Frugalize Your Food!

Every kitchen, whether home or professional, produces  scraps.They usually wind up in the garbage which is a sin. Anything can be repurposed .Leftovers can be turned into yummy dishes. Peelings and ends can be repurposed into new dishes .There's no need to have wastefulness. Everything and anything can be used. Just ask Seattle residents about this. The people there are learning a thing or two about recycling their meals.

This was the subject of an article in today's New York Times' Wednesday Food section. Regular contributor, Kim Severson, travelled to Seattle to write about the city's new recycling program. It goes like , dump that half eaten pizza or lemon peels  ad get slapped with a fine. Garbage men are now extra diligent in sorting through trash.If they do come across any foodstuffs, even a pizza box, a red sticker is placed on the garbage can and the homeowner is fined. Yes it is shaming,, but it also helps the environment as well as teaching home chefs about recycling and kitchen frugality.The idea is nothing new. San Franciscans have been composting for a long time and it's becoming beloved with some New York City restauranteurs as well. It is more economical because vegetables peels can be repurposed into part of various stocks. Carrots tops can be ground into a different kind of pesto. Chicken carcasses can yield up everything form bone and marrow for soups to skin for tasty schmaltz.

Repurposing may be tough for a generation who is used to throwing out as well as using only processed foods. It was just two generations ago that home chefs used to use every part of any  fruit vegetable , meat and bread. It was part of life, thanks to Depression frugality and World War Two rationing.Luckily there are books out there to help.Steve Satterfield has written a book entitled "Root To Leaf" about an in depth look at vegetable cookery  and how to cook usually thrown away corn cobs and mushroom stems. There's also Diana Gunders , a project scientist for the Natural Resources defense Council book, Waste Free Kitchen Handbook  and Eugenia Bone's The Kitchen Economist.It is pretty easy to repurpose. One loaf of bread can be turned into a variety of different foodstuffs. Stale bread can be transformed into strata or French toast. Very stale bread, especially baguettes make excellent breadcrumbs. Chicken is the star of repurposing, with it being redone for homemade soups to pot pies to foie gras. Any food can be frugalized , you just have to be clever in doing so.It  does take some thinking.

Make leftovers and kitchen waste a thing of the recent past. Reuse and repurpose everything from veggies to chicken legs. It 's good for the planet and good for you.