Barbie Doll

So, Caribou Barbie didn't flub anything big last night, spouting the party line and sounding, yanno, like a "real" person, using the vernacular to the max and smiling all the while like a Stepford wife. No, that's Mrs. McCain. Got to keep the roles, straight, ladies.

When she didn't have an answer or want to answer, she talked about something else, usually the Democrats raising taxes. Hammering it home. Hammering it home.

Yada. Yada. Well, that's what a Barbie doll does, is repeat things, right? Remember when Barbie said, "math is hard," and there was a big flap?

Of course the greedy bad men on Wall Street are all Republicans, so I don't know how that goes over. Maybe it plays in Peoria. Granted the financial crisis is hard to understand, but the New York Times had a good understandable article on it this morning. Too bad Mrs. Palin doesn't read newspapers.

I guess she just sits around and waits for someone to tell her what's happening. What it the "someone" lied? Jeez, this is kind of scary.

I'm having my writing group for dinner Monday. This is the menu. Someone is bringing an appetizer, but I don't know what.

Chicken Marbella
Green Beans with Walnuts
Rice

Joan’s Salad

Stuffed Baked Apples
Joan’s Cookies

Come on over if it sounds good. I cut most of the bad fats so nobody will freak out.

Tonight we're having tuna and noodles. I don't use cream of mushroom soup but make a white sauce from scratch and season with onion, green and red peppers and hot pepper flakes. Seasoning is all. We put crushed potato chips on top and bake for a spell. Sounds like a down home recipe hockey moms would go for. I was a hockey mom once, but we didn't call them that, just a mom. We raised kids and didn't "parent." Different world.

Tuesday, I begin a class on Food Writing at Brown University in Providence. And so it goes.

Grapeshot

Pizza ! Pizza!

Have you noticed the price of groceries goes up every time you step foot into the supermarket? Scary, isn't it? Sometimes I make dinner out of whatever is in the pantry plus a couple of frugal purchases. Today it was pizza. I bought 2 plum tomatoes and a box of sliced mushrooms, (on sale) half of which can be used with another entree.

We had a weird mixture of stuff of hand: a little mozzarella, low-fat ricotta, Parmesan curls and shredded Parmesan, somewhat long-in-the-tooth pepperoni. Frozen dough, although it you make your own if costs pennies, but that is, like, work.

So I arranged everything on top of the dough and stuck the whole business in a very hot oven. Was it good! Better than store-bought. Of course I don't stint on the pepperoni or the mushrooms or even the fresh tomatoes.

You can always make soup out of what is on hand or an omelet, too, assuming you have eggs.

When I was in college for a while a bunch of us would get together to cook a weekend dinner at someone's apartment. We bought a bag of noodles, a couple cans of tuna and some peas. Dinner cost mere cents, which left more money for beer. Students know how to get by.

Sometimes when you have the least money is when you have the most. Think about that.