Of grocery savings & hickory smoke
A prayer attributed to Saint Francis: L-rd, make us instruments of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; & it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
GROCERY SAVINGS & NOTES ON STORAGE:
Do you have a store (or several) in town that issue advertisements about the items that they want you to know are on sale this week? Those items are called “loss leaders.” The store expects you to come in, pick up some loss leaders, & then shop for everything else that your family could use. Duh! Why not just shop at each store FOR the items that are on sale. This works better & better as you purchase duplicates of the items on sale, & begin to build up a personal pantry inventory.
Work out a map that allows you to “hit” all of your stores in a logical order that minimizes driving time & gasoline. Of course, if you are using public transportation or walking, you will probably prefer to limit your hits to just one or two stores at a time.
Buying loss leaders in preference to everything else in the store becomes an even better deal when you have a coupon for a particular item that is a loss leader. Better still if the store doubles coupons. (But be careful. Ask exactly what the double-coupon – or triple-coupon – policy is before you purchase multiples of the same item. There may be a limit on units that will be given the double-coupon treatment – in which case you might wish to make multiple shopping trips to obtain as many units as you have coupons, or there may be a limit on how high the value of a coupon that will be given the double-coupon treatment can be.)
Don’t be afraid to stock up on loss leaders. .Just about everything can be frozen or otherwise stored. Most fruits & vine-ripened tomatoes can be canned using the water-bath method, which requires little equipment. (Watch for a late spring essay on canning. By the way, vegetables, having little acid, need to be pressure-canned.)
You may recall that I roasted 2 turkeys before Thanksgiving, for which I only paid a pittance per pound. Four months later, I still have 8 one-cup portions in the freezer (which indicates why you so often read recipes here that call for such).
Little-known freezer storage facts concern dairy. Divvy up the milk into containers that you can use in 1 week or less, & be certain to leave head-room of 1” in each container, then freeze. Defrost in the fridge. As for the eggs, separate each white from each yolk, & place 1 white or 1 yolk into each cube of an empty ice-cube tray. There is no need to defrost if you want to cook scrambled eggs, but for most uses, you need to defrost the egg in the fridge. (You can then transfer the cubes to a storage bag.) Hard cheeses such as Cheddar also can easily be frozen -- & actually grate more easily in their frozen state. Yoghurt cannot be frozen, but it will last in the fridge for at least one month past its “pull date,” as will eggs for that matter!
Look around your house for places where you can store dry goods, such as cans or packages of pasta & dried beans. These may include under a bed, in a closet, under a table that is covered to the floor with a cloth, & so forth. Just be cautious to place all food that you are storing in secure containers (such as Rubbermaid® or Tupperware® that you can purchase at a thrift store, used). This is to avoid sharing your food with mice or other pests!
Using a coupon on a sale item is called a “double-play.” There are also “triple-plays.” These involve obtaining a rebate on a double-play item. Chains like Walgreen’s & Rite-Aid frequently offer rebates, although rarely on groceries (but often enough for paper & plastic goods). Sometimes you will be able to find rebate forms in your coupon circulars. While most of these nowadays are for so-called free gifts instead of money (you are asked to pay a shipping & handling fee, which defeats the purpose of obtaining a rebate in most cases), there still are cash refunds available. A typical one would be for March as Frozen Foods Month, with proofs-of-purchase & cash register receipts required for an assortment of products bought during March or another specified time period.
RECIPE:
Hickory-Smoked Tomatoes with Turkey:
1 T canola oil
1 T water
3 stalks celery, diced
1 medium onion, or ½ large onion, diced
1 bell pepper, seeded & cubed
Saute for 8 minutes in a Dutch oven, stirring frequently. Preheat cooking oven to 350 degrees.
28-oz canned whole tomatoes, each tomato cut in half (best done with kitchen shears)
1 tsp liquid smoke (I use Wright’s Concentrated All Natural Hickory Seasoning Liquid Smoke™)
1 c turkey, diced
Add on top of the sautéed veggies.
1 c fresh breadcrumbs (you can accumulate these in the freezer)
1-1/2 T canola oil
Mix & place atop the casserole. Bake for 45 minutes or until crumbs are golden-brown. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving to 6.
GROCERY SAVINGS & NOTES ON STORAGE:
Do you have a store (or several) in town that issue advertisements about the items that they want you to know are on sale this week? Those items are called “loss leaders.” The store expects you to come in, pick up some loss leaders, & then shop for everything else that your family could use. Duh! Why not just shop at each store FOR the items that are on sale. This works better & better as you purchase duplicates of the items on sale, & begin to build up a personal pantry inventory.
Work out a map that allows you to “hit” all of your stores in a logical order that minimizes driving time & gasoline. Of course, if you are using public transportation or walking, you will probably prefer to limit your hits to just one or two stores at a time.
Buying loss leaders in preference to everything else in the store becomes an even better deal when you have a coupon for a particular item that is a loss leader. Better still if the store doubles coupons. (But be careful. Ask exactly what the double-coupon – or triple-coupon – policy is before you purchase multiples of the same item. There may be a limit on units that will be given the double-coupon treatment – in which case you might wish to make multiple shopping trips to obtain as many units as you have coupons, or there may be a limit on how high the value of a coupon that will be given the double-coupon treatment can be.)
Don’t be afraid to stock up on loss leaders. .Just about everything can be frozen or otherwise stored. Most fruits & vine-ripened tomatoes can be canned using the water-bath method, which requires little equipment. (Watch for a late spring essay on canning. By the way, vegetables, having little acid, need to be pressure-canned.)
You may recall that I roasted 2 turkeys before Thanksgiving, for which I only paid a pittance per pound. Four months later, I still have 8 one-cup portions in the freezer (which indicates why you so often read recipes here that call for such).
Little-known freezer storage facts concern dairy. Divvy up the milk into containers that you can use in 1 week or less, & be certain to leave head-room of 1” in each container, then freeze. Defrost in the fridge. As for the eggs, separate each white from each yolk, & place 1 white or 1 yolk into each cube of an empty ice-cube tray. There is no need to defrost if you want to cook scrambled eggs, but for most uses, you need to defrost the egg in the fridge. (You can then transfer the cubes to a storage bag.) Hard cheeses such as Cheddar also can easily be frozen -- & actually grate more easily in their frozen state. Yoghurt cannot be frozen, but it will last in the fridge for at least one month past its “pull date,” as will eggs for that matter!
Look around your house for places where you can store dry goods, such as cans or packages of pasta & dried beans. These may include under a bed, in a closet, under a table that is covered to the floor with a cloth, & so forth. Just be cautious to place all food that you are storing in secure containers (such as Rubbermaid® or Tupperware® that you can purchase at a thrift store, used). This is to avoid sharing your food with mice or other pests!
Using a coupon on a sale item is called a “double-play.” There are also “triple-plays.” These involve obtaining a rebate on a double-play item. Chains like Walgreen’s & Rite-Aid frequently offer rebates, although rarely on groceries (but often enough for paper & plastic goods). Sometimes you will be able to find rebate forms in your coupon circulars. While most of these nowadays are for so-called free gifts instead of money (you are asked to pay a shipping & handling fee, which defeats the purpose of obtaining a rebate in most cases), there still are cash refunds available. A typical one would be for March as Frozen Foods Month, with proofs-of-purchase & cash register receipts required for an assortment of products bought during March or another specified time period.
RECIPE:
Hickory-Smoked Tomatoes with Turkey:
1 T canola oil
1 T water
3 stalks celery, diced
1 medium onion, or ½ large onion, diced
1 bell pepper, seeded & cubed
Saute for 8 minutes in a Dutch oven, stirring frequently. Preheat cooking oven to 350 degrees.
28-oz canned whole tomatoes, each tomato cut in half (best done with kitchen shears)
1 tsp liquid smoke (I use Wright’s Concentrated All Natural Hickory Seasoning Liquid Smoke™)
1 c turkey, diced
Add on top of the sautéed veggies.
1 c fresh breadcrumbs (you can accumulate these in the freezer)
1-1/2 T canola oil
Mix & place atop the casserole. Bake for 45 minutes or until crumbs are golden-brown. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving to 6.
posted by THE PENNY ORCHID -- "Thrift with Flair" at 1:07 PM
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