About Scott

April, 2010

Like countless other people, the last couple of years have wreaked economic havoc on my life. It comes with the territory, I guess. I’m a kitchen designer in Bradenton, Florida who owns his own kitchen and bath design firm. Needless to say, the remodeling market on Florida’s west coast has been just a tad anemic of late. Plenty of belt-tightening and a weekend job have helped, but Don (my Significant Other) and I are still living on a pretty tight budget. Needless to say, my foodie soul was bearing the brunt of our financial shortcomings.

Speaking of foodie souls, I started a local gourmet cooking club a few years ago, thinking that it might serve as my outlet. It did, but not enough.

Then a friend of mine, who owns a little bakery/café, invited me to run my own restaurant for one night. It had always been a dream, and this was an opportunity to get a taste of professional kitchen life. It was small (26 seats), one seating, and a preset menu. Guess what: It’s hard work to make one meal for that many people! (I can’t imagine it with a full menu.) So my restaurant dream died a pretty swift death that night.

I also do a little catering on the side, teach a couple of cooking classes here and there, but I finally realized that the thing that really feeds my foodie soul is creating recipes.

There’s still that pesky little problem of no money. It’s much easier to cook gourmet food with an unlimited grocery budget. But I’m a big believer in the old axiom: When life hands you lemons, make limoncello (just forget the lemonade – it leaves you sober).

That’s where this blog began (that, and I got tired of Don complaining that I couldn’t reproduce the dish we had for dinner last week because I didn’t write it down). So what better title could I come up with than Inexpensive Eating?

The whole concept of Inexpensive Eating is to take seasonal and more mundane ingredients, spend a few extra minutes in the kitchen, and come up with gourmet-quality food. I think I’ve succeeded, but I guess you get to be the final judge of that.

You also get to decide what ‘inexpensive’ is. I’m using ingredients that are within my budget right now. If you want to bump up the quality of ingredients when you make the recipe, be my guest. It will just make the dish better.

So come back often. And try the recipes. And let me know what you think of the dishes. And sign up to follow me. Oh, and if you know someone who wants to remodel their kitchen…

Oh, heck. Just e-mail me if you want to tell me something.