ing dis­as­ter. Hav­ing a worth­less brother-in-law around to blame helps.

Many mis­takes in cook­ing can be res­cued, retouched or removed, but when all else fails, dogs like a burnt bis­cuit or a dry, mum­mi­fied chicken breast. The dog will still love you and look at you with won­der, while cats will sneak­ily mock you and talk behind your back.

I hope you’ll learn to laugh at your own cook­ing goofs and gaffs as they’re cer­tain to hap­pen regard­less of  years of expe­ri­ence. Mis­takes will happen—most are edible.

So what’s the first big secret of cook­ing? The same one from the top.

Remem­ber Rule 1.  Don’t try to be the per­fect cook—try to be a bet­ter cook!

Per­fec­tion lasts mere moments. Being bet­ter lasts a lifetime.

There’s a lit­tle El Cheapo in every­one so tell me your own El Cheapo story. Send shop­ping, cook­ing and eat­ing com­ments, requests, ideas, recipes, tips, and secrets. elcheapo@elcheapocooks.com

 

“May your best meals be the ones you make and share with fam­ily and friends.”

 

To be added to my mail­ing list send an email: elcheapo@elcheapocooks.com Bet­ter yet, send me win­ning lot­tery tick­ets. No email addresses will be traded, sold, or given away. Your email address is as safe with me as is my mother’s recipe for Pud­din’ Head Pecan Pie with home­made Vanilla Cus­tard Ice Cream. I’m shar­ing every­thing else.

Let me know what you think (ex-wives and their attor­neys excepted) and we’ll try to make you a happy cook. elcheapo@elcheapocooks.com

El Cheapo

Share this web­site with your fam­ily and friends unless they’re the obnox­ious types who com­plain about every­thing, appre­ci­ate noth­ing, and are never around when the dishes need wash­ing or the dog needs walking.