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J.D.’s note: Even if you’re unwilling to take all of the steps Daiko did to save money, implementing just a few of them can help you cut your food budget. Also, another cheap beginner’s cookbook with simple recipes is Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.

We lunched at the Kings hotel, which I recommend, in Chipping Campden. We chatted up the bartender who introduced us to the classic, if not cliche, British spirit – Pimm's #1. He suggested we try it with Lemonade and of course, we deferred.

TThis post is in response to a post over at Oh, the Joys, where readers are asked to submit a recipe for “something with vegetables” and it must be “fresh.” The starter recipe on OTJ is for “Jackass Gazpacho” (recipe name is apparently an inside joke with OTJ) and my comment to her was something to the effect that it did not resemble at all the gazpacho that I make, and have made over the years, based on nearly a quarter of a century of living in Spain. And as much as I hate to say it, the gazpacho I have had in restaurants here in the U.S. has one big fault: it tastes like tomato juice.

Well, in my never ending quest for more things food I picked up a copy of the latest Food & Wine. I have to admit, I am a foodie, but not a wine drinker, so some of this magazine may be lost on me. To start I really enjoy the indexes that this magazine includes - one for all of the recipes and one for all of the wines. I really think it is great that they link the wines to a recipe in the issue.

Since tis the time that most people start rethinking their finances with upcoming taxes, you'll pretty soon see that cooking for yourself rather than eating out all the time is a key part of getting your budget under control. But what if you’re a self proclaimed "non-chef" or have a long -hour job? Then what? . Running a bed and breakfast, almost 100% of our meals are cooked from scratch, by me. This did not happen overnight, that’s for sure.