I feel you, Flossie. These are tough times. Seems every job comes with more added duties than ever, food prices are rising, etc. This last summer was frazzling for me, so I had to alleviate some stress by making easy but great dishes.

My go-to is the veggie cleaner. I always have some leftover vegetation in my fridge that has only a few days of useful life left. Instead of feeling the guilt of turning those goodies into mulch, I throw them all in. Yesterday, I hit my main veggie drawer, freezer and pantry and chopped up a half head of cabbage, some radishes (they are great cooked), I peeled 4 large carrots and sliced them thinly, 5 ribs of celery, two small sweet peppers, two cheapo yellow onions, a mess of spinach, 4 cloves of garlic, frozen okra, some rosemary, a little turmeric and chopped some ginger. Olived oiled a big ole pot and started the celery/carrots/onions and peppers with a little sea salt for love, then add a few splashes of fish sauce, and let it soften a little more. Dumped some water in to reduce, then added the rest of the party. Let it reduce a bit more, then added a nice amount of lamb stock I'd made a week ago and froze. Let her go until all was soft. But in the hand blender and gave her heck. While it was still hot and blended, I then threw in some cilantro and chopped scallions, for texture and finish flavor. I find veggie prep reduces my anxiety.

Anyway, my son hates school lunch, which is pretty awful and $3 a day. Now he takes an apple a banana, homemade trail mix with almonds, walnuts, raisins, peanuts and some chocolate chips. He also brings a thermos of the aforementioned soup. Drinks it by the cup. I bet the whole dealio costs less than $2 and is exactly 5 bazillion times more satisfying and nutritious than the garbage pizza, fried yams, etc. on the school menu.
I have a wife and two bambinos, who will all eat this with gusto.

I hope you persevere over what ails you.

Nice problem to have, farmgal. I live in Hooterville and do the same thing (buy chunks of the animal). If you have some of those cuts with some fat on them, you could make a nice pasta sauce by going low and slow with some tomato sauce, garlic, basil, bit of sugar, bit of salt and both beef and pork. Seal it up in a dutch oven at 200 degrees and let it go forever. Shred the meat up a bit, and you have a good sauce. It was an Anthony Bourdain episode (I forget which of his shows) where he was searching for that classic red sauce that we all used to call "Italian" back in the day. Made it because, like you, I was steaked out and chopped up. My kids went nuts over it, and I was favorably impressed.

This has been a very pleasurable thread for me to read and , though I'm off-topic stating this, the best thing and worst thing about Italian cuisine (as opposed to a French recipe or a German specialty) is that (best thing) the recipe is flexible per the best of available ingredients. Better white wine available than red, go with the white. If given the choice of chicken breast, a la American big box store, I'm taking just about anything else. The bad news, Italian recipes can't be considered in absolute terms. Go ahead and say the original Bolognese uses this or that colored wine. You would be both correct and incorrect. Depends on the quality of the wine, regardless of color. I guess that's what is so enticing about Italian cuisine. In France, the chef steal the show, in Italia, it's the ingredients. Mangia con gusto! Thanks to all who contributed. Oddly enough, the best version I've ever had of this dish was in Merida, Mexico. :)

Never been to one. Had friends who worked in one, though. Good college-kid job. My pal got pelted with tomatoes day in and day out. I hate all that medieval, wanna-be, crap.

I just brew; but remember when the mead mad-dash was on, so I tried some, since I love honey and have access to great honey. I also remembered using in it beer, hoping for that honeyesque sweetness and being disappointed by the added crisp from it. Later found out that honey ferments through more than any other sugar I've used. Thus the crisp instead of sweet. Maybe nasty corn sugar ferments all the way; but yuck, tastes like cardboard. Beginning homebrewers, don't fall for the corn sugar trick!

How many King Richard's have you attended? I had a girlfriend who prodded me and prodded me to go. Thankfully we broke before I succumbed. I'm not a fan of clowns and feared I'd be booked-in if the jester pushed too far.

It might be worth mentioning that mead was more-than-likely the first ever alcohol man has ever tried. Even though honey lasts forever, if stored well; but, if you expose yeast to the perfect sugar, it's going to ferment.

Sounds like a poor man's Lambic. Carefully remove the molded fruit and seal and give 'er a taste. It might be the sought after sour fruit that is so popular with Belgian Lambic fans.

Again, a cheap fermentation lock w/rubber bung would have prevented this and allowed for any additional fermentation to take place without harm.

Taste the stuff. Lambic is covered with mold (Belgian mold) and is a very popular sour noted brew. Sort of the bleu cheese of beer. Maybe you just made the bleu cheese of liqueur.

In zymurgy honey is praised because it ferments all the way through leaving almost no residual sweetness. It ferments very dryly. Mead has an off flavor and is generally produced to appease curiosity more than to sell on a regular basis, IMHO.

My neighbor produces honey and gave me some to make mead a decade ago. I told him "you'll hate it." so I made a gallon for him. He hated it. Gotta add the fruit just to choke it down.

The producers that will sell any sweet mead must surely add some honey, or other sweetener to get any sweetness in that bottle.

Lorenzo is spot-on, here.

Make beer or wine. Mead is a zymurgistic waste of time for most.

Now, I've been pondering trying to ferment maple syrup, or just the maple sap before being reduced to syrup (needs to be reduced 10:1 to make syrup). I have a great source for both. I'm thinking of starting out with 10 gallons of plain sap, reducing to 5.5 or so, cool, pitch yeast (what kind of yeast, though, is the question.)