This is a great article and makes one hell of a lot of sense. My wife and I cook at home just about everyday. It is a great way to be together, have a glass of wine or two together and talk about our day, what we need to do and where we are going. Cooking at home is now part of our lives and it is a great way to enjoy each other's company and rebond from our busy lifestyles. One of our favorite meals that take an hour and change probably 90 minutes total is beer can chicken. Moist, tender and full of flavor every time and fun to do even when we have guests. We use the roaster available at: www.beercanchickenroaster.com, works every time!

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Eating out has ALWAYS been a luxury in our family -- even eating out at McDonalds or Burger King! Rule of thumb: If you can do anything yourself, well, it's always cheaper! Now, I hate peeling potatos -- so I get the Potato Buds at the store. But I'd NEVER buy anything but the basic type....I can add chees and other things by myself! (For home improvements, and other things you're not sure of, however, get professionals if you need them: I once saw a cartoon which featured a new type of business: "Do-It-Yourself-Undoers, Inc." So, if you can change a washer in a faucet, do so....but don't paint your house till you know you can do it!

Also...best cookbooks are the older ones, which feature RECIPES FROM SCRATCH! I'm starting small....with a cake mix....but I also bought some baking powder, so I can progress from there! (Another good book...The Cake Doctor....for semi-home made, "doctored" cakes!) The very first Pillsbury Bake-Off winner, ($1 million), was a "doctored" cake mix receipe!

Same goes for other, non dessert recipes!

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Very good article that all should be practising. In order to save and not waste anything in these times, purchase whole chickens instead of prepackaged parts. It is cheaper per pound. After limbing the bird, I always freeze the backs of the chicken to make soups at a later date. Trust me, a big pot of soup goes a long way.

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Hey, Eating at home is a lot safer also. Have you seen the quality of personel working in the kitchens of America. It's scary. Don't make the cook mad.

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Eat at home folks because you really do not want to know what happens in the kitchens of the best restaurants. Ugh!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4W0qIPJmoo

Please watch this and never fear peeling potato's for any salad or dish again...(PROMISE)
Remember Mary Ann from Gilligans Island..
Well she's a smart cookie and smart cooker to....
Enjoy Folks" a friend in the kitchen & home.....
Listerine in a spay bottle to keep and kill Mosqitos, spay where ever you sit and walk etc. , no more to bite you..
Cheap rubber gloves like hosp's use for cleaning up Dog hair out of couches, chairs and car seats..Wolla!!!!!..Also Dawn dish liquid, a few drops in Dog bath water and fleas gone dead" finished...Rinse dog well after, is all...Have fun this summer

Dona

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Eating at home gets old after time and you get to the point where you DONT want to clean the dishes and the mess anymore so you go out to a restaurant -

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For those of us who have lived this way for years this article is a delight with advice that I hope more will follow. I chuckle over all the investments that supermarkets have made (in their advertising, redesigning of stores' space allotments, etc.) in the past few years to provide more "ready to eat" overpriced foods to lure customers. Perhaps in the future less of the "best of the veggies" will go into the salad bars and back into the fruit and vegetable isles ... less of the prime meats to the restaurants and fast food chains ... just more "real" food for people to prepare in a much safer environment than what they offer. Who needs to pay for that overhead when all you want it clean, fresh, safe food that you actually know WHERE it cam from?
Jackie

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Great article and a long time coming. Not only are we doing all our cooking and eating at home, we are ordering our groceries from the on-line pea=pod and saving a fortune by only ordering what we need and not walking around the supermarket buying things we didn't need or want.

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If all these people avoid resturaunts and hotels about a third of our economy will crash. Most resturaunts other than fast food are independantlly owned. This is where many get there first job, bussing tables, washing dishes, cooking, waitressing.

I eat in resturaunts 3 meals a day, seven days a week, because I travel for a living. The sad part is many are going to cheap chains instead of mom and pop resuraunts. I realize most of the chains are franchise run, but the small 30 seat independant is the backbone of your community

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Anyone who eats out a lot has money to throw away

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Now is the time to eat out and be a good American and support all the small businesses and jump kick this dead economy. Even if you buy a hotdog...you are keeping someone in business and contributing to trade so that we don't all end up on a food line waiting for hours to buy a bag of rice, like in Communist nations. So, be an American and shop!

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BEAT THE RECESSION BY OWNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS FROM HOME....I AM DOING IT AND SO CAN YOU. I WILL HELP YOU. HTTP://WWW.JKMAKINGMONEY.COM

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WELL, SUZIE ORMAN SAID THAT WE COULD HELP THE ECONOMY AND SMALL BUSINESSES BY EATING OUT WHENEVER WE COULD AFFORD IT. I DO AGREE. SHOULD WE LET OUR CITIES BECOME GHOST TOWNS BY STAYING AT HOME AND HIDING UNDER THE COVERS. WE ALWAYS SEEM TO FIND MONEY TO BUY BOOZE AND CIGARETTES.

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