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...