Lunch: five dollars, fifteen minutes and a crock pot

Last Saturday, my son had his first ever piano recital. We had invited my in-laws to come, and then to return to our house for more piano playing and lunch. Our thought was to make a big sub sandwich with buttorted meats, cheeses and toppings on a giant loaf of French bread. Unfortunately, that was not to be -- I waited too long that a.m. to go to the store, and once I got there, realized I had forgotten my wallet. I did have $5 in my pocket, though, and a good knowledge of what was in the fridge at home.

I bought 4 big baking potatoes, a half gallon of milk, and a big loaf of crusty bread. Fortunately, everything was on sale, because it all came to exactly $5 with tax. Once I got home, I had 15 minutes to make a roux, add milk and bring to a boil, wash, nuke, peel, and chop the potatoes, and throw it all into the crock pot while I fried some bacon and got the baby dressed.

We made it to the recital on time. Tommy played Noel and Antonin Diabelli's Theme, and he did wonderfully. When we got home, the soup had thickened, so I stirred in some shredded cheddar, chopped up some green onions, crumbled the bacon, sliced the bread, and voila, lunch was ready. Tommy played several more songs for us, and we had a very nice lunch, with plenty of soup leftover for Sunday.

Chris