Is the debt worth it?

[VAgirl]

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the nugget, though... fulfilled my wildest dreams.

Cool! I also hope they have a Costco. I love Costco. We do lots of our grocery shopping there these days. (My SO was totally sold on it from 1) the free samples, and 2) the time when we found the 6 packets of Ghirardelli brownie mix for $9. Best find ever.) Of course, with farmers markets around, hopefully we will do some shopping there, too. 🙂

Sorry, I guess we really have strayed from debt. 😀

 

[hoodle]

Oh god, ghiradelli brownie mix is the only brownie mix I use! It's incredible - so rich and delicious, and doesn't have any other wierd tastes or textures that other mixes have. I didn't know Costco carried it! what an incredible find. 😀

 

[Electrophile]

Speaking of brownie mix, add 3 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter and half a bag of peanut butter and chocolate chips to your brownie mix. AMAZING! Also makes the brownies really moist!

Sam's Club also has the extra large bottle of organic virgin olive oil...mmm!! Most of groceries are coming from the farmer's market or Sam's Club these days.

 

[nyanko]

People moving to Davis (*cough cough* VAgirl *cough cough*) prepare yourself for the Nugget! It's like an affordable whole foods. Food is presented absolutely beautifully, there's a juice and sandwich bar, you can get things like ibuprofen and toilet paper (ie it's not ALL crazy organic-all-the-time - you can get household necessities)... it's just awesome. Is it odd that when wandering through Davis we went "grocery store" sightseeing? the nugget, though... fulfilled my wildest dreams.

I love Nugget and it's where we do our weekly shopping, but it is pretty expensive compared to where I moved from in FL. We buy essentially the same things here that we did there and our weekly bill (split between me and my SO) was about $60-$80 at Publix in FL and here it is more in the $80-$120 range.

We've learned to split up our shopping between a few places a little in order to still get what we want but save a little bit of cash. We hit Ikeda's farm stand down by the Mace exit (I think) of I-80 to get fruit and vegetables for cheaper (and tamales!) and we go to a carniceria in Woodland for chicken (I only eat chicken and turkey myself as far as meats go). Oh, and some weeks we can make it over to the farmer's market in the park too. Everything else is bought at Nugget. It helps some, but we still spend nearly double what we spent in FL some weeks for food.

And I believe there is a Costco in Woodland.

 

[twelvetigers]

There is absolutely jack-diddly here. Tulsa and OKC probably have some better stuff, but Costco doesn't seem that prominent in Oklahoma.

I loved some of the stores in Florida from my vacations there... I was like, "why can't WE have Publix or Dixie or whatever?" I can't remember all of the names of places.

My KitchenAid was a wedding present too. Red. I lurve it!! I like my mashed taters a wee bit lumpy though, so I do those by hand. Just a preference.

For the frozen food, maybe you could prepare it as much as possible without actually cooking it? Like, mix the spices and put them in a baggie, make the sauce and put it in a baggie, and have the meat all ready... then freeze it like that, so that all you have to do is cook it, rather than reheat it? That woudln't work for time saving for some things, I know. I have problems with cooked food tasting a bit off too. You know what's great?? Lasagna!! You get it all put together and then freeze it instead of cooking it - stays great for months. Just pop it in the oven! You can even cook it from being frozen, just add a little bit of cooktime.

 

[Electrophile]

You know what's great?? Lasagna!! You get it all put together and then freeze it instead of cooking it - stays great for months. Just pop it in the oven! You can even cook it from being frozen, just add a little bit of cooktime.

That's exactly what my mom does for Christmas Eve dinner! Every year, she makes homemade lasagna and for years, she'd make it from scratch Christmas Eve and then have it ready to go by dinner. Well, she got sick of that (especially having to prep Christmas dinner and dessert as well the next day!), so now she makes up the lasagna sometime after Thanksgiving, freezes it, then cooks it from frozen. Tastes about the same to me! I have to get a slightly burned corner piece. 😀 Yum!

 

[Sapphir3blu3]

We may need to start a KitchenAid Stand Mixer thread 😀 I have one too--a gift from my mother-in-law one Christmas. (Just white... I'm envious of the shiny red one!) I know how lucky I am to have it but heck if I know what to do with it really. I've always done mashed potatoes by hand, been doing it so long wouldn't know where to start with the mixer.

It is indispensable for homemade whipped cream (to go on top of Ghirardelli cocoa, mrmrmrmrmrmmmm) but other than that? Um, sometimes I do chocolate chip cookies in it.

I bet freezer lasagna *would* turn out good. I'll have to try that. Husband of mine unfortunately thinks my lasagna isn't as good as that of a long-closed delivery place near where we used to live in DC. But we're talking about a man who didn't even own a potato masher when we met, so what does he know 🙂

 

[twelvetigers]

Try making some cream cheese frosting for a cake. You can still make a cake from a mix if you want, but the home made frosting beats the puchased type hands-down. Just use the flat, white beater - the whip is only for meringue... is that right? Weird word. Meringue. Anyway, for that, and maybe a really fluffy buttercream... but I think the flat one works best.

Anyone try out the pastry hook?

This thread has gone *so* off topic. 🙂

 

[SillyFilly]

I am SO sad to move to Knoxville... but really only because I have to leave my Trader Joe's behind!!!

Sorry to send this even more off topic 😛

 

[projekt]

There's an Earth Fare in Knoxville...

 

[Sapphir3blu3]

I'd feel weird making a box cake with scratch frosting! It's been probably all of 20 years since I made a scratch cake, yikes. I remember it was yummy---but I was a kid so who knows, really. I also ate sugar cubes *shrug*

I thought the balloon-whisk attachment was for anything that needed air mixed in? Like I do use it for whipped cream. But yeah, the flat one is what I think of as the "main" attachment.

Actually I'd forgotten that the pastry hook existed, until you brought it up, and that my husband uses it sometimes: he is in charge of bread. He says that it's easy to overknead the bread and end up with a tough loaf. But I imagine you probably develop a touch for that, like any other tool, with practice.

Trader Joe's is dead to me ever since they broke my heart with those fakey-fake cheese curds they sell. Man, do I ever need a local supplier for those things.

 

[Moonpaw]

I am SO sad to move to Knoxville... but really only because I have to leave my Trader Joe's behind!!!

😱 I feel exactly the same way! Trader Joe's is (was, now that I've moved out and all) right next door, because they actually rented the space from my university. So I guess technically, it was the same building as well. SO amazing.

Asides from the ridiculous lines.

 

[twelvetigers]

Well, you should definitely make a cake. For old time's sake.

I have no idea what Trader Joe's is. Yet another large gap in the midwest.

 

[nyanko]

I have no idea what Trader Joe's is. Yet another large gap in the midwest.

They have Trader Joe's in the midwest. In MI, anyway...

 

[twelvetigers]

MI... Michigan? Is that Midwest? I was thinking... OK, KS, MO, AZ maybe... CO... that's what I'd call the midwest. *confused*

I guess the term "midwest" could cover all of that, and OK is borderline Southwest. Ish. The closest Trader Joe's to here is apparetnly in Missouri. Hence the reason I've never heard of it. OK is missing a lot of chain stores, I think.

 

[nyanko]

MI... Michigan? Is that Midwest? I was thinking... OK, KS, MO, AZ maybe... CO... that's what I'd call the midwest. *confused*

KS and MO are the only ones of those states that are actually in the Midwest. 😛

The official US Census division the Midwest is more northeast than you're thinking. So you live in the South, not the Midwest. 😉

 

[twelvetigers]

You mean to tell me that I grew up in the SOUTH and I didn't even know it?

Crazy.

Well, I suppose that, when asked about doing something or other at work today, I did say that I was "just fixin' to do it." 😱

I still don't really think of this as the South... how about just the Great Plains? I can live with that. Tornado alley, Bible Belt, Indian Territory... anything but the SOUTH. 😉

Edit: Hey look, OK isn't part of the historic south, and even with the modern version it's only striped to indicate that it's sometimes included. So we're kind of... not part of anything?

 

[StealthDog]

The U of MN has a dairy and meat lab where the food sciences students sell their creations... fresh ice cream, cheeses, cheese curds, yogurt, smoked bacon, organic chicken... *drool* And the prices can't be beat!

It's worth looking into whether your school has them too!

 

[Sapphir3blu3]

StealthDog, that is an AWESOME tip. I will so be looking into that at my university. Although, MN is sort of well within the cheese curd zone, isn't it? I shouldn't get my hopes up again for finding them on the east coast. Even the Amish forget to add squeak.

Speaking of regional food zones... twelvetigers, if you're within the sweet tea zone, it's the South! The latitude above which one must add sugar to one's own tea is well south of the Mason-Dixon line but I have no idea where the western boundary is? Bonus points for "fixing to;" extra bonus points for eliding the "ks" and "g" sounds 😀

 

[twelvetigers]

Most restaurants serve it without. I use Sweet & Low. Not a very southern thing to do, if you ask me. But, I do sweeten it when I make it at home.

I also say, "Well, I reckon so." And y'all. And fer. (i.e. "I thought you were gonna use that money fer the car payment.") And, asking where something is has a preposition requirement. So, "Where are my keys?" automatically becomes, "Where are my keys at?"

But if you were to hear my speak, I don't think it would really sound out of place. I've been to Florida, Maine, and many more nearby states. Only in Mississippi did I stick out, and that was because I talked "All fancy n' such." Now THAT'S a "suthun' drahwl" if I ever heard one. 🙂

 

[Sapphir3blu3]

"Y'all" is just good English, if you ask me. A perfectly valid contraction of "you all." There's no excuse for the "yuns" and "youse" and "yins" of some other parts of the country.

As for the tea, I went to visit my favorite aunt and uncle in middle Georgia last fall and was a little flabbergasted when they told me they were now making their sweet tea with 1) caffeine-free bags and 2) Splenda. 😱 But what do you know... it actually tasted just the same. As the saying goes... I like to fell slap out! So I can't hate on your Sweet & Low, though I'd've been skeptical if you'd told me that 6 months ago.

 

[Sapphir3blu3]

( er... I just noticed that the standard view of this page is only showing 12T's last post with one paragraph, re: tea... but the reply-to view is showing two extra paragraphs about accent and dialect. what's up with that? i'm sorry if I broke the board. )

 

[twelvetigers]

It had vanished the second part so I edit - saved it and hopefully it's back now. Weird.

 

[Truth74]

My gran would be smiling, right now.

She uses Sweet n low in the sweet tea, too. She used to do the boiling the sugar into the water, thing. Man, if you didn't have cavities, you would when you were done with a glass.

I agree with the making the recipe up and freezing it, idea. Unless there are eggs involved, it usually turns out great. Eggs for some reason don't freeze well raw or cooked.

 

[bclover]

At the risk of extending this hijacking episode a bit more, I would add:

'Course ya'll fergot (or din't know) that when giving a friend a ride to the store or restaurant you will actually be "carryin' ___ to the store", etc. And, as a misplaced Mississippian, I speak/write from experience - now I'm fixin' to get off these here boards fer awhile.

See ya... 😉