Increases

Ugh!

Today is our big errands day.  Every couple of fridays, we do our bulk grocery shopping and general running around.  The girls helped me pick up the groceries, and the total bill was about $75 more than usual.  About $30 of that was stuff we don't buy very often, but at the same time, there were things we normally buy that we didn't need to on this trip.  In fact, the stuff we didn't buy comes out to more than the "extras" we did get this time around.  I'm going to have to totally re-work our budget and find some way to re-direct more into the groceries budget.

Part of our running around today involves getting ready for our pioneer dinner this Sunday.  We picked up a frozen rabbit at a butcher shop.  This particular shop has all kinds of unusual meats, including kangaroo, camel, and musk ox.  Today we saw something different - python!  A little piece about 6 inches long, 3 inches wide and maybe half an inch thick cost $7.50  Ouch.  We saw some alligator, too.  I didn't even look at the price of that.

Cooking the rabbit authenticaly isn't going to take much.  The butcher said to just cut it up and pan fry it, which is pretty much what I was thinking.  I'm tempted to marinade it or something, but that would never have been done in our time period.  There's so little meat, though.  Maybe I should do a rabbit stew, instead.  It was expensive - just over $25 for one - but it still cost less than a bison roast.  I'm not sure that the bison would have given us any more meat for our money, either.

Now we're on the hunt for wild rice.  I used to see it in our usual grocery store, but now I'm just finding it in blends.  There's another place I want to try out before I break down and use one of those.

*sigh*  Time to get off my butt and start on supper.  I'm making hamburgers tonight.  I haven't done that in a long time, and the kids are asking me to. :-)