Eating

Could be winter's solution to the corn and tomato problem. When you can't get the sweet, fresh stuff, use the sweet preserved stuff. Great versions of cornmeal and canned tomatoes.

An outside-in pizza. A pizza sandwich. Use your hands or a fork and knife. A great prosciutto-mozzarella-parmigiano pizza for $2. Delicious. Easy to make. Easy to handle. Perfect for a party. Way to be.

This classic flavor combination on a pizza crust is a perfect example of Better being Cheaper. Not just a great $2 pizza. A great pizza, period.

In South Carolina, USA, they eat a lot of Hoppin' John this week. Rice and black-eyed peas. Brings good luck for the New Year. In this version, American Southern cooking meets Italian cuisine. I feel lucky already.

The last course of the last meal of the year. Out with a bang. A warm, soft semi-sweet one. Spectacular in your mouth, with or without Champagne.

Waste not, want not. Save those orange peels and make this great sweet snack. Sweet and tart at the same time. Hey, serve it at midnight with Champagne. Very sophisticated. And free.

Garbanzos fritos. The best bar snack in town. They're addictive. They're cheap and easy. Refried chickpeas lightly coated with pimentón. $2 for a superior snack laced with protein, iron and Vitamins B and C. Enough for four snackers.

Better Cheaper finger food. The tastiest, healthiest slider at the party. Intensely flavorful. Vividly colorful. One beet makes twenty. Twenty cents of ingredients makes one. Ten minutes of your time makes twenty of them.

For about $4.25 in ingredients and 12 minutes of your time, you get five or six dozen of the best cookies ever. And something that's in the running for Best Homemade Christmas Gift Ever. Bake a dozen. Give the rest of the dough as a gift that keeps on baking.