I decided this morning that I can quit buying more expensive travel tissues if I just have something to stock tissues into myself (I’ve been sick a lot this winter, can you tell?).
Lo and behold, I found this super easy sewing project!
This phone photo does not do it justice, but the other night we made some delicious simple lasagna from scratch, coached by Ms. Swanson.
Ingredients:
2 eggs, 2 cups semolina flour for the noodles (<$1)
2 cloves garlic (<$0.20)
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes ($1.79)
lots of mozzarella (~$4.50, we opted out of fresh since it’s all just melting anyway)
handful basil ($1, but ~free if it’s summertime and we can get it from the yard)
parmesan (<$1)
I love having a pasta machine. For under $10, this was a great meal for 5 people.
Lori Stearnes of Omaha also benefited from the generosity of a stranger who paid all but $58 of her $250 layaway bill for toys for her four youngest grandchildren.
Stearnes said she and her husband live paycheck to paycheck, but she plans to use the money she was saving for the toys to help pay for someone else’s layaway.
Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts (AP)
An overall heartwarming piece, but does it make me a jerk that this quote makes me mad? Someone offered this family a break—why didn’t she use the money she’d saved to have savings and maybe help her grandkids with a college fund or pay down the credit card debt she probably has?
AFBF’s 26th annual informal price survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $49.20, a $5.73 price increase from last year’s average of $43.47.
American Farm Bureau Federation (via You Don’t Have to Go Bankrupt Making Thanksgiving Dinner- Jezebel)
Yes, that price is way up, but $4.92/person for Thanksgiving dinner is still pretty good, no? Can everyone just pay their own way?
On a related note, I’m looking forward to our 4th annual friend potluck Thanksgiving.
My posts have been all Tchaikovsky and oat bran lately, but I’ve been doing other things, too! Last weekend was jam packed with fun from start to finish. On Friday night, we went to Giorgio’s Brick Oven and Wine Bar on E 91st and 2nd, and had an amazing time at a wine tasting.
It was a deal from Travelzoo (the first time I’ve ever bought one of these deals) that Mahnaz recommended we all get for just $39 per couple. I had moderate expectations for the price, but it ended up being a fantastic evening! I highly recommend it for a quality 2 hour wine tasting in a fancy bar, especially if you go with fun friends like we did.
My new breakfast jam: Oat Bran!
It’s higher in soluble fiber than regular oatmeal, so I first bought it when a nutritionist recommended it for lowering cholesterol. BUT, today I also discovered that it is much better for my breakfast-at-work routine.
Every morning for the last few months, I’ve been making old-fashioned oatmeal (with steamed apples from our CSA) at home and slopping it into a travel mug to eat at work, so I can avoid the instant packets that are loaded with sugar and other junk. As a result, my oatmeal ends up sitting for at least an hour before I eat it, or sometimes longer if I have meetings, which can lead to a slimy gross breakfast. This morning, I made oat bran with apples instead, and three hours later, is was delicious! It’s a lot like cream of wheat, and with a little milk, is revitalized much more easily than oatmeal. Highly recommended, and one of the cheapest breakfasts around.
Somehow, no-nonsense cooking and eating — roasting a chicken, making a grilled cheese sandwich, scrambling an egg, tossing a salad — must become popular again, and valued not just by hipsters in Brooklyn or locavores in Berkeley. The smart campaign is not to get McDonald’s to serve better food but to get people to see cooking as a joy rather than a burden, or at least as part of a normal life.
ohm my god
- Me: Check out my new yoga outfit from Old Navy that was $10 total!!
- CR: You look like a beautiful yogi; ohm my god!
cruel // st. vincent
download: amazon mp3 | itunes
To celebrate the release of St. Vincent’s new album Strange Mercy, Amazon has the entire album on SALE for only $3.99. Go get it here.
Yeah, I’m paying for Spotify and buying MP3s, too. I’m CRAZZZYY!!!
If you don’t have a dozen tiny ramekins on hand to hold all of your prepped ingredients (one can dream, right?), there’s an easy fix. Use the cups of a muffin tin, each fitted with a liner, to hold small amounts of various ingredients. This method keeps up to 12 well-organized ingredients at hand.
Love this! I’m inclined to do it without the liners to be less wasteful, but I guess that makes it difficult to dump them in. Reuse them?
Urban Chickens: Frugal Fad or Pricey Pastime? (Mint Life)
The conclusion is that they don’t present a significant cost savings, though I don’t think that most people are doing it to be frugal, anyway.
Luckily, my insane bird phobia has prevented me from ever considering such things.
(link via infinitezest)
Big Changes to American Express’s Blue Cash Card (NYT)
Somehow I missed this memo at the end of April, about my top choice Amex card. I’ll have to look into this further and see if it makes sense for me to switch to the new rewards.
