two hundred and ninety-five

"If you’ve ever made your own creamy salad dressings from scratch, you may have been shocked by the inclusion of up to a cup of store-bought, chemical filled mayonnaise.  Since when does a 'from scratch' recipe call for 'sauce from a jar'?  Moreover, can a salad dressing, potato salad, or tuna sandwich qualify as 'fresh' or 'homemade' when the main ingredients, eggs and all, can sit on the shelf for years before expiring?  I’m no whole food purist (I’ve even been known to employ a well placed can of Tex Mex tomatoes) but in my opinion, store bought mayonnaise is on the same level as Miracle Whip.  No hate for you Whip lovers, but this post is about real mayonnaise..."

Read the rest of the post "Homemade Mayonnaise" on Home Ec 101.

two hundred and seventy-one

Though I prefer homemade foods and meals, there are a couple of tasty things that come in packets--like butter curry mix.  I mix the paste with melted butter, coat the chicken in it, and cook until the chicken is cooked, then I top the whole thing off by adding water and making a pot of basmati rice.  Complex?  Hardly.  Delicious?  Yes.  As a housewife, however, I can't make a meal-in-a-box without feeling like a bum.  In most cases I would make bread or dessert, but for years naan was one of those breads that was easier and tastier to buy.  Finally, after much experimentation I realized I had tweaked my recipe and techniques enough to produce something pretty darn close to the naan I get from the local Indian restaurants without a tandoor.

P.S.  The unrisen dough can be frozen for up to a month.  The morning of the day you plan to bake the naan, place the frozen dough in a greased bowl at room temperature.  By dinner time, it will be risen and you'll be ready to start at step 4.

two hundred and fifty-nine

"During my freshman year of college, I was required to live in a dorm.  It was the most miserable experience of my life, not because I had a terrible roommate, but because I couldn’t cook or bake without having to use the communal kitchen (which meant I had to share with whoever walked by and said “mmmm”).  I told myself that I would survive that year with nary a cookie to be had, but less than a month passed before I heard about the wonders of the bakery less than 30 yards from my front door..."

Read the rest of the post "Basic Scone Recipe" at Home Ec 101.

two hundred and forty-five

Though I've been menu planning for the last five years or so, I still have my share of those what's for dinner tonight? moments.  They don't happen regularly or even often, but sometimes I realize that what I had planned simply wasn't going to work for whatever reason.  As someone who loves to plan and be organized, those moments drive me absolutely bonkers and often lead to a cheap but only kind of satisfying meal at a restaurant downtown that has epically good pickles. 

Since I decided to modify my grocery budget a couple of weeks ago, however, buying a BLT as an excuse to eat pickles is no longer an option (if I want my husband to eat every day of any given week, that is).  I figured I could avoid those what's for dinner? moments by more carefully planning my menus, but chronic pain and awkwardly timed Fresh Direct deliveries can get in the way of even my best laid plans--which is why I found myself wandering the Shop Rite in search of some sort of quick, budget-friendly meal last Friday.

I immediately saw yellow rice for 49 cents a packet, so I threw a couple of those in my basket.  I grabbed some black beans because, duh, black beans go with yellow rice.  Since my husband likes meat in meals, I decided I'd blacken some chicken, and since I like to not die of malnutrition, I decided some peppers and onions would round out the mix.  The only problem was how to serve it.  Feeling lazy, I decided on throwing it in a bowl and calling it a day.  Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to it, but the bowl'o'Mexican-ish stuff ended up being easy and delicious. 

Best of all, I got a blog post out of it!  Woohoo!

two hundred and thirty-seven

Growing up, I didn't eat fast food very often.  My car-having friends, on the other hand, would usually stop and get something to eat on the way home from school.  Since I was in the car I got to be the little bird that stole a chip or two while they weren't looking.  No one minded and it would have been a perfect system had I not developed a taste for some of those greasy eats.  Now that I'm doing the "adult" thing, I can run to McDonalds and get a Big Mac should I feel so inclined--which I do once or twice a year (usually when on a road trip)--but the frustration known as the "regional chain" doesn't always allow for fulfillment of my random cravings for, say, Zaxby's.

Zaxby's is a Southern chicken semi-sit down restaurant (the kind where you order, sit, and then have your food brought to you) that would be unremarkable without one thing: Zax Sauce.  A mix of mayonnaise, ketchup, and a couple of other things, it is capable of making the most boring of chicken strips into an experience.  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but if I am it's not by much.  I can't buy the Zax Sauce in the South and smuggle it home in my luggage since the little containers say to "keep refrigerated" (ahem).  This predicament has left me with only one solution: restaurant recipe rip off!

two hundred and twenty-seven

"Ramen. It’s a single word that conjures images of students and young newlyweds alike, united by their grumbling bellies and meager budgets.  Most of us have been there, done that—myself included—and if you’re anything like me, you may have also done a happy dance when you finally said sayonara to your noodle heavy twenty dollar a week food budget.  Despite my longstanding eagerness to eat something (anything!) other than what the Japanese refer to as gakusei ryori, or “student food”, years later I still find myself craving the salty, slurpy soup that got me through the leanest times in my life..."

Read the rest of the post "Pork and Miso Ramen" at Home Ec 101.

two hundred and eighteen

"A little over ten years ago today, I enrolled in home economics as a school elective.  To say I was excited would be an understatement, and I showed up for my first day of class eager to learn anything and everything I could about sewing, cooking, cleaning, and—most important to me—baking.  The pace was slow; by the middle of the semester, we had barely made a batch of cookies!  I finally got up the courage to ask the teacher when we’d learn to make, say, a simple loaf of bread.  My courage was rewarded with a “Hah!” worthy of The Simpsons’ Edna Krabapple.  Deflated and embarrassed, I gave up on baking and spent the rest of the course sewing stuffed animals, taking breaks to thread my classmates’ needles..."

 Read the rest of the post 

"Easy Italian Bread" at Home Ec 101.

P.S.  I'm going to be writing Home Ec 101 posts more frequently starting, like, today.  Do my dear Dreams Unreal readers mind if I keep up the trend of posting teasers for my Home Ec 101 posts?  They don't seem inappropriate to me content-wise, but I don't want anyone to feel I'm being annoying and spammy.

two hundred and three

I know that pizza is technically an Italian food, but over the years it has become ubiquitously American.  Whenever there is a gathering of people, complete with their varying food preferences, you can almost bet on the presence of a pizza.  It's simple enough for the pickiest of eaters, but can be jazzed up for those who prefer something with a little more texture or variety.  But the best part about pizza is that the "same old" cheese pie can become crave worthy by simply using quality ingredients.

No matter how much people may crave the "gourmet" pizzas, most of us routinely choose the sub-par delivery pizza over the fancypants wood-fired crust with artisanal* ingredients.  Why?  Because it's cheap and easy, and do you have any idea how long it takes to make a pizza???

45 minutes (even less if you buy your dough at the store.)  Seriously.

But what about the variety?  What if everyone wants something different?  Two words: white pizza.  Those who like "plain" invariably enjoy it, while it serves as the perfect base for those of us who prefer our pizzas a little less naked.  A base for what?  Why, a tasty arugula salad, of course--which just so happens to be the exact thing you need to make a plain white pizza into a memorable and almost-healthy meal.

Oh, and to you pickypantseses who aren't satisfied by either of those two options: just throw some pepperoni (or whatever you prefer) on top of half of the white pizza before baking--but don't ask the rest of us to share once you realize pepperoni is no match for arugula.

*Homer Simpson taught me how to spell this word.  No joke.  "artis-anal"

White Pizza with Arugula

 Crust :

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1/4 tsp sugar

3/4 cup warm water

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

Toppings :

1 cup Alfredo sauce

  2 cups Italian or mozzarella cheese

4 cups arugula or spring mix

1/4 cup olive oil

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground pepper

Make crust : Mix yeast, sugar and water in a medium bowl; allow to stand until yeast is foamy.  

Stir in flour and salt, then knead on a floured counter until dough forms a smooth ball, about 5 minutes.  Cover the dough with a moist lint-free towel or plastic wrap and allow to rest about 20 minutes (or while the oven is prehreating.)

Roll the dough out into a large circle or rectangle and position on a pizza stone or on an upside down cookie sheet (seriously, it works).  Make sure the crust is thin or it won't be crunchy.

Preheat the oven to 500 F.

Top crust : Spread the Alfredo sauce on top of the prepared and stretched pizza dough.  Top evenly with the cheese.

Bake at 500 F for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is browned and bubbly.  Allow to cool on pan about five minutes, then remove to a wooden cutting board or pizza peel before slicing.

While the pizza is baking, whisk the olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper in a large bowl until well combined (you're making a vinaigrette.)  Toss the arugula with the vinaigrette.

Serve the pizza topped with the salad (and a sprinkling of Parmesan, if desired.)

one hundred and ninety-nine

Growing up in a single parent household, I ate a lot of leftovers--and not the tasty kind of leftovers like taco meat turned Mexican pizza.  Instead, we would have the previous night's pasta dish microwaved for a minute and a half (sometimes with rotisserie chicken thrown in for what I can only assume was "the lulz.")  I've always been weird about textures, so leftover nights were a thing I quickly came to dread.  My mother, ignoring my pleas for a sandwich, would hand me a plate of food and say, "When you grow up, you can throw away all of the food you want!"

And so I do.  Unfortunately, I'm a painfully cheap adult, which means I can't just throw away the leftovers without considering the waste.  To make myself feel better, I store each component of a meal separately and give them to Mr N for him to recombine, reheat, and eat for lunch.*  Leftovers that don't a man-sized lunch make (muffins, rolls, etc.) end up getting frozen for future use, while the non-freezable starches plus a sliced tomato oftentimes become my lunch.  All of the leftovers seem like they're being put to use, right?  Almost, save for one problematic chunk'o'carbohydrates.

I love to bake full sized loaves of bread.  Since Mr N and I are only two people, the bread usually goes stale before we have time to eat it--despite having bread with dinner, breakfast, and snacks--and though it's inexpensive to make, I never fail to feel guilty when I hear the solid thud of the stale bread hitting the bottom of the trash can.  The sound waste is enough to make our Bubbies spin in their collective (and possibly figurative) graves!  But what is a home cook to do with day old Italian bread?  Why, the Italians have already figured it out for us: you make garlic bread.

*He claims he likes it, but I still feel like a bum.

one hundred and ninety-eight

I absolutely love Mexican food (as evidenced by my menu plans,) but I hate to admit that I am not a fan of "real" Mexican food.  Something about the lack of cheese (sorry, but my stomach does not recognize cotijo as cheese) combined with the corn tortillas and pickled onions never fails to leave me wanting for a drive through taco.  I suppose this means I'm not really a "foodie," but I know that I can't be alone in preferring nachos to menudo, right? 

It certainly feels as though I am when I try to eat at Mexican restaurants in New Jersey.  When Mr N and I lived in the South, we would go out for tacos or nachos (or pollo fundido!) once a month or so.  It was cheap and entirely unauthentic, but over the top delicious.  It makes my mouth water to think about the cheesy, crunchy mess of a meal to this day, but there is simply no where in the area(that isn't a chain) that sells the cheap "Mexican" food I crave. 

So, I make my own.  Sometimes it'll be your standard issue beef + taco seasoning + hard taco shells, other times it will be carnitas, but more often than not we end up having chicken soft tacos.  Not only is the recipe super easy, it is inexpensive, reheats well, and is sure to please anyone who even kind of likes homemade Mexican food.  It's so good, it may just become your go to recipe (in my oh so humble opinion.  Ahem.)

one hundred and ninety-one

Ever since I got a slow cooker back in November, I have been completely obsessed with slow cookerizing some of my favorite Dutch oven recipes.  Goodbye burned bottoms, hello dinner being "finished" at 9 in the morning!  I am so enamored by my slow cooker, in fact, that I have spent a fair amount of time looking for slow cooker specific recipes.

Once I got over the fact that most of them are what I like to call "can heavy," I was struck by how many of the recipes claim to be easy to throw together before work in the morning--something I never fail to remind myself when I spend 45 minutes browning meat and cleaning and chopping vegetables in order to prepare them for their day in the slow cooker.  It wasn't until this weekend when I was freezing meat destined for slow cooker beef stew, however, that I realized the solution to busy morning prep work had been staring me in the face all along.

Oh yeah... You can freeze that!  (Or not.  This recipe is flexible like that.)

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

2 pounds stew beef

4 large red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed

3 large carrots, peeled and chopped

1 large onion, diced

3 cups green beans, chopped*

4 cloves garlic, minced

splash of vegetable oil

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp dark balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

pepper

1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup beef stock

1/2 cup red wine (I used merlot)

additional salt and pepper, to taste

*If you want the green beans to look nice and bright in your bowl, you can use frozen green beans. Instead of adding them at the beginning, just mix them into your slow cooker an hour before serving; it also helps them maintain their texture.  Yum!

Freezer Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add the potatoes, carrots, onions, and green beans, then boil for 3-5 minutes.  Drain and then immediately transfer to a large bowl of ice water.  Drain and then drizzle with vegetable oil or spray with nonstick cooking spray, then transfer veggies to two quart sized bags (gallon sized bags can be too big for the slow cooker) and freeze until ready to use, or up to one month.

Mix the beef, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.  Transfer the meat to two more quart sized bags and freeze until ready to use, or up to one month.

About ten hours before dinner, empty the contents of the bags into the slow cooker.  Add the bay leaves, beef stock, and wine.  Cover and cook on high for 8 hours.  Before serving, fish out the bay leaves.  Add additional salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar to taste, if desired.

No-Freeze Directions:

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown the beef with a small amount of vegetable oil for about five minutes.  Add all of the ingredients to the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on high for 6 hours.  Before serving, fish out the bay leaves.  Add additional salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar to taste, if desired.

one hundred and eighty-three

Is it really Monday again already?  In fear of losing power, was spent playing video games, listening to music, cooking, finishing up some Samurai Sudokus (copied from the Washington Post by a lovely friend), and looking out the windows.  Of course, since we were fully prepared, the lights didn't even flicker.

Despite the power's awesome cooperation throughout the storm, however, I still had a terrible time sorting out food this weekend.  Between things not working out well (I'm looking at you, disgusting baked oatmeal that ended up being fed to the trash) and my whim-influenced food cravings (ahem, hollandaise sauce and garlicky chicken), the SNAP Challenge menu plan I posted last week got turned on its head.  Fortunately, we're still on track to finish the challenge, but with the following modifications to the remaining days of the plan:

Monday
Breakfast - ham, egg and cheese biscuit sandwiches oatmeal brown sugar muffins
Lunch - leftover stuffed baked potatoes or grilled cheese chili

Dinner - leftover beef and bean chili with fresh cornbread stuffed baked potatoes

Tuesday
Breakfast - leftover oatmeal brown sugar muffins
Lunch - leftover chili and cornbread baked potatoes

Dinner - white chicken enchiladas (using thigh meat)

Wednesday
Breakfast - egg and cheese biscuit sandwiches
Lunch - leftover enchiladas or grilled cheese

Dinner - beef and rice lettuce wraps leftover chili and fresh cornbread

Thursday
Breakfast - leftover muffins biscuits
Lunch - leftover lettuce wraps or enchiladas

Now, on to day four's foodstuffs and a recipe for a luxurious but SNAP friendly breakfast: eggs Benedict-ish.

SNAP Challenge - Day Four

 

Breakfast - eggs Benedict-ish (recipe below!)

Lunch - grilled cheese and tomato soup

Dinner - rosemary garlic chicken Francese with mashed potatoes and green beans

 

one hundred and sixty-four

One of the things I'm often reluctant to 'fess up to is my love of Americanized Chinese food.  It's greasy, it's overpriced, and worst of all, you're hungry an hour after you put down your fork chopsticks.  If I were a less stubborn person, I would probably just decide that I don't care for Chinese food.  Since that's not exactly an option, I took the "mess around in the kitchen until you make something that tastes kind of like Chinese food" route.

The first few attempts were a disaster due to my fear of the food ending up too salty.  I quickly learned that, as with most restaurant recipe rip offs, there is almost no such thing as "too salty".  So, I doubled the soy sauce and ended up with... soy saucey chicken.  Not quite what I was aiming for, but it was getting there; I just had to figure out what I could use to balance out the salt.  While rummaging through the cabinets in a fit of frustration, the answer literally fell on my head--a gift from above in the form of a bottle of ginger.

That was when I realized that I had been going about it all wrong.  I needed to focus on improving Americanized Chinese food rather than emulating it.  So, I tossed out all of my work and started from scratch.  The end result remains one of my all time favorites, not only due to the deliciousness, but also because it can be prepared in the time it takes for the rice to cook.  Who needs takeaway, anyway?  Recipe is after the jump and menu plan.

Menu Plan : January 11 - 17, 2012

Due to my lack of smell (and thus taste) over the last couple of weeks, I have been less than inspired in the menu plan department.  Just in case the sick doesn't hit the road for a while, I've made sure to include lots of easy meals with plenty of leftovers for Mr. N to bring for lunch.  The salad is something I often don't look forward to, but one of the bajillion small batch balsamic vinegars in our cupboard turns it from an "ew, healthy" meal to something almost cravable. 

Friday : ginger chicken and greenbeans (recipe follows)

Saturday : pollo fundido

Sunday : balsamic beef chili with cornbread

Monday : tuna and butter bean salad with Italian bread

Tuesday : chicken soft tacos

Wednesday : spaghetti and meatballs

Thursday : leftover chili and cornbread

Dessert : sopapillas

one hundred and thirty-eight

Before I start this post, I want to give a big, public "Thank you!" to my friend Cara for her help with my "bleh" food photographs.  In case you haven't noticed, I haven't had to use the ugly food tag ever since I started using her tips some weeks ago; I was even able to get a tasty looking picture of pollo fundido using my point and shoot!  Check out her blog, Simply: Homemade Life, if you're in the mood to drool all over your keyboard. ;-)

If you're like me, you've had at least one experience in cooking where you have ended up disappointed in the end result.  Not because you messed anything up, or because you made substitutions, but because you made assumptions.  Well, you know what they say about assumptions.

Last night I made the calzones, as planned.  They turned out well--inside.  The crust was nearly inedible; it was sour from resting in the refrigerator overnight, it didn't roll out the way pizza dough usually does, and it decided that it didn't like my seal.  Oh, and it wouldn't brown.  Ugh.

Nonetheless, the filling was absolutely delicious.  It could have only been made more delicious by the addition of balsamic vinegar, so I'm including that in the recipe.  (There I go with the assumptions again!)  I'm going to share the recipe with you for the filling, but until I give the calzones another shot this weekend or early next week, I'm not going to provide you with a dough recipe.  In theory, you should be able to use your favorite regular (not thin crust) pizza dough recipe.  In practice, I'm thinking that Tyler Florence's focaccia dough might make an excellent crust.  I'll update the recipe next week to include the crust, but until then...

Spinach Alfredo Calzones with Turkey

Note to self: pictures on cutting board =/= easy to color correct

This calzone filling also makes a delicious combination of toppings for a white pizza.  Just roll out the dough, top with alfredo sauce (and seasoned ricotta, if desired), then follow with spinach, tomatoes, turkey or chicken, and mozzarella/provelone.  The calzones can be served with a side of red dipping sauce, but we enjoyed them plain.  Each calzone made as directed is large enough for two hungry adults; divide the dough and ingredients into quarters rather than halves to make each one a (large!) single serving.

1 batch of your favorite pizza crust, preferably not left to ferment overnight

1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for brushing

3 fresh (or 1 can) tomatoes, deseeded and chopped if fresh, drained if canned

1-10 oz. box frozen (or 3 cups fresh) spinach, defrosted and fully drained if frozen

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 2-3 cloves fresh garlic)

1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (use more if your balsamic is sweeter)

1-2 cups cooked, shredded turkey or chicken

1 jar or batch of your favorite alfredo sauce

12 oz. ricotta cheese

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 + 1/2 tsp kosher salt (use less if desired)

1 tsp dried basil

fresh ground pepper, to taste

2 cups mozzarella or Italian/pizza cheese blend

Prepare the pizza crust dough according to instructions.  After it has risen, divide it into halves and then allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Meanwhile, add 1 tbsp olive oil to a large pan set over medium-high heat.  Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until cooked down (or if canned: until they no longer smell metallic), about 5 minutes.  If you are using fresh garlic, add it now.  Stir in the spinach, oregano, garlic powder, and 1 tsp of the salt.  Allow to cook an additional 3 minutes, or until fragrant.  

Push the tomatoes and spinach off to one side of the pan.  Add the balsamic to the empty side of the pan to deglaze, then stir in the shredded turkey or chicken.  Stir until heated through, about 2 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and stir in alfredo sauce.  Set aside (over low heat, if needed).

In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta, chili powder, the remaining 1/2 tsp kosher salt, basil, and pepper.

On a floured surface, roll your balls of dough out into two large circles, about 10-12" in diameter; no need to measure, just eyeball it.  Brush circles with olive oil, leaving a 1/2 inch boarder of unoiled dough around the circumference for sealing.  Spread half of the ricotta mixture onto half of the circle of dough, again keeping the circle's edges clean.  Top the ricotta with half of the turkey-alfredo mixture, then top with one cup of the mozzarella cheese.  Add additional parmesan, if desired.

Carefully fold the naked side of the calzone over the filling, lining up the edges as best as you can.  Crimp with a fork or your fingers, then fold the edges over like a pie crust and crimp again.  Using your hands or a bench scraper, transfer the sealed calzone to a lined or cornmeal coated baking sheet.  For extra crispness, cut steam vents in the top; bonus points if it's decorative!  Brush the top of the dough with additional oil, then sprinkle with salt, if desired.

Repeat the process with the second dough round and the remaining ingredients.

Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, or until the crust has browned and the cheese in the steam vents is bubbly and delicious.  Cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes before eating to avoid burning your face off.

Serves 4.

one hundred

I'm still sick, but I can't really call this post "ninety-nine point eight"*, so hooray for my "one hundredth" post! Fortunately, I seem to be getting better, despite the disturbing level of pressure that seems to be trying to make my eyeball explode out of its socket and my teeth out of their little spots in my gums (Do those have names?  Tooth holes?).  I was able to run an errand today, do a couple of loads of laundry, and make some matzo ball soup as a compromise for my antibiotic conundrum.  I think I'll be good to go grocery shopping tomorrow and, after I finish this exhausting paragraph, I may have just enough energy to share my most favorite bread recipe in the world: ciabatta.

*Well, I could, but I'd feel really lazy.

ninety-one

In case I haven't gotten my point across yet, I'll state once again that I'm a fan of food.  I like cooking it, I like eating it, and I like reading about it, but I don't like looking at it.  I know that the Internetz are full of people with thousand dollar cameras who love to create blogs, sites, and Pinterest boards full of pictures of cakes meant to resemble the Tibetan monks that milled the super special wheatless "flour" that went into the batter or child-pleasing plates of broccoli made into scale models of, say, Sherwood Forest.  Even the humblest of casseroles can be made to look like Manna rained down from the heavens to come to a rest on platinum-edged china.

 Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed by the work and the skill behind the photography, but the pictures certainly don't make me hungry or leave me inspired (maybe because I've learned too many food photographers' "secrets").  Usually, I just end up feeling too embarrassed to post my original recipes because I feel like the pictures aren't up to par.  Today, I was hit with the realization that, duh, this is the Internet!  This is the one place where I could say I enjoy sandwiches made of modelling clay and I wouldn't be alone.  So I've decided that I'm standing up for ugly-yet-delicious meals by sharing one of the ugliest, cheapest, easiest foods in the world...

eighty-five

 Have you ever noticed that some people are just lucky at life?  In high school, my husband and I knew a kid that won every luck of the draw contest that he entered, especially those random phone-in radio contests that would give away tickets to shows and concerts.  He would be barred from entering contests for a period of time, only to seemingly win yet another one the very day he was allowed to participate again.  If that wasn't frustrating enough, his other family members had similar luck!

It's probably needless to say after that incredulous rant, but I am not one of those winny (new word!) people; that's one of the reasons I don't gamble or enter any contest that costs me anything more than 30 seconds of my time.  Well, imagine my surprise when I checked Google Reader this morning and found that I had won a giveaway from one of my long-time favorite blogs, Home Ec 101!  It certainly brightened up my rainy, weekend's-finally-over morning.  Thanks to Heather@Home Ec 101 for providing the web with years of near-encyclopaedic knowledge that I can always refer to when I don't know the best way to get something cooked or cleaned!

While on our quest to save money (especially on food in a disturbingly delicious part of the country), we have done a lot of our eating out at the Momofuku family of restaurants.  How is this decidedly not inexpensive food even close to a frugal option?  Because we have gift cards leftover from our wedding, of course. ;-)  That means we've eaten for "free" every time we've been since April!  Unfortunately, the cards' values are starting to dwindle, meaning I'm faced with a sad choice, indeed: pay real money for Momofuku or learn to make my own homemade version of Noodle Bar's pork buns (sans pork belly, because I have this thing about textures--especially fat that isn't crispy).  Since six billion pounds of slow roasted pork shoulder were staring me down when I opened the refrigerator yesterday afternoon, my answer was obvious...

sixty-nine

Ever since I've become dedicated to shrinking my grocery budget, I have spent some time reading blogs about frugal living, inexpensive cooking, etc.  No matter the blog, I can't help but feel like an outsider looking in.  I didn't understand why at first (I figured it probably had to do with Jesus or something) so I just ignored that uneasy feeling, hoping to find an inspirational recipe or two amongst the "blah".  After a few days of browsing, I finally realized what it was that other bloggers were selling: self-deprivation.

Take, for example, the Hillbilly Housewife's $45 $70 "emergency menu" for four.  Rice, beans, rice, beans, rice, beans, oh, look kids!  Toast!  If we didn't buy alcohol or soda, we would spend less than $70 a week (even if we had two kids and an empty pantry), but we would still find ourselves eating well by buying inexpensive cuts of meat and semi-seasonal (or frozen) produce and by eliminating convenience items (boxed mac and cheese on a budget, Hillbilly Housewife?  Really?).  "But you don't need meat to be healthy!" the vegans are screaming.  Though that may be true, I need meat to avoid feeling miserable and deprived at mealtimes--and considering that I'm not exactly a carnivore at heart, I can only imagine that other Americans feel the same way.

This has led me to wonder, why all the beans?  Is there some sort of happiness to be gained by denying oneself deliciousness?  Or do people really just not "get" how to take their favorite recipes and give them inexpensive makeovers?  Just in case it's the latter, I'll share one of my favorite budget recipes that is super easy.  An added bonus: you can make this meal from scratch or it can quickly be prepared using leftovers from a weekend pot roast!

sixty-four

I'm back in town and therefore back to blogging.  The wedding was certainly nothing like ours, especially the 90 minute Catholic mass ceremony full of references to infidelity and Hell (neither of which happen to Catholics, apparently).  The hotel was so laughably bad that I'm planning on writing a post about it*.

On the plus side, we were able to go to an aquarium the day before and Mr. N made friends with a beluga whale!  Said whale was very friendly and would sit by the glass, watching the aquarium visitors.  Mr. N decided that he would "nom"/bite at the beluga only to have the whale open its mouth as wide as possible right back at him!  I got to pet a shark, which has allowed me to cross something off my bucket list**.  Woohoo!

I've named the whale "orly?"

Next item on the list?  Share a tasty recipe that costs less than $6 for the whole batch and can be made from pantry staples, even when you're still exhausted from traveling (and then coming home and traveling even more to go to a doctor's appointment).  Check!

*Preview: The desk clerk insulted my husband's appearance.  To his face.  Yeah.
**Truth: I only put "pet a shark" on my bucket list after I had already petted the shark.

sixty

Wow, sixty posts!  I was amazed when I got to thirty and am mighty dumbfounded by how long I've managed to keep blogging.  I know that sixty isn't exactly a milestone, but considering the fact that blogging is essentially a chore to me, I'm going to celebrate anyway.  Party, party!  Okay, celebration over; now, it's time to discuss something interesting and positive to come out of this blog.

I am the sort of person to mention something in passing, then forget all about it.  For example, I'll muse that I want to stop using coupons or that I want to save money on groceries.  Since I've been blogging, these random thoughts have become (possibly boring) post fodder and, in doing so, they have also become Official Thoughts rather than just random conversations with my husband and/or myself.  In writing a post, I have to actually sit down and think about, say, how much money I'm wasting on newspapers ($250 a year!).  It can probably go without saying that those realizations make me feel kind of guilty and wasteful, so I can't just do nothing.  This blog has opened my eyes (yeah, yeah, call me corny) and been the kick in the butt that I need to let go of my newspaper subscriptions, drop my grocery budget from $200 to $75 a week, and become a(n even) better homemaker with my husband's help*.

*that post will be coming in the next couple of weeks

Kay, recipe time!