Money Money Money

I'm sure everyone, at some point, has thought about what they'd do if they won "the big" one. The lottery that would make you a wealthy person who wouldn't have to think about $$ for the rest of their lives. 

My mom and I used to talk about this all the time. She had a laundry list of who she'd take care of, who she'd buy houses for, who's education she'd pay for etc. She would, of course, do something for herself, but only after she took care of her kids and grand kids. 

In fact, I remember one time we had a specific amount that she won. She gave all of it away and then some. 

For my part, when we played this game I was always happy to take care of her - buy her house, buy her care, send her on a trip, set her up with $$ for fun. Then I'd do stuff for myself. I rarely found I needed to take care of nieces and nephews etc. 

Now with mom gone, I have to think about what I'd actually do. I find I'm thinking more about taking care of others as well. 

Here's what I'd do...though I reserve the right to not do any of this if I win the big one. <insert snarky smile here>:

1. Buy a home - house/townhouse/condo - whatever.

2. Buy a fancy pants Mustang...I mean a REAL Mustang that growls. 

3. Donate to an animal charity

4. Put some $$ aside for education for any niece or nephew who wanted/needed it. This money would come with a string attached though. I wouldn't want to just give it. I'd pay for education quarter by quarter...not one LUMP sum of money.

5. I'd give each niece/nephew/greats a bit of $$. They'd all get the same amount. No strings attached. They can do whatever they want. 

6. I'd travel... ALOT. I might even bring random people with me.

And it should be stated that if this ever actually happened, the first thing I'd do is get me an accountant and lawyer. I'd want to be more responsible with the money, but it's always fun to pretend you don't have any obligations. 

What would you do?

Mom's Gray Box

I think most my friends know I love to cook. I get that love from my parents. Both mom and dad loved to cook. Both of them also loved to collect recipes - which I too do a lot of! 

When mom passed I brought home her gray recipe box of old recipes. They are handwritten, typed, magazine clippings, etc. Some of them are so amusing that I feel like I have to make them just because. 

Many years ago I came up with a goofy system that would get me cooking a lot of those recipes. I took my spreadsheet of recipes (yes I have a spreadsheet) and printed the recipe names, the cookbook and the page on a piece of paper. I cut them into strips and put them into a jar. 

Weekly I'd pull 4-5 recipes out of the jar. The jar (ok it was a HUGE brandy glass) didn't include anything like appetizers or desserts/cookies. Only items that would be for dinner. 

It got me to try a lot of new recipes, but the maintenance of it was a pain. Every time I added recipes to the spreadsheet, I had to find a way to add them to the jar. Finally, I gave up. I never gave up the spreadsheet though. 

Enter the app Paprika. ALL my recipes are in Paprika. Since most of them are from the Internet these days adding them to Paprika isn't that difficult. I still have the spreadsheet, and now the spreadsheet has the Gray Box recipes and all my recipes are in one place. Gone are the days of cookbooks. 

In order to select recipes, because I like having them random, I turned to friends and asked them to select a number between 1 and whatever the line item is in Excel (somewhere above 1000). That got to be complicated...so I finally realized that there MUST be an app for a random number generator. And sure enough there is. 

So the day before I go shopping, I randomly select 5-7 recipes and then determine which ones I will likely make that week. If it lands on a number of a recipe I've made before, I choose another number. If it lands on a dessert or cookies I make it that week. 

It's fun. It means I try a lot of new recipes. Each recipe I try goes on my cooking blog for others to enjoy. 

It might sound complicated and confusing, but it really does get me to try a bunch of new recipes. My goal this year is 100 new recipes. I figured two new recipes a week on average. I've made 33 so far - and the year is half way over - which means I'd better get on my game and fast. I need to make 11 new recipes a month to hit my goal. 

This week's recipes are all new and I hope all delicious.