French Tian Vegetable Casserole Recipe by Ruth Paget

French Tian Casserole Recipe by Ruth Paget 

I first read about southern France’s vegetable tian casseroles in Mireille Johnston’s cookbook Cuisine of the Sun. Her recipes focused on nutrition without too many calories in cuisine minceur, diet cuisine, dishes. The recipes were delicious, but not high calorie. 

When I was a Navy wife in Norfolk (Virginia), I wanted to make tians that could replace cheeseburger meals and make use of the inexpensive zucchini and Italian yellow squash I could find at the supermarket. I added cooked rice to my tians and eggs along with inexpensive Swiss cheese instead of pricy Parmesan. 

I also read in Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbook World Vegetarian that seeds and grains mixed together provide enough amino acids to form a complete protein. I reasoned that the seeds in zucchini and yellow squash mixed with rice grains would give my casserole an extra protein boost. 

My recipe for a vegetable tian casserole follows, which can be used for many soft vegetables: 

Zucchini and Italian Yellow Squash Tian Recipe: 

Serves 4 

Ingredients: 

-2 cups cooked rice 

-2 eggs 

-2 medium zucchini, grated with skins left on 

-2 medium Italian yellow squash, grated with skins left on 

-1 cup grated Swiss cheese or Parmesan cheese 

-2 tablespoons olive oil 

-Non-stick baking spray for an 8-inch or 9-inch round baking dish 

-3 tablespoons Italian seasoning or Herbes de Provence 

Steps: 

1-Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (15 minutes). 

2-Mix cooked rice with eggs, grated vegetables, grated cheese, and olive oil. 

3-Spray baking dish with non-stick spray. Pour rice-vegetable mixture into the baking dish. 

4-Top with Italian seasoning or Herbes de Provence. 

5-Bake for 30 to 45 minutes. A toothpick or cake tester inserted in the tian should come out clean to show that the tian is done. 

Serve with a fruit salad. 

You can also use vegetables like the following in this recipe: cooked spinach, cooked Swiss chard, mushrooms, peas, tomatoes, eggplant, or green beans. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Eating Russian Food in Detroit by Ruth Paget

Eating Russian Food in Detroit by Ruth Paget 

Whenever my mother and I went shopping at Detroit’s Renaissance Center on the riverfront, we would first go to lunch at Olga’s Kitchen located in the RenCen. 

We took the tourist trolley, which stopped right outside our apartment building on Washington Boulevard. (The current monorail system was just being built.) The trolley was warm in icy weather and protected us from potential falls. The trolley turned left onto Jefferson Avenue at the end of Washington Boulevard and brought us to the entrance of the five-towered Renaissance Center designed by architect John Portman. 

From the warm trolley, my mom and I would go to Olga’s Kitchen for Russian-American food. Olga’s was famous for their thick and large blini pancakes wrapped around Detroit fillings like Greek gyros and Arab schwarma. 

My mother and I ordered gyros blinis, which came with garlicky yogurt sauce, pickled slices of white and red onion, and tomatoes. A toothpick held this delicious combo together. The blini came with a side salad, French fries, and a drink. Olga’s Kitchen provided a tonic lunch before setting out for an afternoon of shopping. 

Our first stop was Winkelman’s Clothing Store. My mother was going to inspect the discounted designer clothing I had been making payments on as layaway purchases. She would make the final the final payment, if the deal were a good one. If not, she would get money back and apply it to other layaway deals. She would also look through the store merchandise for designer deals herself, too. 

From Winkelman’s we would go to the RenCen’s crystal boutique. We both liked Waterford relish trays and Baccarat ship’s decanters. The salesman gave us a corporate gift brochure when she found out my mother worked at the Free Press. (Mom had asked about discounts on large order purchases to see if she could lower the price of the items on sale.) 

Our last stop on our RenCen shopping trips would be the Godiva Chocolate Boutique. My mom would buy a pound of chocolate and made sure we got some samples to taste before making our purchase. 

We took the trolley home with our purchases. I felt like a junior boyar, an elite Russian merchant who dealt with mink coats and caviar and who dined on Beef Stroganoff, with our bags of nice purchases.

For more information on authentic Russian food, readers might like the book entitled Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets’ A Gift to Young Housewives translated by Joyce Toomre (published by Indiana University Press). 

There is an easy recipe for making blini pancakes topped with smoked salmon, sour cream, and caviar in the book Hors d’oeuvres and Appetizers (Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library) by Chuck Williams and the Scotto Sisters. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France 

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Detroit Bean Salad $ Hack Recipe by Ruth Paget

Detroit Bean Salad $ Hack Recipe by Ruth Paget 

This bean salad with cheese cubes and sliced celery is something I made on “snow days” when Detroit (Michigan) Public Schools would be closed due to inclement weather that threatened power lines and clogged city streets. This Detroit blizzard bean salad does not require cooking, and is an inexpensive, vegetarian dish. You can easily leave out what you do not like as well. 

Serves 6 to 8 

Ingredients: 

1 (16-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed 

1 (16-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed 

1 (16-ounce) can navy beans, drained and rinsed 

1 (16-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed 

1 cup cubed cheddar or Swiss cheese 

4 stalks celery, rinsed and sliced in ½-inch slices 

1 cup French dressing or Italian dressing 

Steps: 

1-Place all ingredients in a large salad bowl and mix. 

2-Chill until serving 

Other blizzard weather tips: 

-serve the above salad on torn iceberg lettuce 

-place canisters of peanuts, cashew, and other nuts on counter tops while you can see them in case of power outage. 

-make tea in several pots and add bottled lemon juice. The tea that gets cold can be easily made into iced tea. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Eating Venetian Food in Detroit (Michigan) by Ruth Paget

Venetian Food in Detroit (Michigan) by Ruth Paget 

I ate my first Venetian meals in Detroit (Michigan) at Syros Restaurant, which was located behind my apartment building on Griswold Street.  The island of Syros is Greek, but at one time it was part of the Republic of Venice, which explains the restaurant’s Venetian dinner specials. 

My neighborhood’s Catholics, the priests from Saint Aloysius Church, the rabbis from the downtown synagogue, and fashion district workers all ate one or two meals at Syros thanks to reasonable prices on liver and fish dinners. 

I used my allowance on fegato alla veneziana (liver with caramelized onions) and baked fish made with lemon, olive oil, garlic, halved cherry tomatoes, and chopped parsley. Both dishes came with a side of peas and rice (risi e bisi). Detroit’s large Eastern Market kept produce from warmer climates available all winter long. 

Those two dinner items came with a cup of soup or a salad. The soups were chicken noodle or meatless minestrone. I liked the minestrone for the pinto beans, which tasted good with grated Parmesan. I never ate dessert, but they always had custardy rice pudding with vanilla and cinnamon available. I drank iced tea with my meal in summer and coffee with cream in the winter. 

These dinners are nice weekday meals. They are inexpensive and easy to make at home, if you learn how to handle the ingredients. Liver is rich in iron. There is a good recipe for it with grapes, sour cherries, and polenta, if you do not want onions, in Venetian Republic: Recipes from Veneto, Adriatic Croatia, and the Greek Islands by Nico Zoccali. 

For more information about the history and culture of Venice, readers might be interested in the book Inventing the World: Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization by anthropologist Meredith F. Small. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Wisconsin $ Food Hacks by Ruth Paget

Wisconsin $ Food Hacks by Ruth Paget

Short post for big nutrition on a budget:

Oatmeal - lots of protein bang for your buck and fiber

Cranberries - full of vitamin C.

Cook fresh berries with sugar and add them to oatmeal muffins.

Maple syrup - sweetens up buckwheat pancakes

Buckwheat is a good source of iron.  Buckwheat pancakes have a sour taste, but maple syrup makes it less pronounced.

Food for thought for today.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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English Writing Skills Book List by Ruth Paget

English Writing Skills Book List by Ruth Paget 

I have used books like the following to prepare for college entrance exams and to write media releases over the years: 

For writing organization: 

 -Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide to Middle School by Ruth Culham 

-Rhetorical Devices: A Handbook and Activities for Students by Prestwick House 

-Cracking the AP English Language and Composition Exam by the Staff of Princeton Review 

For Vocabulary Building: 

-The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists by Jacqueline E. Kress and Edward B. Fry 

-Gruber’s SAT Word Master by Gary R. Gruber 

-1100 Words You Need to Know by Murray Bromberg and Melvin Gordon 

-Word Smart: 823 Words You Need to Know by Adam Robinson 

-Word Smart II by Adam Robinson 

-Word Smart: Genius Edition by Michael Freedman 

For Grammar and Punctuation: 

-English Grammar for Dummies by Geraldine Woods 

-English Grammar Workbook for Dummies by Geraldine Woods 

-Complete English Punctuation Rules by Farlex International 

Reward for Learning the Basics: 

-A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver 

-The Making of a Poem: The Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland 

When I was the Youth Services Library for the Monterey County Free Libraries (California), I purchased books like these for the Youth Services Nonfiction Collection. This collection is updated yearly so there are probably even more books like these now to keep tomorrow’s writers busy. 

Happy Writing! 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Math Word Problems Practice Books List by Ruth Paget

Math Word Problems Practice Books List by Ruth Paget 

Students interested in careers in careers in engineering, accounting, finance, science, and management consulting might be interested in books that allow them to strengthen their skills in: 

Analysis - determining what a problem asks you to find as an answer and in what units 

Strategy Development – using the data in the problem to develop a plan to solve the problem 

I used books like the following when I was in high school to prepare for college entrance exams: 

-Math Problems Demystified by Allan G. Berman 

-How to Solve Word Problems in Arithmetic by Phyllis Pullman 

-How to Solve Word Problems in Mathematics by David Wayne 

-How to Solve Word Problems in Algebra by Mildred Johnson and Tim Johnson 

-How to Solve Math Word Problems on Standardized Tests by David S. Wayne 

-How to Solve Word Problems in Calculus by Eugene Don and Benny Don 

-400 Practice Algebra Word Problems (with Help and Solutions) by Douglas N. Shillady 

I purchased these books for the Young Adult Nonfiction collection when I was the Youth Services Librarian for the Monterey County Free Libraries in California. This library system also has online homework help that you can access with your library card number from a library computer or a home computer for problems that stump you despite explanations in the books. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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U.S. States and Capitals Game Created by Ruth Paget

U.S States and Capitals Game Created by Ruth Paget 

This game might interest aspiring politicians, journalists, customer service representatives, and public servants. 

For one or more players. 

Goals: 

1-Learn to pronounce names of U.S. states and capitals 

2-Learn to spell the names of U.S. states and capitals 

3-Learn the capitals of U.S. states 

Method: 

Make your own playing index cards to help with memorization. Write the name of the 50 U.S. states on index cards. Each state gets its own card. On the back of the card, write the name of the capital. 

Use the Google pronunciation feature to find out how the states and capitals are pronounced. 

Game 1: Learn State Pronunciations 

Look at the state name and pronounce it. If you need help memorizing pronunciation, write out your pronunciation tip in your own language on the back of the card. 

Keep playing until you know the pronunciations. 

Game 2: Learn State Capital Pronunciations 

Look at the capital name and pronounce it. If you need help memorizing pronunciation, write out your pronunciation tip in your own language on the back of the card. 

Keep playing till you can say all state names accurately. 

Game 3: Learn State Spellings  

Look at the state name or say it. Try to write down state name accurately. Check how you did. 

Keep playing till you can spell all state names accurately. 

Game 4: Learn State Capitals Spelling 

Look at the capital name or say it. Try to write down the capital name accurately. Check how you did. 

Keep playing till you can spell all state capital names accurately. 

Game 5: Identify State Capitals 

Look at the state name on the front of an index card and try to identify the capital. 

Keep playing till you can identify all state capitals with their states. 

Game 6: Reverse State Capital Play 

Look at the capital name on the back of the card and try to identify the state that goes with it. 

Keep playing until you can identify all states by their capital city. 

Games Created by Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Tennessee Treasures by Ruth Paget

Tennessee Treasures by Ruth Paget 

Tennessee is world famous for its music (mountain music from East Tennessee, Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame, and Memphis for Beale Street Blues), its barbecue, and its Tennessee whisky, but after reading Tennessee Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker, you can see that Tennessee’s rich cuisine deserves better recognition as well. 

The following appetizers and sides make resourceful use of Tennessee’s produce: 

-cowpea caviar – made with green, yellow, and red peppers; onions; tomatoes; and parsley 

-ham and cheese ball made with mushrooms and green onions 

-lime and cilantro creamy coleslaw 

-fried green tomatoes with onions and honey Dijon sauce 

A calorie-rich lunch for snowed-in mountain days follows: 

-sweet beer bread 

-smoked sausage lentil soup 

Tennessee whisky is the star of the following dishes: 

-George Dinkel Tennessee whisky pork chops 

-Jack Black barbecued ribs 

-Jack Daniels country-style beef ribs 

-Jack Daniels salmon 

Wine lovers might like the following cake: 

-muscadine wine coffee cake 

Tennessee Hometown Cookbook by Sheila Simmons and Kent Whitaker wraps up with a monthly listing of music and food festivals, which have oral storytellers, beauty pageants, carnivals, food contests, and children’s games. The cookbook packs a lot of information into 256 pages, making it a good purchase for a home cookbook collection. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Costco Hot Dog $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget

 Costco Hot Dog $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget

Hot dogs in Costco’s food court cost $1.50 today with mustard, relish, and catsup available for dressing.

There are all beef hot dogs and beef and pork hot dogs available usually.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Oregon: The Organic Food Rules State by Ruth Paget

Oregon: Organic Food Rules State by Ruth Paget 

On the West Coast of the United States, Oregon is a beacon for organic food production. Many of the delicious recipes in Dishing Up Oregon: 145 Recipes that Celebrate Farm-to-Table Flavors by Ashley Gartland, can easily be made throughout the U.S. now that the organic food movement has spread throughout the country. 

The following recipes are examples of how flavorful, simple ingredients can make a superlative whole:  

-chanterelle rillettes – buttery wild mushroom spread that goes well on mashed Idaho potatoes says the girl who grew up in the Midwestern U.S. 

-shaved radish “carpaccio” 

-Northwest black truffle butter – this is another item that should go on Idaho mashed potatoes or a steak 

-shaved zucchini and basil salad with guajillo chile vinaigrette 

-apple-celery root salad 

-parsnip-almond soup 

-sunchoke and fennel gratin 

-raw beet salad with Asian pears and goat cheese 

-heirloom carrot bisque 

-polenta cakes with goat cheese, cured salmon, and poached eggs 

-pan-seared duck breasts on wild rice pancakes 

-espresso stout-braised pork shoulder 

-flat-iron steaks with apple brandy sauce -molasses ginger stout cake with ginger glaze 

-tomatillo-green apple sorbet 

The dishes in Dishing Up Oregon: 145 Recipes that Celebrate Farm-to-Table Flavors by Ashley Gartland can be showstoppers at potlucks and hearty meals for family; I recommend it highly. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Washington State: A Dining Destination by Ruth Paget

Washington State: A Dining Destination Worth Seeking Out by Ruth Paget 

As I read through Dishing Up Washington: 150 Recipes that Capture Authentic Regional Flavors by Jess Thomson, I thought that the employees of Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon, Starbucks, and Costco, whose headquarters are in the state, all eat very well. 

Very good recipes are amplified with the addition of choice ingredients like saffron, Dungeness crab, and cognac. However, the recipes stretch these choice ingredients to flavor humbler ones like Idaho potatoes and carrots to make these recipes a tasty good deal. 

The following selection of recipes all prove what I just wrote. Even the zucchini ganoush, sesame seed paste flavored dip made here with zucchini not eggplant, judiciously uses tahini to make a healthy chip and vegetable dip for many people. 

I would plan a trip to Washington state just to try the following dishes and later make them at home with Dishing Up Washington: 

-saffron clam chowder 

-smoked salmon rillettes – a buttery spread 

-grilled prawns with curried dipping sauce 

-zucchini ganoush 

-watermelon gazpacho

 -northwest Dungeness crab chowder 

-roasted carrots with mustard and dill 

-prime rib with cognac-roasted vegetables and crunchy greens 

-green curry mussels 

-pale ale oven-roasted clams 

-classic brasserie sole with brown butter and herbs 

-espresso brownies -banana pancakes (with maple syrup, of course!) 

I think cooks with some experience might enjoy making the recipes in Dishing Up Washington: 150 Recipes that Capture Authentic Flavors by Jess Thomson to expand their culinary skills in working with expensive ingredients. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Vermont's Edenesque Cuisine by Ruth Paget

Vermont’s Edenesque Cuisine by Ruth Paget 

Vermont is justly famous for its artisanal cheese, but the state’s contribution to American cuisine also comes from using French cooking techniques with organic produce. 

These French cooking techniques are part of Vermont’s culture as it shares a border with Canada’s French province of Quebec in the north. Gratins, puréeing vegetable soups to thicken them without other thickeners like flour, quiches, and ground nut cakes can all be found in Vermont’s cuisine as in French cuisine. 

Using French techniques to make dishes is not as difficult as you would think when you read through the cookbook Dishing Up Vermont: 145 Authentic Recipes from the Green Mountain State by Tracey Medeiros. 

The following recipes give a sample of dishes that really shine when you use organic produce: 

-grated celeriac and green apple salad 

-cream of garlic soup 

-butternut squash bisque 

-creamy Vermont winter pumpkin soup 

-roasted summer vegetables 

-cheddar mashed potatoes 

-squash casserole 

-apple-butternut squash soup 

-strawberry soup 

-cheese scones 

-cheddar cheese quiche 

-root vegetable chowder 

-winter squash gratin 

-Normandy chicken with apples and cream 

-cranberry

-almond squares 

-maple-walnut cake 

As a former sub-zero weather resident of Detroit (Michigan), I know that many of these recipes can be made during the fall harvest when prices are low and frozen to be eaten during the winter months to save money. (The French do this, too.)  For that reason alone, I would recommend purchasing Dishing Up Vermont: 145 Authentic Recipes from the Green Mountain State by Tracey Medeiros. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Maryland's Spa Cuisine by Ruth Paget

Maryland’s Spa Cuisine by Ruth Paget 

 It is hard to think of Maryland as a place with spa cuisine when you think of the state’s famous crab cakes that you dunk in lots of tartar sauce made with dill and capers. Maryland’s cakes are really not spa cuisine either with their many layers separated by buttercream frosting. 

However, on a trip to Maryland where I visited the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Fort Meade, and many grocery stores during a long stay, I saw that you could easily make what I consider home spa food with dishes described in Dishing Up Maryland: 150 Recipes from the Alleghenies to the Chesapeake Bay by Lucie L. Snodgrass. My home spa regime includes small portions of reward noshes (snacks), salads, soups, and one easy and terrific dessert. 

The following recipes may not necessarily be spa food, but in small portions eaten throughout the day they promote health and happiness: 

Reward Noshes 

-shrimp pâté with crostini 

-corn fritters – deep-fried spoonfuls of corn kernals held together with flour, egg, a little milk, and seasonings like horseradish. I have used canned and drained corn to make these. 

-zucchini fritters 

-spicy crab dip with shredded Jarlesberg cheese -blueberry buckwheat pancakes 

-roasted turnips and rutabagas 

-gratin dauphinois (scalloped potatoes made with gruyère cheese) 

Salads 

-asparagus salad with spring onions 

-three-beet salad with dill and feta cheese 

-cucumber salad with dill, feta cheese, and red onion 

-carrot and fennel slaw 

-creamy kohlrabi slaw 

Soups 

-cream of asparagus soup with rice 

-cream of spinach soup with sesame seeds 

-Solomons Island clam chowder – you can use canned clams for this dish 

-Chesapeake oyster stew – you can use canned oysters for this dish 

-cream of broccoli soup with parmesan cheese 

-mushroom bisque 

-curried pumpkin soup 

Dessert 

 -stove-top rice pudding with maple syrup 

If you would like a cookbook that has both spa cuisine and English fancy food, you might be interested in adding Dishing Up Maryland: 150 Recipes from the Alleghenies to the Chesapeake Bay by Lucie L. Snodgrass to your home cookbook reference shelf. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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New Mexico's Real Dishes by Ruth Paget

New Mexico’s Real Dishes by Ruth Paget 

I have been eating spicy Tex-Mex food since I was a teenager in Detroit (Michigan) and still love it. 

However, I would like to try some of the Hispanic food I read about in Dishing Up New Mexico: 145 Recipes from the Land of Enchantment by Dave DeWitt in restaurants. 

I would like to order the following dishes from Mexican restaurants and they might interest other restaurant goers, too: 

-chilaquiles en salsa chipotle 

I have eaten this dish once and liked the fried tortilla chips coated in spicy tomato-pepper-onion-cilantro salsa topped with melted cheese. The chilaquiles I ate at Norma’s Diner in Salinas (California - now the 31st Restaurant) came with two over-easy eggs and sliced avocado. That was breakfast fit for a king, and it tastes great with piping hot coffee. 

-creamy green chile chicken soup 

-Anasazi refried beans made with bacon not lard 

-jalapeño – cheddar cornbread 

-summer squash with red serrano peppers 

-chile con queso de cabro (goat cheese chile dip) 

-green chile and goat cheese muffins 

I make this with cheddar and jalapeño peppers as a home cure for colds. 

-chicken braised in white wine, garlic, and green chiles 

This is a short list of recipes, which I can make at home, but it is fun to get some exotic cuisine for take out once a week, too. 

There are many good recipes for familiar and new dishes in Dishing Up New Mexico: 145 Recipes from the Land of Enchantment by Dave DeWitt; I recommend it for home cookbook reference shelves and take out orders. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Virginia's Colonial Cuisine by Ruth Paget

Virginia’s Colonial Cuisine by Ruth Paget 

Virginia’s modern-day survival cuisine was born out of its disastrous first years of colonial existence where gentleman farmers died of starvation in cold, damp winters. 

My Pennington family had a gentleman farmer at Jamestown, who died of starvation, so when my husband Laurent was stationed at Norfolk (Virginia) when he was in the Navy, I researched recipes that Virginians eventually developed to allow English settlers to survive and thrive in a hostile environment.

The cookbook Dishing Up Virginia: 145 Recipes that Celebrate Colonial Traditions and Contemporary Flavors by Patrick Evans-Hylton preserves many pantry recipes that the entire United States can enjoy to add variety to their daily fare and manage grocery budgets. 

The following recipes are some of my favorite colonial recipes from Virginia that allowed my family to eat well on a budget: 

-hoe cakes – these pancakes are mostly made with cornmeal and very little expensive white flour which still has to be imported into Virginia from wheat growing states. 

-cornbread – my grandmother Pennington from Pennington Gap (Virginia) used the same recipe in this cookbook to make cornbread, which I ate with buttermilk, strips of bacon, and tomato and cucumber salad dressed with cider vinegar and sugar 

-sweet potato pancakes – vitamin-rich sweet potatoes are cooked and mashed with flour, a little white flour, eggs, butter, and milk in this pantry winner recipe. I like sweet potato pancakes with a thin honey-lemon syrup. 

-mashed potato pancakes – Sir Francis Drake brought potatoes to Virginia from the Caribbean (originally from the Andes) in the 1600s. 

-clams with leeks and white wine – leeks are cut into strips and sautéed in butter in this recipe with clams and wine added in once the leeks are translucent. Mussels can also be prepared this way. 

-apple smothered pork chops with molasses melted on top. Virginia has a multitude of apple trees. 

-porter beer batter fried shrimp – porter beer tastes like chocolate and almonds which enhances the sweet flavor of deep-fried shrimp. Virginians also know that chunks of saltwater or freshwater fish can be made this way. Beer drinkers would probably like porter beer with this dish. 

-oyster stew – this recipe calls for oysters and their liquor (juice), cream, and milk. This recipe is super easy and tastes great with crumbled crackers. 

I made all of these recipes when I lived in Virginia and thought my family lived well on a budget, because we made use of local products. 

If seafood, freshwater fish, sweet potatoes, beer, and wine dishes appeal to you as a cuisine, then Dishing Up Virginia: 145 Recipes that Celebrate Colonial Traditions and Contemporary Flavors by Patrick Evans-Hylton might interest you. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Minnesota's All Weather Cuisine by Ruth Paget

Minnesota’s All Weather Cuisine by Ruth Paget 

I learned as a young child that if you like eating freshwater fish Minnesota is a land of plenty. My father took me on canoe fishing trips in several of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes as a kid. 

I thought gliding along in a canoe in cold, damp air that smelled of pine tree resin was fun. My dad caught fish. My job was to gather damp twigs to start a cooking fire. Dad gutted, scaled, wrapped the fish in foil with onions and carrots, and cooked it right on the flame, which I thought was cool. 

There is a recipe for cooking fish in foil this way including folding directions in Dishing Up Minnesota: 150 Recipes from the Land of 10,000 Lakes by Teresa Marrone along with many other fish recipes including: 

-a freshwater fish chowder that uses no dairy products.

-salmon or trout mousse – this is a great catering recipe as it can be prepared ahead of time and used over several days 

-smoked fish spread made with chive-onion sour cream, mayonnaise, fresh dill, and lemon juice 

Minnesota has foraging treasures that make ordinary dishes shine when combined with them. Some of these delicious recipes include: 

-morel mushroom cream sauce with roasted shallots and garlic – this sauce goes well with roasted chicken and pan-fried fish 

-Minnesota wild rice sop with celery, carrots, onion, cubes of turkey, rice, heavy cream, and turkey broth  

-sherry-mushroom cream sauce – goes well with roast chicken or mashed potatoes 

Minnesotans are very inventive with their alcoholic beverages, using them to flavor everything from main dishes to desserts such as: 

-porter beer and spice cake with porter flavored icing 

-beer and cheese soup using ale beer and cheddar and Swiss cheese 

-pork loin braised with apples and hard cider 

Immigrants through the centuries have made contributions to surviving in Minnesota’s harsh winters with many comfort foods including: 

-pheasant baked in cream sauce 

-Swedish meatballs 

-Danish open-faced sandwiches 

-spicy Hmong chicken larb stir-fry 

-spicy Somali lamb or goat stew Surprisingly, 

Minnesota’s cuisine works year-round thanks to ice fishing and Friday night fish fries available to everyone.  (Beer drinkers know that deep-fried fish tastes great with ale beer.)  Iron skillet pizza is a big homemade favorite as is Norwegian lefse potato bread with butter. Coffee with baked goods is another meal tradition Scandinavian and German immigrants brought to Minnesota that is supported by farmers’ markets, bakeries, grocery stores, and home cooks alike. 

Fish lovers might enjoy reading about how Minnesota has set up a self-sustaining food economy in Dishing Up Minnesota: 150 Recipes from the Land of 10,000 Lakes by Teresa Marrone. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Maine on the Menu by Ruth Paget

Maine on the Menu by Ruth Paget 

It is hard to think of Maine as a state with thrifty food when you think of buttery chunks of lobster tail or pepper steak, but Maine residents can afford these items, because they eat economical and healthy dishes most of the time. 

Recipes for Maine’s delicious everyday fare can be found in the cookbook Dishing Up Maine: 165 Recipes that Capture Authentic Down East Flavors by Brooke Donjoy. 

This book’s no-nonsense recipe titles should encourage readers to make grocery lists and fill their pantries.

Good transportation and distribution have made the following dishes from Maine available to everyone in the United States: 

-Jalapeño Johnnycake (cornbread) with smoked fish on top 

-Pastry-wrapped baked Brie cheese - Quebec, Canada is next to Maine making many French products available in Maine

 -Pan-fried haddock sandwich with jalapeño mayonnaise 

 -Dandelion greens with bacon and vinegar 

 -Oven-roasted asparagus 

 -Green bean, walnut, and feta salad 

 -Smoked salmon pasta salad 

 -Down East haddock chowder  - Recipe for a chowder using no dairy 

 -Split pea soup with smoked ham 

 -Potato, cheese, and broccoli soup 

 -Baked beans with rum and brown sugar  - All of New England stays rich eating this and selling the lobster tail, pepper, and other spices to the rest of the United States. This recipe is made with canned beans to cut down on time. 

 -Roast pork loin with apple-sage gravy 

 -Chicken breasts with morel mushrooms, leeks, and cream 

 -Lemon-thyme chicken 

 -Chicken roasted with potatoes, turnips, and carrots 

 -Slivered raw asparagus salad 

 -Puréed parsnips and carrots 

-Maple-painted baked winter squash

 -Pumpkin-walnut bread 

There are many treasures for living well on a budget to afford luxuries on a regular basis in Dishing Up Maine: 165 Recipes that Capture Authentic Down East Flavors by Brooke Donjoy. If that sort of lifestyle appeals to you, then this cookbook might be a good one for your home reference shelf. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Quesadilla Appetizers $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget

Quesadilla Appetizers $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget 

Quesadillas (pronounced kay-sa-dee-yas) are delicious, inexpensive, and healthy depending on what you put in them. 

Basically, a quesadilla is a warmed flour tortilla that is folded over to make a half moon shape with warm stuffing inside. You can eat a quesadilla whole as a meal or cut them into thirds to make appetizers. 

To make a filled quesadilla, place stuffing on half of the flour tortilla. Then, fold over the part without stuffing on top of the stuffing. Warm in a microwave for 3 minutes. Usually, you only put pre-cooked items in a quesadilla to warm up like steak or chicken. 

Three of my favorite stuffings follow: 

-cheese with a generous sprinkling of Southwest seasoning on top 

-scrambled eggs with melted cheese and salsa 

-black beans, melted cheese, and a topping of canned jalapeño peppers (I use canned black beans for the filling.) 

-peanut butter and jelly 

You can make all of these quesadillas in less than half an hour and a bag of flour tortillas is pretty inexpensive. The real secret of appetizers, though, is that you can mix and match them and turn them into a complete dinner pretty easily. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Homage to Las Brisas Restaurant in Detroit, Michigan by Ruth Paget

Homage to Las Brisas Restaurant in Detroit (Michigan) by Ruth Paget 

I learned to appreciate Mexican food at a young age when my mom took me to Las Brisas Mexican Restaurant in Detroit’s Mexican Village Neighborhood on Vernor Highway. 

My mom always ordered what Las Brisas called a botana (today’s super nachos). I just loved the mountain of botana food – warm tortilla chips covered with ground beef, black beans, melted cheese, spicy peppers, chopped green onions, and sour cream. I thought that tasted like a crunchy garden burger. I still like crunchy food. 

I walked to school in Detroit’s Siberian winters, so I had no problem polishing off the botana and not gaining any weight. I still had room for a chimichanga, which I ordered just because I liked the name of the food item. 

A chimichanga is a deep-fried burrito. I would order a chimichanga with beans and cheese, because that was the kind of burrito I ordered at Jack in the Box. (There was a Jack in the Box near our house in Royal Oak, but that is another story.) 

I loved the crunchy chimichanga with gooey cheese inside. I topped it off with hot sauce and sour cream and thought that chimichangas should be sold at Jack in the Box, too. (Hint! Hint!) 

I also loved going to Detroit in the 1970s for restaurants even if places like Las Brisas had to have security in the parking lot. I still do not mind paying to park in a garage today for security when I go to restaurants.  

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Interning with a Dutch Accountant by Ruth Paget

Interning with a Dutch Accountant by Ruth Paget 

When I moved to Detroit (Michigan) from the suburbs (Royal Oak), I attended a private Friends School (Quaker) my freshman year. 

The Quakers wanted Detroit’s nomenklatura kids (“We’re going to live on the parents’ auto stocks”) to do vocational training that would lead to jobs. We first took the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory to find out what kinds of work skills we already had. 

I scored highly in quantitative and analytical skills with accountant listed as a good profession for me. I was mortified. I wanted to be an anthropologist, travel writer, and art historian. My smart Quaker teacher said, “Use math and analysis when you do all of those.” 

We next did informational interviews with people doing jobs we thought we like to do. One of the people I interviewed was an accountant at Coopers and Lybrand, who worked in the Renaissance Center downtown. (I liked the office location and wanted to live in the hotel there.) The accountant’s job was very busy, but interesting. She noted that communication skills were just as important as math skills to be an accountant. 

When it came time to do our internship, I worked for the school accountant, who was Dutch. I wanted to be compatible with a Dutch boss, so I put on my anthropologist’s hat and did some research. 

One of my friends in Royal Oak was Dutch, so I did know some things about Dutch culture: 

-The Dutch eat lots of casseroles made with sliced vegetables, shredded cheese, and cream. Casseroles are a delicious food $ hack. 

-The Dutch also eat pancakes at any time of day. These are made with eggs and milk for a hidden source of protein and calcium. 

-My friend’s mom worked part-time selling Amway cleaning products. 

-My friend’s dad was an engineer with Wayne County and was probably waiting to get a job at an auto company. 

-The family’s religion wad Dutch Reform. I went to vacation Bible School with my friend several summers and won Bibles for memorizing Bible stories. 

-The kids and I all went ice skating after school like little Hans Brinkers. 

That was my ethnographic survey of second-generation Dutch in Michigan. I also read about the importance of maintaining dikes to keep below-sea-level Netherlands from flooding in a Time-Life book about the country. 

I thought my Dutch boss would be a stickler about maintaining order given her cultural background for my analytical part of internship preparation. 

My boss told me I would be helping her organize “Accounts Payable” – bill or invoices the school had to pay. The “Accounts Receivable” – tuition payments and other sources of income – were private. She had a stack of bills piled up on my desk. She showed me a legal date stamp and told me to stamp areas on invoices with no printing on them to not cover up numbers. 

Once I went through those, she gave me a chronological journal to write up the bills I had stamped with the following information: 

-date received 

-creditor name 

-invoice amount 

-creditor invoice number 

Once I had the chronological file done, I was to assign payments to budget accounts. The accountant showed me the Chart of Accounts, budgets allocated for payment. She cut up strips of sticky notes and had me write the account number of which account I thought the invoice should be paid from along with the name of the account to help me memorize the Chart of Accounts. 

Then, I was to put the invoices in order by account number. Once, the invoices were in numeric order. I had to put them in alphabetical order within the account number. 

The accountant reviewed all my work before entering it into the IBM computer. 

I also used a business correspondence reference book to help draft business letters for the accountant and did inventory control (newest items in back of older ones). 

At the end of the internship, I told my teachers I had learned the value of maintaining systems, especially financial ones. 

(Note: I met my Dutch boss at a Youth for Understanding host family orientation several years later where I was volunteering as a former exchange student to Japan. She was going to host a student. I knew she and her family would have a happy, well-organized time.) 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Venice Film Festival at Gino's in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Venice Film Festival at Gino’s in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

I decided to celebrate the Biennale of Venice Film Festival 2022 (Mostra Internationale d’Arte Cinematografica) with a family outing to Gino’s Restaurant in Salinas, California. 

I wore my Murano beads from Venice, Italy to dinner. Murano beads are made by hand and have gold in them. You can order Murano necklaces from Amazon at a reasonable price. Murano beads look festive on plain colored shirts like the yellow one I had on. 

Gino’s makes homemade pasta dishes, which is why I like it. 

My daughter Florence Paget ordered pasta a la carbonara, a Roman dish worthy of Rome’s cinecittà studios. Gino’s carbonara is made with chopped pancetta, egg, and Parmesan cheese sauce. My husband Laurent ordered linguine with shrimp. 

Producer dad got a heaping bowlful of plump, briny shrimp. He smiled as he ate that great dish. 

I ordered cannoli with minced veal and spinach covered in rich Parmesan cream sauce. Wow! Was that good! 

Venice has several Biennales including those for art and music. I think it would be fun to do something like Beaujolais Nouveau for these events in Italian restaurants around the world.  (The Biennale for art runs through November.  Plan a gallery visit and wear an onyx bead bracelet or necklace to go with your black pumps with dinner afterwards to do a local celebration of the Biennale for art.)

For example, before a pasta of your choice, you could order Aperol Spritz or Campari Spritz cocktails. Young people could drink limonatta (lemonade) or aranciatta (orangeade) from San Pellegrino. 

For a more upscale celebration, you could invest in Venetian Murano beads, scarves, or ties. I like the Murano beads from Raffinato. 

In Monterey County, Gino’s in Salinas is where I will be next year to celebrate the Venice Film Festival, thinking of Sophia Loren, who said, “I owe everything to pasta.” 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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T-Shirt Economics by Ruth Paget

T-Shirt Economics by Ruth Paget 

Detroit Tale 

Motown Detroit is also known as Detroit Rock City due to major funds generated by white rock bands selling merchandise, especially T-shirts. 

Every white Detroiter buys a T-shirt at a rock concert and has a collection of 15 – 20 of them in use at one time. Bars also sell T-shirts in this working class town. 

My big sister K. taught me at a young age the following math equation: 

10 T-shirts x $20 = $200 

T-shirts sell for $30 now, so the new equation is : 10 shirts x $30 = $300 

With these new tap credit cards, you can get 10 taps in 15 minutes for $300. 

In an hour using tap credit cards, one person can generate $1,200 in sales. 

If you have 10 people tapping credit cards in an hour, you could generate $12,000 in sales. 

- 40 T-shirts can generate $1,200 in sales. 

- 400 T-shirts can generate $12,000 in sales 

Stadium shows can generate a lot of money, if you have skilled retail workers running credit card machines. 

T-shirts also publicize as rock bands know, so they keep prices relatively low. 

I think T-shirts should be marketed more extensively, because they also do not cost too much to buy the basic shirt. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Omelets All Day $ Money Hack by Ruth Paget

Omelets All Day $ Money Hack by Ruth Paget 

Going to French-Canadian Cafés in Windsor (Ontario, Canada) when I was in high school in Detroit (Michigan) taught me that you could eat omelets any time of day as a meal. 

I loved omelets with melted gruyère cheese and mushroom ragout that I could eat there topped off with a sprinkling of sweet paprika from Szeged, Hungary. The omelets usually came with a side of salad in tangy vinaigrette and two slices of crusty, country bread. 

Sometimes I would even make those omelets on Friday nights after skating at Hartt Plaza on the riverfront. We had a Larousse Gastronomique cookbook at home that gave me a recipe for slow-cooked mushroom ragout made with melted butter and an addition of freshly chopped parsley at the end. 

I did a presentation to my high school French club about omelettes aux champignons et fromage (mushroom-cheese omelets). I duly noted that eggs bring protein for muscle building to this dish and that cheese brings calcium for bones. I also noted that mushrooms have fiber for unclogging arteries. My cost-conscious French classmates noted that this dish was inexpensive for a lot of health benefits. 

I still make omelets for my husband Laurent and me. I use three large, organic eggs per person from Costco as well as the cheese from Allgäu Alps in Germany and mushrooms from Oregon and Canada that I buy there. 

Now that I live in California, I eat Western omelets when I go to Denny’s or other Route 66-type diners made with sautéed green peppers, onions, mushrooms, strips of ham, and melted low-fat Monterey Jack cheese. 

And, best of all, omelets are still pretty low-cost to make. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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DuMochelle Auction House in Detroit, Michigan by Ruth Paget

DuMochelle’s Auction House in Detroit, Michigan by Ruth Paget 

While my friends attended classical music concerts at the Detroit Institute of the Arts on Saturday mornings, my mother and I would walk down Washington Boulevard from our apartment building to DuMochelle Auctioneers on the riverfront. 

We had the DuMochelle auction bid sheet and item descriptions mailed to us to look over before the auction. 

DuMochelle’s slogan was, “We have sold everything in Grosse Pointe four or five times.” 

Grosse Point was an exclusive Detroit suburb full of wealthy European aristocrats, descendants of people who had come to the United States before World War II started. They had furnishings sent after them and bought while in the US. Inheritance taxes made heirs send items to DuMochelle’s for auction. 

Detroiters and Canadians felt no compunction buying antique items at DuMochelle’s. When I would preview auction items on Friday after school, I would say to myself, “So, like where did you get this?” as I viewed floral silk screens from Versailles that went in front of unlit fireplaces. 

I would joke with my mom and say, “Do you think we could mix and match this Biedermeier desk with the Chinese Chippendale furniture we have at home? They are all nice pieces.” 

My mom would say, “I’m here for silver, crystal, jewelry, and Oriental carpets.” She really was and waited long enough to get deals on all of them. I loved learning about art. 

Detroit’s Dutch population keeps a steady flow of Renaissance still life paintings on sale at DuMochelle’s. A salesman told me, “The still lifes of food remind you to keep food and meals in the house to fend off death.” 

I remembered that as I ate the mustardy turkey and provolone sandwiches offered by DuMochelle’s to auction goers. I also added cream to the free coffee they offered with lunch. The auction crew had fun and free lunch. 

I viewed DuMochelle’s as a potential employer one day. I had a science and arts curriculum at Cass Technical High School in Detroit. I studied industrial art as a minor with classes in the following areas as part of my high school degree:  

-one year of art history for painting 

-one year of art history for sculpture 

-one semester pen and ink drawing 

-one semester figure drawing 

-four years of French language study 

I did not work at DuMochelle’s, but I did work in France, so these studies were not wasted. 

I also passed on my knowledge of art history to my daughter Florence Paget by having her study art and design and art history in high school as well and encouraging her to go through the educator pages for the Asian Art Museum website in San Francisco. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany by Ruth Paget

Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany by Ruth Paget 

Stuttgart is Germany’s richest city. Mercedes-Benz and Porsche cars are manufactured here. The city is surrounded by Riesling vineyards. The city’s cash flow is also assured as the home of reasonably priced Ritter-Sport chocolate. 

One of Stuttgart’s star attractions is the Porsche Museum. My husband Laurent and I decided to visit it and contribute to the local economy when we lived in Stuttgart for five years. 

I felt like Laurent was getting to do something he liked as one of our cultural outings. We usually visit lots of castle kitchens and monasteries with pre-Columbian vegetable gardens. I like studying medieval household management, but do recognize that cars make modern life nice, especially in the Western United States. 

We drove our GM product to the Porsche Museum, and had fun walking around the red, white, and yellow race cars in the gleaming white museum. 

Germans make great merchandise, so we headed to the gift shop to make some purchases. We bought USB ports for our computers that had model Porsche cars on their ends and looked through T-shirts, caps cups, and decks of cards with Porsche models as jacks, queens, and kings. 

I thought the T-shirts were informal surveys to see which Porsche models might sell well. 

At home, I made shrimp kebabs with shrimp I had marinated in lemon juice and crushed garlic overnight. 

We ate chic Weihenstephan yogurt as dessert. Weihenstephan is better known for its beer. The monastery brewery was founded in 1040 and has a limited number of other food products for sale in Germany. 

To finish off our meal, we drank smooth Dallmayr coffee from the department store of the same name in Munich. 

I thought the lunch was something a trim and well-off German might like. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Dance Party Fundraising by Ruth Paget

Dance Party Fundraising by Ruth Paget 

One of the quickest ways the Inner-City Youth Tour to China raised money was with dance parties in 1978 – 1979. 

The way this worked was that you paid $5 if you brought something to eat or drink for the party. If you just showed up, you paid $10. Wrists were marked with “paid” stamps like they are at small club shows as a receipt. Homes in Detroit are large. 

You can easily fit 100 people in a living room with a full dining room off the side. We could raise between $500 - $750 in an evening with a dance party – an absolute win-win fundraiser. 

People are not finicky eaters in Detroit. I think the standard party dish is onion dip with Lay’s potato chips and soda. If you make onion dip yourself, it is super cheap. 

Detroit has a huge Eastern European population that came to the city to build cars, which means that sour cream is plentiful and inexpensive in the Motor City. 

The hillbilly contingent to the workforce (including my dad) mixes dry French onion soup mix with sour cream to make onion dip. This is great with plain potato chips or the ones with chives and sour cream. I taught the Puerto Ricans on the tour how to make this. 

Dance parties were a huge hit, because this was the Disco Era when we were raising money to go to China. We danced and sang into the night to Donna Summer, Lionel Richie, Gloria Gaynor, Sister Sledge, Chaka Khan, Santana, and Earth, Wind, and Fire. 

The Inner-City Youth Tour to China did go to China, and the dance alumni of our fundraising efforts went on to make beach parties at Daytona Beach, Florida a huge success, too, I think. 

One of the co-leaders of the youth tour went on to found and edit People en Español as a lasting cultural impact of our fundraising efforts. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Cold Brew and Iced Coffee $ Money Hacks by Ruth Paget

Cold Brew and Iced Coffee $ Hack by Ruth Paget 

Both iced coffee and cold brew are mega money savers, if you make them at home. I let a lot of coffee go cold in Detroit (Michigan) as I watched the news in French that was broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Channel (CBC) in Windsor (Canada) just across the Detroit River when I was in high school. (Free French oral comprehension lessons to go with high school French classes.) 

I was teaching myself to like bitter coffee, so I could pass as French in Canada. I thought coffee was bilge, though, compared to tea, especially cold. 

However, I did not want to waste money and throw out the coffee in the pre-microwave era I lived in. (All this money management economics destined my college to be the Austrian School of Economics at the University of Chicago I sometimes think.) 

I knew the Greeks made iced coffee, so I poured the cold coffee over ice and added milk and sugar. That was good and refreshing. I made it summer and winter and still do despite loving Starbucks. 

So, that is how to make inexpensive iced coffee. Cold brew is even simpler. 

I have learned to love coffee now that I am middle-aged. Coffee is even supposed to be good for you now due to its antioxidants. 

Cold brew coffee is now the rage and so easy to make at home. Place 1 or 2 tablespoons of ground coffee in the bottom of a French Press Coffee Pot. Pour in water and let the water stand on the coffee grounds for twelve hours. 

Press down on the grounds with the French Press lid and serve the cold brew over ice. 

I use a Starbucks insulated 3-cup container for this. These recipes are easy and can fit all budgets depending on the coffee you use. Amazon sells Starbucks, Lavazza, and Dallmayr coffee, if you cannot find these items in your area. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Costco Rotisserie Chicken $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget

Costco Rotisserie Chicken $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget 

One of my favorite Saturday lunch meals that I have eaten for decades is a Costco organic Rotisserie Chicken priced at $4.99 for a whole chicken. 

I cut the chicken into 4 portions, which cost approximately $1.25 each. I like to eat this with Korean 90-second microwave rice and baby greens salad – all from Costco. 

This meal is simple, so I jazz it up with a habanero margarita from Total Wine. The money I save on this meal goes towards a baked pasta or a baked enchilada dish for Sunday. 

I drink a red Malbec wine with the pasta or a beer with the enchilada dish. I roughly plan out my weekday breakfasts, lunches, and dinners to stay with three meals and little or no snacking. 

That little $4.99 rotisserie chicken has helped me manage household finances and tastes good. I even cut up the leftover meat and mix it with Caesar Salad (a no-food waste meal). 

(Note: Caesar Salads are also a Costco deli item and have dressing with anchovies in it, which are antioxidants.) 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Costco Pizza $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget

Costco Pizza $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget 

Friday night pizza is very affordable with a pizza from Costco’s food court. 

An 18-inch pizza costs $9.95 for 12 slices. Each slice is 9 inches long and costs .83 cents each. 

Two kinds of pizza are available: a combo with pepperoni, sausage, and vegetables and one with just vegetables, tomato sauce, and cheese. You can request packets of Parmesan cheese and hot pepper flakes to go with the pizza. 

Parmesan has calcium for bones and hot peppers have Vitamin C to strengthen the immune system. 

Currently, the Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes are free, but a small charge for these could be added to a fund for employee raises, for example. These pizzas are especially great for sports teams and sports nights at home. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Costco Turkey-Swiss Sandwich $ Hack by Ruth Paget

Costco Deli Sandwich $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget 

I think the turkey-Swiss sandwich on a butter croissant with a Caesar salad combo box at Costco is a great deal at $10.28, because I can make two lunches out of it. 

The two meals cost $5.14 each. 

Caesar salad dressing uses anchovies, which are antioxidants and have iron. Lemon juice from freshly squeezed lemons has Vitamin C for the immune system. 

Turkey has protein and Vitamin B-6, which helps keep the nervous system and immune system healthy according to the Mayo Clinic. Swiss cheese has calcium in it, which is good for your bones. 

The butter croissant used for bread fills you up, so you can stick to three meals a day to stay trim and maintain weight. 

All those health benefits for $5.14 make the turkey-Swiss sandwich a good deal for me at Costco. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Costco Baked Salmon $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget

Costco Baked Salmon $ Food Hack by Ruth Paget 

I think Costco’s ready-to-bake salmon that comes with three scoops of butter and dill in its deli section is a great deal at $28 for the following reasons: 

I add 2 cans of drained green beans to the salmon to bake for an hour. The cans of green beans are about $1 each. When the salmon is ready to serve, I microwave Korean sticky rice, which costs around $1 a dish, too. All total that is $31 for the 5 servings that I get out of this dish for $6.20 for each serving. 

That price is much less expensive than a restaurant meal, but the real clincher for this Costco dish is that I can have a Habanero Margarita at home that is less expensive than a cantina. 

Salmon has many health benefits besides the good taste. It contains vitamins A, B, and D and the minerals magnesium, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, and selenium. 

In particular, selenium is an antioxidant that removes free radicals that cause cancer from the body. Vitamin A helps with vision, the immune system, and the development of babies in the womb according to www.healthline.com . 

Costco’s salmon is a great deal for Sunday lunch and health benefits. You cannot beat that! 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Donaueschingen, Germany Trip by Ruth Paget

Donaueschingen, Germany Trip by Ruth Paget 

I first read about the German Black Forest town of Donaueschingen, the source of the Danube River, in Marina Polvay’s cookbook All Along the Danube: Recipes from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria (Hippocrene Press – 357 pages). 

When I moved to Stuttgart, Germany with my husband Laurent for five years, we lived close to the Black Forest and made Donaueschingen one of our first trips. We drove through the Black Forest with its gingerbread architecture towns and shops selling cuckoo clocks and beer steins and ended up with those items before returning to the United States. 

On our walk to the source of the Danube River once in Donaueschingen, we passed churches and apartment buildings painted in pastel colors like Venice that would shine in the snowy winters here and constantly remind inhabitants of their connection to water. 

The two streams that come together as the source of the Danube River are the Brege and Brigach. They are encircled in a fountain with an Art Nouveau metal railing. People toss Euro coins in the fountain. I wondered if they ended up downriver in Budapest, Hungary or it the German civic authorities gathered them up for fountain maintenance. 

There are many pack terrace cafés in town that no doubt serve dishes made with mushrooms from the Black Forest like trout in mushroom-butter sauce. 

I treated our time in Germany as one long cooking course, so we returned home where I had a salad waiting that I made from Marina Polvay’s All Along the Danube. The rough outline for the salad I made follows. (I noted the page with the exact recipe.) 

Mushroom-Potato Salad (p.16) 

-slice mushrooms and marinate in vinegar and oil dressing 

-toss mushrooms with slices of boiled potatoes 

-garnish with slices of green pepper and capers 

This salad served at room temperature is especially good with a chilled Pilsner beer on a cool Fall day. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Suburban Detroit French Terrine $ Hack by Ruth Paget

Suburban Detroit French Terrine $ Hack by Ruth Paget 

My Polish babysitter epitomized the Detroit credo of “If I can make a car, I can cook.” 

I learned about Polish admiration for French food from my Polish babysitter in Troy, Michigan as a child. She made homemade French pork and liver terrines and duck terrines and had me eat them with her for lunches and dinners. 

The French eat terrine slices with either bakery-baked, long baguette bread or round, crusty loaves of country bread they make at home. The Polish babysitter, who knew how to bake, mostly made country bread. 

She also made her own sweet gherkin pickles to go with the terrine, which the French always eat with terrine. 

Finally, she filled half the plate with torn and chilled Boston bibb lettuce and homemade blue cheese dressing made with Maytag blue cheese from Iowa, which is the equivalent of the great blue cheeses of Europe: 

-Roquefort (France) 

-Cabrales (Spain) 

-Gorgonzola (Italy) 

(I think we need tasting competitions to decide who has the best blue cheese.) 

The French consider terrine a waste-not dish, because it is made from the odds and ends of butchering meat. A 1.5-quart terrine mold yields 15 slices or 2 slices for 2 people over 7 days with 1 slice leftover to share. My Polish babysitter viewed terrine as delicious, nutritious, and economical and so did I. 

My babysitter drank a sweet white wine with the pork and liver terrine from Michigan’s Warner Winery. She made sure to tell me that the great Hungarian sweet white wine Tokaj was the best match with terrine, but Warner worked for everyday, because Tokaj was expensive. 

The Polish babysitter gave me apple cider to go with my terrine lunch. (Apples grow in abundance in Michigan. Johnny Appleseed is a children’s book everyone in the state reads.) 

I thought of these lovely childhood lunches when I purchased Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie by Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman. This 250-page recipe book has recipes that cover meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables. 

I prefer terrines to confit and rillettes, because it is easier to measure slices for portion control. However, spreadable rillettes are easier to make. You can measure out preserved pieces of delicious duck confit, but pieces tend to be irregular, which makes it hard to count calories. 

Several dishes I thought would be make use of rural resources include: 

-chicken and wild mushroom terrine 

-cauliflower, pea, and red pepper mousse en terrine 

-portobello and red pepper terrine 

-two-potato terrine 

-cauliflower mousse 

-onion confit 

-fennel confit 

-chanterelle and garlic confit rillettes 

These terrines might sell well at a place like Costco, if they are not too expensive as they can be made into a week’s worth of food. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books