To introduce ourselves

I'm sure that you know how it is ...

You go to the supermarket for butter or bread or TP or something specific and necessary and then you notice the 'Reduced' shelves ... well, who could pass up a 'bargain'?

I have often ended up buying things that were end-of-line, about to go out of date or for any other reason reduced to a fraction of their marked price. I rarely went in meaning to buy those items and, to be honest, now I have got them home, I don't know what I am going to do with them!

That is the challenge, however!

These poor orphans were about to be thrown out if I didn't buy them. They were due to go in the trash, according to their 'sell by' or 'display until' date. I have a nice little glow in my heart that I have, in my small way, reduced the dreadful mountain of waste that our society disposes of every day!

So what do we do with this rescued soon-to-be-waste?

Let us say that I had bought a couple of courgettes (zucchini) reduced from £1.20 to 75p (yes, I know ... that is a terrible price for something I could easily grow for next to nothing but it is early February in England and it's nice to have something that reminds one of summer), a couple of small Salmon steaks for £1.75 (about half price) and an odd pot of creme fraiche that was reduced from 97p to 45p.

I am lucky - I know that these three things are likely to go together to make a meal for two (at least).

The first thing I do is to log on, go to Google and type: "salmon courgette zucchini creme fraiche". Why do I type 'courgette' and 'zucchini'? Because I know that Americans and Italians call this vegetable 'zucchini', while we British and the French call it 'courgette'. It is a small, undergrown marrow with a slightly nutty flavour and overtones of cucumber ... what's in a name?

Well, my search turned up nothing much of interest (at least, not in the recipe line ... try it yourself). I decided, therefore, to try some Boolean operators (OK, I can explain those in more detail elsewhere) ... "salmon AND (courgette OR zucchini) AND creme fraiche" gives me much more information!

I scan the list of titles and decide that a good candidate is #5: "Smoked Salmon Fettuccine with Courgette Ribbons and Asparagus"

This is actually for Smoked Salmon and includes asparagus, which I don't have and am not going to buy fresh at this time of year (and the tinned stuff is just too flabby), so we are going to have to modify. I look in the cupboard and find that I'm fresh out of Fettucine (I have Tortellini and Spaghetti and Lasagne and something called Orzo which I have yet to try ... another random buy!). Ah well, the recipe calls for one courgette and I have two; my salmon is fresh, not smoked ... perhaps I can add something that will give that extra smokey flavour? I do have some Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan), however and it needs using up - there is a little blue dot hiding in the corner.

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Hey! This is just an introduction ... I propose to give you real time examples of what I do with the bargains I find! Please make a date with me ... add this blog to your RSS feeds ... Digg it or whatever.

I look for your challenges, too ... send me your 'What shall I do with ... [three or four ingredients]' and your 'What I did with ...' ones as well. Let me know how much they cost you and let's see if we can't find some exciting (and cheap) meals!