Chicken Gizzard & Heart Yakitori

Part of dumpstering is about being adventurous. So, when I dumpstered some chicken hearts and gizzards, I figured "why not?" I hadn't ever eaten those parts of a chicken before, but I'm all for the nose-to-tail philosophy in cooking, which espouses that we should try to use every part of an animal to prevent waste and/or justify its death. In fact, nose-to-tail is the dumpstering of the butchery business - finding a use for parts of the animal that otherwise would go into a trashcan, then into a landfill.

My search for "traditional" recipes using chicken hearts and gizzards was a fruitful one. Unfortunately, almost all of the recipes involved deep frying them to create a Southern-style soul food dish that looked like a heart attack on a plate. It wasn't what I wanted to be eating for dinner.

So, I kept searching until I found a concise, slightly more healthy looking recipe on a pretty well-produced food blog. The blog's author, Ling Li, waxes nostalgic about her experience with the nose-to-tail concept in an Asian-American household (a culture in which the idea is less hot topic and more of an absolute). She presents a delicious version of Japanese yakitori. Here's the link, because 100% of the credit should go her way. The only exception I made was omitting the scallions (because I didn't have any):

http://linglieats.com/2011/05/chicken-gizzard-heart-yakitori/

Items not dumpstered or donated: Garlic, mirin

Pasta Bakes

Pasta bakes are all-encompassing. They make enough food for an army (or you for a week), are super easy, and clean your fridge of pretty much everything. That, and they're pretty tasty.

In the pasta bake above, I used:
- Pasta
- Spicy frozen breakfast sausage
- Mozzarella cheese
- Parmesan cheese
- Tomato sauce
- Jalapeno Pepper
- Onion
- Red bell pepper
- Spices to taste (I used basil, oregano, salt & pepper)

Basically, you brown your meat (if you don't want to be a vegetarian about it), pre-cook your veggies a bit in olive oil (or the meat juices), boil your pasta, and stick it all in a tin-foil lined pan with some sauce and spices.

Now, stick the pan in the oven (at about 350-400 degrees Farenheit) for 15-20 minutes to let the cheese melt and get golden brown.

Now you have leftovers to take to work for the next millennium.

Items not dumpstered: Mozzarella cheese, parmesean cheese, olive oil, herbs (from garden), salt/pepper

Herb-encrusted Steak w/ Asparagus

Now that I've given you guys instructions for how to tell if meat is good to dumpster or not, here's a dish that involves meat!

Ingredients:

- However much asparagus you want to eat

- 1 prime steak filet

- Rosemary

- Thyme

- Garlic

- Sage

- Salt & Pepper to taste

- Lemon juice (optional)

- Olive oil or butter (optional)

So, there's two ways to do this. One is if you're actually grilling and BBQing and it's a beautiful summer's day. The other method is used when it's cold as balls and going outside includes the danger of frostbite. I've provided both options for you just in case. I usually only trust meat that I've dumpstered in the winter, so grilling isn't an option in most cases.

METHOD ONE: SUMMER

GRILLED ASPARAGUS

Drizzle with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.

Throw it on the grill until it's turned a bright, dark green and has softened a bit (test with a fork).

Donezo.

GRILLED STEAK:

Cut up all the spices and herbs and stick it on the steak for about 30 minutes, also letting the steak get to room temperature. Stick it on the grill for about 2-3 min. per side (depending on thickness) with the grill lid open. Put it on the warmer part of the grill (if you have one) with the lid closed for another 5-10 minutes. Make sure to move the steak around to get those cool perfect grill lines.

METHOD 2: WINTER

BOILED ASPARAGUS

Get a frying pan and fill it with water so it's a little higher than the height of your asparagus. Bring the water to a boil.

Toss in your asparagus. Turn it occasionally until a fork barely goes through and the asparagus gets a nice healthy green color (it shouldn't take too long).

Drain your water, add salt, pepper, and butter to your liking.

SEARED STEAK:

Use the same herb-encrusted preparation as the grilled version of this recipe. Then, on a very hot pan, sear each side of your steak for 2-4 minutes until it's brown and slightly charred. This should be enough to have your steak come out rare (that's how I like it). If you want something a little more well-done, turn the heat down and turn the steak a few more times to cook it through over a few more minutes.

Items not dumpstered or donated: Olive oil, salt & pepper, garlic, herbs (from my garden)

Bounty & Rules for Meat

So, my good buddy Steve and I have a Thursday ritual. We go see the revival film at The Charles Theatre, maybe go out afterward for a bit, then dumpster. On one such evening, we went out to a friend's DJ night, danced our booties off (Johnny Blaze is an amazing Baltimore Club DJ in case anyone was wondering), then headed home to the dumpster once the party had shut down. We arrived to Trader Joe's around 2:30am. Unfortunately, the dumpster was already emptied by the trash men. This confirmed earlier suspicions that this particular TJ's dumpster is usually emptied by a private contractor around 12:30 or 1am. So, we made our way over to Food Lion.

The pickin's were unfortunately slim, especially in terms of produce. It was obviously a meat and dairy garbage day, as there were animal fat trimmings interspersed with other boxes and produce. It was pretty gross. I actually DIVED head-first in the dumpster in order to reach some yogurts, which I slightly regretted later. It was too dark to take a picture, but I'm sure I looked really weird.

In winter you don't have to be as worried about meat, dairy, and fish going bad. Generally dairy won't spoil until a week after its sell by date, so if you eat it quickly it's still fine. Meat is a little harder to tell - I have a multi-pronged approach to telling if meat and fish is worth taking:

1) Look at the sell by date. If it's up to a few days past the sell by, you're probably still fine.
2) Is the meat or fish discolored? How much? If it's too discolored, don't take it. If you're unsure as to how meat or fish should look, make a point of taking a tour of those sections next time you're in the grocery store instead of at its dumpster.
3) If the protein is plastic wrapped (it usually is), is it puckered out like it's about to burst? If it is, that means it's probably not good.
4) What does it smell like? Does it smell rotten? If it's fish, does it smell incredibly fishy? If so, then it's probably too old.
5) Is it summer? If so, don't take fish EVER and meat and dairy rarely unless it's still frozen or cold to the touch (you can be a little more lax with cheese and eggs since they can be stored at room temperature anyway). Even if it's winter, the touch-test is a good one. If it's room temperature or warmer, it's a no-go.

It's always better with meat, dairy, and fish to err on the side of caution. If you have even a slight doubt in your mind as to the edibility of what you're looking at, DON'T eat it! I've never gotten sick off of dumpstered food, and I don't plan to.

Steve ended up with a little more food than I did (including an avocado, more dairy, and some brownies), but I was pretty happy with what I got:

1/26/12:
- 1 small pkg Greek 2x protein strawberry yogurt
- 1 lb chicken gizzards & hearts
- 1 lb grilling salmon
- 5 white mushrooms
- 1 plantain
- 1 pkg strawberries
- 1 can biscuits
- 1 roll pork breakfast sausage

Holy Groceries, Batman! (12/12)

So, my last haul was one of the best (if not the very best) dumpster experiences of my life. Very rarely will you have enough from one dumpster to fill the entire bed of a pick-up truck (don't worry, I'm not being greedy - literally no one dumpsters where I'm living right now except for me or people I've shown them to). So yeah, FULL PICK-UP TRUCK BED. With a ridiculous amount of variety (produce, packaged food, frozen food, MEAT, pasta, dairy, baked goods - EVERYTHING)! We divided the plunder amongst 3 households and grabbed 3 big bags of bread to bring to Occupy Baltimore's encampment (sadly, they were raided the morning I was going to bring the bread to them...so now I'm trying to figure out how to donate someplace else). I have a Christmas pot-luck coming up Sunday, so it may be perfect timing to make a bruscetta or bread pudding or something.

An aside - winter is one of my favorite times to dumpster. It's really cold outside, which sucks for your fingers...but the cold also acts as a natural refrigerator. This means you can dumpster meat, frozen food, or dairy more safely than in the summer months, adding a lot more to your haul. I always still do a smell-check, visual check for signs of it going bad, and take a gander at the sell-by date. If it passes all those, then I'll take it. If I'm even remotely on the fence, I leave it to the dumpster. Also, the colder refrigeration temps means you can afford to come in the morning instead of the wee hours of the night, depending on the trash pick-up times or load-in times for your grocery store. This can save you some sleep. Also, some grocery stores throw out certain foods in the morning instead of at night. I'd urge you to experiment with daytime dumpstering (but be INCREDIBLY careful about getting caught).

As for me, here's what I picked up this haul:
- 1 loaf whole wheat bread
- 2 baking potatoes
- 2 avocados
- 6 large sweet potatoes
- 2 white onions
- 5 pears
- 1 pomegranate
- 3 persian (small) cucumbers
- 1 bag lemons
- 3 limes
- 1 pkg "Mediterranean feast" (hummus, tabbouleh, pita, etc)
- 1 pkg sour cream
- 1 premium black angus grass-fed beef top sirloin filet!!!
- 1 pkg Chile Spiced dried mangos
- 3 gourmet chocolate bars
- At least 2 boxes worth of whole wheat spaghetti
- 15 oz. extra firm tofu!!!!
- 4 vine-ripened roma tomatoes
- 1 pkg dates
- 11 eggs (one was broken)
- 1 bag spring greens
- 1 pkg asparagus
- 3 heads baby bok choy
- 1 pkg cherry tomatoes
- 1 pkg green beans
- 1 loaf ciabatta
- 6 ciabatta rolls
- 2 brie cheese logs
- 2 orange bell peppers
- 3-layer hummus (regular, cilantro, and red pepper)

(Holy crap, right?!)

So stoked on the beef and tofu! I haven't cooked a real steak in ages and have hardly ever cooked with tofu (although I've eaten a lot of it in college and when I was a vegan). The amount of cooking/good eating I'm going to need to do to keep up with all of this is exciting and astounding. Viva la Dumpster!

Pizza

Pizza is one of the easiest dumpster food options EVER.

Why?

1. It's super-easy to dumpster or make pizza dough.
2. If I get a huge haul of tomatoes I'll make and can tomato sauce (which stays good for a long-ass time). Voila! Tomato sauce for your pizza whenever you want. (p.s. I'll put up my recipes for a few sauces I make soon). Tired of tomato sauce? Use homemade pesto instead!
3. Pizza toppings are endless. Types of cheese are endless. Therefore, whatever you get from the dumpster automatically becomes a pizza topping! One of my favorite dumpster pizza concoctions involved pork loin (still cold when we dumpstered it and used that night), 3 types of goat cheese, fresh basil, tomatoes, onions, baby portabella mushrooms, & dumpstered whole wheat dough. Not things I'd necessarily put together, but it tasted great! You can also get creative - why not have black beans, cilantro, and hot sauce on your pizza? Or Indian pizza made with dumpstered naan as the crust and curries or chutneys as the sauce? The pizza world is your oyster!
4. Pizza is really easy to make - put dough down, put olive oil/pesto/tomato sauce/whatever down on the pizza. Put toppings on the pizza. Bake at 425 in the oven until your pizza looks like pizza. Eat the pizza.

The pizza I made in the picture above was a little too packed with toppings (beware!), which made it kind of feel like a quiche, but otherwise it was yummy too. GO PIZZA!

Items not dumpstered or donated: Olive oil, oregano (from garden)

More May Bounty in a New Spot

So, in a fit of staying up all night with two friends, Sean and Stephen, there was much dumpstering to be had!

Sean and Stephen came over after they had hit a Panera and a Dunkin' Donuts already, looking for some help with finding a spot to dumpster for groceries. At this point, it was already almost dawn, but I grabbed my head lamp anyhow.

We started by heading over to Trader Joe's. Much to our chagrin, the dumpster was completely empty (and I had learned a valuable lesson about my Trader Joe's trash pick-up time).

On the way back to my house is a Food Lion, which I had never dumpstered at before, so I figured we could give it a try in case the dumpsters were still full there.

AND OH BOY WERE THEY FULL!

It was a sea of bananas, boxes, and produce! I found a full box of meat and fish right off the bat, which was still cold, but I didn't want to try my luck on any of it. I think it still would have been PERFECT if we'd shown up closer to when they threw it out- another valuable lesson learned. The Trader Joe's in my town doesn't stock much meat, so I barely dumpster any there. It's exciting to have found a place that stocks more.

The quality of the produce wasn't as good as Trader Joe's, but the variety was pretty bangin'.

Sean and Stephen walked away with about a full grocery bag each of produce including spinach, potatoes, apples, etc. The list below is what I ended up with.

5/30/11 BOUNTY:

- 1 pkg shitake mushrooms (mostly bad, but I salvaged a few good ones)
- 1 pkg sliced baby portabella mushrooms
- 2 portabella mushroom tops
- 2 squash (unsure of the type - both pretty small)
- 1 Del Monte Vegetable Tray w/ dip (including broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, & celery)
- 1 bag cauliflower (not in the best shape, but not bad either)
- 1 bag collard greens
- 1 pkg romaine lettuce
- 2 bunches of bananas (all but 2 bananas frozen for smoothies)
- 3 oranges
- 3 apples
- 1 lime

I feel like we could have come away with more, but the dumpsters weren't very well organized - instead of the neat bags that Trader Joe's uses, it was kind of a mess. There was also a pretty large margin between the good and bad produce. I'll be curious to try out this new dumpster again closer to closing time so that I can get still-frozen meat. I'm reticent to dumpster at Food Lion regularly because they close at midnight. That means I'd have to purposely stay awake to dumpster, whereas Trader Joe's closes at 9 and I can go right away on my way home from work...I may have to make a point of staying awake for the possibility of meat, though!

Next time...