We
went to New Orleans to celebrate our third anniversary at Jazz Fest,
but our actual anniversary in May fell about a week after we returned
and we wanted to celebrate inexpensively. The dinner we made was
extremely tasty and also extremely cheap for the quality of the
ingredients.
One
of our favorite stores in Atlanta is a little deli and provisions shop,
Star Provisions. It is attached to one of the finest restaurants
in the Southeast, and as they put it, it's like having access to the
pantry and walk-in cooler of the restaurant. Cheeses, meats, breads,
spices, cookware -- the variety of items is almost intoxicating. They
also have a local farm stand during the growing season.
The
funny thing is that it is often the most frugal option for us. We can
buy bulk spices in bulk and save significantly over even a cheap
grocery store. I'm sure we could find bulk prices at other stores that
beat these, but when it's so much cheaper than pre-packaged goods from
the grocery store, and the quality is so high, why go cheaper? A few
cents is not worth it in this case. Some of our recent bulk purchases
(and I don't mean large quantities by bulk, we only buy what we can
reasonably use) include bay leaves, peppercorns and lentils.
The
total cost of our meal was approximately $17.78, excluding alcohol.
Normally we would have had wine with dinner for an occasion like this,
but we classed it up this time with Coors Light cans. The $0.60 we spend
per can was much more manageable than all but the cheapest wines. And
in our house, cheap without quality is a last-ditch option.
Menu
Pork tenderloin sandwiches with farm-fresh tomatoes and sauteed onions
on baguettes, and salad. Prosciutto for an appetizer, and strawberries
with balsamic vinaigrette for dessert.
We
had lovely prosciutto to start, with plain buttered baguette slices. A
little fleur de sel (fancy sea salt) and fresh ground pepper enhanced
the meat quite well. Going simple with your dishes is one of the
easiest ways to save money and still enjoy expensive ingredients. The
most expensive parts of the meal were the prosciutto and the
strawberries, and both were so good that they were worth every penny.
While my husband prepared dinner, I portioned out the bay leaves and lentils that he had bought at the store that day.
Unfortunately,
when I went to portion out the lentils, I managed to
spill them EVERYWHERE. You know you have a good marriage when lentils are scattering all over the kitchen in the middle of dinner preparation and all you can both do is
laugh.
With
the oven preheated to 350F, the foil pouch with leftover pork
tenderloin was put in the oven to warm up. My husband sauteed the
onions in a cast-iron pan, with salt and pepper and a little butter, on
medium low. After the meat was nice and warm, he toasted the bread in
the oven, after brushing just the top half with butter before toasting.
The sandwiches were simple -- pork, topped with farm-fresh tomatoes (uncooked) and sauteed onions. They were heavenly.
Even
though we ate a good number of strawberries before dessert (some of the
best either of us has had), we enjoyed a nice plate of strawberries
drizzled with balsamic for dessert. Perfect end to a lovely meal. One
of the best parts of the evening? He wouldn't let me balance the
checkbook. There are some occasions where chores like that just have to
wait.
A friend of mine has an anniversary tradition that fits with a
frugal lifestyle. Each year, they each spend about $20 to $25 on a gift
for the other, but only within the traditional themes, such as paper
for first anniversary, wood for fifth, bronze for eighth. I think this
is a great idea, adaptable for any budget.
Total food cost: $17.78
$4.08 proscuitto -- ate about half (total $8.16 for 0.375 lb)
$3.00 4 mini baguettes
$4.00 local farm strawberries
$3.00 local farm green leaf lettuce
$0.35 local farm tomatoes (approx 6) $3.00 total -- used not even half of one
$0.30 half
an onion leftover - at our common price this spring of $0.99/lb, I'd be
surprised if half of a small onion cost more than $0.30
$2.50 The
pork tenderloin was bought in early April half-off at Kroger and frozen
for just this sort of occasion. We thoroughly enjoyed it the night
before in the oven, and the leftover are what we used for the
sandwiches. The tenderloin cost a total of $5.11 ($1.99/lb), so we'll
say that $2.50 was the meat cost for this dinner of sandwiches.
$0.55 Teriyaki marinade -- the
garlic probably only added pennies, let's say $0.05. We paid $0.17 per
ounce for the teriyaki, and probably used 2-3 ounces, so $0.50 is a
nice round guess. Other spices were used in the marinade, but it would
add minimal cost.
Please
note that this doesn't include electricity costs, nor does it account
for the bit of butter, parmesan and balsamic used in cooking and
garnishing. If you had to buy an entire bottle of balsamic vinaigrette (we mix our own) or a chunk of parmesan cheese, cost of replicating the
meal might be much higher.
