I stared at the pretty pink Pietra Santa Rosato in my glass for a while and wondered exactly what it needed to be happy, truly happy. Cheese? Too heavy. Nuts? No. Strawberries? They matched very nicely, but flavorwise they too were a miss. Banana? Way too sweet.

Determined, I strayed into the stone-fruit category, trying apricots, plums and nectarine. Not bad, but not perfect. Then I opened the freezer and pulled out a vat of pink papaya puree. I threw it in the blender and tasted it alongside the wine. Perfect.

As the two melted together in my mouth, I realized why it worked. The stout, acidic rosato needed just a tiny bit of softening around the edges. Instead of mirroring the strawberry-citrus flavors in the wine, the creamy, not-too-sweet papaya filled in the gaps. Papaya puree is available from www.perfectpuree.com. The 2007 Pietra Santa Rosato from Monterey is $15. For details go to www.pietrasantawinery.com.

When times are tough, I say it’s time to live hard, dive deep and hit the spice cabinet. And don’t be a sissy about it — seriously. The smaller the jar of spice you buy, the more it costs. Instead, buy large, and keep it in jars out of the sun so the flavors stay intact. Here’s a peek inside my cabinet. You can probably guess what you’re looking at, but can you guess how much I paid for each one? One of the jars was entirely free. Which one do you think it is? 

I say the best way to put a freeze on inflation is to put that freezer to work. Since I don’t cook Asian flavors every week, I keep special ingredients like ginger and thai curry sauce in the door of my freezer so I don’t have to buy new supplies each time. I do the same with tiny bits of leftovers, too-ripe bananas, strawberries nearly ready to spoil (just be sure to hull them first.)

People like me do end up with cluttered freezers, but I can’t tell you how much money I save but stowing these things for use later. Some of the random items I can almost always find in my freezer are egg whites, anchovies, sweetened condensed milk, sesame seeds, pine nuts, bread crumbs, enchilada sauce. And that’s just on the top shelf.

To be sure you get the best use out of these random bits, store them in a somewhat organized fashion — you don’t want to forget what’s there.

Red wine is my libation of choice most of the time but when it hit 100 degrees last week, I decided it was time to break out my bottle of Hess 2007 Lake County Sauvignon Blanc, a crisp, green apple-citrus flavored white that needed to be uncorked. The wine, one of the winery’s budget offerings, was supposed to be paired with a recipe for raw oysters. Since I can’t figure out how to shuck an oyster to save my life, I put it to work cooling down bites of this firey hot basil chicken dish that my daugter cooked up. The wine was only $11, and the chicken dish is going into my permanent file.

Thai Basil Chicken

Serves 2

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

4-7 Thai chili peppers, minced

1-2 bunches Thai basil

1/2 pound ground chicken (we used cubed)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

3 tablespoons fish sauce

Pluck basil leaves off the stems. It may appear to be a lot of leaves, but they will shrink when cooked.

Fry the garlic and chili pepper in oil over medium-high heat. When the garlic starts to turn brown, drop the ground chicken into the pan and stir. Stir constantly until the chicken is completely cooked. Add sugar and fish sauce and stir briefly. Add basil leaves and quickly fold them in. Remove the pan from the heat and serve over rice. 

Everytime I go to the store, it seems like the prices have gone up again — 10 cents, 60 cents, $1. I understand why food prices need to rise, but since understanding doesn’t help my food budget, I decided it’s time to go green.

Since vegetables are a whole lot cheaper pound-per-pound than protein, I figure I can shave my food costs — and save on the cost of vitamins at the same time — by serving mounds of vegetables alongside slivers of protein.

Some nights, I do stirfry with rice or pasta. Other nights I cheese-up vegetables, throw them in a pan and top them with breadcrumbs. For inspired vegetable recipes that are main-dish worthy, check out “Perfect Vegetables” (Cook’s Illustrated.)

It’s a sad thing, but my tray of wheatgrass seems to have contracted mold. It started with a little furriness at the roots, graduated to black stuff at the bottom of the tray and finally turned into spots of green that look exactly like the mold I cut off my cheese.

I tried washing it. I tried washing it with water infused with a bit of chlorox (like that would work!) Bloggers say I could try spraying it with peroxide, but I decided it’s time for a do-over. These roots are going, going, GONE…………………………into the compost bin. 

Here’s a way to save money that you may not have considered. For your next party or buffet, be sure to get a pair of these elegant tongs. Not only are they pretty, they are so difficult to squeeze closed that guests are either unable or afraid to serve themselves any food. Only those with buff forearms will be able to pick up more than a few wisps of bread.

I promise that these will save you money on food, especially if it’s a fancy affair where people are afraid to use their fingers. You could easily cut food quantities in half and still have leftovers. If you’re really cash-strapped, you might want to multiply your savings by seeking out a range of similarly impossible serving tools.

Credit for this cool, cost-saving tool goes to the de Young Museum in San Francisco, which just hosted a lovely party to kick off the hottest bottled tea in Japan, Iyemon Cha. Needless to say, we did not overeat at this little affair.

At an elegant tea party last week at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, I had one of those “aha!” moments regarding green tea. Green tea tends to be grassy and herbal — fresh but not always what my tongue wants. But toasted green tea, especially hojicha, now that’s my kind of tea.

The reason I love this tea, I figured out, is that I love all things toasted — the crust of bread (I called it before it even hit the table,) roasty brown onions and garlic, dark brown potato chips (you can have all of the light-colored ones!) In case you’ve never tried it, toasted brown tea known as hojicha tastes like a piece of unbuttered, unadulterated toasted bread.

Just in case you’re wondering, toasted green tea (brewed perfectly like they do at Iyemon Cha) tastes great with cheese, meats, rice and lots of other savory foods.

A few weeks back, I sampled some terrific soup from Cube Artisan, a Los Angeles-based restaurant that has just started marketing a line of frozen foods. I loved everything, especially their Velvet Tomato Soup.

The problem was the calorie-count on that soup. At 180 calories per tiny serving, I decided that soup needed help. As I drove home from work, I reworked the soup in my head.

In my fridge I had celery, a bulb of fennel and some skinny sweet peppers I picked up from the Asian market. I hit the kitchen on a mission. I plunked a handful of new potatoes in salty water and put them on to boil, then sliced and sauteed my vegetables in order of cook-time; onion, celery, peppers, fennel. When the mix was soft, I dumped the creamy Artisan soup into the pot.

Since I’d read that smashed potatoes take on sauce a lot more readily than sliced potatoes, I pressed two soft potatoes into each bowl, poured soup over the top and enjoyed one of the best meals I’ve (re) made in weeks.