Cost of Take-Out Lunch, Week Ending 120211

Monday: Paul's Pantry turkey club and soup: on a coworker

Tuesday: Carl's Jr $6 Low Carb Cheeseburger and lunch for two others: $15.15

Wednesday: sick

Thursday: sick

Friday: sick

Total: $15.15
Total for the year: $1724.43

Doria's Original Haus of Pizza, Haus Special

Could it possibly be true that I've not ordered a pizza for dinner since March?! I refuse to believe it, there must be a mistake!

Being sick and having a desire to be comforted by ooey-gooey-ness, I dialed Doria's. I showed up on time and unlike last time, didn't have to dance around diners making their entrances or exits. The pizza was ready when I got there, which was a good thing as I was in my pajamas and not feeling great.

I went for a repeat of last time, another Haus Special, though I can't remember if it was medium or large. Considering how the slice sprawls across the plate as long as does (above), I'm leaning toward large. There's the ubiquitous box...

and a pie lacking in the ooey-gooey lava-like qualities I'd anticipated.

While it tasted alright, it didn't push my buttons like last time. I couldn't help but notice that the majority of the toppings were central to the pie and unlike last time, no oozing of lava-like cheese and sauce. I wonder if this indeed was a large and the same quantity of cheese and sauce just happened to be used on my medium pie last time. Not horrible, but not as pleasing as I'd expected.

And you know what, the pizza wasn't so hot that there was any risk of fogging the camera lens. Hmm. What's up with that?

$21.23 out the door on the AmEx including $2 tip.

Hambone Soup out of a Measuring Cup

Yes, that's Hambone Soup in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring glass. And yes, it's on my dinette floor for maximum sun. For the image, not because I think soup likes to sunbathe.

I'm sick and lazy. Every bowl in the joint is dirty and the soup was in a big bowl. I needed to divide the quantity and improvised. While this measuring glass is almost certainly oven-safe, I nuked the soup in the microwave.

Note the lack of cheese. Hambone Soup really is better without it.

Hambone Soup reheated

Timing for soup couldn't have been better. I'm sick.

After reheating it on the stovetop in a small saucepan,

I topped the soup with some shredded cheddar.

Believe it or not, the soup is better without cheese!

Coming from a cheese-a-holic, that's impressive.

Hambone Soup

Hambone from Thanksgiving in hand, I needed a recipe. I searched and browsed and perused and honed-in before finding the perfect selection: the Ham-Bone Soup recipe posted over there on Drick's Rambling Cafe's site. The part that cinched it for me was the Creole seasoning requirement. If you'll remember, I have a ton of Creole Seasoning Blend.

What I didn't know was that Drick had his own Creole Seasoning until I prepared this post. As Drick is specialized in southern food, including Creole, I'd certainly give his seasoning a spin.

Hambone Soup

adapted from Drick's Rambling Cafe
click to print

1 1/2 lbs mixed dried beans including navy, green split pea, and lentils
3 quarts water
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp + 2 tsp Creole Seasoning Blend, divided

1 left-over hambone
1 c chopped ham

2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 large onion, diced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
2 large carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley or freeze-dried (I used the dry stuff)
Pinch of thyme

8 c chicken broth (from Better Than Bouillon)
1 14.5 oz can corn

2 -14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Day 1

Rinse beans in a deep bowl several times.

I measured my beans by mass, going over by a smidge, before rinsing them well in the same 8 cup vessel.

Transfer beans into a slow cooker; add the water. Remove any unwanted beans -- I assumed the floating ones were bad ones.

There appears to be a piece of white plastic up there between 11:00 and 12:00 in the photo above-right. I hope I saw that back then and removed it!

Add the vinegar and 2 tbsp Creole Seasoning Blend. Cover and cook on warm heat overnight.

Meanwhile, do mise-en-place for dry ingredients (hambone, chopped ham, garlic, onion, potato, carrots, celery, pepper, parsley and thyme, plus the 2 remaining tsp of Creole Seasoning Blend), cover and stow it in the fridge.

Day 2

Transfer the mise-en-place ingredients into an 8-quart or greater saucepan/stockpot and stir in the chicken broth. Bring to a low boil and reduce to a slow simmer for a couple of hours.

It took about 10 minutes for my pot to get to a boil over medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, I opened the lid to the Crock Pot, still set on warm, and took a look at the beans.

Hmm, pretty scummy looking. Digging around in there, I found that the lentils and split-peas were tender while navy beans were still hard after more than 12 hours on warm. I kept the heat on.

Skim any grease and scum from the top of the soup broth.

Remove the bone(s) and let cool if necessary before pulling meat from the bone(s) and shredding the resulting meat.

Transfer the drained beans and ham to pot, bring to just under a boil and then simmer on low until beans are done and mixture has thickened just a bit, about an hour.


Stir in the corn and tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. If your beans are still firm like mine, hold off on the tomatoes. Continue cooking the soup on low another hour or until beans are softened.

An hour and 20 minutes later, my navy beans weren't the softest, but somewhat softened. I stirred in the tomatoes. And then, 30 minutes later, I remembered the salt and pepper. If your beans were soft enough that you'd added your tomatoes, salt, and pepper with the corn, dish it up and chow!

My soup was allowed to simmer another 30 minutes to let the tomatoes, salt and pepper to become infused with the entire mixture.

Serve with a crusty bread.


While it took a lot longer than I'd expected to complete this soup due to my navy beans staying firm, the soup was just as good as I'd anticipated! I think that if I'd stuck more closely to Drick's recipe, the results would've been even better. Everything was cooked well (my navy beans could've been cooked a little longer) and the soup was thicker than soupy, which is my preference.

Regarding things I should not have adjusted is the quantity of ham and dice of tomatoes. I didn't have quite as much chopped ham as Drick's recipe called for (I ate the majority of ham as leftovers before prepping the soup!) and it showed, even though I pulled quite a lot of meat from the bones -- it is essentially a ham soup, right? Secondly, Drick's recipe called for petite-diced tomatoes. As I had regular diced tomatoes on hand, I rolled with them. Mistake. Trust me, you want to go with the petite unless you like glaring hunks of hot tomato in your ham soup.

Would I do this soup again? Bet your ass I would. Next time I'll heed the above paragraph plus I'd use more of the beans Drick's had listed as possibilities. This first time, I used just what I had on hand. Best of all, this soup freezes very well*.

Cost:

• navy beans: $0.50
• green split peas: $0.50
• lentils: $1.10
• garlic: $0.10
• onion: $0.25
• potato: $0.77
• carrots: $0.54
• celery: $0.50
• broth: $0.23
• corn: $1.50
• diced tomatoes: $0.32

Total: $6.31, assuming your hambone and ham were free. That makes each of nine 1.5 cup servings $0.70. Yep, 70 cents.

FYI: I opted to bake a batch of Cheddar-Zucchini Biscuits (using regular sharp cheddar found anywhere for less than $24/lb) and let me tell you right now, while they are awesome, they won't go quite as well with the soup as the corn or French bread Drick suggested would.

*Here's the soup I didn't eat. That's about 24 cups of soup dished into various bowls. Those in the left, uh, column are 4-cup bowls, the three in the center column are 2-cup bowls and the big bowl on the right handles 6-cups. I'll freeze a bunch, but leave some of the soup in the fridge for dinners this week.

Here's a perfect example of when the Anchor Hocking (or Pyrex) bowls come into play at my apartment. The soup is dispersed across multiple bowls expediting cooling. Once cool, the lids are snapped on and placed in freezer/fridge. That they stack nicely is great, saving space. Note: when putting a bunch of dishes into the fridge or freezer, don't stack them immediately as they'll only retain each others heat. Spread 'em out, let 'em chill/freeze, then stack.

Better Than Bouillon Organic Lower Sodium Chicken Base

I found this jar of Better Than Bouillon reduced sodium (and organic) chicken base when I was browsing in the soup aisle of a local store.

Like the other Better Than Bouillon bases I've purchased before, the first ingredient in this jar is actually meat.

Organic and lower in sodium, there was not a visual or olfactory difference between this and the regular chicken base.

While I don't show it here, the lid has equivalences on it, just like the other jars, which makes it really convenient.

Unfortunately, I don't have pricing or availability. I think I picked it up when I was at Smart & Final a while ago, but cannot confirm. Guessing, it was $6 for this 1 lb jar.

Food Plan and Grocery List, 112611

Thanksgiving Day was spent at my brother's house where I broke bread with him, my former sister-in-law, and my nephew. I came home with a giant container of leftovers, including the hambone. That means I'm gonna be making a hambone soup.

Stater Bros.:

• cage-free eggs: $3.79/dozen
• whole milk: $1.19/pint
• sliced bacon: $3.99/lb
• Italian squash: $0.68/0.53 lb
• garlic bulbs: $1.29/2 each
• Russet potatoes: $1.53/1.55 lb (2)

Total: $12.47

I forgot corn and because I can see into the future on this blog, I know I'll get a can of Goya corn from the little Mexican store around the corner for about $1.50 tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and since I didn't have a food plan last week, the only shopping I did was for my contribution for Thanksgiving dinner, which wasn't much:

• Farmer John center-cut ham: $16.85 @1.69/lb
• Good Cook meat thermometer: $4.19 on sale

Total: $35.01
Total for the year: $1411.54

The ham was just one part of the meal which my SIL essentially planned and executed single-handedly: ham, roast beef, shoepeg corn casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls with bacon and cheese built in. Everything was awesome though Lauren would remind me the beef came out too well-done and we didn't do the yams (my fault as she'd put me in charge of them and I totally spaced out, forgetting them entirely).