Cheap Meals: Eating on a budget.

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Dr.Retarded

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I don't like cutting garlic because the smell lingers on my fingers for days no matter what I do

I'm Italian though so that might just be my BO
Hey it'll keep off the vampires, and perhaps those that wear small hats, but perhaps they are the same thing.
 

Dr.Retarded

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I'm also not a great fan of already minced garlic but storing your own minced garlic in olive oil is fine, just tip the spoon against the side of the jar so you're leaving most of the oil behind.

Best thing to do if you don't want to deal with one or two cloves at a time is to make garlic confit then scoop it out of the oil, mash/puree, and freeze into cubes. It's pretty common to include rosemary but you can do just garlic and olive oil if you want. You can use the infused olive oil that's left over for more cooking rather than discarding it.
Gordon Ramsay Masterchef GIF by FOX TV
 

Furry

🌭🍔🇺🇦✌️SLAVA UKRAINI!✌️🇺🇦🍔🌭
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HEBs campara tomatoes are what we normally buy, and they're wonderful. The real trick is to pick up the package and smell them, if they smell like tomato, then you're good to go. That's typically what we use for caprese, even hamburgers or sandwiches. Sucks that are tomato crop didn't produce whatsoever even though the God damn plants 7 ft tall. I think I got two. My guess is the soil is probably just off.

Lanx Lanx is right though with the San marzano. Nothing beats that for making any type of tomato based sauce.
In texas, knock your tomatoes over and grow smaller tomatoes to get a lot more fruit. To get big tomatoes to reliably grow you need to shade them and water them a lot, or they just don't fruit well. Pain in the ass.

San marzano tomatoes grow great in texas.
 
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Dr.Retarded

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In texas, knock your tomatoes over and grow smaller tomatoes to get a lot more fruit. To get big tomatoes to reliably grow you need to shade them and water them a lot, or they just don't fruit well. Pain in the ass.

San marzano tomatoes grow great in texas.
I didn't have much involvement in the garden, my wife has a green thumb of death, but she seemed to have been doing a pretty good job. Just sort of left her to do whatever and would try to check up. She was working her ass off on it though, and I know she's as bummed as I am.

I bought like $60 worth of seeds and then she left them outside and they got rained on. I had a whole bunch of different heirloom tomatoes I think that I had bought, various peppers, squash and cucumbers and stuff. That kind of pissed me off.

I think part of the problem we're having it is the backyard just gets a little too much shade, but she was pretty damn diligent of everyday constantly watering. I constantly told her when did you miracle grow. I just know that's what my parents used to always use and they would always get a Great harvest. We did the whole compost pile and everything and got the soil prepped, but no dice with the tomatoes this year.

I don't even know what seeds we had going because she basically took all of those seeds that were salvageable from the destruction, and just dispersed it through the beds.

Out of the soil on the backyard is a lot of sand and I think it's probably acidic from all of the pine needles that drop. I honestly don't know, just spitballing after watching some YouTube videos.

I was really looking forward to a ton of tomatoes this summer but doesn't seem to be the case.

What's good winter crop that I had to be looking at getting ready, obviously here in Texas?
 

Furry

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I don't even know what seeds we had going because she basically took all of those seeds that were salvageable from the destruction, and just dispersed it through the beds.

Out of the soil on the backyard is a lot of sand and I think it's probably acidic from all of the pine needles that drop. I honestly don't know, just spitballing after watching some YouTube videos.

I was really looking forward to a ton of tomatoes this summer but doesn't seem to be the case.

What's good winter crop that I had to be looking at getting ready, obviously here in Texas?
Soil PH test is pretty easy to do. Soil in much of texas is pretty shit tbh. I till in a layer of quality compost I buy at the dump every year (~35$/yd^3), Added limestone in the past cause my soil was acidic, a lot of places in texas are.

For plants, seeds are fine, but I'm not a huge fan of them. If you really wanna be successful from seed you really need to pre-start them inside and then plant the best ones once the frost threat has passed. Personally, I just buy plants already started at my local farm shop. They sell any type of plant you could want for around 1.5$ each, and I've never been to a farm shop where the guy wasn't extremely knowledgeable about the local best practices, and they generally will know/carry plants that do best wherever you are in texas. EG: Dennis's farm store in Denton. He's awesome. It should go without saying, but Do not buy plants from places like HD.

I've never been a winter crop person. I'll grow some rhubarb now and then, so can't speak about that too much.
 
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Lanx

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This seems like bullshit but I think it actually works. When my fingertips smell like garlic I rub them on a piece of stainless steel (usually my knife) under running water and I swear it reduces the smell if not getting rid of it completely.
it works, i bought a stainless steel soap shape thing a while ago
2 Pack Stainless Steel Silver Soap, Metal Odor Remover Bar Soap Rubbing Stone Eliminating Smell Like Fish Onion Garlic Scents Strong Scents from Hands and Skin for Kitchen
basically just a hunk of stainless, i use it for garlic and mainly fish, i hate lingering fish smell, actually my wife bought it cuz she noticed it, in a lot of asian dramas.
 
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Burns

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The diced up garlic in oil seems gross to me. I tend to just use garlic powder if I don't have any fresh or I'm too lazy to slice it up. Has anyone tried the two-bowl trick? That looked pretty nifty but it seems like half the cool tricks on YouTube are fake. Never liked the garlic press just because it's hard to clean sometimes. Only takes a few seconds to dice it with a sharp knife which you probably already have out.
While they have it available in oil, the stuff I linked is in water with citric acid as a preservative or stabilizer (I assume); no other additives.
 
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Dr.Retarded

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I somehow conned my wife and to run into the grocery store to get stuff for broccoli, chicken and cheesey rise casserole.

I don't necessarily know how it happened, but it's awesome. I felt like shit all day because of allergies, and I'm sure this isn't going to help me any but God damn doesn't sound good.

Super cheap, utterly delicious...
 
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Lanx

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While they have it available in oil, the stuff I linked is in water with citric acid as a preservative or stabilizer (I assume); no other additives.
have you ever tried dehydrated garlic? (i never have)
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
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Nope. Wouldn't that just be chunky garlic powder?
dehydrated garlic is sliced and put in a dehydrator, then if you want garlic powder you take that, then grind it up.

so if you sprinkle a few slivers, it looks like real seasonings i guess.

i know ppl use that who can't slice garlic, but don't want the chopped garlic in the fridge, use the dehydradted minced garlic
 
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Dr.Retarded

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dehydrated garlic is sliced and put in a dehydrator, then if you want garlic powder you take that, then grind it up.

so if you sprinkle a few slivers, it looks like real seasonings i guess.

i know ppl use that who can't slice garlic, but don't want the chopped garlic in the fridge, use the dehydradted minced garlic
Yeah you just use it as an aromatic and typically put it into oil to help release the flavor.

It's good but I don't think it's as great as fresh.
 

Siliconemelons

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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it works, i bought a stainless steel soap shape thing a while ago
2 Pack Stainless Steel Silver Soap, Metal Odor Remover Bar Soap Rubbing Stone Eliminating Smell Like Fish Onion Garlic Scents Strong Scents from Hands and Skin for Kitchen
basically just a hunk of stainless, i use it for garlic and mainly fish, i hate lingering fish smell, actually my wife bought it cuz she noticed it, in a lot of asian dramas.

They used to have these at a buncha stores like bed bath and beyond, good to have, no idea why it works- i am sure someone has a YouTube video explaining why lol
 

Sludig

Potato del Grande
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Forget which thread was calling out the walmart Cliff bars. Looked great..... for whatever reason they have them in OKC, but not in my neck of the woods super walmart. Didnt jump to suggest one in Tulsa given it kept resetting to showing an OKC store. Can't order them shipped either, ffs.
 

Dr.Retarded

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Looks like the Irish came and delisted all his videos for his degenerate molesting of potatoes! They are quick!
What the fuck happened? That's seriously fucked up. Was his account hacked or something?

There's nothing there anymore, other than some live stream thing with Trump, Elon, and Kamala or something goofy.
 

Burns

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What the fuck happened? That's seriously fucked up. Was his account hacked or something?
It took a bit to find. Nothing from the guy himself confirming, but there are a few reddit posts saying he was hacked and had Crypto scams with Musk/Trump videos laced in uploaded to the channel before it went dark. Hopefully they just set the videos private, otherwise that's a lot of educational material they just fucked over.
 
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