I, too, am a bit cash poor at the moment. I made Shepherd's Pie for dinner, which is incredibly easy, and it's fantastic comfort food. Also, the way I make it it contains all 4 essential food groups (although I use fake soy ground beef instead of meat). Getting all of the food groups into one dish makes me feel very efficient.

Neat! They serve Shepherd's Pie at the Irish places along Roosevelt Ave. Never made it myself.

Sounds yummy. (and efficient)

I had buffet food in Atlantic City today (day trip!). It was kind of a lame buffet- no crab, no lobster. That's what you get for $7.99, I guess.

Jason, one of my favorite things to cook is lamb steak marinated in fruit juice and read wine and served on a bed of polenta and topped with sauteed prunes. The polenta mops the flavors up spectuacluarly, and not a drop goes to waste.

Polenta sounds too much like Placenta for me to take it seriously. It may be good food, but it really should be called something else.

It also sounds like the governor of Minnesota

I'm pretty sure I tried cooking polenta once. I was not happy with the result (as usual) but I ate it anyway (as usual).

My nonna makes phenomenal polenta.

My nonna makes phenomenal polenta.

Yeah. Nonnas are good for that!

It was kind of a lame buffet-

Ah, come on! Nobody goes to Atlantic City for the buffet. Sorry it was lame, though.

lamb steak marinated in fruit juice and read wine and served on a bed of polenta and topped with sauteed prunes

Damn. That sounds wonderful! *applause*

Polenta sounds too much like Placenta for me to take it seriously.

?????? I never would have thought of it that way. You can always just call it "grits," I guess.

I was not happy with the result (as usual) but I ate it anyway (as usual).

You really have to put time into it. There's instant polenta, but it's lame. I usually take about forty minutes to do it.

I'm a big fan of grits (i.e., white corn grits) and polenta, but I prefer polenta the next day. Let it cool and harden. Then, cut it into squares and either grill it and serve it with a good tomato sauce, or pan-fry it in butter (yes, butter) and drizzle honey over it.

But white grits are best done with lots of garlic, butter, and smoked cheese. Mmmmmmmm.

Also, I'm sorry I missed the grits thread the first time around.