Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

"Ask first or leave a note" seems inappropriate to me. It may be legal to pick fruit from trees that spill over onto public property, but you're still (please excuse the pun) taking the fruits of someone else's labor. Leaving a note seems weirdly passive-aggressive, like you're challenging the resident to follow up if they don't like you taking fruit from their tree without permission.

Am I the only one who thinks it's inappropriate to not ask first?

I stick with hormone-free dairy products and eggs from Sunshine Dairy, which is local for me. It's just as important, I think, to support local farmers and a (relatively) small business as it is to go with organic, and growth hormones are my larger concern anyway. And the truth is that since my roommates and I are all grad students, our grocery budget is tight, and it just isn't possible to spend $6 per gallon on organic milk when we go through two to four gallons a week.

When I moved back to the United States after spending nearly eight years abroad, I was really surprised at the wastefulness (though I certainly took it for granted growing up here). Most of the "tips" that I've seen on Consumerist and other websites seem so obvious.

That said, these are my cornerstones for keeping my food budget under control (usually about $80/week for four adults):

Shop at ethnic markets. The packaging tends to be less slick (honestly, does anyone need pre-sliced fruit and vegetables? pre-shredded cheese?!) but produce and other necessities are, consequently, less expensive. H-Mart is an excellent small national chain, and their prices (at least in the Portland area) are excellent.

Stick to buying whole foods. Processed food isn't good for you, and you're paying extra for every step of processing. Cut your intake of processed foods for a month or two, and you'll be amazed at how salty, sweet, and artificial it tastes when you try it later.

Eat less meat. This is a really common tip, but it makes a big difference in your weekly grocery bill. Stirfries, many pasta dishes, and the Meat Lite features from this website use meat as a flavor agent rather than the focal point of the dish. Buy the meat you want when it's on sale (H-Mart is awesome for this) and re-package and freeze.

Practice la cuchina povera. Some of the best dishes in the world were born of poverty and lack of resources. Embrace simple recipes and use leftovers. La cuchina povera is usually associated with southern Italian cooking, but its principles are found in cuisines all over the world. You don't need expensive ingredients if you have a decent grasp of cooking and a little bit of creativity.

That acorn squash recipe looks great.

With butternut squash, I've found that my giant CCK cleaver does the trick nicely. It's ridiculously sharp and heavy, but it'll split a squash with a single swing.

@ natemcguire

I grew up in the Bay Area, and my dad made monkey bread from scratch every Christmas.

This is a really good example of how the media (and press-hungry researchers!) can warp statistics. There's a really interesting (possible) story here about the intersection of lifestyle (and thus consumer choices) and politics, and how our lifestyle choices and socialization help shape our political choices, but it's ignored in favor of (as Juliac so aptly put it) the sociopolitical equivalent of a newspaper astrology column. Which came first: the lifestyle or the politics (the free-range chicken or the organic egg)? And perhaps more importantly, why isn't our national press exploring these questions in a more critical way?

I keep a big freezer bag for vegetable and chicken bits, and every time it's full, I dump the contents into my stockpot with a bottle of wine, an equal amount of water, a bay leaf, and a bouquet garni--the resulting stock goes into the freezer and results in great sauces and soups midweek, with very little prep time needed.