T-t-t-t-IGH!

Money is tight. Tighter then than a pop tart’s booty shorts.  Yeah. That’s tight, I know.

To help make ends meet while I wait for an opening at Trader Joe’s (somebody quit, already!), I have started working from home at Amazon's Mechanical Turk. My last job was transcribing an interview. Let me just say, if I EVER say “Um,” “You  know,” or something along those lines – just SLAP ME! I’m fairly certain that out of the 2,129 words I typed, over half of them were “uh, you know, “and “um.”

Re

Dic

U

LOUS!

Anyway. Back  to your regularly scheduled blog.

Uh, were was I? Oh! Uh, I know. You know, I just love, uh, Top Ramen. {snickers} I’m done. For now. ;0)

Ok, money. It’s pretty tight right now. That  might sound pretty terrifying to most people.  But I have to say, I’m kind of enjoying it. It means we’re doing it on our own. Like real adults. It's also nice to watch God take care of us on daily basis. And He totally does. J I like that feeling.

Living on an extremely tight budget isn’t as bad as it might sound. Like I said, I’ve been picking up some work at Mechanical Turk to fill in the gaps and yesterday I made my first mini wad of money ( I stress "mini"). So I decided to take Ernie out for dinner. Now when you’re in a killer cash crunch, there’s only a few places at which you can afford to eat.

I swallowed my pride and took my husband out to the only place we could afford.

P.F. Changs.

Yeah. I know, I know. Who wants to eat at a swank Chinese restaurant when you can eat off the dollar menu at McDonald’s? It’s a rough life, but somebody’s got to do it.

I know your sitting there with raised eyebrows. “Tough finances? Really? And you’re eating dinner at P.F. Changs? And you're not using credit cards? Riiiight.” But it’s true – I swear!

Here’s how we did it. We showed up during Happy Hour (and oh happy it was after a week of Top Ramen!) and ordered these delicious chicken salad wraps. Not one order, oh no. We were splurging. (And pretty dang hungry.) We each got our own order. Yeeeeeeeeeah!  Here’s the other secret to eating out on a budget – skip the drinks. I’m not just talking about those zippy little drinks that make the room (and your date) just a little bit prettier. I’m talking about soda. Tea. Coffee. That’s usually an additional $2.50 a person – an extra FIVE FREAKING DOLLARS FOR SUGAR WATER FOR TWO PEOPLE?! I think not. Hold the sugar (and the calories, thank you) and I’ll just have water.

Our grand total, for feeding two hungry people dinner – at P.F. CHANGS – was, are you ready for this?

$10. Ten whole smackers. BOOAYH!!  Did I mention that included a decent tip?

I can so do this tight budget junk.

Mushy Rice

Last night I made dinner. And not to toot my own horn, but it's actually pretty rare that I make something that doesn't turn out fairly well. 


Last night was one of those nights.


I'm not sure if I just added too much water, or if my rice cooker (bless its little pot belly) doesn't do well with Trader Joe's Basmati Rice Medley.  Whatever the case, it came out mushy - not unlike oatmeal, or even cream of wheat. So here I was with a rice cooker full of glop that really wasn't...well, it was gross. 


I just couldn't throw it away. All that lovely rice, carrots, onions and orange peal! I hemmed and hawwed for a little bit before suddenly remember one of my grandmother's more delicious, if not altogether healthier, breakfast foods. Fried cream of wheat. I sat there on my bouncy little kitchen stool, intrigued. 


Why not? It's gloppy enough to stick together. It's got a good flavor. So...why not?


I got so excited at the thought that I rushed through the rest of my dinner, burning my tongue on my mushy rice. I love a good experiment in the kitchen! Or anywhere for that matter. So after we washed and put away the dishes, we got down to business. I just had to rescue this poor rice medley - it deserved so much better.


I rolled the rice out into little balls, then pressed them into patties while my sous-chef cut squares of butcher's paper to stack them on. (On a side not, I know I'm very lucky. Some people have to settle for bland pool boys while I get a sexy sous-chef. Be jealous, ladies. Be very jealous.) Anyway, we got everything mashed, smashed, stacked and stashed and called it good. I still wasn't sure about it all, but i figured, fry anything in enough butter and it will taste like heaven! (You know when the Bible talks about the streets of Heaven being paved in gold? I'm not entirely convinced that it's not butter.)


I even had dreams about it.


I got up this morning, doused the pan in butter, carefully placed my precious patties in the pan and waited. And waited. Annnnd waited. 


Finally the moment arrived. I slid the golden rice cakes onto my plate, the crisp edges crackling merrily. 


Oh.


My. 


GOODNESS!


The flavor, the texture, all of it was sublime. 


So there's my tip of the day - if it's terrible, fry it in copious amounts of butter. :)

Edit: I just had a funny thought - I've redeemed my rice! I took something gross and made it into something oh so tasty. And God is doing the same with me. :) I started out pretty gross, and right now I'm not too terribly delicious, but God is currently mashing and reshaping me (I think Paul used the analogy of clay but rice is more applicable to me). Someday, He'll be finished with me and I'll be positively exquisite.

Until that day, I'll be content to be the rice in His hands.