Let's be honest, I love butter. Not just love, but LOVE!!! butter. (I sound like Paula Deen don't I?) Its the MSG of real chefs, it really does make food taste better! As Anthony Bourdain mentions in his book Kitchen Confidential, to make your food taste and look like restaurant quality, use such ingredients as shallots, garlic, fresh herbs, garnish your plate, and use BUTTER! He even says that Italian chefs throw butter into their marinara! Believe me, I tried it ... butter makes your marinara taste better. It mellows out the acidity in marinara, I was quite amazed ... and converted!
Okay another confession ... Being a poor starving student, I am very careful with my money. People can call me frugal. But you try living off my grad student stipend, in NYC, while still wanting to go out and party with your friends, or your BF's friends, who have real jobs that make real money!
Borrowed from: "Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com
My family didn't raise me to be in debt. Its just against my nature. I'll be in my mid 30s when I finish grad school, who wants to crawl out of debt at that age? I walk over a mile one way to work to save subway fare (unless its raining or I'm very late), cuz it seriously cuts into my budget. So how do I eat the way I do? Honestly, I watch the supermarket sales, and stock up when prices are down. I don't coupon cuz New York Times weekend edition is $4, I'm not sure if I'll get enough coupons to recover my losses, so if you know of other newspapers in NYC that you can get coupons for cheaper, let me know! Anyways, so butter, my love, when its on sale in NYC, its $1.99 a pound, sometimes $1.79, and the cheapest I've seen it, but only once, $1.49. Its not the good stuff like Purga ... But for everyday cooking, buttering the pan for eggs or chocolate chips cookies, generic butter is fine. Though I guess if you want really good butter for cheaper, you can shake heavy cream until it makes butter ... or "overwhip it" in your KitchenAid Mixer.
Time to stock up on butter for all that Holiday baking and cooking! Just throw it in your freezer to keep it fresh if you decide to stock up!
I miss NYC supermarkets. I love the Morton Williams at the Columbus centre because they carry cherry cordial kisses, and I can never find them elsewhere... I love New York! (and real butter too!)
I feel you! When I lived in NYC, for me the down side of all that supermarket choice was 1. I couldn't afford half the stuff I wanted and 2. When I did splurge, I had a looong ride on the F train with all those groceries to look forward to! Fresh Direct saved my life! Is butter cheaper at the Manhattan Trader Joe's?
Tasty Trix, Fresh Direct is def convenient. They must be hurting tho cuz they sent us a 25% coupon off first 2 orders w/ free delivery. Just checked, but butter is $4.49 a pound there, but its Hotel Butter which has a higher fat percentage. I love Trader Joe's, but I just can't wait in line for that long (usually 30 min) just to buy groceries, esp since I'm From LA, I lived across the street from a new one that never had a line!
Hey Trix, I am like you..a grad student with no light at the end of the tunnel...also a foodie and a lover of japanese food :) I love your blog...any idea how to follow this one..I am a a loss!!!
Jhonny walker, thank you for reading my blog! I'm very new to blogging, but I think you can add my url cookorbeeaten.blogspot.com to your "blogs I'm following list" from your blogger dashboard. Or you can hit the RSS feed button the upper left hand corner of my blog and then subscribe from that page. Thanks so much!
I'm a Graduate Student in NYC with no light at the end of my tunnel. I truly believe that graduation is an urban legend. As you can tell, I'm as bitter as they get. I do everything I can to make myself happy in the everyday, which usually leads to eating lots of delicious foods. This can be difficult on a limited budget (remember I'm a student), so I tend to seek out good deals and cook ALOT. I do enjoy the cooking tho, its like being at the bench, except its usually successful!
8 comments:
I miss NYC supermarkets. I love the Morton Williams at the Columbus centre because they carry cherry cordial kisses, and I can never find them elsewhere... I love New York! (and real butter too!)
Yes, gotta love NYC supermarkets ... everything gourmet you'd ever dream of, at your local supermarket! New Yorkers are very spoiled!
I feel you! When I lived in NYC, for me the down side of all that supermarket choice was 1. I couldn't afford half the stuff I wanted and 2. When I did splurge, I had a looong ride on the F train with all those groceries to look forward to! Fresh Direct saved my life! Is butter cheaper at the Manhattan Trader Joe's?
Tasty Trix, Fresh Direct is def convenient. They must be hurting tho cuz they sent us a 25% coupon off first 2 orders w/ free delivery. Just checked, but butter is $4.49 a pound there, but its Hotel Butter which has a higher fat percentage. I love Trader Joe's, but I just can't wait in line for that long (usually 30 min) just to buy groceries, esp since I'm From LA, I lived across the street from a new one that never had a line!
Hey Trix,
I am like you..a grad student with no light at the end of the tunnel...also a foodie and a lover of japanese food :) I love your blog...any idea how to follow this one..I am a a loss!!!
Jhonny walker, thank you for reading my blog! I'm very new to blogging, but I think you can add my url cookorbeeaten.blogspot.com to your "blogs I'm following list" from your blogger dashboard. Or you can hit the RSS feed button the upper left hand corner of my blog and then subscribe from that page. Thanks so much!
i'm with you on the graduate stipend idea limitations, and the love for butter :) i love reading your blog!
Dawn, thanks for following my blog. It feels good to know someone out there reading it ... and feels my pain of being a grad student!
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