As the name of this blog, Cheapo Snobs, indicates, we are to the core of our beings frugal

and, we like to think, discerning people. Secondhand bookstores with their often astonishing contents at rock-bottom prices are right up our alley. The beauty of shopping in places such as these is that one can get good deals as well as unearth the occasional prize of a long-desired, out-of-print, signed, or even first edition. Shopping with care, one can pick up a few bargain birthday or Christmas gifts as well.

Although we regret the disappearance of stores such as the Bryn Mawr Book Shop from Lark Street, the Capital District still has a variety of places where one can discover literary
treasures. For one, there is Albany's Dove & Hudson, located (not surprisingly) at the intersection of the two downtown streets of its name. Relatively small and with limited hours—check before you go—it’s a cozy place to spend time searching the stacks. Farther afield on Phila Street in Saratoga, is the charming and poetically named Lyrical Ballad Bookstore. Obviously set in an old bank building, it comes complete with something you don’t see every day in an establishment of this sort: a vault! The collection—which includes prints and postcards as well as a great variety of books—spreads out over several rooms, creating a delightful maze to wander through and explore.

By far, however, my preferred used bookstore in the area is The Book Barn, in an unassuming strip-mall in Latham across from K-Mart on Troy-Schenectady Road. Naturally, the proximity to home makes it a favorite of mine, but other factors enter into the equation. The wide assortment of books—from general fiction, mysteries, and children’s books to comics and cookbooks—is very well organized in a large well lit room and is nothing short of amazing. Besides, all of the books are to be had at very low prices, usually going for around four dollars apiece. I recently found two of Wally Lamb's novels for $3.95 each. The owner, who is nearly always on the premises, is quite helpful and only occasionally crotchety. Once you get him talking, too, he has a trove of tales about things he sees and hears dealing with the public. Like the person who came in looking for the author Annie Moss, which turned out to be anonymous. And another who thought the owner should allow people to exchange books each time they come. It’s not a library, people; it’s a business!

The last time I was in The Book Barn the owner was explaining to me the hit secondhand bookstores have taken both from the advent of the The Kindle and from the closing of Borders, which drew a lot of folks in with its going-out-of-business sales. I really hope that that secondhand bookstores like this one will weather the storm of issues such as these and of the current economic climate.

I don’t think I’ve ever met a recipe containing pumpkin that I didn’t like! Be it sweet or savory, from pumpkin pie to pumpkin soup, I’m immediately attracted to dishes of this sort.  Here are three varied uses of canned pumpkin that our family has enjoyed over the years.

The first, Pumpkin Muffins, I adapted from a November 2006 issue of Gourmet Magazine. I love many things about this recipe: it’s easy to make, has no yucky ingredients (like Crisco) in it, and tastes great. You take 1½ cups of flour and mix with 1 teaspoon baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk
together 1 cup of pumpkin purée, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 2 large eggs, 1¼ cups of sugar, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt. Then stir the ingredients of both bowls together just until combined. Put the mixture into muffin tins (it makes about a dozen), about ¾ full, and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Test with a toothpick in the middle to check for doneness. These moist cake-like muffins are great for breakfast or a snack. Kids love them as much as adults!

Another fall and winter favorite is Zesty Pumpkin Soup, which is also a simple recipe. Sauté one cup chopped onion and one minced garlic clove in two tablespoons of butter and a little oil. Put in a dash of salt, about a teaspoon of curry (optional), ½ teaspoon ground coriander, and some crushed red pepper. Then pour in three cups of chicken broth and cook for 15-20 minutes. Finally, add in one can of pumpkin and about a cup of half & half, heating it for 5 minutes. Garnish with pumpkin seeds or sour cream and chives, if desired.

My husband is the family baker—and a very good one at that. In fact, for my birthday it’s a given that I prefer his pumpkin pie to just about any cake anywhere out there. But if I need to supply a quick and easy, as well as delicious dessert, I often turn to a recipe given to me by a friend years ago: Cinnamon Pumpkin Flan. No need to struggle with pie crust, of course, and the end result is as impressive as it is flavorful. You start out by melting ½ cup of sugar over low heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, until it forms
a caramel-colored liquid. Immediately pour the golden syrup into the bottom of an 8X8X2” (or so) pre-heated cake pan; I use Pyrex or CorningWare. Turn and roll the pan to coat the bottom as evenly as possible. Combine ¾ cup sugar with ½ teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Add in one cup of pumpkin purée with five eggs, beating well. After putting in 1½ cups of evaporated milk, 1/3 cup water, and 1½ teaspoon vanilla, you’re ready to pour the mixture into the caramel-coated pan. Set the pan into a larger container of hot water and place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven. Bake for an hour and fifteen minutes, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool and then refrigerate. To serve, run a knife around the sides of the pan, place a serving dish on top, and carefully flip the flan over to unmold it.

Pumpkin really is very versatile, as you can see from the variety of recipes listed here. I'm wondering what other ways people have of using the vegetable, especially in foreign countries. Looking forward to any and all comments from my readers!

Thanksgiving is my favorite of all the holidays. Having none of the gift-giving stress which accompanies Christmas, it’s a time to give thanks, to enjoy family and friends, and just concentrate on eating! Last year at this time, I shared some of our traditional side dishes: Sweet Potato Soufflé and Cranberry Applesauce. Now I thought

I’d give you my versions of the turkey, gravy, and dressing. Before I get into the recipes though, I want to stress the importance of buying the best bird you can afford for the holiday. I used to always purchase a frozen turkey from the supermarket until I discovered that the fresh variety is so much tastier. Usually, the bird is the least interesting dish on the Thanksgiving table, but last year we had an especially good one from Plainville Farms in central New York State. Their turkeys, antibiotic- and hormone-free, are so much better than average; I remember that I kept saying “Wow! The meat is really delicious!” Of course, it’ll be more costly, but in my mind, it’s worth it.

When our boys were small, I bought the November issue of Bon Appétit magazine which featured a beautiful roasted turkey; it has been my go-to Thanksgiving recipe ever since. You take a 12-14 pound turkey and season the cavity with salt and pepper. Then
rub 2 tablespoons of softened butter, 1 teaspoon of oil, 2 cloves of chopped garlic, and 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard all over. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon each paprika, thyme, and rosemary. (Don’t worry about being too exacting with any of the amounts.) Put the bird into a roasting pan and place into a 375 degree oven and, after a half-hour or so, begin basting every 15 minutes with the juices in the bottom of the pan. When the turkey is done, cover it with aluminum foil and let stand for at least 30 minutes. This last step is important because it keeps the meat from drying out.

Meanwhile, start making the gravy by covering the turkey neck with water adding some salt and pepper, chopped onion and celery. (Actually you can add whatever you want to make the stock—bay leaf, thyme, and carrot slices, for example.) Bring to a boil and then simmer until done, about 30 minutes. My family used to make giblet gravy by
adding in the heart, gizzard, and liver; I sometimes use some or all of the innards to make the broth, but I don’t chop them into the final product. In a separate pot add three tablespoons of butter and the same amount of flour; cook and stir for a minute or two and then strain in some of the turkey stock you made. Use the juices at the bottom of the turkey roasting pan to give added color and flavor to the gravy. At this point I also put in two or three chopped hard-boiled eggs.

As for the dressing (we call it that because we don’t actually stuff the turkey), I do it more by feel than by following an actual recipe. At least four days ahead of time, I make the cornbread from the recipe on back of the yellow cornmeal box to allow it to dry out. On Thanksgiving morning, I melt butter in a pan and cook 1 cup of chopped onion, 1 cup chopped celery, a ½ cup chopped fresh parsley, adding in small
amounts of sage, thyme, and rosemary. When done, I put the mixture into a large bowl containing the cubed cornbread and about ½ a bag of Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing. I then mix in 3 hard-boiled eggs, 3 raw eggs, ½ cup chopped pecans, and at least 3 cups of chicken or turkey broth. It’s important that the mixture be kind of soupy so that it won’t dry out too much in the oven. You then bake the dressing covered with aluminum foil for about a half-hour.

So there you have some of my traditional favorites. Whatever you decide to serve this Thanksgiving, I hope you enjoy it. Happy Turkey Day, everyone!

Our trip to Manhattan in October lasted a mere twenty-four hours, having been cut short by an improbably early nor’easter which brought snow to much of the area. Still, we had enough time in the city to get a lot of exercise pounding the sidewalks, to take a free neighborhood tour, and to experience the form of entertainment we love

best: enjoying good food. Whether it’s just the two of us at home, a small dinner party, a large backyard barbecue, or dining out at a restaurant, for us eating is truly one of the great pleasures of life. The enormity of the Big Apple and the sheer number of eateries to be found there can be, to say the least, daunting. But, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, we’ve had good luck in the recent past researching restaurants by neighborhood, cuisine, and price range through New York Magazine online.

Hole-in-the-wall ethnic places abound in big cities and usually allow us to sample cuisines we can't always get back home. Because we were walking back from Times Square, we decided to visit Korea Town in the garment district on 32nd between Broadway and 5th. The tour we took of the area around Times Square had gone on way longer than we had envisioned and by 3:00 we were starving and wondered if restaurants would be open at that hour. (This notion probably stems from being disappointed several times in France where the kitchen staff nearly always takes its break before the dinner service starting at 2:00.) No need to worry in this country, however. Woohoo! Dumpling makers were hard at work in the front window at Mandoo Bar--mandoo being the Korean word for dumplings, as it turns out. A table was available in the stark but clean place, and, lucky for us, they offered free pickles and kimchee (and even refills) which helped to quiet our rumbling, grateful stomachs. For my lunch, I chose Mandoo Soup with pork and vegetable dumplings, which was soothing on the very cool windy afternoon. Hubby had Mool Mandoo, which turned out to be 10 dumplings exactly like the ones in my soup. Except for this ordering mistake on our part, we were pleased with the healthy and relatively cheap luncheon meal. A man nearby had a big bowl of what seemed to be bibimbop, which would be worth a try next time.

As a rule, when it comes to dinner, we like to find a place near our hotel, figuring that we’ll be exhausted after a day of sightseeing and won’t want to bother traveling far and wide. Since we were staying at Broadway and 27th, I paid particular attention to both the East and West 20s selections on New York Magazine’s website, being sure to check out their critics’ picks, also noting readers' reviews. We made an online reservation for 8:30 at Resto on 29th at Park. The menu of this Belgian restaurant, which includes a four-course prix fixe on Sundays for $38, has the typical moules frites, which are always quite tempting, but because of our late lunch we decided to go with something less caloric and heavy for that time of night. We started out following highly-praised reviews of deviled eggs on pork toast; they were indeed tasty, though a bit greasy for our tastes. Both of us chose small plates as our main dish. My crispy pig’s ear salad had a nice mix of spinach, egg, and oyster mushrooms, though the pig's ear chips reminded me a bit too unfavorably of the pork rinds preferred by former President George H. W. Bush. My husband really enjoyed the tête de cochon salad, served on brioche toast. Resto has a large selection of Belgian beers and a small, but expensive wine list; we did find a quite palatable rosé to accompany our meal. The service was very good, but I would be remiss in not talking about the noise level inside the restaurant which bordered on unbearable. I pointed this out to our server who said that her parents had just told her the same thing when they dined there the previous week. The management should really think about carpeting the floor or at least a wall to absorb some of the sound. Over all, we were happy with our choices of restaurants in the city and welcome any advice readers have for future visits.

Long-time readers of this blog are fully aware that we are true Cheapos. On previous trips to New York City we have spent time enjoying what there is to do and see at no cost: walking through Central Park and the South Street Seaport; taking free guided tours of the public library and of Grand Central and its neighborhood. Our visit to the city last week was no different. After googling “free stuff to do in NYC” once again, we decided to take advantage of the tour of Times Square on Friday.

The online instructions told us to meet at noon on Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets at the Times Square Visitors Center, which in the 1920s was the elegant Embassy movie theater. Judy, our guide, began the three-hour tour by telling us that Longacre Square changed its name soon after the New York Times moved to this part of the city in 1904. It was actually because the subway system, which opened for operation the same year, called its stop Times Square that the designation began to change. The location’s reputation has evolved over the years as well. For a long while, 42nd Street and its surroundings were filled with prostitutes, porn shops, and peep-shows. By 1986, however, a group now called the Times Square Alliance was well on its way to reinventing the area. In its current form, Times Square has been “Disney-fied”; the blocks in and around it contain one quarter of all of the New York hotels; it is also the entertainment center of the city, being at the heart of the theater district. This transformation was in part accomplished by a non-profit organization, the Theatre Development Fund (TDF), which got the idea of attracting people back to the theater by offering low same-day purchase prices at the TKTS discount booth. Once an unsightly trailer, the building is now an unusual, triangular shape, complete with glass steps which offer stadium-type seating for people waiting hours to buy tickets.

Our guide pointed out other landmarks on or near the square. The Palace Theater (1913) was home to many vaudeville acts and in 1941 was the site of the premier of Orson Welles’s famous film Citizen Kane. The renovated Renaissance Hotel has beautiful copper paneling and hand-blown glass lighting; the view of Times Square from its stylish bar is nothing short of amazing. The eleven-story Art Deco style Brill Building housed music industry offices from 1931 till the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll; performers such as Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, and Nat King Cole leased offices in the building; songs such as Yakety Yak and Save the Last Dance for Me were produced here. Saint Malachy Catholic Church (1903), lovely with its murals of angels, set up a midnight mass on Saturdays for actors. The I. Miller building (1926) provided shoes for dancers and non-dancers alike; the exterior is decorated with statues of four famous women of the period, including Mary Pickford. The New York Times building still stands on the south side of the square, but is unrecognizable because it, like most structures here, is covered with huge electronic billboards. In fact, it is now a requirement that all Times Square buildings have bright, moving lights on them.

We learned a lot from the tour which only cost us a tip for the guide. There’s so much fun to be had for next to nothing in the big city. Future trips will allow us to see the Union Square area and perhaps Bowl-Mor lanes, located in Times Square.

Most of us feel kind of sad to see the last days of summer fade away. But if there’s one thing I look forward to this time

of year, it’s the change in diet which accompanies chilly weather. I like all kinds of soothing, hearty fare like soups and stews in fall and winter. By and large, the cooler seasons, especially the winter months, are stressors which make us think of preparing our favorite comfort foods. In my mind, the whole idea of meals which give a sense of well-being undoubtedly relates to happy moments, and especially loving people, from the past.

In researching what the phrase comfort food entails for others, I was surprised to find some of my best-loved dishes on the list. Because I grew up in the south, African-inspired soul foods figured prominently on the dining room table: Chicken and Dumplings, for instance. To prepare this dish, you simply cover a whole chicken (or even cut-up pieces) with water in a pot, adding in chopped onion, celery, carrots, fresh parsley, bay leaf, and thyme. Bring the mixture to a boil, skimming off the foam; simmer until fully cooked—about forty minutes—then remove the chicken from the bones. My grandmother always added red pepper flakes and hard-boiled eggs when the soup was done. The biggest difference I’ve found between cookbook recipes and what I’m used to is in the dumplings. Some even suggest using Bisquick to make puffy dumplings which float on the top of the soup. No, no, no! As one fellow Arkansan’s hilarious blog posting points out, messing with the dumplings technique in this way can lead to serious marital issues! To prepare them the “right” way, you have to make them from scratch and they must be like large, flat noodles which closely resemble the chicken in the soup. To make the dumplings, mix about 2½ cups of flour with one teaspoon of sugar, salt, raw eggs, some chicken stock, celery salt, poultry seasoning, and a little oil. The dough will be a little sticky. So you then flour a board and pat out the mixture, before cutting the dumplings into rectangles or diamond-shapes. Then put them into the hot soup and cook until they float, about ten minutes. Nothing like it if you have a cold or on a frigid winter night!

Another one of my preferred comfort foods is the not-too-figure-friendly (but you've got to live, right?) fried chicken with gravy. To be honest, I don’t always make this dish the same way in terms
of spices. I put salt and pepper on the chicken pieces and then add whatever I’m in the mood for: paprika, garlic powder, maybe basil or thyme or oregano. One thing is for sure: no egg or buttermilk goes into this recipe. After the spices, I dust the chicken pieces with flour and fry them until done in a pan containing about an inch of oil. Once the meat is cooked, I remove it from the fry pan and add about two tablespoons of flour to the oil. Stir until the flour begins to brown, add salt, pepper, and enough water and milk to get the right consistency to the gravy. Serving the gravy with homemade biscuits would be ideal, but I usually settle for bread.

A close relative of fried chicken is fried fish. This is so simple: mix together yellow cornmeal and flour, about 1/3 cup each. Salt and pepper the pieces of fish, dip in the cornmeal-flour combo and fry as above. No gravy here, but delicious just the same.

Well, there you have it: some of my all time favorite dishes. I would love to know what my readers’ comfort foods are; feel free to comment on this post!

Anyone who has ever watched a toddler or young child at play has probably, consciously or not, observed yoga poses.

No one can be sure of the exact origins of the ancient Indian practice, but I sometimes feel that the stretching, squatting, and balancing of children had something to do with it! At any rate, the workout you get from seemingly simple moves works every part of the body—from your toes to your neck—and it really feels good.

For anybody starting out, learning to do the correct way of breathing along with the asanas (poses) is essential. Since I now have a firm grasp of the postures, I’ve been creating my own sessions at home for the past couple of months. While I’m doing yoga on my own, I feel like I can hear my instructor’s voice telling me to make necessary corrections! I’m using a book I bought awhile back entitled Yoga for Beginners. Despite its title, it contains an intermediate workout as well as information about meditation. One of the best things about the book is that it’s spiral-bound and can stand next to your mat for easy reference while you are learning the series of exercises.

As with any physical training program, you can do as much or as little as you want; even a few minutes doing simple stretches during the day is helpful. It’s best to do all of the stretching and twisting of a full yoga workout on an empty stomach. Having a room set up with your mat would be ideal, but I just drag my mat out into the family room twice a week. I usually spend 40 to 45 minutes in the morning, starting out and finishing up with five minutes in “corpse pose” relaxing. The benefits are nothing short of amazing. When I took my first yoga class decades ago, I immediately noticed a boost in my energy level. You find, too, that your body responds to the poses; you improve. There are things that I can do now, like sitting back on my heels without killing my knees or doing "down dog" without my wrists aching, that I couldn’t manage for long at the beginning. Yoga also improves your balance through the practice of asanas like tree pose. Regulating your breathing reduces stress and brings a sense of tranquility. In fact, the 16-18 million practitioners of yoga in the U.S. include groups of New York City cabbies who use it to combat road rage in their profession.

All in all, yoga makes you more aware of your body. If you’re interested in the philosophy behind it and its spirituality aspects, you can sign up for a free Yoga Journal, delivered to your inbox once a week. I hope you’ll give it a try. Namaste!