Necessity is the Mother of...

Well, in this case, a fabulous risotto with crab.

It's been one of those months where we keep glancing at our calendar. How many more days until payday? Really? That many? Somehow we managed to muddle up our grocery budget this pay period. Normally I get all the food cash right up front and divvy it out accordingly. And I meant to take out some cash, but ended up just using my debit card. Then, of course, the extra food dough in the bank got spent on various other things.

Which brings us to this week. Five long days until payday and not a scrap of chicken or fish or meat in the freezer. Time to get creative.

Oh, wait, what's that in the ziplock bag? A hunk of pinkish mystery protein. Then it dawned on me--this must be the leftover crab meat from a couple months back when my husband volunteered to go pick up some dinner and came back with 3 gigantic Dungeness crab (why is it that husband's expect us to search for all the sales but when they buy food it's crab or ribeye?? just wondering if that mystery happens in any other households...).

Crab is a pretty fortuous find, you might be saying. With only 2 eggs left, omelets were not going to happen. How about Crab Risotto? My husband is the risotto master in our house. And, more good fortune...I had a big hunk of parmesan in the fridge! Let's get cooking! (It was really wonderful, by the way)

Had it not been for the seemingly unending pay period, I may not have stumbled upon the gold mine of crab before it was freezer burned to death.

More inspiration happened today in the form of some hearty bean soup. Last Christmas I bought what seemed like a keg of beans from Costco. I love making bean soup--especially when I've got a nice ham bone to throw in there. Needless to say, we haven't quite finished off our keg of beans.

Well, no ham bone, but I did have a few slabs of bacon. That should work, I thought. And an onion, and some carrots (well, maybe it was the bottom of a bag of baby carrots that were looking a little rough), more good fortune--a can of crushed tomatoes, a little chili powder and some garlic. Voila! Gourmet bean soup (followed up with some really great homemade biscuits).

So far, so good, I'd have to say. And with a little more bacon in the fridge and those last 2 eggs, I'm thinking Spaghetti Carbonera tomorrow. Mmmmm....

Oh and did I mention that running out of bread forced me to make some of my own? Dang, life is good when poverty leads you to homemade bread, crab risotto, and yummy bean soup!

I feel a cliche coming on here...something about lemons and lemonade, but I'll spare you.

Ciao!