I don’t know about you but my family hasn’t rushed out to eat at fast food restaurants because of the economic recession like so many reports have been touting, quite the contrary. We are pinching pennies, who isn’t, but in the effort to do just that we are eating out less. By eating at home more we are rediscovering not only each other, but just how good home cooking really was. My son told me the other night he had forgotten just how scrumptious, (his word, not mine), my homemade chicken soup really was! I have a new game that I play comparing how little I actually spend on the ingredients for a home cooked meal as opposed to how much that same meal would cost me dining out. The difference is generally quite a substantial savings; especially when you take into account that several of the ingredients can be used to make several meals. Now when we do indulge and eat out it’s a real treat. In the mean time I’m having a grand time perusing my recipe books and finding my way around the fresh produce and butcher block departments at my local grocers.