I have 100 + cookbooks in my collection. Some times I want to try something new on them but on a limited budget I hate to see ingredients wasted if they don't like it. It is crazy with them. I don't like these flavors together ... I don't like that texture :rolleyes: The only time my fil will eat white meat is if it is roasted on a whole bird. He won't touch an individual piece of white meat. He may eat mac and cheese wonderfully one week and later when you make it again he won't touch it. Once again a pan of expensive ingredients will end up in the dogs pan. Some days I would amost take a $5 pizza and call it dinner they have me so annoyed.

Food prices just continue to get worse.
Our local market always puts chuck roast on sale the first week of the month for $2.99 a pound. Got the flyer the other day and they had gone up to $3.49 a pound sale price. Huge jump in price! Cooking oil had gone up when I got some yesterday. The cheap brand was even up .50 a bottle.

I loath hot weather but I will be glad to see the Farmers Market open back up. Fresh produce to stretch out the food budget.

I don't want to break your bubble Janie - regarding fresh produce - our lettuce is at $2.99 a head already - and it's getting worse - the farmers are also cashing in on this gas crisis - and I blame our president - him and OPEC we don't need. I am paying almost $4.00 gallon for gas - the cheap food stores are charging the prices of regular supermarkets and our supermarkets are going to price themselves right out of business. No one can afford these prices - I know I can't. I'm just glad I can cook - it helps being able to make your own foods cheaper - maybe not that much cheaper with the ways things are today - but I think you know what I mean. Meats have jumped almost $1 pound here.

Mama, I don't know about cashing in on the gas prices. We do farm small scale, about 25 acres. The fuel prices are killing me. Along with the price of most products we use. Seed, fertilizer, are all out of site. And talking with our buyers they never want to pay any more than they did in 1950. The only way I can come out with any profit is to sell to the consumer. And I have way more product than our small town could use. And most people have gardens anyway. I think this will be my last year, I am getting tired anyway. CF:)

That's a shame - many smaller farmers are going to quit because of all this. If something doesn't change soon there is going to be a lot of rioting, robbing, looting, etc. Where I live we have a few small farms and a few big ones - I can't wait to see what happens to them.

Mama my father in law, mother in law and stepfather in law plus a couple of Jon's friends all raise gardens and offer me anything I want. Jon doesnt touch many veg so it doesnt take much to keep me very garden happy. I stop by the farmers market occasionally to flesh out a little more of this or that or see if they have something the others didnt grow.

Our farmers market is 95% local people who live within five miles of town. Jon's brother participates in it every year. Last year they all kept their prices very acceptable. A few of them were more expensive than the local stores but they were people who had gone out of town and bought stuff in bulk to bring here and resale. Our farmers market basically consists of half a dozen local farmers selling their produce out of the back of their trucks in a parking lot in town.

Gas here is $3.59 right now. It was $3.69

I expect with gas prices the farmers market will indeed be through the roof this summer.