The Frugal Way: Putting Food By

I’ve been frugal all my adult life, no doubt because I was raised in a frugal household where food preservation was the primary summer activity. I must have bought into this way of life. One of my favorite preschool books was The Little Old Man Who Loved to Can.

Frugality probably is no longer necessary, but my frugal ways are too deeply ingrained to abandon. For example, I was passing through my grocery store’s produce department yesterday when a rack of reduced-price red, yellow, and orange bell peppers caught my eye. I didn’t need peppers but these were not spoiled, their skins were just a bit a wrinkled.

Each bag of three assorted peppers was priced at 99¢, a deal too good to pass up. I did restrain myself to one bag.

This morning I put the peppers on a broiler rack from a now defunct toaster oven and put them under the broiler to roast. After a few minutes I could hear the skins popping and sure enough they were charred on top, so I used tongs to turn them to another side and continued the broiling. When all sides of the peppers were blistered and charred I put them into a covered saucepan and left them to cool. Most directions for roasting peppers call for putting them into a plastic or paper bag, but a saucepan works just as well. The purpose is to steam any skin that didn’t blister under the broiler.

Skins of the roasted peppers peeled off easily. The stems and seeds went into the chickens’ bowl. After rinsing the peppers, I pulled them into segments and put them into plastic sandwich bags. Now the bags are in the freezer. They will be waiting to be used for pizza, in tossed salads, or potato salad.

It’s only the end of May, but food preservation is in full swing. So far I’ve frozen spinach and gooseberries and now peppers. Peas and broccoli will come next. I just can’t help myself.

Outside, Husker Red penstemons are putting on their best show ever.

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer