What if electricity was free?

The temperature is increasing almost per day now, yesterday was the first day above 40° (104° f), 42 degrees to be precisely. Today was around 45°. Yes, that's very hot! Fortunately, we live in a dry semi desert climate, which makes it a lot more bearable. Humidity makes the windchill a lot hotter. 

Despite the hot temperature, we still try to be moderate with the use of air conditioning. It's set on 26° c, and it's not on for the majority of the day. It's not that we cannot afford running the airconditioner all day long, we can, but I really don't see the need to pay that much for utilities.  And not just because of finances, although that certainly plays a role too. My first and foremost reason is the environment, then our health. Yes, I don't think airconditioners are good for our health - especially if there's a huge gap between outdoor and indoor temperature. The other day I read an article written by an pulmonologist about that, and how it can trigger issues for asthma patients. Both my oldest daughter and me happen to have asthma... We're not with a lot of issues during the summer drought, fortunately, but anything we can do for our lung health is a win. 

But something got me thinking: what if electricity was completely free? What would I do in such an instance? I need to be honest with myself (and my readers 😉). I'd probably use it a tad more than I do now. Not necessarily all day long, and I wouldn't mess up with the temperature setting, I still want summer to feel like summer. And I still value protecting the environment, within my limited means anyhow. It doesn't really feel hypocritical to be honest, because I just don't want to spend fortunes just on getting our house cold enough so I can wear sweaters at home (lol). So I would still use it moderately even if electricity were free. 

There's a reason why that came to my mind. Somebody I know is married to a man who works for the electricity and gas company. There's just one such a company here, owned by the government. Their employees get the privilege of having free electricity- and also for one extra house of their choice, for example their parents home or whatever other home they wish. I think that's pretty cool. Without wanting to sound too socialist, it seems like things like these usually stop when those companies are being privatized, sadly. As soon as it's being privatized, company greed changes a lot. My grandfather also worked for the electricity company in the Netherlands, before it was being privatized, and he had exactly the same privilege. I remember my grandmother using only an electric hob, which was a bit rare, and I only ever saw it at her house, not anywhere else. Apparently, now it's getting more common to use an electric hob but at the time it wasn't- she even got hers from Germany as they were better available there. Interestingly enough, my grandmother was one of the most frugal people I've ever known, despite her electricity bill being zero regardless of her use. She didn't have a lot of electric guzzling appliances, such as a dryer or even an electrical lawn mower (despite having a big garden). So basically, electricity being free didn't affect her use at all - she could have taken advantage of that privilege but didn't.

And to get back to my acquaintance I was referring to, it happens to be the same with her. I was visiting her recently and noticed that she still hadn't installed her airconditioner. She owns one, but having moved to her current house around a year ago, the airconditioner being installed apparently wasn't a big priority. She said they didn't really miss one and that her fan was enough. I must add that she lives in a house that stays relatively cool during the summer, but still, most people in her situation probably have taken advantage of free electricity. Also, like most people here, she's frugal by nature. She doesn't necessarily call herself frugal but she definitely is. 

And of course, then there's people who have plenty of solar panels to have enough electricity during the summer for all their appliances. That's a bit of a different story. I wish we had solar panels, but unfortunately they're so expensive! That might be a disadvantage of the grid not being privatized... it's still a future goal of ours to have enough renewable/sustainable electricity. Not necessarily going offgrid, but to have our "own" power for the majority of the time and to still be connected to the grid as a backup. I think probably when one has solar panels, that's also a way of being more mindful of your usage of electricity. Because you never know when you run out. 

I guess the moral of this story is that we should always be mindful of what we use, regardless of its abundance, it being free of charge, etc. In the end, even "free" stuff is never totally free- someone or something is paying a price. In this case, that something is the planet. 

A kitchen without an oven

One thing in particular has caught my attention when it comes to being frugal with utilities, and cooking in general. And that is that we don't use our oven a lot. It seems like for most people, an oven is a kitchen essential, and they'd be lost without one. The other I saw someone on a Facebook group asking what other people make if they have no oven. This was supposed to be a frugal living group, so I assumed that most of the people there were like me and used their oven occasionally. But I was wrong, and most people's responses were that they absolutely didn't know what to do without one. 

That made me thinking of my use of the oven and what I do differently from others. First of all, the frequency. Last week, I used the oven twice- once for making a cake, and once to make baked chicken. I usually bake chicken on the hob, but I sometimes like the convenience of not having to flip the chicken every 10 minutes or so since I had other things to do. The cake was a big one, and I froze about half. That's not only healthier (if I wouldn't freeze it right away we'd surely be tempted to finish it anyway), it's also more frugal - less electricity used, as well as saving money on the baking ingredients. This week, I made some cookies and muffins. However, there are also weeks that we don't use the oven at all.  So I'd say, on average it's being used once a week. Another thing is that we don't eat casseroles as much. We rarely do, in fact. I like to make lasagna on special occasions- all of the ingredients are quite expensive, and it's a time consuming meal to make when you make about everything from scratch. Every so often, I make Tunisian tajine (which is like a crustless quiche), and makarouna bechamel, also known as "Arabic mac 'n cheese". But for the most part, we don't do a lot of other casseroles. Probably partly due to the fact that casseroles are considered cold weather meals (in our family, anyway), and around these parts, the cold weather doesn't last that long. For most of the year, it's nice warm weather or unbearable hot. And while I don't mind eating hot foods during the summer, for some reason, casseroles are a bit different. They're just too "heavy", and usually containing dairy of some sort which makes a meal more expensive. Casseroles aren't really a thing in Tunisian cooking anyway, and while I do make dishes from other cuisines from time to time, it's Tunisian foods that are our go to meals. Pizzas are a rare occasion here too, and a rare treat. Bread is either purchased at the nearby bakery or if it's homemade, it's usually stove top flatbread. 

All in all, I think that an oven isn't really an absolute necessity, although it's a nice extra. I've had people asking me what in the world we have for dinner if we don't use our oven regularly. Well, just that: soups, pasta dishes, potatoes, rice dishes, couscous, stews, and I think I can go on and on. I, on the other hand,wonder what they do serve for dinner if they can't function without an oven! My husband was raised in an oven-free household for the most part; my MIL didn't have one until he moved out of the house. And now she doesn't really use the oven anymore and is just used as a storage space. My MIL did have a "wonder pan", a pan you use on the hob and functions as an alternative for an oven. She used this when making cake, among other things. For cookies, the communal oven (which I wrote a post about earlier) was used. She didn't really make casseroles and when baking bread she used the tabouna (outdoor oven, which is comparable to an Indian tandoor). This bread tasted absolutely amazing. 

Here's some other ways we save on electricity when it comes to the oven, other than just not using it very frequently: we have a toaster oven, albeit a relatively large one, but still smaller than most average ovens. This takes less electricity. When we do bake, we tend to do a "baking marathon", as preheating the oven does take more electricity. So we might make muffins and right after that, cookies or bread for example. This is actually quite an old fashioned thing to save on utilities- most women did a baking day once a week. Also, I might be a bit stubborn but I go against some conventional "rules" when it comes to baking. I rarely adjust temperature, for example, and our oven is set at 200° c (which in reality is more like 180° c - talking about stubbornness, ovens kind of do have their own characters I guess 😄). I also don't really preheat, which is an advantage of having a separate/toaster oven, as they heat up much quicker. I turn off the oven before it's "officially" ready, and make use of the residue heat. Yes, I do this when baking cakes too. I must say that I usually stick to the easier recipes, so I'm not sure how that would work out with more complicated recipes. 

Anyway, those were some insights on the use of ovens. I could definitely live without one, although it's a nice extra to me. But a necessity it is not (in my opinion, anyhow). 

Hot weather foods

One thing that distinguishes Mediterranean/northern African cuisine and culture from the (northern/western) European one, is that there isn't really such a thing as cold dishes. I'm not talking about breakfasts- I'm well aware of the fact that in some cultures, there isn't even really a thing such as breakfast foods, and typical dinners would be eaten for breakfasts. 

I'm talking about lunches and dinners now. In Europe (the part where I'm from anyhow), as soon as the weather starts to change, people nervously switch from their usual warm dinners to all types of cold foods- sandwiches, salads etc. It's not a bad thing in and of itself, and it even seems quite logical, as you're not heating up the kitchen unnecessary. The thought alone of eating a warm steaming stew or soup is suffocating to a lot of people! Here in Tunisia it's rather the opposite. While there are some typical winter dishes, people generally are not afraid of eating warm meals during the summer heat. Why would they? Just living off of salads for three months on end certainly doesn't do your body good, and it's just kind of... boring.  

I must say that I haven't noticed a difference physically, eating a cold evening meal vs a hot one. Either way, you're going to get hot during the summer. Personally, I prefer the hot type of foods that they eat here, and I make a pasta salad maybe once or twice during the entire summer, usually when the children crave it and they're asking me to make it on and on and I can't procrastinate it any longer. I've even been eating soup a lot lately for lunch. We do like to eat sandwiches every so often though, but not nearly as often as our regular hot meals. Since living here, one thing that I learned is that eating hot foods doesn't really mean you have to eat them piping hot. I usually decrease the temperature a little bit, so that it's still warm but not too hot. I feel like this way of eating is not only more delicious but also healthier. Why? Well, people who switch to cold summer foods tend to have sandwiches a lot. I don't think that sandwiches are bad in and of itself but the amount of vegetables you can put in there are obviously a bit limited. Or you need to serve big sides of vegetables, which would defeat the purpose I guess, since they still need to be cooked (unless it's just salads). Also, most people tend to make their sandwiches less healthy than their usual, warm meals. There's always exceptions of course, but I know I don't really make a sandwich as healthy as I would make my regular, warm meal. 

When it comes to heating up the kitchen, the people in Europe have a good point. The other day I was making roz Djerbi, a Tunisian rice dish that needs to be steamed. Even though it's technically a one pot meal, the kitchen was 3 degrees (C) higher than it was before cooking. That's a big difference! So I totally get why people avoid that. And honestly, I was relieved when the cooking time was over and I could turn off the heat and go to the living room where it was a bit less hot. But personally, eating delicious and healthy meals is more priority for us than keeping the warmth out of the kitchen - although I try to do my best to not heat it up that much. 

I mentioned before how much I love batch cooking, and especially during the summer this is a huge advantage! Just heating up a meal takes a few minutes. Thus, heating up the kitchen isn't something to worry about on those days. On other days, I like to make meals that take less time to cook. My rice dish had to steam an hour and a half in total, which is quite a long time, and there's a lot of foods I can think of that don't take nearly as long. The pressure cooker (or cocotte as it's called here) is quite a popular kitchen gadget. Since it reduces the cooking time and it doesn't really release steam, especially dishes that take long to cook can be made in such a pot easily. Unfortunately, I'm just too afraid to use one. There's been too much accidents with pressure cookers that I don't want to take the risk I guess. In fact, not too long ago, my husband's aunt had an accident and had quite a bad burn as a result. 

My mother in law had a habit which I initially thought was kinda weird but now I understand it better- she started cooking the main meal as soon as she woke up. In fact, she started with the meal even before having breakfast! In the morning, with the window having been opened all night, the kitchen is much cooler than it is in the early afternoon. So that also makes sense, even if you're not big on batch cooking.