Extracurricular Food Shopping

This isn't exactly part of our grocery budget, but it's cheaper than plane tickets!

The Irish Coffee Shop in Upper Darby has some of our favorite foods from Ireland.

For myself, I chose a tub of Dairygold and a Curlywurly.  I was pretty restrained!

Gerry got himself a VAT of HP sauce!

 And I talked him into a can of mushy peas.  Just one.

Our Food Plan, Part Four

So far, my food plan posts have covered salvage stores, Aldi, and local places.  Has anyone been wondering if we ever go to a regular ol' grocery store?  Yep, we sure do, but there are only a few things we get there regularly: organic milk, bananas, peanut butter, good pretzels, and King Arthur flour.  If we're in a bind, yeah, we'll grab a loaf of bread or a bag of chips or something, but generally we leave with just a few things in one bag.  In, out, done.

This whole scheme of ours has just sort of evolved.  I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who think the whole thing is crazy--run around to all those stores?  No thanks!  But it isn't something we do every week or put a lot of thought into.  We just stop at the stores or farm stands when we're already in the area and stock up on what we need.  And not needing many coupons saves us a BUNCH of time!  We buy good quality stuff at a reasonable price without epic visits to the supermarket.  Perfect!

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Speaking of epic visits to the supermarket...all bets are off when we're on vacation.  Exploring supermarkets is one of our favorite things to do when we go somewhere new.  We love to see how they're set up, what products they carry, how things are packaged, etc.  Grocery store geeks!

Twas the Night Before...

Ready for St. Patrick's Day?



Food Plan, Part Three

Part three of our food procurement plan (haha!) is, of course, local farms.  If you've ever clicked over to the other blog, you've seen all the beautiful vegetables we received as members of a CSA, first in the summer of 2008 and then again last summer.  It was a wonderful experience both times, but some summers are busier than others, so we opt in and out depending on our schedules. 

We are lucky in that there are plenty of local farms around to supply us with fresh fruits and vegetables.  After our experience with the CSA, we tend to eat a bit more seasonally than we did in the past.  I wait until spring for the absolutely delicious strawberries grown right down the street instead of buying the huge, flavorless ones at the grocery store in December.  And when it's apple season locally, we go through pounds and pounds of apples every week. 

Also, a few years ago, Gerry made the decision to switch to local meat sources in an effort to avoid all the nasties associated with commercial meat production.  I have to admit, I am always hoping he'll give up meat entirely, but it doesn't look like that will ever happen.  He does eat less meat now that he is paying more for it, so that's a good thing. 

Now I don't mean to give the impression that we are super hardcore about buying local.  We have the pineapple and bananas in our kitchen right now to prove we aren't!  We try to shop thoughtfully, though, and it's important to both of us to support local farmers and businesses when we can!

Food Plan, Part Two

An Aldi near Alicante, Spain.

I know people who love Aldi, and I know people who cringe at the mention of it.  Which one are you?

Gerry was very wary of Aldi when I first dragged him into one.  He reacted to the unfamiliar labels and inexpensive prices the way he would to a "Rollex" watch or a "Burburry" raincoat. To him, there was a taint of second-rate about the place, and he was in no hurry to go back. 

It took a trip to Ireland to change his mind.  Lidl was new in town.  Knowing we a) love to visit grocery stores and b) love a bargain, all the cousins were urging us to check it out.  Off we went, expecting a store along the lines of Costco.  Instead, we found a store quite like Aldi!

And this is when Gerry experienced his conversion.  We were walking through a store full of unfamiliar labels, but it didn't feel weird, because you expect things to be different in a foreign country.  The labels in conventional supermarkets were different too, and we didn't automatically assume there must be something wrong with them, so why did we assume something was wrong with the products at Aldi?
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I read Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette books years and years ago, and there's one thing that always stuck with me.  In speaking about brand name foods, she said (and I can't believe I was able to find this quote), "Just because a brand tastes different, it doesn't mean it tastes worse." 
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The thing we like best about Aldi is that it's easy.  The store is small, selection is limited, and it's quick. We are in and out in fifteen minutes.  There are no coupons to worry about, and everyday prices are good.  We've been happy with the quality of almost everything we've tried. 

So what do we buy at Aldi?
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Snacks.  I love my salty crunchies, and junk food is junk food.  I might as well save some money when I get the urge for cheezy doodles.

Cereal.  A dependable place for reasonably priced cereal.  We avoid anything containing high fructose corn syrup.

Cheese.  All kinds. 

Selected produce.  Citrus doesn't grow in Pennsylvania, so our lemons and oranges usually come from Aldi.  (The oranges have been absolutely heavenly this year, too.) 

Frozen vegetables and fruits.  Fresh and local just doesn't always happen.  For the sake of convenience, there are usually a few bags of frozen veg in our freezer.  Gerry loves the broccoli and says the corn and peas are always good too.  The bags of frozen fruit are great for smoothies.

Breads.  Now that they've removed HFCS from many of their breads, we sometimes grab a loaf if we're craving mushy peanut butter sandwiches.  The take and bake loaves are also nice to have around, because they have a long shelf life. 

Non-foods.  I like their tissues, and their dishwasher detergent is phosphate-free. 

Specialty/holiday items:  The windmill cookies they get at Christmastime are wonderful, and Ger has enjoyed some of the German specialties they get twice a year. 

Others:  White sugar for when raw sugar won't do, masa, canned pinto beans, saltine crackers, frozen french fries, real-fruit frozen pops.

You can see this still isn't everything we need, as there is no mention of milk, eggs, meat, fresh produce, etc.  Again, it's all about saving on some things so we can spend on others.  Yes, there are still a few more links in our food chain!  Up next: Shopping local.

How about you?  Are you an Aldi shopper?  What are your favorite products?

Our Food Plan, Part One

We aren't following any No-Thing New rules when it comes to food.  Convenience foods are allowed, eating out is allowed once a week, and expensive chocolates are allowed. 

Although our food shopping patterns have stayed the same, they aren't very typical.  If you read the blog regularly and pay attention (hehe!), you've already had glimpses of this.  Back when I was spouting off about coupons, I mentioned Aldi and salvage stores.  We also had our CSA adventures which I cover over at the other blog. We don't avoid conventional grocery stores entirely, but our use of them is limited.

One of the links in our food chain is salvage stores or grocery outlets as they are sometimes called.  They aren't the most glamorous places to shop, and inventories vary wildly, but I can almost always count on finding a few things.  How about cereal for under $1.50 per box?  And this is just the kind of cereal I want, not complete bird food, but free of high fructose corn syrup.  I made the photo extra large so you can see both the prices and the date stamps.  Yes, "Best by" dates may be tight, but there is not a thing wrong with that.  Just use common sense.

I am a big fan of salty snacks, but I have a rule:  They may not cost more than 20 cents per ounce.  This bag of pretzels (the best brand of pretzels in the world) wouldn't have qualified at $2.19.

Were you wondering what was marked 2 for $1.00?  Stella D'oro Margherites!  Gerry usually takes care of baked goods around here, but for that price, we couldn't pass them up.  And the Kashi cereal?  $2.49 is a little more than I'll usually pay, but that is a $5.49 box of cereal, and it's delicious.

Saving this money on convenience foods means we have more of our grocery budget left for the fresh stuff, without having to waste time with coupons!  Up next: Where Aldi fits in.

Yum

Oh.  My.  Goodness.

Would you look at what my friend made?

The details are amazing!

And the cookies are quite delicious as well!

I think even I could handle these simpler ones.

The spool cookie cutter is available through Foose Tinsmithing.

Foose is a local company I love to support!

I found the button-shaped cookie cutter at Fancy Flours.

Oh my.  There are some VERY cute cookie cutters there that are made to perch on the rim of a mug. 

Howdy, ya'll!

This is my 600th post, if you can believe it. They certainly haven't been coming fast and furious lately! I've been a little preoccupied with the kittens, the food blog, and just trying to get to a place where I feel on top of things around the house. Today, though, I was thinking that I used to use the blog as motivation to get things done. There was throwing out fifty things, which I could easily do again! And my First Quilt Ever! which would still be fabric in a Jo-Ann's bag if I hadn't been blogging about it.

So I think I am going to go back there and launch some new projects. First up is cleaning out my closet, which I got started on today. That's the pile of summertime skirts I have ready to put away in the attic. Don't the girls remind you of The Princess and the Pea?

I will be back with a post tomorrow outlining the closet project AND, in celebration of my 600th post, I am also going to have a giveaway!

Huckleberry Pie

Huckleberry Pie from Aunt Betty

2 1/2 cups berries

2 tablespoons tapioca

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

lemon juice

1 tablespoon butter

Bake 425 degrees.

45 minutes.

The lemon juice amount is obscured, but comparing the recipe to this one I found online, it looks like you only need about a teaspoon.

The Recipe Project

A few weeks ago, when I was writing about my Grams' hankies, I started to mull over the idea of putting together a book of family recipes. Rather than just making photocopies and stapling the lot together, or typing everything into a Word document, I want to try to recreate the feeling of poking through the actual cookbooks and recipe cards.

I asked my mom to get some things together for me, and she presented me with the pile you see pictured above. To put it mildly, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I've already called my mom three times to ask questions about the recipes and clarify things, and I'm more overwhelmed and confused than ever! "Where are the pierogies?" I asked. Her reply? "In that spiral bound book, only I don't do them that way." "What about caraway seed soup?" "That should be in an envelope." To get this right, we're going to need to sit down and do this together with everything in one place!

Just to give you a taste of what's to come, this is a recipe for barbecue sauce, written by my Aunt Betty:

Fry onions and celery in some grease. Chip the beef into it. Add catsup and worcestershire sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper.

But, my mom says, this isn't the GOOD recipe for barbeque sauce. That's in the green cookbook which she didn't give me. So stay tuned. Someday I may actually get this all straightened out!

Paws for Greens

I know Isabella has many fans at Darling Petunia, so I couldn't resist sharing this video I made for my CSA blog with all of you over here. We found out about her love of green stuff back in 2008 when we first signed up for the CSA. We would put our bags down on the floor, and Isabella would help herself to a taste of this, a bit of that, whatever her heart desired.

Now that our Is has been diagnosed with iabetes, we have to pay close attention to what she eats. This is a treat we can let her enjoy without worrying!

Toasty

"Okay," you're thinking, "She's gone completely 'round the bend. She took a picture of bread toasting." Yep...yep, I did.


Because I got my dream toaster! I have been coveting one of these babies for years, and when we started sprucing up the kitchen, the toaster lust awakened. It was back, worse than ever. Every piece of toast I made in our old toaster just reminded me of what could be. I hate to admit it, but my love affair with my vintage 1968 Proctor-Silex was over. Its every flaw was magnified. I wanted to trade in my old model for a new one. I wanted a trophy toaster. I was sneaking peeks at the Dualit website after my husband went to sleep.



Oh my. Two slice? Four slice? And what color? Red? Or is there already too much red in the kitchen? Cobalt blue? NO, I told myself. You cannot spend that kind of money on a toaster. But wait...maybe a used one? From ebay? Thus began my toaster stalking. Drat! Missed out on a blue one! Curses! Forgot to bid on a silver one! In frustration, I turned to Buy it Now and started eyeing refurbs. But which one? Hmm, white? Yes, white would be nice. Three slice? That's not something you see every day. With a cage for toasting sandwiches? Yes, please! And so the Combi became mine.

My inaugural piece of toast got a little dark for my tastes, but look how even it is! The only way to get toast that even in the old toaster was to flip it over halfway through.



Piece number two: Just the way I like it.

Gearing Up

We haven't started getting our shares from the CSA yet, but we are starting to get in the groove with some other locally-grown vegetables. Isn't it all just beautiful?

If you've ever thought about joining a CSA, I would urge you to try it. If you have no idea how a CSA works, check out my other blog where my husband and I wrote about the whole experience a few years ago. It was pretty humorous at times, considering I am a reluctant veggie eater!

We're giving it another go this year, and we'd love it if you followed along. We're especially interested in hearing about favorite, tried-and-true recipes or ways of preparing things. For instance, we haven't done much grilling with vegetables, so we'll be looking for advice when the time comes. There will be field trips (literally), food-related movie and book reviews, and Isabella makes regular appearances over there, as she loves chomping on green leaves whenever she gets a chance!

Vegging Out

I'm over at my other blog, talking about veggies today.

Don't they look delicious?

Plans

Uh oh. Guess what we're doing again this summer!

I Didn't Hate It

Know what that is? An empty bowl of oatmeal. Know where it went? In my tummy. Why is this news? Because I am an oatmeal hater. Yes, that's right: I have tried oatmeal a couple of times, and I hated it so much I vowed to never subject myself to that mess again.

Then I got sick and started craving things to warm me up from the inside out. And what doesn't sound good about a warm, toasty bowl of cinnamon-sprinkled oatmeal laced with raisins or bits of apple? Oh, that's right, the gluey, mushy oatmeal part.

But the craving persisted. Finally, I confessed to my husband: I think I want to try something. He had to ask me three or four times, "What?" before I squeaked out, "Oatmeal." I kid you not, I was so reluctant to tell him, you'd have thought I was confessing to adultery. I was sure he'd tease me, because he remembers how badly my last two oatmeal-eating attempts went.

To his credit, he didn't tease me TOO much. He may have mumbled something about wallpaper paste, but then he went oatmeal shopping with me and helped me pick. Of course once we saw the words "Irish Style" on a package, our minds were made up. We like everything else about Ireland, why not the oatmeal?

So I gave it another shot. I'm not sure what I did differently this time, but I liked the results much more. Instead of being gloppy, it turned out kind of like an oatmeal cookie when it's fresh out of the oven and hasn't set up yet. I stirred in a few of the giant raisins from Trader Joe's, a dash of Domino Sugar 'n Cinnamon, and gave it a try.

And I didn't hate it. It may not have been oatmeal the way it usually is, but it worked for me, so I consider that a success! Next I want to get Gerry to try it, because I think this might change his mind about wallpa...I mean oatmeal too.

How do you make your oatmeal? What are your favorite additions?

Moroccan Cuisine

After dropping off our things at the riad, we headed to Djemaa el Fna. Of course we did. Read anything about Marrakech, and it's inevitable they'll mention this famous square.

If there was anything my husband was looking forward to on this trip, it was the food stalls at D-e-F. I wanted to go shopping in the souks, he wanted to eat goat head. Well, he never did get around to the goat head, but he sampled a few things that first night as we wandered through the rows of stalls which sprout up every night. One thing he was told not to miss: snails, shown above.

Because rows of virtually identical stalls are arranged side by side, the vendors relentlessly try to engage you. Menus are thrust in front of you as you pass, and shouts of "Excuse me!" or "Do you know Jamie Oliver?" ring out from every direction. Jamie did indeed visit Marrakech:

In the end it wasn't a menu, an invitation, or an inquiry about my nationality that got my attention. It was french fries.

As we walked past this stall, the proprietor was emptying basket after basket of freshly cooked fries into a bowl. I had my tush on his bench in an instant.

As it turns out, it was sort of the Moroccan version of a fish and chips shop. Okay, maybe I was just starving, being fresh off the plane and beside myself with excitement about finally being in Marrakech, but...

...those fries were delicious. Freshy cut, piping hot, generously salted. That's my kind of Moroccan cuisine.

Speaking of Moroccan cuisine, a special thanks to the two wonderful ladies at the riad who keep the place sparkling clean and whip up the fabulous meals, Oumhani and Zakia.

Refresh

This is heaven. This is something that doesn't exist in my grocer's freezer. This is pink grapefruit sorbetto. There is no high fructose corn syrup lurking in that bowl.

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This is just what I wanted. I'd been drifting over to the freezer section everytime we went to the market, but everything was full of artificial this or unpronouncable that or, of course, the ubiquitous HFCS.

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So what is it? Fresh grapefruit juice. Water. Raw sugar. Why sorbetto and not just sorbet? Because it's one of the few Italian words I know...along with gelato...and it conjures memories of our trip last Summer.

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Next up? Peach. I must have peach.

Get Yocco'd

If you ever come to visit me and Gerry, one place we're sure to take you is...

...Yocco's: the Hot Dog King. If President Obama came to visit? We'd go to Yocco's. If the Queen came to visit? We'd take her to Yocco's. If the Dalai...okay, maybe not.

There are six Yocco's restaurants in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, but the one we go to most often is on Hamilton Boulevard, in Allentown.

This is where I went with my big brothers when I was a kid, and it remains my favorite location.

So what's the big deal with Yocco's? Hot dogs and fast service?

Is that why people stand in a line which often stretches out the door?

Yocco's is just a unique experience, beginning with ordering. One person takes your drink order; someone else will call down for your food order. Now don't screw up! Make sure you give your order clearly and completely, or you'll be pegged as a neophyte. Now I'm not saying anyone working there currently is like this, but...

No soup for you!

The menu has not changed much over the years. Fries and pierogies used to come in only one size, but I'm not sure what else has changed, because we always get the same thing, and it seems like everyone else does, too. (Okay, I admit, we don't do the popular chocolate milk and chili dog combination.)

The world-famous Yocco's hot dog. I'm probably not the best person to talk about hot dogs, though, as I've never eaten one, so I asked my husband what's so great about a Yocco dog. He said, "It's the sauce." Okay, he said more than that, but it didn't mean much to me as a vegetarian, so I refer you to the Roadfood website for more hot dog info.


Anyway, while we're waiting in line, we can check out the map...

...and see what the hot dog is wearing. Baseball season is coming, so he'll be holding a bat pretty soon!

Ah, finally we're at the head of the line! Our order is being put together.

Oh. My. Goodness. That's a lotta weiners.

I couldn't even get pictures of them making these dogs. They were just pushing them out lickety split. It's like a ballet or something, the way they assemble these orders.

A work of art.

In fact, that's so beautiful, here it is from a different angle. (By now, I was getting some strange looks from the other customers. "Friggin' tourists," I'm sure they were thinking.)

("Wonder what country they're from. Haven't they ever seen a pierogie before?")

The fried stuff is WONDERFUL. This is something about which I know a thing or two. Always hot, always perfectly cooked to goldencrispytendersalty perfection. I had an order of fries and a pierogie with an order of fries and a pierogie for dessert.

If you prefer something more traditional for dessert, there's a nice range of Tastykakes. (Get the peanut butter Kandy Kakes.)