Notes From the Office 13: Rough Times Café

**brushes off the dust and looks around the room**

Wow, this year is one month in and I am still reeling from all the fun of the past few months. As so many of us are finding, times are a-changing. Between the closing of stores, the crumbling of banks and the slashing of jobs I don't know anyone who hasn't been touched by our changing economy. Here at Piker Press we toss ideas around constantly. Some actually stick to the magic board and we then act on them. Rough Times Café is one such idea.

The past four or five meetings -- yes we actually meet about the Press since it can't pop out fully formed from Sand's head weekly without a team -- we've been trying to find a voice for our thoughts, DIY notions and recipes. There have been some really fun titles that we thought would show up on the wrong web searches -- quickly discarded. Putting "Rough" in the title may still do that, but hey, we'll take the readers!

We are embracing the decline of the world as we know it and sharing tips, stretching our skills for living within our means, and recipes as we find them. With the layoffs and cutbacks we all need a little help smoothing the edges and we want to share with our readers. Cheap luxury as it were. There are always things we pick up and do that create that 'ah' moment for us, be it a nice warm bubble bath, a fresh baked loaf of bread, or a walk in the park.

This past weekend I made Cream Puffs. They are not expensive. But there is something sinfully fun about biting into one. You can make them sweet or savory and they even sell them frozen in grocery store for those of you with good coupons and no time.

I built a fire from real wood -- we did some major yard remodeling in the past year for my folks 50th wedding anniversary and kept the hardwood drying for this cold winter -- and savored one of the treats and thought this would make a great start to sharing a recipe. I invite everyone to share with us their tips and ideas. Send your ideas to editor@pikerpress.com . Together we can all get through this mess. One day at a time -- with cream puffs!