March 10-11, getting very crafty

Yesterday was not a very exciting day for food, so I decided this was a good day for a double post. We did have cantaloupe for breakfast for the past three days, and that was really lovely. I got one for 98 cents at Meijer, a good deal for that much yummy fruit, even if you have to wait a few days for it. The internet tells me that cantaloupes in stores at this time of year are from Mexico, an area that has decreased in price and increased in quality over the past few years. I'm always curious when all the stores have the same fruit on sale when it doesn't seem like they'd be in season.

Lunch was leftover penne casserole, and dinner was grilled cheese and tomato rice soup. I don't know why, but I am no good at grilled cheese. Anyone should be able to make grilled cheese. It's everyman survival food, but I have never gotten the hang of it. I managed to burn two of them black and had to peel them apart, put on a new piece of bread, and try again. The tomato rice soup was good, though. Tomato rice soup is the only appropriate side dish for grilled cheese (and the only way to eat it is dipped), but this was the first time I tried doctoring the much-cheaper tomato soup into tomato rice soup. I had a third of a cup of rice left in my old bag, so I popped it in the cooker with two thirds cup plus a tablespoon of water. Let that cook up, dumped it in the diluted soup, and warmed it all up. Easy peasy. We ate out on the patio for the first time this year. I love when the weather gets nice, but before there are any bugs. It's just perfect.

Today, though, today was a very special food day. I barely ate anything all day (bad for the plan! Bad Cori!)because I was saving up for one of my all-time favorite meals, sauerkraut, sausage, and dumplings. This is another dish passed down through my grandmother through my mom, who I had to call for an emergency consultation during the preparation. I got a nice big rope of beef sausage for 1.50 on my last shopping trip, so this dinner was preordained. It's very cheap. I used two cans of Kroger sauerkraut because I couldn't find Frank's anywhere, and made my own faux Bisquick for the dumplings. The whole meal cost maybe three bucks. Unfortunately M hates sauerkraut and dumplings, so he would have been left with a meal of only sausages. Longtime readers may recall that in my very first daily food post, I wrote how I did not make cheesy biscuits from a mix for Valentines Day. That came in handy, as I made them up tonight for M, creating a tasty and filling dinner. We ate early and both had a late night snack of ramen and cream cheese, which is terrible for us, but oh-so-good. I did laundry today, heavy stuff like jeans, so I don't feel too bad. 

For the past few days, I've been learning a lot of new knitting techniques. I have several large balls of baby yarn leftover from some blankets I did in law school (the yarn is pink, the baby was a boy), so I decided to learn to knit baby stuff. Baby stuff is awesome becaue, except for blankets, it's all instant gratification. I mean in four days, I managed to learn and make two booties, two mitties, and a hat, all while learning things like crocheting chains, making eyelet rows, making and attaching pompoms, and "ribbing without screwing it all up." Since I don't know any babies right now, I think I'll donate these to a hospital or something like that, some place that has babies that need clothes. For the meantime, though, Mr. Woebear is looking mighty sharp! I'm sure I'll do more of these, they're simple and fast and I can do them while I watch my nightly news and humor roundup on the internet. What could be better?