Eat Better For Le$$

I love James A. Beard. He had the right attitude about Life: enjoy it. I bought the paperback of this great cookbook, How To Eat Better for Less Money, years ago at the Best (But Alas No More) Flea Market that ever was, held monthly at the Carondelet Saturday Morning Athletic Club (now torn down for that Lowes at the corner of Loughborough and I-55.) The paperback had initially been given away as a freebie in the early 70s with a carton of Parliament ciggies, so was not that sturdy. Not held together with high quality glue at all. Mine fell apart a month ago, but given the atmosphere of economic gloom, I thought I better have it on my shelf again — in a more sturdy form. I bought this hardcover edition online. Left to my own devices I would eat like a pauper and enjoy it. Eggs, anchovies, and veggies, that's all I really need. I've been a member of local organic veggie CSAs, but found them incredibly wasteful, because I would get either two measly leaves of spinach or ten pounds of kohlrabi. The excess was never of a veggie I knew what to do with. So this year I'm going to go to Soulard every Friday and just buy the stuff I really, really love. Turnips, beets, greens, peppers, and salsify, stuff like that. And not enough of it to rot in the crisper, either. One of the most fun parts of this book is Beard's list of essential pantry items. It's very heavy on the canned fish. Anchovies, 6 cans: check. Minced clams, 4 cans: check. Sardines, 6 cans: check. I feel like an acolyte. There's a recipe in here I must try: Clam Panackes! As long as you've got eggs, wheat pancakes transmogrify into brown rice pancakes fairly easily. Will update on the outcome of this experiment soon. Gluten-free note: quinoa flour tastes like boll weevils. Yuck.