Text 17805, 157 rader
Skriven 2011-11-15 16:25:54 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
  Kommentar till text 17754 av Sean Dennis (1:18/200)
Ärende: Back to Normal?
=======================
Hi Sean,

 RH> paper. Alternately, if you have a store's loyalty card, they will send
 RH> you an e-mail version of the ads so you can compare prices that way.

 SD> The good thing about Food City is that Maura tends to know what's on
 SD> sale just by the nature of her job.  I do get ads emailed to me from
 SD> Kroger since I have a loyalty card.

Helps to have Maura working at Food City. Does she get an employee
discount on her groceries too? I looked at the Lowe's ad on line last
week as it was not delivered with the paper (several others weren't
either) but we also stopped into the store for a few things and I
grabbed an ad sheet there. They also give .05 credit per $100. spent for
gas at their pumps and Wilco Hess. It's saved us a bit of money off and
on.



Stocking up

 RH> We do that too, if the sale matches the time when we have the money.
 RH> (G)

 SD> We're the same way.

 RH> Some brands of that are better than others--and watch the expiration
 RH> date. Greens don't keep sometimes even to that so buy them with a date
 RH> as far out as possible and use before the date.

 SD> I think I picked out the house brand.  Maura says it's good; I've yet
 SD> to eat that salad.

I tossed some greens today that were past the use by date by a few days;
they smelled vinegary. It was only about a cup or so, so no big loss.


 RH> I'm the same way but the past few weeks I've been up before 8 on
 RH> Saturday. I have a lady's Bible study at church at 9 so we hit the
 RH> farmer's market when it opens at 8 (or shortly thereafter). The study
 RH> ends this week and the market will end its weekly offernings (going to
 RH> bi weekly until first Saturday in April) so I can sleep in.  One perk
 RH> of the early morning getting to the market the past few weeks has been
 RH> hot sausage biscuits (rolls) on sale for $2.00. (G) All antibiotic
 RH> free, hormone free meat and other natural ingredients in the sausage.

 SD> Getting to the farmers' market -always- has benefits for me.  I've
 SD> noticed at the one here some of the sellers will give out "free
 SD> samples" early. :P

We have some that do it as long as they last. We've been at the market
around 10 or 11 and some vendors still have samples. The market goes
from 8-12 but sometimes you have to be really early to catch things. A
couple of weeks ago, our favorite produce lady was cleaned out of most
of her greens by 8:30. This past Saturday she only had a few bags of
spinach; I snagged the next to last one. (G)

 SD> The local Mennonites do a hefty business with their honey and bread
 SD> but their doughnut trailer, featuring freshly-made yeast doughnuts, is
 SD> the one place where there's always a line. :)

I can imagine. We've gone to a Mennonite store in PA on our last couple
of visits to friends up there; they have all sorts of goodies. It's sort
of like a general store, with kitchenware, fabrics (got some for a quilt
or 2), the red heel socks (and other clothing), etc, etc. Could spend
hours (and dollars) in there.

 RH> I'll have to find the recipe I have for a Spanish style roast that
 RH> uses a bit of vinegar. It says to use the cheapest roast you can get;
 RH> the vinegar will tenderise it (and yes, from experience, it does) as
 RH> it cooks. It has tomato, onion, and garlic in, IIRC; I'll try to find
 RH> it in the next few days.

 SD> That's interesting.  I was watching "Cook's Country" on our local PBS
 SD> station and they had a very tasty-looking recipe for making "barbeque"
 SD> brisket in the slow cooker.

We did that a couple of months ago with a recipe Joan McDearmond posted
on here some years ago. It was for doing it on the stove top in 2 steps;
first cooking the beef, then shredding it & adding seasoning, then
cooking some more. Did it in one step in the crock pot--ececpt for
shredding, had to pull it out for that. Recipe called for using some of
the broth made from cooking it in the 2nd step; we used some that I'd
made previously.

 RH> It is a big help there.

 SD> Well, we came into some money and bought one as I mentioned earlier.
 SD> It's pretty empty right now but we're working on stocking it up.  This
 SD> lead me into:

 RH> I batch cook quite often; it's a help with both of us in school and my
 RH> sewing work. I use a lot of Glad-ware or Zip-Lock disposable
 RH> containers but don't dispose of them until they're worn out. They are
 RH> really good for keeping meals in if it's a stew type thing. We have a
 RH> Food Saver and use that a lot too, especially with meats, both raw and
 RH> cooked portions.

 SD> I'm going to ask my mom if we can borrow one of her Foodsavers so I
 SD> can do a whole bunch of batch cooking.  This is getting to be a busy
 SD> time for me during the next three to four weeks with school.  I won't
 SD> have a lot of time to cook.

 SD> But it IS nice having a good stock of meats.

That's for sure! I cooked ahead before I started my radiation
treatments, knowing fatigue was an expected side effect. Didn't use many
of the meals while undergoing treatment but having them afterward was
nice. The fatigue factor kicked in near the end and lasted for several
months at its worst; I still have times when it will hit me again so I
try to have some easy do meals on hand.


 RH> Another help is to keep an inventory of what's in the freezer. I will

 SD> I told Maura that and she agreed with me.  I think I'll try to do that
 SD> this weekend; that will help a lot with meal planning.


Also date things as you put them in, both on the inventory and on the
package. Helps to know what's oldest and needs using first. For things
that go into zip bags, I'll put the (tape) label on the inside before
zipping it if I can. Tape can fall off and you're left with a mystery
package sometimes. (G)  Food Saver bags can be written on directly (I do
it on the part above the seal.) with a Sharpie marker.


 SD> And here's one from UDD's archives:

 SD> MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

 SD>       Title: Crockpot Spare Ribs
 SD>  Categories: Beef, Chilies, Beans, Crockpot
 SD>       Yield: 2 Servings

 SD>       1 lb Beef short ribs
 SD>     1/2 tb Oil
 SD>       1 ts Chilli spice
 SD>       8 oz Can tomato sauce
 SD>     1/2 ts (ea) salt & black pepper
 SD>     1/2 md Onion
 SD>      15 oz Can kidney beans
 SD>       3 cl Chopped garlic

Add some corn bread and potato salad (or mashed) & you've got a good
meal for little work.

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... If you focus only on the thorns you will miss the beauty of the rose.

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)