Her Kitchen Motto - More About Dinner With Joy - #GuestPost

Over the last few weeks, I've shared a few guests posts from Joy at Kitchen Scentse. Today, Joy shares with us a little more about her Kitchen Motto and how she came to be a food blogger at dinnerwithjoy.com

Her Kitchen Motto - More About Dinner with Joy

My blog Kitchen $centse is based on my experience that the best way to economize on food bills is through organized planning and informed shopping. Following this thought I adopted:” Making wonderful scents, while saving cents, by using sense” as its motto.

I’ve always liked to cook, so in 1999, frustrated by an “Empty Nest”, I trained, joined the U.S.P.C.A. and opened a personal chef service. America was exploring different cuisines while adjusting to the onset of consistently rising food prices. Food became a popular subject of conversation, either sharing new discoveries or coping with expenses.  I heard opinions from my generation, our children, and my clients of all ages. 

The common thread was people wanting an increasing variety of flavorful dishes while experiencing increasing pressure to monitor spending. I had already faced having to quote a price, offer unlimited entrees, assure quality, buy retail and meet my bottom line. Chef training taught me to make detailed lists of planned menus and not deviate when shopping. This eliminates extra spending on impulses or duplications, which can stockpile and expire on the pantry shelf. Obviously, organized planning is an economy measure.

Another sensible practice is learning about the ingredients you’re using especially when first exploring a new cuisine. Don’t blindly buy every item in a recipe. See if some can substitute for others; mace, the nutmeg casing, has a  similar but stronger flavor and costs more. Asian cuisines favor spice blends, some easily duplicated from ordinary pantry supplies. Delay buying products until you’re sure you like them and/or their native cuisines. 

The same advice holds for all items on your shopping list. Blind sale or bulk buying, is wasting money if you don’t like or won’t use the product. Be cautious trying other brands and above all know the amounts you require. Overbuying is the chief excess food expenditure. So informed shopping is another means of controlling food expensed.

Practicing organized planning and informed shopping, which are simply sensible behavior modifications, rather than penny-pinching or bargain hunting, provides for retention of quality. Best of all, it insulates against “register shock”. This is truly using sense to save cents. 

Planning meals for several days ahead, I recommend a week, and knowing everything needed is on hand is very relaxing. It allows for ease in prepping, cooking and presenting a meal. One is free to focus on creating those “wonderful scents’ that arouse hunger and draw everyone to the table to eat. Usually earns you a few compliments too.

So that outlines the meaning of the mission statement for my blog site, the inspiration for its motto and the motive behind my choice of subject matter for my posts, and books, as well as their content. To learn more about it in detail go to dinnerwithjoy.com.

 I try in each posting to make some aspect of meal preparation from planning to table, easier with recipes as examples. Come visit my blog site and browse the book shelf. The blog archives are worth visiting too; they hold over 160 postings. My apologies, we’re in the process of adding a List of Contents but until then click “Blog” on the Home Page Header, then pick a year and month from the box in the lower right margin. With 4 to 5 postings in each month, you’re sure to find something to make your kitchen experience easier. We’re also installing a comments box but until then, if you need help, have a question or comment, just click the “Contact Me” button on the Home Page header and I’ll answer.