Yesterday, we cooked a few pounds of pork (still not sure of the cut) with onions, sweet potatoes and pineapple in our crock pot. The meat was sweet and so tender it fell apart to the touch. Yum. We were planning on heating a can of green beans, maybe eat some raw carrots and celery, then enjoy our fizzy diet Sierra Mist with yummy flavors and soy nog. Cantropos was on the phone with his dad and stepmom when someone knocked on our door.

It was our neighbors, the ones I call the kids next door. They are financially worse off than us in some ways but better in others. But they are not food challenged like we are sometimes. Groceries are pretty much the only truly flexible part of our monthly budget and we've cut it to the bone. We get by on about $35/week for everything including those nonfood things you get at the grocery store. And I make one trip a month to a particular local food pantry.

Recently they gave us a case (24 boxes) of macaroni and cheese, which I can't eat (or shouldn't), but makes a decent dinner for Cantropos if he's able to handle the cheesy part on a given day. They also gave us 7 pounds of orzo. Because we may be moving soon ourselves, I have arranged to give away about half of each to other people who need food, too. That leaves us plenty of mac & cheese to supplement Cantropos's dinners.

The kids repeated an invitation to the potluck the pagan friends are having today. I have arranged a ride now and will show up with peanut butter stuffed celery. But the main reason they were stopping by was that they were coming back from a family dinner with leftovers that they wanted to share: a small plate of turkey, stuffing (which I won't eat or cook but Cantropos loves), corn and peas, sweet potato pie, and baked sweet potatoes. We were shocked and delighted.

For today, I am glad I have nowhere to go and nothing to buy until I go to the potluck. Black Friday scares me.

Someone please remind me that I have to eat something (even if it's just a Carnation Breakfast Essentials) when I take my vitamins. The iron makes me nauseated and miserable if I don't.

First of all, the crazy landlord finally got a man here to fix the ceiling. It is the most ghetto fix ever, but if the carpenters weren't completely incompetent, it should not fall down on us in the conceivable future. To celebrate, I am looking forward to the arrival of the DDR pad for my Playstation. We haven't yet ordered the actual game yet. There are only 2 for that platform, and they're kind of hard to find, but not super expensive.

Cantropos stayed home for the duration of the repairs, because we didn't know if Mr. Landlord was going to come by personally, and I still can't be trusted not to shred him on sight. I have no self-control sometimes. We cleaned frantically in the morning, then planned an afternoon of hiding from the work going on in the bedroom, looking after Percycat and playing Dynasty Warriors 5. We got a list of what is needed to do to unlock certain things and tried first for a someone's 4th weapon and then tried for a saddle/harness so that some of the other challenges wouldn't be impossible to do. Some of them require speed from the beginning, and one can't always guarantee a horse will be available to steal. So we got a harness (and this a.m. I unlocked an easier item but it was cool to be able to do so). It's probably for the worse horse, but a horse is a horse. We played, made a veggie stir fry by adding some fresh asparagus to a frozen one, and watched about half of Happy Feet.

I took him to work around 6 and then ran to the library to drop off and renew things, then ran to class. Lots of people stayed late after class, so I just had time to run over to Woodman's and pick up a turkey tube before picking Cantropos up at the end of his shift. So by then I was starved. The McDonald's on the way home was closed (not sure what's up with that - the drivethru is normal 24 hours), and I didn't want Taco Bell because all fast food is salty but TB is salty enough to make me instantly sick. So we ended up at El Burrito Loco where the dining room is open until 1 a.m. on weekdays, 3 a.m. on weekends. We may have to remember this. It was still tacos and likely very bad for me, and compared to TB, the single item choices were more expensive, but there was a wider variety including more authentic choices. I was a wimp and only had a steak taco, but it was a darn good steak taco. Cantropos didn't let me order two things at first, and I was reluctant to order something else and make a charge of just $2, so I left hungry, but it was a nice experience.

Yesterday was just nice overall. This is good, because I have some tough things to do today.

I started a blog on food on HubPages. The plan is to review books (self help books and cookbooks), websites and products with a focus on managing one's diet and life with food sensitivities or allergies. For example (and I am not exaggerating), I am supposed to eat a diet that is very low salt, low fat, high fiber, sugar free and low lactose (milk products). That is harder to manage than it sounds. Websites don't feature recipes that meet all these criteria, and I refuse to eat only raw vegetables. So I was thinking "why isn't there a website for people like me?" and realized that I could make the site. There is only one article up so far.

Yes, I am hoping to make some money off of this. But not from you, at your expense. Reading the articles will only make me feel happy that I've shared. I am excited to be doing this. The first hub (i.e., article) is just a review of my favorite new cookbook, which isn't about low anything kind of cooking, except perhaps low stress. I hope you enjoy it.

We ended up playing Mage instead yesterday, which didn't bother me at all except we'd made the themed food for Call of Cthulu. Mini spaghetti monsters. They weren't that bad to eat. I imagine they were horrible for me health-wise. I also made two more rhubarb pies, because Grendal was all upset when we didn't share the last rhubarb with him. He and his girlfriend couldn't come to gaming, and they couldn't get word to us on time. The monsters were already cooking. So me and Cantropos ate them.

Then we played Mage until my brain'd died. Mage Armand does that to me. To tell the truth, I think his brain was a little dead too. We got to save an entire country (again). As Armand grumbles, It's nice being a major world player and all, but wouldn't it be nice to get some of the perks, too? Like decent transportation and less getting locked up and chased around? The Centaur pointed out that being too famous would let our enemies find us too easily. True fax. But yeesh, this is the only "adventuring" party I've been in that is comprised of 1.5 diplomats, their wives and one nanny and baby. Oh, and a pet. We look like a travelling circus!

This time, I made the crust for the pie with shortening. Just plain shortening, not that butter flavored stuff. And it didn't hold together any better. My crusts were fragile and ugly, but at least the one made with butter was tasty as heck. Now what do I do with this enormous tub of shortening that I have no use for?

Today I am restless, and if I don't find something to do that has visible results, I'm going to tear my hair out.

I had the car today so I went searching for supper. I wanted something Mexican--my favorite things being fajitas and nachos. The problem with wanting Mexican here is that most of it is actually too authentic for my palate. I grew up with Tex Mex. I would kill for an On the Border around here. I haven't had decent nachos since 2003.

But anyway. I kept getting diverted by heavy traffic, and finally ended up at a place I didn't much like the last time I tried it, but that was years ago. So I tried it again. The food was okay. Still too authentic. There was some heavy reddish sauce on my fajitas that I'm not used to seeing. However, I ran across one of the only problems I have with immigrants working in the US. When you work in a restaurant where most of the clientele is going to speak English and you're expected to take orders from them and speak to them, then please learn enough English to get it right! I ordered a Corona with my meal just because it was Cinco de Mayo. When one of the men came by and asked me if I wanted another, I shook my head and said I was having only the one. He brought me another. I can see how he misunderstood, but no one fluent would have made the mistake.

I am not assertive. I couldn't bear the idea of arguing with them that no, I hadn't ordered it and yes, I was sorry it would have to be thrown away, but I wasn't paying for it. So I resigned myself to sitting there a lot longer and drank the damn thing. While I was in the bathroom the bus people stole my lime wedge. At this point, I was nearly in tears, but the worse was yet to come.

Those stupid Coronas coast $4 each. My dinner was $17 before taxes! I haven't been that grumpy unhappy with a meal in ages. Not doing that again. Ever.

Now, I'm from the South. Most restaurants there have sweet tea, even the big chains. But until McDonald's started carrying sweet tea last year I know I couldn't get sweet tea in Rockford except at Golden Corral, whose corporate headquarters is in Raleigh, NC. Cantropos went to pick us up some fast food tonight (the aches and tired just flattened me and I did cook us lunch from scratch earlier today). He came back with a double no cheese and side salad and told me the tea was sweet. I thought maybe it was that raspberry fountain tea they have some places. I was watching "Dark Shadows" on Hulu so I was halfway through the cup before I realized it was real sweet tea. Brewed tea with sugar in it.

Since when have the Wendy's in Northern Illinois had sweet tea? Have they had it all along and I didn't know because it wasn't on the menu?

We are cursedblessed with a surfeit of mini Fig Newtons. Two entire cases! Not boxes. Cases.

I have a little can (8 oz) of oysters, and I was looking for a proportional simple oyster stew recipe. I was thinking of onions, potatoes, oysters, milk and butter... nothing more complicated than that, but with the proper proportions for such a tiny can. There's
only one of me, so huge amounts of soup don't make sense.

Also, I have three tiny (3-6 oz?) cans of salmon that I know are the finely ground kind because I tried to use one last summer. The contents look a bit like potted meat. I thought salmon patties were no more complicated than salmon, onion, egg and bread or cracker crumbs, but I haven't found an online recipe that simple.

And lastly, also salmon, 2 larger cans that may be a different texture. One of them is generic labelled 'pink salmon' and the other is Kroger brand. Both are 14.75 oz cans, and I have no idea what to expect when I open them, much less what to do with them.

You see, I am short of money this month and can't afford to turn my nose up at the oddities in my kitchen cabinets. Any help or ideas out there? I tried to feed a little of the little cans of salmon to my Percy cat, but he didn't think it was food for cats. At least, this time, I'm not trying to find recipes that don't have white flour or eggs in them.