What did people do without the internet: cooking edition.

I bet every single person reading this has wondered how things were DONE before the internet or has thought back wonderingly to the days when people did still use typewriters, card catalogs, and so forth.

Living in another country only intensifies that feeling.  I've written about my cooking woes on here, but thanks to some practice I've adjusted: I finally found the darned cornstarch, my thoughtful mother is mailing me measuring implements, and I've found quite a few recipes on allrecipes.com that I can manage.  What would I have done if there weren't such a thing as allrecipes.com? Wedged a few heavy cookbooks in my already overweight two suitcases? Troubled my mom or others to mail me recipes? Bought a Croatian-language cookbook and muddled through? (I am looking forward to being able to buy a Croatian cookbook and use it, but it is going to be SLOW going.)

But even allrecipes isn't perfect: maybe I just can't sort effectively, but it seems like most of what's on that site requires too many expensive ingredients.  It seemed like I was spending 70-100 kuna ($14-$20) every time I made dinner.  Fortunately, a quick Google search took me to the very-economical-looking website, Frugal Recipes.  It ain't pretty, but I'm trying an inexpensive green bean recipe from there tonight.  

Through some other mysterious channels of the internet (I followed a chain of links about keeping your maiden name), I came upon the Unintended Housewife, a blog with a title I can relate to.  She posted a recipe for stuffed peppers, which Kristian and I love but which I have only made unsuccessfully, stuffed with leftover barbecue   from a recipe posted by the author of the blog Thrift at Home.  

I'm making that barbecue tonight and planning stuffed peppers (punjene paprike in Croatian) for tomorrow.  Now I'm all set with frugal-cooking resources.  My only remaining cooking woe is that it's around 90 degrees and there is no air-conditioning in the kitchen or even much airflow.  Let me tell you, cooking over a gas stovetop in July is no swell time. That woe will soon be over too, though, because on Saturday we get the keys to our new place!