Money Saving Trick of the Day: Rescue your Wilted Greens. Put them in a vase!

Inspired by the bouquet of flowers sitting on my desktop from V-day, I wondered if the once pert but now limpening bunch of Kale I'd bought four days ago (last Sunday; it is now Thursday) could benefit from being stuck in a vase for a few hours.

So I took it out of the crisper, sliced off the tips of the stems (to maximize water absorption, as the old tips "scab" over slightly) and stuck my bunch of Kale in an old jelly jar filled with fresh cold water.

Don't die damn you!!!

4 hours later, the leaves perked right back up to the firmness they were at on the day of purchase! And I enjoy the thought of my room mates thinking I've gone off the deep end and started to decorate our house with bouquets of trendy lettuce. In fact, if you happen to belong to a CSA and ever suffer from an influx of produce, it's something to seriously consider.  All that money you've been wasting on flowers can be invested in Facebook stock.

It pains me to think of how many bits of wilted parsley, rosemary, and basil had to die for my ignorance.

All this time, the solution was right under my nose.

Logic and botany dictate that this should work on pretty much any leafy green with a stem you can manage to  submerge in water for prolonged periods.  Gold star for frugality to whoever manages to do it on a head of iceberg.

Mr. Tumnus's Sardines on Toast

I've basically had a life long, insatiable craving for Sardines on Toast ever since watching the scene in the original movie version of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Lucy eats sardines on toast with Mr. Tumnus.  I've never actually looked up whatever the trad. version might be, but the name seemed self explanatory enough.  This is what Mr. Tumnus serves me in my own perverse, internal version that plays on a continual loop in my subconscious. I think he may be part Sicilian:

Mr. Tumnus's Sardines on Toast


(Per person, each ingredient to be placed in a stack, in the suggested order for optimal effect)


1 large slice good toasted bread
1/2 tsp olive oil drizzled on the bread
2 chopped scallions on the bread
1/2 or 1 whole can of brunswick sardines in spring water
1/2 tsp. Olive Oil drizzled on the sardines
A drop or two of Balsamic Viniagrette should the mood strike
A sprinkling of black or red Hawaiian sea salt


"I'm not a dwarf, I'm a Girl!"
-Lucy from C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe