Novel Eats

A few years ago I worked as a receptionist at a fine stringed instruments dealer. It was a very interesting cultural experience, because we sold extremely expensive violins, violas and cellos to people with a good deal of money. It was, and has been so far, my only true exposure to this slice of the music industry. It was also a very interesting and enjoyable foray into fine chocolates, desserts and other culinary delights. This was prior to my swearing off of cheese, milk and other dairy items, so I’ll confess that I had quite a few non-vegan experiences (and one non-vegetarian one, which I didn’t realize until later – um yeah, imitation crab is still real fish, FYI).

This is the first in a series of posts that I’ll be doing that focuses on how to be a bit more frugal in the kitchen. We’ve all probably felt the pinch in one way or another in this lovely recession, but we don’t have to forgo good food to save money. We can have our cake and eat it, too. In this post, we can have our sprouts. :) Stay tuned in the coming days and weeks for other ways you can save money on good homemade food in the kitchen.

When I was a kid I remember my mom growing a copious amount of alfalfa sprouts. She’d pack them in my lunches for school, and at lunchtime my classmates would make fun of me for eating worms. I liked the sprouts, though, and so much so that I grew sprouts for a school science fair (I believe I even won something). I showed them at different stages of growth, from humble seed to full grown sprout.

Valentine’s Day is probably one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it’s because of all the girlie colors and hearts and flowers, or because of the shallow romance courtesy of department stores, but I just can’t help but like it. Of course, I’m sure that I resented the holiday when I was single or forlorn over someone that wouldn’t “Be Mine”. That’s probably a given. Now Valentine’s Day offers me an excuse to get into the kitchen and try to make something that has equal parts romance and flour and KitchenAid mixer.