Menu plan for the week of April 18

 When I went to the grocery store last week, there were zero hot dog buns.  Zero.  What a random thing to be out of stock, right?  All of the other regularly stocked breads were there.  There were no hot dog buns, so I decided to make my own.

I've attempted hot dog buns in the past, but haven't really had much success.  I mean, I've succeeded in making something that kinda looks like buns, and it does the job, but the family hasn't been impressed with my efforts.

So I found a new recipe, with a new shaping method, and made the buns*.  They look good--like hot dog buns.  I'm pretty sure they taste good, too**.  But I'm also pretty sure my family will prefer the el-cheapo hot dog buns from the grocery store that they're used to.  It's good, though, to be able to make my own versions of items that I'm not able to find in the grocery store.  I feel like it doesn't even occur to most people to even try.

I also didn't find panko bread crumbs at the grocery store last week.  I am so glad I didn't, because the recipe called for 4 T of crumbs, and I would have purchased probably 12 ounces of crumbs, which is significantly more than 4 T.  And then the extra crumbs would have sat in my cupboard for months, or possibly years, getting stale, while I looked at them every couple of weeks and told myself I should figure out how to use them up.  It would have never, ever occurred to me that I could make my own if they'd been in stock at my store***.

Here's what's on the menu for this week:

Supper:

• FFS
• Tacos
• Easy beef stroganoff, corn, applesauce
• FFS
• Pizza casserole, broccoli
• Hamburgers or hot dogs, buns, chips, carrots
• Grilled chicken, salad, mixed veggies

Other:

• Ham stock
• Ham & bean soup
• Muffins
• Mini waffles--gonna do some with sprinkles this time.  Not sure how the natives will feel about that.
• Death cookie

* * * * *

* I made 10, instead of the 9 called for in the recipe, because the math**** was easier.

** The reason I don't know whether or not they taste good is because we haven't tried them yet.  We need 6 or 7 buns when we have hot dogs and brats for supper, and we already had 6 in the freezer.  I wanted to buy more just in case we needed a 7th, so when I couldn't buy any, I made some.  We did not, in fact, need a 7th this time.

*** So easy!  And easy to make just the amount I needed.

**** Yup, I weighed the dough to help me divide it evenly.  I rarely do that, but it seemed important in this instance.