The Spice Investment and Home Cooking – brokeGIRLrich

A few weeks ago two friends from London came to spend the weekend with us and I really felt like cooking. Plus, cooking at home is cheaper than eating out, right?

We have two other friends who visit often, but they are both vegetarians and we have a very strict routine about what we do when they come to visit in terms of food.

But I had it in my head that I actually wanted to… show off… a little when our other friends came to visit. And I decided I was going to make my Aunt Linda’s brisket recipe.

What I have done, in the past… in the very distant past… and never in England. But I remembered the recipe was super simple. I mean, I needed a brisket and a can of chili, how rough could this be?

Good.

Good…

The recipe is super simple. Lowry’s seasoning, lemon and pepper seasoning, then in a saucepan with some Lipton’s instant onion and mushroom soup, a can of chili and some water.

It turns out that if you always cook and have a really well-stocked kitchen, this isn’t a problem.

But I felt like making this recipe meant death by a thousand little cuts.

I went to Lidl to look for what I needed and couldn’t find anything on the list. Then I rode the bike into town and went to ASDA where I found a tin of chilli and some lemon pepper seasoning, but where on earth else did I need this recipe?

So I turn to Amazon and pay $14 for Lipton onion soup mix and all-purpose seasoning, which isn’t even from Lowry, because that’s clearly an American thing, since the cost for that was sky-high, and now I’m hoping Badia is essentially the same (which… yeah? I didn’t notice any difference). I think I’m going to call this the spice investment. It doesn’t have to apply 100% to herbs, but I feel like herbs are coming into a new recipe. It all seems simple and for a tablespoon here and half a teaspoon there, you’re suddenly paying an extra $15 for the recipe because you don’t have these things yet.

I also stopped buying a pan ($9.44).

Almost $30.00 in and we’re just ready to start cooking. Only I need the meat. And brisket is very hard to find in Britain. So I go to the butcher.

Back then 4kg of brisket was $35! Is this how much meat costs? That’s so crazy.

And $65 later, we’re in business. Without even looking at the sides. And also the sheer fear now that I might ruin this meal and essentially have to throw away $65 and probably order a pizza.

This probably doesn’t even warrant a blog post, but I was amazed that this little project quickly raised this amount of money.

I calmed down a bit when I realized that from this nonsense we were actually getting seven servings spread over three meals, so a little less than $10 per serving… or if I was a more prepared person and only paid for what I specifically needed for the brisket, like $6.50 per serving, which I guess works out in normal meal numbers.

But have you ever experienced a strange sticker shock when doing a project that just…requires more and more? One more little thing and bam, there’s another $4 and another $4 until you think… what have I done? Why did I feel this was necessary?

I also thought I should serve them an egg casserole for breakfast, which also turned out to be very good, but similarly resulted in about $15 extra investment in condiments. At least I suppose my spice cabinet is slowly gaining momentum.

Have you ever made a recipe that you thought would be simple, only to be completely surprised by the cost? Was it even worth it?