Successes and Failures, in a Basket

So I had a recipe fail this week.  I wanted to recreate Joy the Baker's Simple Roasted Apricots with Honey Mascarpone, but instead of looking like this,

...it came out looking like this.

OK, so some of the ugly appearance may be due to the fact that I'm using my phone's camera rather than a nice one.  I'm still in the market for a new camera to replace my Olympus Stylus that now refuses to turn on, so any suggestions are welcome, especially if you have firsthand experience with a P&S/DSLR hybrid.

A lot of it may be the fact that I did not wait until the apricots were cool to put on the mascarpone, hence the liquidy, blobby mess you see above.  That can easily be avoided next time.  But I think the real problem is that her recipe calls for "a quick blast under the broiler," but I don't really know how to use a broiler!  I thought a quick look on Wikipedia would give me enough information, but when it came time to actually work the oven, I was confused as to why my apricots were getting limp and squishy instead of firm and slightly blackened on top.

So, needless to say, I said, "fork this one."  Both literally and figuratively.  I had this whole entry planned about how Joy the Baker has come into my life and helped to inspire me to write this blog, along with other food blog mavens... but that entry will have to wait until another time, when I can try another of Joy's decadent recipes, hopefully with a little more broiling prowess.

One thing I did manage to make successfully this week was this wonderful creation, made famous by V in "V for Vendetta":

It's an Eggy in a Basket!  I got some quick directions one morning from this recipe on Food.com - extremely simple and quick - and it turned out to be delicious, and not too bad-looking.  I really do need to get a new camera, though.

The Grocery Chronicles

As I stated in my first entry, I am going to make a valiant effort to record my grocery spending, saving, and coupon using in an attempt to see how much I can save, what spending I can cut, and how many coupons I can use in one trip.

I also want to share what resources I use for coupons and sales.  Right now, my favorite site to use (which only applies to you if you live in the south, I apologize) is SouthernSavers.com.  I nearly always shop at Winn Dixie because it's on my way home, and so what I do is go to the Winn Dixie page on Southern Savers, and look at the listing for what's advertised on sale for that week, and right underneath each item, they list where you can find coupons for that item.  So you combine these deals and coupons together, and you can get stuff for very low prices, or even occasionally for free!

I go shopping every other Monday, so that's probably how often these posts will happen.  In the end, I'm trying to raise the PERCENTAGE of my grocery bill that I save (since the total amount saved will inevitably vary from week to week).  An ideal percentage, according to many coupon gurus, is 50% or more.  You want to save more than you spend.  I'm not there yet, but I'm learning.

So here's how I did this week...

Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins (Times Two!)

Of course I had to make my first recipe post about muffins.  The title of this blog is not just an attempt at formulating a clever phrase that may be catchy one day (although that is certainly part of it); it is also an expression of my love for muffins, particularly chocolate chip ones.  Ever since I was young, I have had an affinity for these lovely baked goods.  I ate a muffin nearly every single morning for about a decade.  I never tire of them.  There's something so satisfying about the big kind especially, with the large, mushroomy top that you can pop off with little effort, revealing a soft, moist cylinder of cake underneath.

So, for these reasons, I knew I had to incorporate muffins into my first real post somehow.  I have actually never made muffins myself before.  I have always bought them from my local deli, bakery, and/or grocery store.  But recently, I acquired quite a lot of muffin mix from my local Winn Dixie.  (I say "acquired" rather than "bought," because Winn Dixie had a deal going on through which I got 6 packages of muffin mix fo' free when I bought 3 boxes of General Mills cereal, which we needed anyway.  Love when that happens!)  So I thought I'd take advantage of all the muffin makings I had (and still have) stashed away in my pantry.  But a blog post about adding milk to muffin mix is not very interesting.  So I thought I'd do a wee experiment: I'd make one batch of muffins with the mix, and I'd make one batch from scratch, both the same kind of muffin, and I'd see which tasted better and why.

An Introductionary Tale

Hello!  I'm Laura, and this is the first time I've ever written a blog that is actually about something - other than my own emotions and teenage angst, and I had a surprising amount of that back in my heavy LiveJournaling days.  I'm very excited to start this blog, because during the last year or two, I've begun to think more and more about food, what to eat, how much to eat, where to get it, how to cook it, and last but certainly not least, how to get it cheaply.

So I am planning to have a few categories for my posts:

1. Recipes - I want to try new recipes and expand my cooking repertoire out from where it currently resides, which is in the neighborhood of "very limited."  I did not grow up cooking, I was not taught a whole lot by my mother or my grandmother or my aunt, so I am largely self-taught and am learning as I go.

2. Grocery Diary - I would like to catalogue how much money I spend on food per week, and how much I save.  I want to get more into couponing and bargain shopping and sale hunting, because people who do this save crazy amounts of money, and I know I can do that too, with a little research and guidance.

3. Healthy Food Tips - These posts will be just as much for me as they will be for any readers I may have (if not more so), since I have been trying to educate myself more and more on what is good for me, and what is not good for me, and in what quantities, etc. etc.  Just talking to people I know has made me realize how much confusion there is just surrounding the question of what is healthy and what is awful for you.

Other things like food and drink recommendations may slip in; we'll have to see how things play out.  But for now, these are the things I really want to explore, because if I can get educated in these areas, I believe I will feel at least a little bit better both physically and mentally.  And maybe you will, too, if you join me in my quest for delicious, cheap, healthy food :)