HOME & LIVING
TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2022
GROCERIES
Continued from Page B1
probably could help your
household budget,” Pfuhl
said.
Don’t forget about cou-
pons and reward programs
off ered by your grocer and
manufacturers. Whether
it’s in print or digital, cou-
pons can still save you
money, Pfuhl said. Print
circulars like the ones in
this paper can also alert
you to good deals. Most
stores also off er incentive
programs where buyers can
get discounts on food, gas
and other perks so don’t
forget to swipe your card at
checkout.
Stay fl exible for good
deals
Sometimes you can fi nd
similar and cheaper prod-
ucts at another part of
the grocery store. “If one
doesn’t need a fancy cheese
from the deli department,
they can often save by
buying similar cheese from
the dairy department,” said
Plant of Raymond James.
If there are products that
your family uses on a reg-
ular basis, it wouldn’t be
a bad idea to grab it when
you see it because it is still
hard to keep certain pop-
ular items stocked, Pfuhl
said. But try not to hoard,
she warned.
Be fl exible on what
you buy and try diff erent
brands, diff erent sizes of
products and even a dif-
ferent product in the same
category. “Because of sup-
ply-chain issues, if you like
product X, you may need to
buy product Y,” Pfuhl said.
However, pay atten-
tion to the price per ounce.
“Smaller sizes are another
form of infl ation,” Plant
said. For example, ice
cream used to come in half-
gallon (64 oz.) cartons and
now many come in 48- to
56-oz. sizes.
Stretch your meals
and fi nd substitutions
To make meals stretch,
repurpose cooked food into
other meals throughout
the week, Nelson said. She
used pork she slow-cooked
recently for several meals,
including a rice bowl and
pulled pork tacos.
When planning meals,
identify four or fi ve typi-
cally low-cost ingredients
you can sub into your diet
such as bananas, chicken
thighs and beans, Nelson
said. “If you can save $10
twice a week over time, that
all just adds up,” she said.
One substitution people
are talking a lot about these
days is going meatless. By
far the largest increase in
at-home food costs last year
in the U.S. was for meat,
poultry, fi sh and eggs — up
12.6% in December com-
pared to the year before.
With the price of meat
so high, you can save a con-
siderable amount of money
(and likely see some health
benefi ts) if you go meatless
one or two days a week or
even a few meals per week,
Nelson said.
“There are so many
ways to make this work,
even for people who are big
meat eaters,” she said. Oats,
peanut butter, beans, len-
tils, rice, eggs, potatoes and
other vegetables are great
staple ingredients for meat-
free diets and are cheap
alternatives to manufac-
tured plant-based products.
BOOK
Continued from Page B1
The value of food
Steger, of course, knows
about survival, from his
adventures as a teen to
the remote Northwoods
homestead he established
in 1964 when he was 19.
Since then, he has perse-
vered in some of the most
extreme conditions on the
planet. Steger led a crew
on a heralded 56-day dog-
sled journey to the North
Pole in 1986, the fi rst of its
kind to make it with only
the supplies the team car-
ried with it. He repeated
the feat two years later
when he trekked across
Greenland, traveling 1,600
miles south to north, again
without any resupply. In
1989, he led the fi rst 3,471-
mile dog-sled traverse of
Antarctica.
In forested regions, he
would get by on game pro-
vided by native hunters.
But in polar regions,
where there’s no game and
nothing grows, he relied
only on rations. Among the
majestic surroundings few
humans ever see, he stared
starvation in the eye.
“In Antarctica, it really
looked like we were going
to perish, and I think any-
time anybody starves,
your perspective of life
changes,” Steger said. “It
really puts you in touch
with our fragility, and with
those that don’t have the
privileges that we all do
here in America. It’s hard
to put into words, but food
is a little diff erent to me.
It’s something I never take
for granted.”
Here’s what not taking
food for granted looks
like: planning every meal
so nothing is wasted;
growing what you can and
buying in bulk what you
can’t; knowing the farm,
and maybe even the exact
animal, your meat comes
from; and, most of all,
keeping it simple.
“For myself, simplicity
is really quality,” Steger
said. “We usually equate
simplicity with the oppo-
site — that we’re going to
compromise our values
and our way of living.” Not
so, he said. Not when the
way you eat aligns with
your values to nourish
your body and preserve the
Earth.
Helping in those pur-
suits is Rita Mae, Steger’s
27-year-old niece, who
spends her summers at the
homestead cooking for
residents and visitors in a
bare-bones kitchen, with
a pantry of essentials, the
University of Minnesota Press-TNS
“The Steger Homestead Kitchen: Simple Recipes for an Abundant
Life,” by Will Steger, Beth Dooley and Rita Mae Steger.
biggest cast iron skillet she
can fi nd and a lush garden.
“It defi nitely connects
you to food more, gar-
dening and picking and
harvesting your food,
washing it and making
sure it’s clean — it makes
it really rewarding,” she
said. “Everything just
tastes better. Relaxing feels
better.”
In addition to a number
of recipes from her
Grandma Steger, Will’s
mother, the book also
includes recipes from Rita
Mae’s mother, Kim Chi.
Both matriarchs valued
family meals, and their
imprint is stamped upon
the large gatherings she
caters at the homestead.
“My grandma, she
always had a setup on the
table. No matter what it
was she was cooking, there
was always sliced bread
and butter, a glass of milk
and applesauce,” she said.
“And on my mom’s side,
my aunts cook a lot and we
would always have lunch
and dinner together. It’s
just been the example I’ve
been given my whole life. I
defi nitely connect with my
ancestors through food.”
Her mother’s Viet-
namese background comes
through in twists she added
to American recipes, such
as ground beef goulash
that’s deepened with soy
sauce, and breakfast fried
rice. Rita Mae makes both
of those at the homestead,
and off ers those recipes in
the book.
Sharing those dishes
with Steger Wilderness
Center guests — who
range from vocational
school students from Min-
neapolis to international
climate leaders — “is a
nostalgic experience for
me,” she said. “I can kind
of live in the past and just
eat the food that’s been my
favorite.”
A taste of the past
Nostalgia is a thread
throughout “The Steger
Homestead Kitchen,” both
in Will’s remembrances
of his adventures, and in
his aff ection for a grass-
roots way of living that’s
been largely subsumed
by modern conveniences.
Whether he’s talking about
clearing the land, getting
rice-cooking tips from his
tentmate in Antarctica,
or griddling fl atbread on
a stove he named Harvey
that’s fashioned out of a
barrel, every story has a
recipe and every recipe has
a story.
“Storytelling was a
big part of this collabora-
tive eff ort,” said Dooley,
the Stegers’ co-author.
“The recipes refl ect Will’s
values: Live simply, off er
hospitality. Will loves
gathering around a fi re
after a good meal, talking.
His meals are never fussy,
no exotic ingredients or
fancy equipment. It’s about
being together.”
But simple doesn’t
mean easy.
“Homesteading requires
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — B3
Shari L. Gross/Minneapolis Star Tribune-TNS
Using leftover pork from earlier in the week, Haley Nelson creates tacos, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in the
kitchen of her home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Nelson has run her Cheap Recipe Blog for more than a decade,
sharing ways to shop and cook cheaply. One of her tips is cooking meat and repurposing it throughout
the week in several recipes.
thinking ahead, stocking
up on whole grains, dry
beans, oils, seasonings and
essentials, keeping things
organized and labeled
and in mouse-proof con-
tainers,” said Dooley, a
regular contributor to
the Star Tribune’s Taste
section. “It’s garnering
resources, not buying more
perishables than will really
be put to use.”
Steger, who says he
hasn’t eaten anything
out of a box in 50 years,
admits even he can slip up.
“I’m not a perfectionist or
militant, but it’s an aware-
ness” to do better, he said.
An awareness he garnered
from traveling to the ends
of the Earth.
He hopes his stories,
and the book, can give
others that awareness, too.
“That’s why I go
on these experiences,
because, sometimes, I’m
not sure — there’s no
guarantee I’m going to
come back. And then when
I come back, I’m actually
a diff erent person in many
diff erent ways, because it’s
opened my whole life up
to the reality of life, and
that’s really refl ected to me
in food,” Steger said.
“I hope the book refl ects
that simplicity and joy,
simple living and simple
eating with friends and
community.”
VERY
AMERICAN
GOULASH
Serves 4 to 6.
Note: “My mom, Kim Chi, has a
knack for spicing up American
recipes, adding a dash of soy
sauce and a sprinkle of red
pepper fl akes to boost fl avors,”
writes Rita Mae Steger in “The
Steger Homestead Kitchen”
(University of Minnesota Press,
2022). Serve this over buttered
noodles.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon red pepper fl akes
1 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, smashed
Film a large, deep skillet with
the oil and set over medium
heat. Crumble the ground beef
into the skillet and cook until it
is no longer pink. Stir in onion
and cook until softened, then
add tomatoes, tomato paste,
soy sauce, red pepper fl akes, salt
and garlic. Lower the heat and
simmer until the liquid is slight-
ly reduced, about 10 minutes.
Adjust seasonings to taste.
MOM’S
GINGERSNAPS
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
Note: A favorite from Will’s
mom’s spiral cookbook. “We
make these cookies every week,”
said Steger. From “The Steger
Homestead Kitchen” (University
of Minnesota Press, 2022).
2 cups fl our
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup maple or brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 egg
2 tablespoons sorghum
or molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Granulated sugar, for coating
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line several baking sheets with
parchment, or lightly grease.
In a large bowl, stir together
fl our, ginger, cinnamon, cloves,
baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, cream
together sugar, butter, egg, sor-
ghum or molasses and vanilla.
Form a well in the center of
the dry mixture and add the
creamed butter mixture. Mix
together until everything is well
combined.
Pour a little granulated sugar
on a plate. Using a teaspoon,
form the dough into 1 1/2-inch
balls and roll in sugar to coat.
Place cookies on baking sheet,
leaving about 2 inches between
each one. Press down slightly
with your fi ngers to fl atten the
dough. Bake until the edges
have just begun to crisp and
center is soft, about 12 to 15
minutes.
Remove the baking sheet
from the oven and allow the
cookies to sit for about 1
minute. Using a metal spatula,
transfer cookies to a cooling
rack.
BLACK BEAN
WILD RICE
BURGERS
Serves 4.
Note: This is the burger of
choice for omnivores and veg-
ans at Hobo Village gatherings.
They are made with the simplest
pantry staples. You can also
scramble the bean mix in a
skillet for nachos and burritos.
From “The Steger Homestead
Kitchen” (University of Minneso-
ta Press, 2022).
1 cup walnuts
3 tablespoons vegetable
oil, divided
1 onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup breadcrumbs or oats
1 1/2 cups cooked or canned
black beans, drained
1 cup cooked wild rice
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper, to taste
Scatter walnuts into a large
skillet and set over medium
heat. Toast the nuts, stirring
frequently, until they are lightly
browned, about 7 minutes.
Remove from pan and allow to
cool.
In the same pan, heat 1 table-
spoon of oil over medium heat.
Add the onion and garlic and
cook until the onion is translu-
cent, about 7 minutes; remove
from heat.
Transfer the walnuts to a food
processor and process into a
fi ne meal. Add the breadcrumbs
or oats and process again until
blended.
Turn the black beans into
a large bowl and thoroughly
mash with the back of a fork.
Stir in the walnut mixture, the
wild rice, and add the onion,
garlic, chili powder, paprika,
cumin, and salt and pepper. Mix
together thoroughly.
Divide the mixture into 4
even pieces. Using your hands,
roll the pieces into balls and
press down to form burgers,
holding the patty in one hand
and using the other to smooth
the sides.
Heat the remaining 2 table-
spoons oil in a pan set over
medium heat. Cook the burgers
to brown on both sides, about 3
minutes per side.
M ICHAEL
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