Rhubarb! (again!)

In my TANSTAAFL post, I mentioned rhubarb as a "practically" free local (northcentral PA) food.  As a general rule, you want to pick your rhubarb mid-May, before it flowers.  If you notice that it's already flowered, all is not lost; just harvest it as soon as you can.

My daughter helped me harvest my plant this year.  You break off the stems as close to the dirt as you can, and break off the leaf.  Then, wash your stems and rub the dirt off (similar to celery or carrots) and dice into pieces.  I usually cut mine into half-inch long chunks, "sideways" (perpendicular to the direction of the stem).  Then, I (usually) bag and freeze it.  My mother's rhubarb crisp recipe is here, and today, on my day off from work, I made a rhubarb pie.

Pork chops

The number one meat in this house is chicken.  Second is beef.  Third is fish.  And fourth is pork.  I don't know why, but for some reason I didn't eat a lot of pork growing up.  Well, bacon.  But not chops or loin or any of the meatier cuts.  So I don't think of "pork" when I'm considering what to make for dinner.  In fact, the only reason I served it tonight is because I bought it on sale, froze it whole in the family-sized pack, and found it when I was digging around my deep freezer, looking for "something different". 

A 3-pound pack may not seem like a lot, but these are sirloin chops: No bone, very little fat, so these 3 pounds of meat are almost all meat. There were five "steaks" in this pack (technically a sirloin chop - but that's what they're talking about when they say "pork steaks") and these five totaled 2.96 pounds, so we're talking roughly 9.5 ounce steaks.  An "adult serving" steak in a restaurant is usually 7 ounces, with "larger" steaks being 9 ounces.  So these are large pork steaks.  I had to thaw them in my sink since the styrofoam pack was too big for my microwave.

To cook them, I put the five steaks in a glass cake pan, topped with a half a stick of butter, sliced thinly and placed on top, then salt, pepper, garlic, and generic "italian seasoning".  I put the pan in the oven set at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  I did not "pre-heat" the oven so some of that 20 minutes was the oven heating up, but I felt this would help thaw the steaks as I'm sure they were still frozen in the middle.  When the timer went, I reset the timer for an additional 10 minutes, and began work on the sides: baked potatoes and green peas.

The potatoes I did first, baked in the microwave.  To do this, scrub the outside of the potatoes, to remove dirt, then put them still wet on a microwave-safe plate, and nuke for 4-5 minutes.  Then flip them over, re-wet if necessary, and nuke for another 4-5 minutes.  Baked potatoes are done when a fork goes smoothly into the center of the potato.  Or you can just cut the biggest one open down the middle and make sure it's baked.  I baked 5 because they should all be roughly the same size, and the kids won't eat a large baked potato, so I did a small one for each kid and 2 small ones for me.

Then, when they were done, I cooked the peas, also in the microwave, with just a little butter and no seasonings.  Sometimes I put dill on my peas, or garlic salt, but tonight I just used butter.  These only take 3 minutes on high.  You don't want them turning to mush.

By now, the timer on the oven had beeped twice, alerting me that the chops were done, but I left them in the oven.  They looked done but I figured they weren't going to burn in an additional 3 minutes, and I didn't want them getting cold while the peas were cooking.  I was right, by the way.  They did not burn.

As I said, these were large pork steaks, and my two bigger kids split one, while my youngest just a bit off of mine (as in, I had an "adult sized" 7-ounce steak, and he had about a third of that, taking my "extra" 2.5 ounces) to go with his potato and peas.  The kids had milk to drink.  And out of the "family pack" I had 3 left-over steaks for another night. I ended up not eating the extra potato so I put one steak, along with the extra peas, on the potato's plate and wrapping with saran wrap for a pre-set dinner one of these nights.  The other two steaks I wrapped in tin foil, to serve another night.

For dessert we ate rhubarb crisp, made with rhubarb picked last week.  I've modified my mother's recipe, and this is how I make it now:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place 4 cups of diced rhubarb in an ungreased 8x8 brownie pan.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 and a half cups of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 3/4 cups flour, 3/4 cups raw oats, and 1 tsp of cinnamon.  In a microwave-safe bowl, melt 1/2 cup of margarine, and mix that into the flour mixture to make crumbs.

Cover the rhubarb with the crumb mixture and bake the pan 40-50 minutes, until the crumb topping begins to brown.

When the timer sounds after 40 minutes, I remove the pan from the oven and push the topping down into the rhubarb juices with the flat end of the spoon, then put it back in, as the original recipe says, until the topping begins to brown.

Also, my mother's original recip omits the oats and has the margarine at only 1/3 cup.  But I've modified it to taste, and I like it this way.  Rhubarb itself is a sour plant, and is only likeable in this house with large quantities of sugar.  However, if you've got a member of your household that loves sour, you can cut the sugar in half and it comes out tasting like a green granny smith apple pie.

 

The crisp should cool to at least "slightly warm" before you eat it so you don't burn your tongue,

 because it's deliciousness is such that, once it is tasted,

you will burn your tongue rather than stop eating.

Hot Rhubarb:  Turning ordinary people into Homer Simpson.

Tonight's total: (actually slightly less than) half a pack of pork steaks: $2.93.  Half a bag of  (not on sale when I bought them, so I had to pay full price - grumble, grumble)  peas: $1.45.  Potatoes: (3 dollars a bag, I figured I used about 1/4 of the bag) $0.75, and rhubarb crisp: (rhubarb was free but "crumb topping" cost an indeterminable amount, I'm just gonna round up and guess $2.  Certainly less than $2).  Total then is $7.13.  Far less than $10 and still have 3 steaks to use up. 

Awesomesauce.

Steak Diane (but not really)

Steak Diane is a French dish made with mushrooms, stir-fry steak, and seasonings.  My older sister learned this recipe as part of her high school French class, and shared it with the family.  The reason this is "not really" steak diane is because our family has since modified the recipe to suit our own tastes, most noticably removing the mushrooms.

We begin tonight with some crazy cheap steak.  Occasionally, you can find steak this cheap, and when I do, I buy tons of it and freeze it.  On the one hand, it's crazy cheap, but, on the other hand, it's not usually good for grilling.  It's a thinner cut than a "grilling steak".  It's good for stir-fry, however, or steak-and-potato soup, or something like that.  This chunk cost me 6.76, and was HUGE.  (enough to feed my whole family and one adult guest)

I diced the frozen steak and put it in a frying pan.  I added 2 beef bullion cubes (normally 1 but 2 tonight because there was soooo much meat here), some thyme (recipe calls for 1/4 tsp), basil (ditto), garlic (about 1tsp canned garlic), salt (1/2 tsp), pepper (1/2 tsp), rosemary (1/4 tsp), half of a small diced onion, and just a dash of cayenne pepper.  If you wish, you can add a small can of mushroom pieces.  I also added 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of butter, put the lid on, and let it slowly cook over medium-low into absolute deliciousness.

This stir-fry, like any stir-fry, can be served over rice or pasta. I like it over mashed potatoes, but was almost out of potatoes. I had exactly four of them, all puny. So I made them, but didn't bother to "mash" them, just served them boiled and cut into small chunks.

 I knew this wouldn't be enough, so I also boiled some orzo, which is a pasta that looks like rice. In the food groups, it's considered a grain. 

I put my base on my plate, put 4-5 strips of steak on top, and pour on the seasoned buttery goodness (also known as "sauce")  Another difference: actual steak diane has a thickened sauce, where the beef is removed from the pan and flour is added to the seasoned buttery goodness while it's still over the stove, mashed and stirred in to make it more like a gravy and less like, well, sauce.  I, personally, like mine dripping with butter, so that's how I serve it.

The orzo was $2 a box, but I only had half a box left, and the cost of the potatoes was negligible, say 50 cents, tops.  Dessert was ice cream cones, previously calculated here at 38 cents a cone.  Since I had a guest, there were 5 cones, making dessert $1.90.  So, $6.76 (steak) + $1 (orzo) + $0.50 (potatoes) + $1.90 (ice cream) = $10.16, so I went over my $10 limit, but fed one extra person.

 

Peeling Potatoes!

I was hanging out with a friend tonight, when she told me she had to peel potatoes for potato salad. I offered to help and she said, "I have to cook them first." 

Now, I kind of gave her my "confused cocker spaniel look" where I tilt my head to one side and raise my eyebrows. Thankfully, she elaborated.  She asked me if I'd ever heard this joke:

A woman is preparing a pork loin and she slices off either end, puts it in her pan, and puts it in the oven.  Her husband asks why, and she replies, "I don't know; that's just the way my mother always did it."  So, she calls up her mother, and asks her why she always cut the ends off the roast.  Her mother replies, "I don't know, that's just the way gran always did it."  So the woman calls up her gran and asks why she always cut the ends off the roast.  

Her gran replies, "Because my pan was too small."

I have always peeled and diced my potatoes raw, then cooked them.  Cooking the potatoes, then cooling them off in cold water, then peeling and dicing them, is WAY easier.  I couldn't comprehend why I hadn't thought of this, but it was just the way my mother always did it. 

Fried Dough (for dessert) with something or other for food

The decision to make pizza for dinner tonight was actually based on my decision for dessert.  Ever since our evening at the Maple Festival, the kids have been clamoring for some fried dough.  Fried dough is very easy to make, and my pizza crust recipe (actually Betty Crocker's pizza crust recipe - to give credit where credit is due) makes enough dough for 2 pizzas.  So I usually take the extra dough and make cinnamon rolls.  Tonight, it will be fried. But first, there must be pizza. 

I spent 6 years, on and off, working as a short-order cook and waitress at Original Italian Pizza.  

As a result, I am rather particular about pizza.  Especially the toppings.  

I feel like I have some mystical ability.  Someone will announce that they're ordering pizza, and I'll volunteer a set of toppings, and there will be unanimous agreement.  Unless my dad is present.  He wants what he wants.


Tonight's was a "garlic pizza", made with roughly
1/4c "butter spread", 1 heaping teaspoon garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning, mixed separately and spread on top of the pizza crust, which I then topped with cheese.

Betty Crocker's pizza recipe is: Mix 1 c. flour with 1 packet (or 2 and 1/4 teaspoons, if you buy bulk, which I do) of instant yeast, and 1 tsp of salt and 1 tbsp of sugar.  I actually make it 1.5 tbsp of sugar, because I like my dough a little sweeter, and 2.5 tsp of yeast, because I like my dough a little fatter.  Add 1 cup of warm (but not hot) water and 3 tbsp oil.  Put in a cake mixer on medium speed and add between 1 and 2 and a half MORE cups of flour gradually, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go, until the dough sticks to the beaters completely and there's nothing left on the sides of the bowl.  Then, remove it from the bowl and knead it on a counter top that you've also covered with flour.  Knead for at least 5 minutes.  (You might want to knead a little more vigorously than my Emily here...She's kneading somewhat casually...)  When it's done, it should feel spongy and not sticky.  If your dough is sticky, put more flour on the counter and knead some more.  Split the dough into two balls (makes enough for 2 crusts, or 1 crust and 1 dessert) and coat each ball with oil (just pour some in your palm and rub it all over the ball, or spray it with baking spray.  

Flatten the dough balls into dough disks (maybe an inch thick) and put them back in your mixing bowl.  The oil will keep the two balls from sticking to each other.  Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour.  IF you don't have cling wrap that will stay on the sides of your bowl (because you DON'T want it to dry out) you can cover it with cheap saran wrap and then cover that with a plastic bag, folding the edge of the bag under the bowl.  

This is a "Pizzazz" (a wedding present from a good friend, Rebecca Stamilio).  It was an "as seen on TV" item back in 2002.  I have no idea where you'd even find one now.  I suppose normal people bake pizza in the oven at some number of degrees for some number of minutes.  I have no idea because I have one of THESE.

(ha ha)

Pizza was served with a simple salad of lettuce leaves and diced apples, with choice of dressing, followed by the amazing, the incredible, FRIED DOUGH!!!!!

o

Just spread out the dough as if you're making mini-pizzas, float them in the hot oil (remove the basket from the fryer if you're using one, or just heat oil in a frying pan), remove the hot dough with thongs, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  You can also use cinnamon and sugar or cinnamon and powdered sugar.  Normally, I just sprinkle it on with a spoon, straight out of the canister.  Tonight, I tried to put it in a salt shaker.  That was a big mess with small returns, seeing as how the powdered sugar clumped together and clogged up the holes and I had to keep tapping it to get any out, and how I had to dirty a funnel to pour it in to begin with.  Then I ended up pouring it back in my larger canister afterwards, but I had to wash my salt shaker, and then fill it back up with salt, just to get back to where I'd started.

So if you're doing this at home, my recommendation is to just spoon it out of the bag and sprinkle it on.

Tonight's total is tricky because the homemade dough is difficult to calculate.  However, I'm going to do it this way: A 5-pound bag of flour can make 10 times this recipe (20 pizzas), and usually costs $4.  I would also need to buy a whole bag of sugar ($2.50) and a whole bag of yeast (although I wouldn't use the whole bag) at ($3), and a bulk bag of mozzerella cheese (which I buy quite often, actually) is $16.  So it would cost me $25.50 to make 10 times this recipe, putting it at roughly $2.55 per pizza + dough.  The salad is the same thing.  A whole head of lettuce, which makes enough salad to feed my family of 4 on 2 different nights, is usually less than $2 (actually about $1.59 when it's not on sale), so the lettuce for tonight was less than $1.  Even assuming the cost of the garlic, butter, seasonings, and salad dressing weren't included here, the total cost of dough, cheese, and lettuce was roughly $3.50, so it's safe to assume that tonight's dinner was under $10.  I'm going to go so far as to say under $5, since we didn't even have pepperoni on the pizza.

Friday Night Fish Fry

As I've said before, my daughter loves seafood, but it is often prohibitively expensive.  During Lent, grocery stores often have deals on fish fillets, but I prefer my own recipe to the frozen patties.  I will, however, buy frozen fish when it's on sale, and save it in my freezer until we want some.  This was one of those nights.  The fish was advertised as "haddock fillets, $3.29/lb", but when I asked at the store, I had to buy $20 worth of fish: 6 individually wrapped 1-lb packets, sold in a box for $19.75.  So I bought a whole box, for the sake of the deal.  Fish is normally between $7 and $8 per pound, so this was a really good deal. 

So, to prepare my fish, I run it under cold water until I can peel off the plastic wrapper, but the fish itself is still frozen.  If you are under water conservation guidelines, you can thaw it in the microwave or in a pot of water.  I mix generic unseasoned bread crumbs (you can also make your own by toasting bread, then putting it in a blender) with old bay seafood seasoning.  I put 1 egg for every pound of fish in the right bowl, cut the fish into "fish stick" sized pieces, and put them in the "egg" bowl.  Coat the fish in raw egg, then coat the fish/egg in crumbs/seasoning.  This will get your fingers very messy.  Any unused egg, which usually has some small pieces of raw fish in it, can be stirred in with the crumbs and be molded into "crab cakes" (minus the actual crab).  My mom always called them "hush puppies", and gave them to the dog.  My kids like them well enough, but aren't crazy about them. 

The fish sticks and hush puppies can now be deep fried.  I served these with french fries (also deep fried, not baked, because, hey, my fryer is already on) and applesauce.  The fries I purchased bulk from Best Buy Foods (across from Charles Cole Hospital on Rte 6) so I can only guess that I used roughly $1 worth of fries, and the applesauce was $2.65 for 3 pounds; we ate about half the container.  So my cost for tonight was $3.29 worth of fish, $1.33 worth of applesauce, $1 worth of fries, and maybe $1 worth of bread crumbs and eggs, for a grand total of

$6.62 

Leftover Chicken Meat

Occasionally, you can get a cheap whole Roasting Chicken.  This one was purchased last week, and I cooked it for my family of four. 

We ate the meat from one breast and one thigh. What this meant for my family was leftovers.

I used the meat from the remaining thigh and the wings to make Chicken Cacciatore.  This left me with one breast.

So, I have several ideas for the last of this chicken meat, which can be used on top of salads, ground up and mixed with mayo to make chicken salad, or frozen for a future occasion.  I made chicken burgers with mine.  Right now, however, I'm just going to share with you how to prepare this chicken for future use.  This may seem obvious, but I would not have known how to prepare chicken were it not for my big sister teaching me 6 years ago, after my daughter's baptismal party left me with half of a leftover turkey.

1. Remove the chicken from the bones.  You can do this immediately after everyone is done eating on day 1, or wait a day or two until you've had enough chicken to satisfy your tastes for a while.  I've already passed that point.  I just took the chilled chicken out of the fridge and removed it from the bone with my fingers.  If you're squeamish, you can buy "dietary gloves", like what they use in your local deli when preparing food.

2.  Dice or Shred it.  Because you don't often use leftover chicken as an entire breast, I dice or shred it when I remove it from the bone.  This gives you "bite sized pieces" for future use.  If you shred it finely, and mix it with raw egg and italian mix, you can form it into patties for chicken burgers.  This is what I did with mine.

3.  Store it.  You can freeze cooked chicken meat in zipper baggies, or, if you plan to use it within 2 or 3 days, you can store it in a sealed container in your fridge.  I placed my chicken burgers with my beef burgers in between 2 sheets of waxed paper, on a cookie sheet, in my freezer.  The single breast that I had left gave me enough chicken meat (mixed with 2 eggs and about a tbsp of generic "italian seasoning") to form into 3 patties.  Since I have a family of 4, I will probably serve the kids the regular burgers and save the chicken patties for myself.

Chicken Cacciatore

I used some leftover chicken meat from last week's Maple Glazed Chicken to make Chicken Cacciatore.

Now, Chicken Cacciatore is, basically, chicken cooked stir-fry style with stewed tomatoes and onions, served over spaghetti noodles.  The "leftover" chicken meat needed for this recipe was all taken from the wings and legs, leaving me still with one all-white breast for another day.  And a pile of bones.  And some very greasy fingers. 

To this pan (if I had to guess I'd say about a pound of dark chicken meat) I added a can of tomatoes, half an onion, and what was left of this bag of diced green peppers.  I also sprinkled on some generic "Italian Seasoning" and added a chicken bullion cube and some cayenne pepper for spice.

The can of tomatoes was $1.79 but the chicken, peppers, and onion was "using up leftovers" so the price was negligable, say, another 50 cents, tops. 

I let this steaming pile of awesome simmer for about 8 minutes, or about as long as it took to cook my spaghetti.

 You can serve chicken cacciatore over any kind of pasta.  My kids like spaghetti.  Oddly enough, my oldest said he wanted his chicken "on the side", and the others followed suit. Dessert was a 99cent chocolate cake mix with homemade peanut butter icing.

 

The spaghetti was 99 cents a box, and we only used 1/2 of a box.  So my price total is: $1.79 tomatoes, 50 cents pasta, 50 cents "extras", and $1.50 dessert.  (I added 50 cents as an estimate for the cost of the homemade PB icing on the cake).  Total is $4.29.  But a word to the wise: This recipe made WAY too much.  I gave away two servings to my neighbors even after we'd had seconds.

Bueno Sera

(Good Night)

Not my usual Maple Glazed Chicken

This last weekend was Coudersport's "Maple Festival". We spent about $40. The kids rode the Ferris Wheel, bounced in the inflatable castle, and, of course, ate "festival food". I bought maple candy, shaped like little leaves. I must be getting old because it tastes too sweet. 

 

Anyway, this is one of my favorite maple-involved recipes.  To anyone who says huh? My response is "It's like honey glazed chicken, but with maple instead of honey."  And then there's the "oh", which I interpret to mean "oh, that's not as freaky as it sounded at first, I guess".

I still guestimate, and just pour it on, but the ratio is 2 parts maple syrup to 1 part vinegar, mixed in a larger cup.  Shake salt and pepper on the raw chicken, then pour on the vinegar/syrup mix.  In order to save money, I usually use maple-flavored syrup, which, yes, is cheating if you live in Potter County, but I don't usually advertise the fact.  And I use real syrup if I happen to recieve it as a gift, which I occasionally do, since I live in Potter County.  I put the chicken in my ceramic pot and put it in the oven at 350 for an hour and a half.  In other words, I followed the directions on the package.

These chickens are on sale right now for 88 cents a pound at Costas Sure Fine Foods on Rte 6 in Coudersport, so I bought a 6-pound chicken for under $6.  My family only ate half of the chicken tonight (actually a little less than half) so we will have extra chicken meat to use in another recipe.  I strip the extra meat from the bones, cut it into chunks, and use it in stir-fry, or soup, or chicken salad sandwiches (my daughter's personal favorite use for leftover chicken meat)  I will calculate that I cooked $5.49 worth of chicken tonight, though, and consider the leftovers "free" when I use them.

For a side dish I usually serve peas, but the broccholi/cauliflower mix that I served before was on sale when I bought the chicken, at only $1 a bag (it's usually $1.79), and the peas were $2.49 a bag.  Since I was out of peas, and the broccholi was so cheap, I bought 2 bags for my freezer.  Last time, I only used half of a bag, so tonight I used the other half.  For dessert, I usually serve apple crisp, but my kids ate all the apples in my fridge, so I made peanut butter no bake cookies.  The recipe I use is as follows: 

Mix 2 cups of sugar, 1/4 cup margarine, and 1/2 cup milk in a saucepan.  Measure out 3 cups of oats and set aside in a largish bowl or cup (Hint: leftover Sheetz or Fast-food plastic 36 oz cups hold just about exactly 3 cups of oats)  Also measure out 1 cup of Peanut Butter and 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract and set aside in a smallish bowl.  If you're lazy, like me, you can just leave the peanut butter in the measuring cup and the spoon of vanilla in the measuring spoon until you're ready to use it.  Put a sheet of waxed paper down on a cookie sheet.  This is where you'll be scooping the molten cookies at superhero-level speeds.  Now, if everything is ready, heat the sugar, margarine, and milk in a pan over medium-high heat (7 out of 10) into a "rolling boil": that is, until it's boiling and the bubbles can't be "stirred down".  It usually takes my stove 4-6 minutes to get to this point.  When it's boiling, now is when you move fast: remove it from the stovetop, stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until it's melted (just a few strokes, remember, this stuff will cool into dessert ROCK quickly.) and stir in the oats.  Now scoop it onto your waxed paper in cookie-sized lumps.  It will harden fast.  Also, fill the pan up with hot water immediately.  Same reason.  My kids eat them while they're still warm.  In the kitchen.  Before they're technically "served".  But then again, they're freakin delicious.

When NOT to buy bulk

It's common sense that the bigger packages are cheaper in the long run, right?

3 pound bottle for $2.65 vs 6 pound tin for $5.50

Maybe.

I think there must be some bizarre "sale" urge that causes us to buy completely unnecessary items (or unnecessary quantities of items) simply because they are cheap.  I recently bought a nice "date" dress (too short for church, but still nice looking) because it was $4.  Even though I haven't had a date in 2 years.  I just couldn't resist the sale.  In the same way, we "shoppers" see these irresistable bargains at bulk prices and just cannot pass them by.  So here are some common sense interjections to keep in mind when the urge to buy a 20 pound sack of potatoes next overcomes you.


Food that goes bad before you use it:   Sometimes, you don't use that 6-pound jumbo can of applesauce, and it grows mold in your fridge.  Of course, not in my house.  A 6-pound jumbo can of applesauce disappears within 48 hours of its being opened in my house.  But jumbo purchases that have gone bad before they're used in my house are most often fruits and vegetables.  I've bought canned pumpkin in a large can because it was on sale, used a cup's worth for some pumpkin bread or muffins, put the rest in the fridge, and before I know it, it's forgotten in the back and turned into compost. The smaller can would have been all I needed.  I've also had canned peaches turn before I eat them all, and when loaves of bread are "buy one get one free" you'd better plan on eating a lot of sandwiches or making homemade stuffing if you expect to use two loaves of bread before it molds.

Items that you don't need so much of to begin with.  It's that "shopper's desire" again - you can't pass up such an incredible sale.  For example, I very rarely drink alcohol.  I might have one beer in a week, if I have company or get out without my kids.  In January, I had company, so I went out to buy a six pack of bottles.  The six packs were $8 and the cases of 24 were $26.00.  4 six-packs would be $32.00!  I was so overwhelmed by the "sale" moment that common sense COMPLETELY left me and I bought TWO cases.  A little bit of math would have told me that I was only saving a quarter a bottle, and was spending $44 more than was needed to satisfy me and my guests.  As a result, I'm left with a whole lot of beer that I'm drinking about a bottle of a week.  Now, it's not going to go bad, really, but I could have spent $8 and been just as much the hostess.

Here's another example of a trap that I've fallen for in the past; same principle, smaller scale.  My local grocery store put a display at the end of the aisle: Lay's potato chips: Buy 2, get 1 free.  Now, this is a good deal, you think.  The normal price is $3.99 a bag, and the sale price is usually $3 a bag.  For this price, I can get three bags for $7.98, which is $2.66 a bag.  What a bargain!  But insert a little common sense here: How often do you buy chips?  I, personally, only buy a bag of chips once every other week or so.  They're not very healthy, or filling, considering their cost.  So I might have spent $4 a month on chips, buying them at full price.  Instead, by succumbing to this "I can't pass up such an incredible deal", I have now tossed 3 bags of chips in my cart, and now I've spent $8 instead of $4.  I will still (to the detriment of my diet) eat all 3 bags, I am sure, so I haven't "wasted" the extra $4 I spent, but I wouldn't have spent it in the first place if I'd had a little more self-control.  Like the beer, I could have purchased a smaller amount and been just as happy.

When you don't have the storage space for 50 pounds of potatoes. Or 10 pounds of onions.  I live in an old, beautiful house, but the "pantry" was converted to a bathroom sometime before we bought the house, so I have to be careful with how big the bulk packages are.  A good rule of thumb is, when in doubt, buy a "medium" sized package.  In the grocery store, you can buy onions individually, or in bags of 2 or 3 pounds, or in sacks of 10 pounds.  I buy a 2 pound bag most of the time, and find that's just right for me.  If I've got nowhere to put it, it doesn't really matter how much money I've saved.



When it's actually just cheaper to buy the smaller pack.  When I buy cat food, for example, I buy the medium-sized sacks of Dad's Original.  At my local grocery store, it's 15% cheaper than buying the largest bag available, even when the jumbo bags are on sale.  I discovered this just by comparing the price per pound.  Most of the time, it pays to check the "price per unit" on the tag.  Some aren't helpful, though, (one brand may list price per pound, another, price per ounce) and you still have to do some basic math. 

So one suggestion for calculating, when whoever printed those stickers at the stores decided to be most unhelpful, is to multiply, rather than divide.  I know that your junior high math teacher told you to divide to get price per serving.  Technically, this is correct.  To calculate a 6-pound can of applesauce, at $5.50, you divide $5.50 by 6, and get 91.67 cents per pound. A 3-pound jar, at $2.65, is 88.33 cents per pound.  But I have a calculator on my computer, and I don't usually have one at the store.  So I multiply, rather than divide:  2 of the 3-pound jars would be the same as one 6-pound jar, and 2 x $2.65 = $5.30.  So the smaller jars are cheaper (but not by much).

One last suggestion for price comparison: The price per unit isn't always as helpful as the price per serving.  For example: Those "snack packs" of crackers are divided into individual servings of 6 cracker sandwiches.  The unit price on the tag lists price per ounce, and they cost more per ounce than a large box of cheeze-flavored crackers.  However, when my kids get their hands on one of those large boxes of cheeze-flavored crackers, the three kids eat the whole box.  When the crackers are pre-packaged into servings, they eat a serving each at a time, and so the smaller box, which costs more per ounce and contains less, lasts longer.

In the end, ask yourself:
Do I really need this much? (2 cases of beer vs a six pack)
Would I be buying this much anyway? (3 bags of chips vs 1)
Is this going to go bad before I use it? (large tin of pumpkin)
Is the larger package actually cheaper? (cat food)
and Do I have the storage space for this much? (will it fit in my freezer/cupboards or not?)

Crazy Tasty Hamburgers

I don't often cook outside.  I know that there are people who like to grill; I'm just not one of them.  

Here's a "grilling" menu that I just happened to cook inside.  When I made the Hamburger helper, I had leftover hamburger meat.  Hamburger meat doesn't re-freeze too well, and trying to put it into little baggies can be a little messy.  So I made burger patties, and froze them between sheets of waxed paper.  I pressed my fingers around them to push out some of the air and avoid freezer burn.  I put them on a cookie sheet to keep them flat while they froze. 

Tonight, I needed something simple, so I pulled out these burgers ($4 worth of burger meat in 12 burgers makes them 33 cents each, or $1.33 for 4 burgers' worth).  Now, when I made the patties, I mixed in half of an italian seasonings packet, which are VERY expensive.  They cost about $1 a piece, but the tastiness of the burgers is soooo worth it.  They won't go bad, so you can even use half a packet, roll over the end, and save it for another day.  I used a half of a packet with 2 pounds of burger meat.  I also kneaded in two raw eggs to make the burgers stick together when they thawed.  (So add 50 cents for seasonings and eggs)  The burger buns were on sale for $1.29 for eight.  We used 4, so that's 65 cents for rolls.

 For a side dish  I bought some corn on the cob, 4 ears for $1.99, and for dessert, we had pseudo-parfaits.  I buy my favorite granola cereal, Great Grains, normally almost $5 a box.  I found it on sale for $2.99!  It was at Best Buys Food Store across from CCMH on Rte 6.  I doubt they still have any at that price.  I bought some 6-oz containers of yogurt with fruit mixed in, and sprinkled the great grains on top.  Each kid can pick their favorite flavor that way, and it's cheaper than buying the fruit separately.  The yogurt was 50 cents each, and the cost of the cereal was negligable.  

  So the total cost of the meal was $1.33 burger meat, 50 cents burger additives, 65 cents burger rolls, $1.99 corn on the cob, $2 yogurt = $6.47. 

Baby Shrimp Scampi

My daughter loves seafood, and in land-locked areas (like north central PA), it's expensive. 

However, there are a few ways to make affordable seafood, and this method is one of them.

For our shrimp, I bought this pack of salad shrimp for $2.99.  I cooked a half a $1 box of "thin spaghetti" (actually what it says on the box; thinner than standard spaghetti, thicker than angel hair).  While it was boiling, I put the still-frozen shrimp in a skillet, added a half a stick of butter, a few pieces of diced onion, salt, pepper, a few teaspoons of lemon juice (I just splashed some on there, really) and some garlic.  I buy diced garlic in water in a glass or plastic jar. I used about a Tbsp here.  Even if I buy the dirt cheap stuff, it's about $4 - 6 for the size of a standard jar of peanut butter, depending on if it's on sale when I buy it.  However, since it's much more potent (you can spoon some garlic-flavored water on for some extra bang for your buck, too) than fresh garlic, and since it won't go bad for roughly a year (something that can't be said for whole cloves) I prefer it, hands down, for all of my garlic-y recipes.  You can also use garlic powder, if you don't have a jar of the diced already in your house.  Traditional recipes call for white wine to be added; however, I have no white wine and would not be very thrifty if I bought some just for this recipe.  If you have some, by all means, add it.  You could probably also add white vinegar as a substitute for white wine, which is what I would have done if I'd had any.  I had cider vinegar, which is awesome in BBQ but I had my doubts about adding it to scampi, so I went safe and omitted it altogether.

The scampi heated up (over medium heat) just in time for the pasta, which I strained and added to the skillet, leaving the whole thing on simmer while I made the salad.  The best salads are the simplest ones, and I like to put myself on a "five ingredients or less" limit (not including dressing).  This salad was just lettuce, onions, green olives, and mild banana peppers.

The kids ate the meal, although my youngest one kept asking if these were "baby shrimp" or "mama shrimp".  Every.  Single.  Bite. 

Before he discovered its inherent tastiness, the only way he would eat seafood was if I told him that's what sharks ate.  Which is true.  Ish.

Anyway, they ate so well, that only one person at the table had enough room for dessert: Me.  The older two jumped down as soon as they were allowed, leaving just my youngest to change his mind when he saw what I'd planned for dessert: ice cream cones.  You can buy a box of generic Nutty Buddies (the cones with the chocolate in them and the nuts on top and now I really want some) for $3 which averages 50 cents a cone, OR buy a pack of 12 waffle cones for $1.50 and a quart of ice cream for $3, which averages to 38 cents a cone, but you lose the deliciousness of the chocolate-lined cone BUT you gain the choice of ice cream flavors inside the cone and the benefit of cheaper desserts.... for me, it's a toss-up.  What I had in the house was "Option B".

We all scream for ice cream.  Literally.

So the price of tonight's three course meal was: $2.99 for shrimp, $0.50 spaghetti, $0.50 lettuce (head of lettuce was $1.38, used roughly a third of it) and I'm estimating another $1 for all the extras combined.