Tuesday Megalinks: Man, This is Huge

So, so many links this week, and we’re kicking it off with a special TONY mention: Time Out New York put out their annual Kitchen Report edition, featuring Chefs’ Secrets … Spilled (a.k.a. New York Chefs Tell it Like it is), Kitchen Quintessential (a.k.a. What it Looks Like Behind the Counter), and How it Works (a.k.a. From Start to Finish, How Your Food is Prepared in a Fancy Restaurant). Great stuff – especially the first piece.

Being Frugal: A Memorable, Yet Frugal, Thanksgiving
Lynnae pens a short post on the three best strategies for creating a good Turkey Day: plan ahead, focus on family, and prep the meal in advance. There’s more on this in a guest post at Frugal Upstate. Oh, and if you’re not sure about numbers …

Butterball’s Calculators and Conversion Tools
Here’s where you want to be. How much turkey should you buy? How much stuffing should you prepare? How long will Uncle Bobby be asleep on the recliner after dinner? All these questions and more, answered. (Thanks to Serious Eats for the link.)

CNN: America’s Healthiest Grocery Stores
Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are to be expected, but Food Lion? Safeway? Pathmark? Who knew?

Culinary School Guide: Top 100 Blogs for Foodies
Superb resource for blossoming cooks includes recipe sites, vegan blogs, ethnic food suggestions, and much, much more. Holy moly, you must see this.

Culinate: Rice and bean favorites - The ultimate budget meal
AUGH! CHG is featured in the same article as MICHAEL FREAKING POLLAN! Someday, we’ll be included in Pearl Jam liner notes, and my life will be complete. (Oh yeah – this article is about the many variations on rice and beans.)

Dark Roasted Blend: Creative Food Manipulation
Sent to me by my lovely friend S, this monster compilation demonstrates the many, many ways food can be manipulated into art. One look at the Hot Dog Mummies or Cthulu Squash, and I promise, you’ll be here for a minimum of 15 minutes.

Free From Broke: 6 Ways Eating Out Less Has Made Our Family Better
See! It’s good for the wallet, good for the tummy and good … for … the … *sniffle* … heart.

Free Printable Grocery Lists
SWEET. (Thanks to Being Frugal for the link.)

The Full Table: Freezer Cooking Co-op
With apologies to Robert Herrick:
Gather ye buddies while ye may,
And get ye beef a-fryin’
For the casserole ye freezes today
Tomorrow ye’ll be a-tryin’
(Thanks to Money Saving Mom for the link.)

Get Rich Slowly: The GRS Garden Project – October Update
JD and Kris have almost completed their experiment, and the close-to-final numbers are up: 54 hours and $318.43 spent, $606 worth of vegetables harvested. And we won’t even get into the sheer number of grapes this produced. Nice work!

Get Rich Slowly: Could You Eat Healthfully on One Dollar a Day?
Short answer: absolutely not. Long answer: is more complicated.

The Kitchn: Cooking Better With Less
For those who might not read The Kitchn, it’s a gorgeous cooking blog that’s always centered a little more on the upscale. But thanks to recent economic events, they’re refocusing more and more on inexpensive gourmet. And I for one, totally love it. Do see.

The Kitchn: Solo Eating – Tips on Cooking for One
Neat little compendium of tips and resources for the all the solo chefs out there. You’ve probably seen a lot of these, but there are a few standouts, like: use a ramekin. I never thought of that, honestly.

The Kitchn: What to Cook With Cheap Cuts of Meat
You know, I was going to start this paragraph off with, “Braise the Lord!” Then I realized what that implies, and decided against it. Anyway … read this.

Money Saving Mom: Baking Day – Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4
I wish I had the discipline to do this. I also wish I had Crystal’s handwriting.

Money Saving Mom: Ask the Readers: Food ideas for a road trip?
Read the post, peruse the comments, and you’ll never, ever have to ask yourself this question again. Also? Apparently? There are people who bring crockpots in the car. There’s a thin line between insanity and genius, and I think that straddles it.

My Dollar Plan: 16 ways to Save Buying in Bulk
Great googly moogly. A bulk post about buying in bulk. Bulky! I bulk it.

New York Magazine: Cheap Living 2008
Fellow Metropolitanites – take heed! This goes way beyond the usual “Spend less on diamonds” and “Substitute filet mignon for dodo eggs” advice that permeates so many Manhattan magazines. Like: did you know MOMA and The Guggenheim have free Friday nights? It’s true! Go soak up some free art, yo.

New York Times: Bake Sales Fall Victim to Push for Healthier Foods
What? NO! I’m all for healthy food, but delicious brownies have their time and place! Don’t hate on what I … uh, ate.

New York Times: Calories Do Count
Good ol’ fashioned 1980s-style calorie counting is back. Let’s just hope shoulder pads aren’t next. For extra fun, here’s Jezebel’s take on it.

New York Times: Food Storage as Grandma Knew It
Trend report! Americans are morphing their basements into root cellars for wintertime storage. I’d attempt this, but it’d mean I’d have to actually descend into my basement (a.k.a. where they got the idea for The Blair Witch Project).

Savvy Housekeeping: How to Make Cottage Cheese
Easy peasy and crazy delicious. (Thanks to Serious Eats for the link.)

Serious Eats: Recession Grocery Shopping - What Are You Doing Differently?
Extensive comment thread on what everyday foodies are doing to reduce their grocery bills. Pretty much your average frugality ideas, but with a neat, culinarily-aware twist.

Simply Recipes: Cooking on a Budget
Elise, proprietress of one of the interweb’s foremost food blogs, offers her ideas on wallet-conscious cooking. Again, notable for the bevy of comments.

Smitten Kitchen: How to Max Out Your Tiny Kitchen
Deb is a prominent cooking blogger.
Deb’s kitchen is 8x10 feet.
Deb’s oven won’t fit a full-sized cookie sheet.
Deb has a single 2-foot counter.
Deb prevails. Here, she shows you how.
(Thanks to The Kitchn for the link.)

Whole Foods: Gifts From Your Kitchen
FANTASTIC page full of food gifts for the upcoming holidays. From Citrus Salt to Maple Sugar Walnuts to Rosemary Olive Oil – it’s genius. And it’s really, really easy.
(Thanks to Money Saving Mom and Like Merchant Ships for the link.)

Wise Bread: How to Pinch Your Poultry Pennies
Note: this post is not about how to steal from chickens. Rather, it’s about how to save money when buying, cooking, and eating them. Just needed to clear that up.

(Photos courtesy of Leanne Wildermuth, Dark Roasted Blend, Jovela, and Flickr member Lucahjin.)