Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I love bacon so much that when invited to other people's houses for brunch I bring bacon just in case they weren't thinking of making any. I love bacon so much I have actually made and eaten bacon maple ice cream.

My condolences on your impending loss.

On the Lebanese side of my family someone always bring lamb and green bean stew and a pot of rice. It's great at room temperature and such a comfort. At my grandfather's funeral someone bought it and all of us felt it was like the first real meal we'd had in days after all the cold cuts, cookies, etc.

@janaatwg you did nothing wrong. Miss Manners says showers are the ONLY party where you are actually expected to bring a gift since the main purpose of the party is to shower the bride or mother to be with gifts.

I do find the pay to come birthday party kind of tacky. What if the birthday person's best friend is out of work and can't afford the $20/person?

mussels in garlic cream cheese sauce or shrimp with garlic pepper sauce and a little white wine.

So I"m confused is it you only spend $30/week after you stocked up your pantry before starting this? Or do you only eat $30 worth of food per week? Did you figure in the cost of joining a co-op into your weekly budget? How about a CSA? I used to obsessively read posts about people who fed a family of 6 on $100/week with four growing children and then I realized they didn't count non food items or they didn't count what they had in their pantry, or they didn't count their CSA pickup, etc., etc.

We do things to save money like buying in bulk where possible, buying cheaper cuts of meat, stocking up on pantry items at Trader Joe's when we go to Massachusetts. We could save a lot of money if we didn't drink beer or coffee. We go picking strawberries, blueberries, raspberries during the summer and freeze a bunch. I freeze tomato sauce as well and make my own stock so 1 chicken feeds a family of 3 for usually 2 dinners, a lunch and then whatever I use the stock for. Make breadcrumbs from old bread, etc. A lot of good suggestions I've gotten have come from The New English Kitchen by Rose Prince.

I would be interested in seeing more of a study on how much people spend on food and food related items over the course of an entire year, including CSA, co-op membership charges, etc I always got the feeling reading those virtuous posts that in the end they didn't really spend that much less money than I did if you actually factor everything in.

Love Liberte. Buy here in Vermont all of the time. Was very sad when I went to their website and found all sort of flavors that they don't carry here. However I was sort of glad that they discontinued the bigger containers of the flavored ones b/c I was able to finish them in one sitting.

I live in Vermont. Pretty ridiculous since vegetarian doesn't mean healthier. Not to mention we're pretty pro-local food up here which is pretty difficult to do in this climate if you don't eat meat. But if PETA wants to alienate us hippie, commie socialists they're doing a good job. BCBS is the health insurance for all of the teachers in Vermont.