I cannot remember if I posted this picture back in April, and I didn’t have the energy to check either.

This is a photo of April’s birthday basket. She is unique and loves a unique combination of items.

You can see the Yoohoo bottles, the Coca-Cola bottles, and the Vienna sausages, but what you cannot see is the jar of peanut butter, the tub of large curd cottage cheese or the 4 pairs of socks that are in the bottom of the bucket.

No, we don’t try to make anything out of those ingredients, and she does not eat them all at the same time either.

My favorite part of Chicken & Dumplings?

The fact my wife makes that dish, so I get a night off from cooking.

Imagine that. Yesterday I posted about being busy, and Chef John posts a delicious recipe for Barbecue Shrimp. This one looks as delicious as it does easy, and being the shrimp lover that I am, I cannot wait to try this one out.

You’ll have to head over to Food Wishes to get the ingredient list.

This past week was filled with “easy to cook” meals because we have been quite busy. Actually, busy is an understatement.

I’ve been posting videos every day covering the House Republican ’staycation’, the kids started back to homeschool, the wife has been working on some projects at night, the day job has me working 8 hours a day, the post office is driving us crazy with textbooks that haven’t arrived, and to top it all off, the Olympics are on every night.

Speaking of the Olympics, have you seen Gymnast Shawn Johnson in Butter?

Now, on with the food.

A couple weeks ago I made some chicken with a new batter recipe. Tonight I made tilapia using that same batter, and I have to say, it was delicious.

I didn’t get pictures (it didn’t come out all that pretty) because tilapia falls apart if you are not careful. It sure was tasty though, and the kids ate. Heck they did more than eat it, they asked for seconds. That NEVER happens in our house.

As you know, we love perogies around here.

The last time we made them, we made 92. This time, we went for a record. Okay, not really, but we did have fun making them.

The young chef of the family and I made 100 perogies (36 for freezing to accompany another dinner later this week), and 64 for eating tonight.

After boiling the first 36, and putting them on a baking sheet in the freezer, we continued making the rest of them.

After dinner, 3 perogies survived. Poor perogies. They sure were delicious.

We love pot roast around here. There used to be a time when a pot roast would last two days around here. Now, with the kids growing faster than Oprah on a binge, one pot roast hardly lasts 30 minutes.

The other night, we took the easy way out when it came to making dinner. As our 7 year old was helping me, he said he had a problem. He said the package of fish filets said it had 10 filets in it, but it didn’t. They were wrong.

Holy crap.

Of course, the potatoes in this photograph are not Yukon Gold potatoes, but you never would have known that by the price we paid this week.

One of the few items we can’t get at our local farmer’s market, are potatoes. Oh sure, they have some small ones, but hardly enough to make a meal in this house, let alone sustain us for a week or two. So we are compelled to purchase our potatoes at the grocery store, and this week was an absolute shock.

A five-pound bag of plain old carbohydrate loaded russet potatoes was $4.47. Last payday we paid $4.28 for 10 pound bag. Now, I will admit, they did have a 10 pound bag for five-something, but some were rotting, they were soft, and well, they just weren’t apetizing.

It took me a while to realize why the cost of potatoes would skyrocket, and of course, it’s the gas prices. I just forgot the fact that they have to truck these babies all the way from Idaho.

So, what’s your shocking food price increase? I know you have one.

Each weekend we make homemade tacos for the kids. Each weekend they devour all of them.

They sure don’t last long.