Budget Recipe

So I hate grocery shopping with a passion...but even more I hate spending money on groceries. So I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I can make dinner for cheap and spend as little time at the grocery store as possible. My latest discovery is a recipe from allrecipes.com. It's called kalua pig. Here's the recipe: 1 4ish pound pork butt (pork shoulder), 1 tablespoon sea salt, 1 tablespoon liquid smoke. That's it, really. Now I bought a 10ish pound pork but for about $10, so I cut it in half and froze one half (hence, shortening grocery store trips). Liquid smoke is cheap...and will last forever. Nice sea salt can be expensive, but that will also last you forever. Here's how to make it. Put the meat in the crock pot, sprinkle the salt and liquid smoke over the pork, cook on low for 12 hours. You may notice that the meat looks pretty fatty, so after it's cooked I actually take the time to get all the fat off the meat. I also pour all the juice into a bowl so I can skim all the fat off the top. Then I shred the meat, put it back into the crockpot and add the juice. And I've fed 8 people with this recipe. I've so far served it two ways: on hamburger buns with BBQ sauce and as tacos with a chipotle BBQ coleslaw. You have got to try it.

the quilt from Rwanda

read the post below and this will make sense.

Dinner at the Airport

Jordan and Jessica had a 2 hour layover in Atlanta today so Chris and I took Marta (the train) to the airport and met them for dinner. It was so great to see them and I also was able to give them their slightly late wedding gift...okay almost a year late. I made them a quilt from authentic fabrics from Rwanda (thanks Barb for getting me the fabric). Rwanda is a very special place for them and it was exciting to make the quilt for them. I know Derek, I copied your photo...

Just Finished

The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton. This is a book based on the true story of the mobile library that travels via camels in Africa. You can read more about it here.

Helen

Chris and I took a trip to Helen, GA today. It's about 1 1/2 hours from our house. It is a Bavarian town, I imagine alot like Levenworth, WA. This man was playing a crazy instrument that he had handmade. It reminded me of a dulcimer.T There was even a cute little wedding chapel.We also played miniature golf. Chris won by 3 strokes. We had a bavarian dinner.Of course we had to stop at the fudge shop.

Pioneer Woman

I came across this blog today and spent a great deal of time reading. She's hilarious and has some great ideas. Check it out here.

Thank God for Health Insurance

So the statements have started coming in from all the testing I had done in the last few weeks. So far we're into this $6500!! And that's only for the chest xray, CT scan, and the ultrasound. We haven't even gotten any bills from my primary care doctor or my oncologist. It breaks my heart to know there's people out there that don't have health insurance.