Television Benefit: Melissa D’Arabian and Her Ten Dollar Dinners – Great Food Fast and Cheap

Television.  It can be so good or so bad, depending upon how you use it.  I suppose this is true for most things, now that I think about it.  One of the great things about TV for me, at least, are the cooking shows.  I have truly learned how to cook from watching PBS shows like America’s Test Kitchen and other channel shows (I like Mad Hungry but I don’t follow it regularly).

However, there is one cooking show that I think stands head and shoulders above the rest, from a simplicity perspective.  It delivers on a promise to feed four a complete dinner for ten bucks and with good, tasty food to boot. 

It’s Ten Dollar Dinners with cook Melissa D’Arabian on the Food Network. 

What’s the big deal?

Well, the recipes don’t taste good, they taste great.  And they don’t take many ingredients.  (Good for time and for money.) And they are easy to put together.  It’s simple living in a kitchen. 

Now, you can follow the recipes online or in Melissa D’Arabian’s cookbook and that’s fine.  That will get you there.  There’s an added benefit of watching her TV shows, though.  Maybe more than one.

In her show, where she’s cooking a $10 Dinner on the TV screen, Melissa D’Arabian adds tips and tricks that are great and that you don’t get in the books or recipes.  Thinks like buy up Italian sausage when it’s on sale and freeze it.  Buy milk that’s about to hit its expiration date by going to the grocery store early in the morning (she goes around nine o’clock) – if your family drinks dairy. 

You get the idea, Dear Reader.

I am a big, big fan of Ten Dollar Dinners and Melissa D’Arabian and I think, Dear Reader, you might like what she’s doing, too. 

Tax Problems for Americans Overseas: Expats Seeking a Simple Life Finding Complicated Mess in New Tax Laws – FATCA and FBAR

It’s beyond the scope of this blog to go into all the intricate details of the new tax legislation passed by Congress that is reeking havoc around the world for Americans living abroad.  Besides, the idea of going into all the tax law details just gives me a headache, how about you Dear Reader?

However, for those of us that are living overseas already or who ponder and daydream about living in a foreign land with beautiful vistas, fresh fruit to be picked off the trees, and a cheaper cost of living (especially medical and dental care) … and I suppose for every fan of House Hunters International, there’s big stuff happening now that’s hurting American expats.

It began as an attempt to collect unpaid taxes by the federal government, where officials were concerned with fighting tax evasion.  Laws were passed.  Yes, they are already on the books.  Now, the IRS is implementing those laws through IRS regulations and there’s the rub.

What’s going on with FATCA, FBAR, and the American Expatriate?

Okay first there are two laws involved here: the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act  (FATCA) and the Bank Secrecy Act.  The Bank Secrecy Act requires American citizens living overseas to report their overseas bank account details each year to the Internal Revenue Service by filing Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR). 

FATCA requires foreign banks to report account information to the U.S. government on all their American customers and if the banks don’t do this, then the federal government imposes huge fees upon these foreign banks for failing to comply.  Nevermind that they aren’t American institutions and have their own set of privacy laws, financial regulations, etc. 

The banks are reacting by doing things like ditching their American customers rather than mess with the whole FATCA deal.  Some countries are insulted and are ignoring FATCA (like China). 

Meanwhile, FBAR requirements are causing nightmare situations for expats all over the place.   One good article with lots of real life stories appeared this week in The Atlantic.  Entitled, “The FATCA Chronicles: Tales from China, Canada and Estonia,” this is the third in a series of articles by James Fallows discussing the expat situation and the new laws trying to thwart perceived tax evasion by the feds. 

Problems include American expats who are signatories on foreign business accounts that have no American income following through them; same thing with foreign accounts held by foreign-citizen spouses; and those with dual citizenship. 

For details on what this means to expats, check out GlobalTaxHelp’s FATCA and FBAR summary and follow the blog posts at US Expatriate, written by a CPA whose practice focuses on expatriate tax issues. 

Poached Eggs: Cheap, Fast, and Easy to Cook

First things first, eggs have their critics but ignore them right now because poached eggs are a good thing to know how to cook.  And poached eggs are a great thing to have in your family menu plan. 

They are cheap.  They are easy. And poached eggs can be used in so many ways: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Here’s the thing:  they can be hard to do.  Some say.  I haven’t had a big problem – but I do a couple of things that help.  First, I never think I am so clever at cooking that I can just dump an egg into the water.  I always use a little cup to gently lower the egg into the pool.  One at a time.  Slowly.

Also, I don’t let the water boil … I let the water get just … about … to boiling, then the eggs go into the bath. 

And, I’ve done it without vinegar.  It will work if you don’t have vinegar handy.  (I’ve also used rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, whatever was in the pantry, and things turned out fine.  You so have a taste difference, but that’s not a bad thing.)

Here’s the deal.  Eggs are cheap. Poaching means no fat to cook them.  And the runny centers are KEY to how these things can spark up a salad or a sandwich. 

For more:

Here’s step by step instructions on poaching.

Here’s a recipe for a great salad using poached eggs.

As for sandwiches, I like a runny sandwich (wet, to coin a famous author of murder mysteries).  I like to take great bread, homegrown tomatoes, thinly sliced cheese, some dijon mustard or yes some Miracle Whip or both, lotsa romaine lettuce, and get all that ready for a poached egg to set on top.  Smush together.  The egg oozes.  It’s hot, it’s oh so good.  And doesn’t cost much. 

Yum.