Menu Planning, Making Do, and Making Stuff

(If you're here for Make Do Monday or Make Something Monday, please scroll down!)

You might remember that last week was Mexican Week around here. It was rudely interrupted by Egg Salad Day and German Day. I felt like some brats, so I thawed some from the freezer. Click here for the B.E.S.T brats on the planet. They're proudly made in Bucyrus, Ohio, which in case you didn't know, is the Bratwurst Capital and home of the Bratwurst Festival and also the birthplace of little ole me. Oh how I dreamed of being Miss Bratwurst... being dressed up in old-fashioned German garb, sitting atop of the float, waving that fake wave to the parade goers... ah, but I've digressed.

Back to the bratwurst. We didn't have any bread to go with them, but we did have two half loaves that were stale, so my brain started ticking, and this is what I came up with: Sauerkraut Bread Pudding. As you all know bread pudding can be sweet or savory. My favorite combos are cinnamon apple bread pudding for the sweet side, and cheesy spinach for the savory. I figured that sauerkraut and spinach kind of have the same consistency, so it might work. I could not find any recipes for sauerkraut bread pudding, so I just winged it.

• 6 eggs
  
• 2 cups milk
  
• caraway seed
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper
  
• 10 oz sauerkraut, drained
  
• 1 cup cheese (I actually forgot to add this though I meant to)
  
• about 12 slices dense white and wheat bread (ripped into pieces) though rye would be great for this recipe!

Heat oven to 375.
Whisk together eggs, milk, and spices. Stir in saurkraut, cheese and bread with rubber spatula. Pour into 13X9 baking dish. Bake 45 minutes until knife inserted comes out clean.

I wish I had remembered the cheese. I think this bread pudding was missing something in the taste department, and cheese would have made it much tastier! I don't know what's wrong with me because I also forgot to add cheese to the sausage-bisquick stuff I made last week. It definitely would have been better with the cheese too.

Anyway, for this week I think I'll make some...

• Beef Stew, Burgundy Style to use up two half bottles of red wine
  
• Baked Ziti to use up the opened jar of spaghetti sauce
  
• Texas Style Lasagna because I didn't get around to it last week

Make sure to drop by orgjunkie for more menu planning madness, and leave all the participants lots of bloggy love!

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I have not one, not two, but three things I've done lately that is "making do" in my books. First of all, let me just say that I hate bar soap. It is a big concession for me to use bar soap. I don't like how it feels all slimy. I don't like how it slips out of my hand and goes flying into the sink all the time. I don't like the thought of touching it after someone else has touched it (though that one doesn't really bother me when it's at my house). I've somehow amassed quite a collection of barsoaps, ranging from a shimmery Christmas tree barsoap to barsoaps shaped like frogs to fancy schmancy barsoap that smelled of cinnamon apples. I've broked down and decided that we should use it up! *The crowd goes wild with cheering and applause; throws roses up on stage* Thank you, thank you very much! I'm pretty proud of myself too!

The next way I'm making do is by not buying gray paint when I needed it in the basement. Black paint? Check. White paint? You know that's a big fat check. I think every room in the house has furniture in it that's been spruced up with a fresh coat of white paint. Black + White= free gray paint. Mind you, the gray that I created didn't quite match the gray of the paneling, however it matched good enough for a basement!

Finally, I bring you the ugliest ceiling fan on the planet. I've been patiently putting up with this fugly fan for seven years and counting. I cringe every time I see it. It turns on all by itself (I'm not kidding) so either I have a ghost who is afraid of the dark or it's malfunctioning... (You may have noticed the picture is missing. That's because the ceiling fan is so ugly that my camera broke when I was photographing it. Either that or my house is so messy that I cannot find my camera, Ahem.)

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Here’s a little something that I made last week: introducing the pretty-in-pink piggy bank! I got the idea over at Nosey Nest and thought they were so cute that I just had to make one for my son. Hopefully he won’t have a complex about the pink, but pigs are supposed to be pink, you know?! All I have left to do with this little piglet is place some velcro under the flap so that she will stay closed. Do you have some pink fabric and a free hour? If so, you should totally make this!


I think I'm so enamored with my piggy that I'm going to have to get one of these