With the price of gas taking a giant chomp out of my food budget, the last thing I want to do is to pay two bucks for one tiny can of diced green chiles. Try this work-around: Pull into your nearest Smart & Final (making sure that its on the way somewhere — never make a separate trip) and grab a 26-ounce size can of chiles for $3.49. At home, spoon the chiles into an ice cube tray, freeze solid, then bag them together and keep them in the freezer. It will cost you 5 minutes and save $3 to $4.

All right. That’s it. I’ve had it. Gas just hit $4 per gallon in my neighborhood. It’s time to do a little damage control in the kitchen. We still have to eat –  and eat well, of course. But I’m pretty sure if we put our heads together and share how we save money in the kitchen, we can help each other out. Here’s one of my tricks, which may or may not help you.

 Since we love cheese of all kinds, but like to use only as much as it takes to boost the flavor of our food (cholesterol and all, you know) this is how I store it. I make sure that everyone in the house knows where the bags/containers go, and I tell them many times over that pecorino romano is the lighter yellow cheese. The more much more yellow grind is the ridiculously expensive Parmigiano Reggiano which needs to be used in moderation at all times. Between paychecks I’ve been known to cut the real thing with the less flavorful parmesan found at Trader Joe’s.

Our standards: Mexican cheese blend, blue cheese, feta, pecorino and parmesan. And just one little FYI on cheese in general. Except for the feta you get at Costco, most of that pre-grated, pre-crumbled stuff has far less flavor than hunks that you grind yourself. It’s coated with all kinds of coagulants that quash the flavor. You’ll end up saving money and enjoying your cheese more if you just buy it in chunks and either grate or food-process it yourself. You can use less AND get more flavor. Be sure to store it in freezer-safe bags.

Do you have any ideas to share? Would love to hear them. We’re all in this together…

In the spirit of taking chances — of putting foods together just to see what happens –  I decided to pour a little glass of tawny port to go with my barbecue-flavored Kettle Chips that I got as a gift for Mother’s Day. Bingo. 

I expect that the Smith Woodhouse 20-year port would go with lots of other fancy, high-falutin’, difficult-to-prepare foods as well, but this is a pairing that’s way too perfect to pass up. You don’t have to cook or dirty a dish. Just open the bag of chips. Make sure your mouth is filled with their smokey sweetness, then drop a spot of sweet, crisp port onto your tongue. 

Because this port’s been aged a while, it’s sweet but not syrupy. This is what I would call a delightful early evening snack, perfect for a Sunday evening when there’s no dinner in sight, and no ambition to looking for it.

Play with your food. That’s just a suggestion, of course. But if you will do it, I promise that you will discover some delicious surprises along the way. This weekend I brewed up a pot of Peet’s Sulawesi, deep, chocolate-flavored coffee that comes from Indonesia. I like it black, but my daughter dolled hers up with a dash of milk, then — just for fun — spilled a little Torani raspberry into her cup. The result? Yum. Almost as good as a chocolate mocha raspberry truffle. We were so happy with this inspired combo that we tried it with Torani Strawberry. It was a bust, but I’m not giving up. I’ll keep you posted on any other newsworthy flavor discoveries.

After hearing news of the tragic earthquake in China, my eyes lit on the just-released “Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China,” ($40, Artisan) a gorgeous picture-cookbook by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

Inside the book are lots of recipes representing regions all over outer China, including photos taken just outside of Chengdu no more than a month ago. Wondering if the authors would have anything to say about the earthquake, I gave a call.

I was disappointed that Jeffrey didn’t have any real inside news on the rescue effors and such, but he was happy to talk about his memories of the region, and to share how politics will benefit the people who live there.

“What many people may not realize is just how beloved this region is throughout China,” he said. “When we went there, we found ourselves in a massive traffic jam that stretched for miles. The line of cars included BMW’s and brand new SUVs, all filled with Chinese people who were going to visit the region.”

Besides the mountain range to the north of Chengdu, Jeffrey says the Sichuan province is outstanding for its produce, including commercial rice farms, plus small-scale farms that grow every kind of vegetable imaginable. He says food there is almost always spicy hot and memorably delicious.

He told me that even though the focus of his book doesn’t include the region per-se, he and Naomi have been there several times — both legally and illegally since before the 1980s, few towns in China were classified as “open” to tourists.

Jeffrey says he and Naomi met a lot of great people on their travels in the region but didn’t forge the kind of close friendships that would warrant a “How are you?” phone call. He added that that he is pleased at the government’s response to the crisis, even though he suspects its motives may be questionable. “The one thing we know is that the government is very happy to have the focus shift away from the Olympics controversy.”

Last night I ripped that failed chicken to bits and morphed it into something else entirely _ I stuffed it inside some stacked enchiladas that were actually worth eating.

Since the failed chicken no longer exists, I’m not mad any more. But I still want to know how to make better fried chicken. My stacked enchiladas are a standard fast-food at my house. Here’s the recipe.

Stacked Enchiladas

Serves 4 to 6

1 yellow onion, diced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 clove garlic, smashed or chopped fine

9 to 12 ounces boned, shredded chicken

1 can enchilada sauce, green or red

10 corn tortillas

5 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded or sliced thin

1 can sliced olives, optional

sour cream, non-fat preferred

chopped fresh cilantro if desired

shredded lettuce if desired

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place oil in a saute pan, bring to medium heat. Add onions and about 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Saute until onions begin to soften. Add garlic to the pan and continue to saute until onions are tender.

2. Remove onions from the heat and add to the pan all of the chicken and about 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce. Toss gently.

3. Pour 1/4 cup enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 9-by-12-inch pan. Place two corn tortillas in the bottom, then flip them over so that both sides are sauced. Pour a cup or so of the sauce in a container large enough to dip corn tortillas.

4. Place some of the chicken mixture on top of the tortillas in the pan. Top with cheese and olives if desired. Top with tortillas dipped in sauce. Continue layering until all of the ingredients are used up. The top tortilla should be dressed with cheese only.

5. Pour about 3/4 cup additional sauce on top and around the tortilla stacks. Place pan in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Slice tortilla stacks in two to four pieces and serve on top of a bed of lettuce. Top with sour cream and cilantro.  

Fried chicken. All I wanted to do is to make some fried chicken. But I wanted it to taste good, to be just a little bit better than usual, so I pulled out the brand new Cook’s Illustrated title, “The Best Chicken Recipes,” ($35, Cooks Illustrated.)

I thumbed through the book and found a recipe that insisted it was one BEST way to prepare the chicken. First, you need to ”brine” the chicken in buttermilk mixed with hot sauce, bay leaves and salt. Done. Then you dry it for 2 hours. Sort of done.

Then you dust dust up the chicken, drag it through beaten egg and redust it. My grandma never did it that way and her chicken was perfect. Double-dust seems like overkill, so I dust it once and drop it into the hot pan. When I reach in to flip my chicken, the toasty outside peels off. What? I flip more carefully, then re-flour and fry the naked pieces. Hopeful, I put the batch in containers for our picnic the next day.

Twelve hours later, I open the container to discover a mass of chicken wrapped in mush. We ate it anyway, but I’m still mad at that chicken. How could something so simple be so difficult? Was the flour-egg-flour routine SO critical? If anyone out there has a recipe for great fried chicken that you don’t have to muck up your fingers to make, I’d love to hear about it.

I know. I admit it. I stand corrected. Eggs aren’t exactly health food. Wine isn’t a major food group. And I, sniffle, am not a super-taster. If you are laughing, stop now. At that lovely Tazo dinner I mentioned last week, I sat next to some young save-the-world non-foodie who likely considers Burger King a feast. She was lovely company, but what got me is that this woman could out-taste me without even trying.

During the blindfold dinner — yes, all guests dined blindfolded, start to finish – this upstart taster sniffed her cocktail and instantly says “gin.”  “Not a chance,”  I reply. It was gin. Minutes later, she nibbles her appetizer. “Orange,” she says quietly, not aware that I’m listening. ”Can’t be,” I think. Red tea, rose hips, something, anything but orange. Wrong again.

My daughter who’s been away at college just returned home, staking claim to the best indoor growing spot in the house. Yes, it’s her room. But the light is perfect, the room as cozy and warm as an indoor nursery.

I mention to her that I may be setting up my wheat grass growing operation in her window soon. She gives me a blank stare, pauses, then says, “No.”

“But your room gets all the sun and there’s no where else to put it,” I whine. She’s not swayed.

What she doesn’t realize is that I’ve been using her room as a nursery for months, sprouting basil, and growing tomato plants eight varieties of black heirloom tomatoes from seed sent to me by the Monterey Tomato Festival.

If you’re thinking that eight varieties of black tomatoes is overkill, consider this: Gary Ibsen at the Tomato Fest (who sent me the seeds) is growing 350 kinds of tomatoes this year. Good thing he’s planning to share his crop at the 17th annual NatureSweet Carmel TomatoFest in September. If you want to sink your teeth into some of his tomatoes, now is the time to get tickets — they’re $85 until May 16, $95 after that. Go to www.tomatofest.com or call (800) 965-4827.

The one thing I will admit is that I just may have overplanted a tad: I ended up with about 60 plants. I planted a dozen in my own yard, then begged friends and relatives to become foster parents for my plants. I now have baby tomato plants taking root in seven other gardens around the area. I have resisted the urge to go visit them, but I expect to get full reports on their well being throughout the summer.

Back to the wheatgrass. I figure I’ll wait a week then set up shop. With any luck she will be too busy enjoying her vacation to really notice or care.