Living Today with almost no Money

This little post is a combination of political frustration and Heidi's talent for finding great food cheap. Sometimes it's coupons, sometimes just a sale like buy one get 2 free and other times it is the reduced produce rack or marked down meat.

Heidi and I both like to make great meals using items that we get really cheap. This enhances the pleasure we get out of it and the stories go well on this blog. Now for just a little political rant. After the Debt Ceiling fiasco and fighting going on in Congress and the vacationing President saying his is the only way, I see that ALL of the political dummies in Washington have not a clue about what it is like for us average people to live. All of the help that is given from them goes mostly to people to buy votes, not help the people like us that are just scraping by. We pay our bills and cut virtually all of our optional things we would like to have or do. I have invited our Congressmen and women from CT to come to my house and sit with us for a day to see how we have to live after paying all of the taxes and fees that they are imposing on us.

OK, now back to FOOOOD!!!

I see a problem with the way a lot of people's attitudes are about buying brand name foods. This is ridiculous! One of my favorite places to grocery shop is at ALDI's. The seldom have brand names but -- when you look at some of the things that have happened lately like the ground turkey recall, it all starts to be pretty clear. Aldi's brand ground turkey, Fit & Active and Price Chopper's brand of ground turkey, Shady Grove, were both from the SAME PLACE!!!! Aldi's was about $0.80 cheaper per pound. Aldi's milk sells for about $2.19 per gallon for Whole, 2% and 1%. The cheapest I have seen it anywhere else is $3.89 and Price Chopper, Stop&Shop and Big Y all are just a little under or over $4.00 per gallon for 2% and more for whole milk. Aldi's sells a lot of milk so it is always very fresh. As an example I can get a gallon on Saturday and it is still good the following Saturday. I have had other stores milk go bad in 4 or 5 days! Aldi's Cottage Cheese is by far the best I have had, above and beyond all of the big names like Hood or Sealtest etc., and it is much cheaper too. Butter at Aldi's is almost always at least a $1.00 cheaper. The house brand of Mayo at Aldi's is called Burmann and I know people that cannot tell the difference from Hellman's.

So some of you people just break down a little and try the house brands. Some of them are not so great but many are at the same standards for taste and quality as the big brand names.

One last political comment -- When election day comes PLEASE go and vote!!! I am going to vote for anyone who IS NOT in office. We need fresh blood and to get rid of the "Good ole Boy" way of doing things. When everyone condemns the Tea Party, please remember that it is NOT an offical party but a very basic grass roots bunch of people like you and me trying to get the politicians to do the right things. Please be careful about all of the people that label them racist or rednecks etc. EVERY party or group has its bad side but it is the minority of that group and they are not taken seriously. Think about how people talk about both parties and how biased to the Left or the Right and things that have been said or done. Please watch how things are reported so that you notice that one reporter will condemn a democrat for something and then just ignore it when a replublican does the same thing. Please don't let the media's bias influence you to harshly.

Jon

My Bread done in the bread maker

This is a great recipe to stretch the week when you need bread
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs sugar
2 teas yeast desolved in the warm water with one of the tbs sugar
3 cups flour
1/4 cup  olive oil or vegetable oil
use your bread make to mix and bake or just to knead it and then let raise and bake in the oven 350 degrees till done about 25 minutes

My Favorite Brownies

I don't know where I got this recipe but its a keeper
1/2 cup butter you can use margerine but richer with the butter melted
1 cup sugar if you don't have a full cup you can use some brown sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 teas salt
1/2 cup flour
Bake them slowly 325 degrees
Yum mix sugar eggs and butter then add the rest and bake for 20-25 minutes

Monkey Banana Bread

1/2 butter or margerine melted
11/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teas salt
1/2 or just alittle more sour cream or milk if you don't have sour cream
1 teasp. vanilla
mix all and let rest a minute or so
bake at 350 degrees
This is delicious and Conner calls it Monkey Bread because you can't stop eating it

Toasted Cheese - Heidi's Way

Heidi likes the Toasted Cheese that I make for her mostly because I take my time to let the sandwich cook slowly enough to get nice and crispy on the outside and hot enough inside to melt everything together. Here is the one she wanted today. Maybe someone can come up with a name for it.

We are quite cheap when buying food but we still look for good stuff. Aldi market has some of the best Havarti Cheese I have had and it is less than $2 for a good size package. Price Rite had Vidalia Onions today for $.49 per pound and everywhere else they are $1.50/pound. So here is what I put together for her:

Good sliced Portuguese bread

Cheddar Cheese - Sharp

Havarti Cheese

Mozzarella Cheese

1 Vidalia Onion chopped coarse and carmelized

1/2 of an Avocado sliced lengthwise.

Light butter the bread on one side and heat a pan on med heat or just a little lower and place one piece of bread butter side down in the pan after it has heated up to temp.

Lay on the cheddar and Havarti cheese and the onion

Place the sliced Avocado across the top and then cover that with the mozzarella cheese

Place the other piece of bread on top butter side out. This helps keep the heat in to melt the cheese

When the bread is nice and toasted flip it over and do the same on the other side. When done put on a plate with a big napkin and enjoy

Jon

Barbecue Sauce

Heidi just told me to make some barbecue sauce for the chicken on the grill. I don't know much about putting things together to come up with stuff like barbecue sauce. So just for a test I put in:
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbls molasses
1 tbls honey
2 tbls worchester(?) sauce
1 tbls soy sauce

Surprise Surprise!!!!
It actually came out pretty good, a little on the sweet side like some of the southern regions are but overall I like it. Most surprisingly -- Heidi likes it!

Go ahead and give it a try and maybe add some garlic power, salt, pepper and onion powder, that will be my next trial!

Now that we can get off of the subject -- we here in Connecticut have an insane congress and governor and state employees that are whiners and think that they deserve much more than us private sector workers that actually pay their wages. I'm sorry but when our taxes are going to go up another $1000 to $1500 a year I get really mad and when I see a state driver for the sec. of the state making $90,000 I just want to scream!!

Jon

Drop Mollases Cookies

This are by far my very favorite cookies.
1/4 cup mollases
2and 1/4-2 and 1/2 cup flour( depends on the flour you use
2 tbs. brewed coffee
1tsp. cinamon
1/4 tes.cloves
1/2 teas ginger
1/2 teasp. baking soda desolved in the coffee
1/2 cup veg. oil
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup rasins and nuts if desired
1/2 teas salt
mix all together drop on cookie sheet leaving enough space to spread bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes watch them to see how they are browning