Frugalista?

I have a really bad habit of paying all my bills in the first 2 weeks of the month. Actually- revise- the first week of the month.

Which is why today is the 7th and I have no money. I payed All my bills. For the entire month.

What was I thinking!?

And this seems to happen every month. But part of starting this blog was about reinventing myself as a productive happy person. A person who does things. All the time. And is happy about it.

Part of being broke is that you can't go as many places- but certain things are already paid for. I can (and do) call my mother to talk for hours- the bill is paid! Hulu is certainly a much needed present. And my house is full of crap. Strike that- potential craft materials!

So, Martha, I took pictures of my lunch today which I will post with the delicious recipe (Fall Pasta with an onion, leek, butter ricotta sauce over whole wheat tortellini!) at a later date. But today, on my brokest of days, I was stupidly awesomely productive.

Today I:
-cleaned out my craft closet!
-Sold things on craigslist!
-Listed a ton of things on craigslist I didn't sell! But might!
-Baked a white cake with hand-shaved chocolate flakes inside and a chocolate ganache topping
-Baked banana nut bread
-Made an amazing lunch
-Watched a lot of Hulu
-Watched a lot more Hulu with my best friend Jenn
-Started an incredible fall wreath using recycled magazines (pics to come of this too!)
-Ate dinner with my favorite man (he cooked) and roped him into helping me work on my wreath
-Spoke on the phone with several interesting people

That feels very productive.

Martha Stewart, I can make broke into glam and crafty and productive- let's hang out!

Fall Foods- Polenta!

So to start... I learned a lot about cooking polenta today!

By doing it wrong!

So I'm super excited to tell you my new favorite ways to eat polenta that don't taste icky.

I started by pan-frying the polenta. Cook a little chunk at a time at first- cut off just a bit of the loaf (yes, loaf!) and test temperatures. It should crisp on the outside and get a little transparent but it should not be see-through (that's when you know you're doing it wrong! Turn up the temp!)

Toss a thin layer of oil (I used plain old vegetable oil because I wanted to taste the polenta not a heavily flavored oil like rich olive oil) in a pan that's big enough to hold a few slices of polenta but not so tight that you don't have room to flip the polenta with a spatula. Test your temps. If you over cook it you can use a towel to pull some of the oil out but it's still greasy polenta.

My new favorite way is to broil it! I tossed it on a layer of foil in the pan and broiled the polenta on high. When the polenta gets a round puffy top that is lightly toasted pull it out and flip it and toss it back it. The polenta will get a little airbubble between the polenta skin and the inside and it's awesome.

I tossed a ton of butter (really, when you've added 2 tablespoons... you might as well add 2 more!) with spinach, onions, mushrooms and basil and caramelized. The sauce is from a jar (Classico was on sale!) and tastes so good with the other flavors. I also like to cold with the warm polenta and veggies. Nice mouth contrasts.

Martha Stewart- this is day two of my petition: Invite me to New York, let's make a MSL episode and have fun! I can cook, dance, and am a hell of a lot of fun!