A weekend re-cap...especially for Alice

Hey All,

So I've reverted back to using the raw HTML editor. The fancy "Compose" UI on blogger makes my poor old linux box slug out big time. Hopefully this continues to look right, and since I'm a big nerd and know basic HTML, this will be a lot easier.

Alice requested I find a way to make this link directly to FaceBook so it'll pop right up for her. Anyone know how to do that? For now I'll stick to the good ol' share button.

I suppose I'll start with Friday night. We had a friend over. He's a bit of a garbage disposal when it comes to food, but I was pretty pleased with how the meal turned out. You'll notice that my food has taken a bit of a convienence turn. I'm not 100% sure what that's all about, but I've done lots of thinking and I'm not really saving any money by slaving over a hot stove for hours. I think about all I'm accomplishing is making myself nutty about the budget. We are very fortunately that there are tons of grocery retailers around here and if you know how to shop at places like NPS you can do amazing things on a shoestring budget....my Mother, yes, my Mother the bargain hunting diva, is always impressed with what I can do. That aside, we had pan fried tilapia, Au Gratin (or in these parts, "Funeral") potatoes, and green beans with almonds.

I'll start with the potatoes since they take about 45 min.

In a square (9x9, 8x8, I've learned their are different sizes, but whatever, you get the gist) baking dish:

1 (20 oz.) pkg. prepared hash browns...I got a steal on Reser's a while back.
1 (11 oz.) can Cheddar Cheese Soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Just mix it all together and bake in a 350F oven for 45 min. I had this ready to go the night before....just throw some plastic wrap over the dish, pull it out and bake it up when you are ready.

The Tilapia was pretty straight forward. Thaw it out, dredge it in herbed bread crumbs (no egg, no nothing, just bread crumbs), and fry it up in hot (and I do mean hot, otherwise it sticks and makes a mess) oil. I ended up putting it in the oven for about 15min while the potatoes finished, but it was still perfect.

The green beans were another easy inexpensive score. It was one of those boxes from Bird's Eye...a light butter sauce with the almonds. Empty it into a bowl, put the almonds on top, cover and press the frozen veg button on the microwave....takes all the guess work out of it!

The next noteworthy was breakfast this morning. Super duper easy, in a microwave safe bowl, 4 eggs, a couple tablespoons of leftover taco meat, some diced onion, and a healthy smattering of cheddar. Mix it pretty healthily and microwave until done. I usually do 2 min, stir, then another minute....perfect tight eggs just like I like every time. I served that with toast and Chipotle Plum Jam. I leave the orange out of the jam when I make it... This recipe right here is the reason I can't bring myself to cut down the old plum tree out back. Its an eyesore, makes a mess, the fruit aren't really good for anything beyond making jam, and hangs precipitously over the neighbors' porch, but the flavor I get out of those plums is something I'm not sure I could live without. Its almost like a cherry Jolly Rancher. I'm not sure why or how, but I can't live without it.

Tonight is another great one. Occasionally, NPS gets deli leftovers. In this case cajun roast beef. I know its not intended to eat like a roast, but sometime ago, I figured why the hell not? And Oh yeah....think prime rib, but at a cat food price! Tonight we'll heat up a good sized roast, make some mashed taters, and serve that with steam in the bag green beans. Those were another amazing score, what you pay $3/$4 for them at the grocery store? $0.50 a bag....scored 2 to throw in the freezer for a later date. I also made some mozarella, try this recipe for top level guidance. Mozarella is one I struggled with forever....I could make Jack, I could make cheddar, I even made some really tasty moldy (blues, blacks (black can be good or bad, intitially test it knowing you may very well end up in the hospital, reds) cheese, but mozarella took a long time to get the hang of. 1% was on clearance (was going to outdate in 2 days) for $1 a gallon....score me :) My parents' also brought some Elk Jalapeno Sausage from my brother's big elk this past season....and I had a bit of leftover pepperoni, so that's the appetizer plate. This might be one of my more expensive meals at around $15 to feed three.

I'm also hoping we have some leftover roast. One of my favorite sandwiches is good roast beef and seafood salad on a good roll. Again, I thank my local discount retailers....the seafood salad was 3 days from outdate for $0.50/lb, so I scored 4 lbs and froze it. Yeah, the freezing denatures the creamy aspect, but its still damn good on a sandwich with some lettuce. Bread is another one that I score like crazy on...Usually $1 to $1.50 for local atrisinal bread. Granted its seconds or day-olds, but it freezes just fine and I'll never go back to Wonder bread. We freeze our bread because we can never seem to get through it before it goes bad.

So I'm not sure this was full of much in the way of recipes, but maybe some shopping ideas. Other major scores, asparagus for $0.99/lb...that will likely go in with penne or twisty noodles for a pork scallopini, and some yellow squash for $0.33/lb...that'll likely get grilled to go over a rice dish.

I'll try and update more with some of the creative and money saving stuff we do.