Shopping Around the World and Bacon’s Show and Tell – Mark Your Calendars

Hello sweet friends – 

Never fear, we did not forget about our most important dates of the  month – no way!  Please remember to mark your calendars for our two important dates below and make plans to participate.  The more participation, the more recipes and embarrassing stories – yay!

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Shopping Around the World

Shopping Around the World is hosted by us and our friend Fozziemom.  This month it is scheduled for November 30th – after the holiday so we can all make plans.  Since it is the Thanksgiving holidays here in the States, this month we will focus on Thanksgiving foods.  So, you can post appetizers, side dishes, salads, soups, main entrees or desserts.  What is something that you look forward to once a year at Thanksgiving.  I mean yes we can have it throughout the year but having it at Thanksgiving screams the holiday?  This gives you a wide variety of foods you can come up with.  Fix whatever your dish is, take pictures and post it with recipes and prices on November 30th on your blog.  Remember to link back to my blog posting so people can see yours.  This is a wonderful way to (1) meet new friends in blogville and (2) get some wonderful recipes.  And I’ll admit it.  This piggy has been known to visit on these days and lick the computer screen at some of your awesome dishes.  I’m just sayin’ – some of pictures look out of this world!!

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Bacon’s Show and Tell

To me, what better time of the year to share some embarrassing stories from Thanksgiving.  Did you gather as a family for dinner and someone do something hilarious?  Did you have a mishap and spill your plate or cut the turkey in a strange way?  Go ahead my friends, let’s talk about something funny our humans do or did during their Thanksgiving holidays.  I know these stories will be good!  Bacon’s Show and Tell is scheduled for November 29th due to the holiday.  Remember to do your blog and link back to my blog so we can all see what everyone shares.  Thanks my friend – can’t wait for some great stories.

 

Shopping Around the World

Welcome my friends to another edition of Shopping Around the World recipes!

This month we are opening the floor for you.  You can post ANYTHING (desserts, appetizers, snacks, entrees) that you want to share.  Just remember pictures and prices.  So what will you post my friends?  We can’t wait to see.

Now with mom/dad, sometimes the best thing they crave is a good old fashioned hamburger with french fries.  Doesn’t that sound yummy?  And mom does them in an unique way.  So, let me present Mom’s Hamburgers and Fries.

Ingredients:

Buns – we get a package of 8 for $1.00 = that makes each bun only 0.13 each.

Hamburger Meat – Mom gets a package of ground sirloin that costs around $6.50 a package.  Now one package will make 4 burgers = that’s only $1.63 per burger.

1 Tomato (which is optional).  We got big beef steak tomatoes on sale for $0.99 a pound.  One tomato costs us $1.28 and you only need one slice of the tomato per burger so the rest goes into a salad for the next day 🙂  So somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.21 per slice.

An egg.  Yep, you heard it.  1 egg for each burger.  Eggs costs $2.00 for a dozen = $0.17 each.

A baking potato because they are huge = $0.59 for one.

Now – the total price per Mom’s hamburger is around $2.75 – take that Mickey D’s restaurant.  I’m not posting all of the condiment prices because that can vary.

How to Prepare:

Mom works on the potato first to get it started  She cuts the potato in very thin slices and places in a bowl.  She then salts them rather well and starts her fry daddy oil.  Once the oil is hot, she drops the french fries into the oil to cook.  Depending on how brown/crispy you want your fries, depends on the cooking time.  Just watch them so they don’t burn.

During the cooking of your fries, plop your hamburger meat out into a bowl.  Season your meat – salt, pepper, anything you normally use.  Sometimes mom puts some Worcestershire sauce in it as well.  With your fingers, gently mix it together – but don’t overwork.  Once mixed, kind of flatten against the bottom of the bowl and with your hand make a cross sign – that way you are separating the meat into hopefully four even hamburger patties.  Get your pan (preferably an iron skillet because hey we are in the south-LOL) hot and add just a little bit of oil to cover the bottom.  Also during this time, turn your stove on around 300-350 degrees.

As your pan is warming up, take one section of your hamburger meat.  This is the time if you want to add cheese inside of your burger you would do it here.  What do I mean?  Well sometimes mom will cut a piece of cheddar cheese and then wrap the hamburger meat around the cheddar cheese covering it.  Just be careful after you cook it and bite into the burger because it will be H.O.T.  However you do it though, patty your hamburger out and make a small dimple in the middle.  Put aside and do the rest of your burgers.

Once the pan is hot, put the burgers in the pan to cook.  We prefer around medium but some like it more cooked – your choice.  While that is cooking, take your buns and put them on a cookie tray.  Butter them lightly and stick them in the oven to toast – be careful not to burn your buns.

Once the buns are done, take them out and put what condiments you want on your burger.  Once the burgers are done in the pan, take them off the burner and let them sit for a few minutes.  After they have rested a bit, build your burger.

 

Shopping Around the World – REMINDER

Thanks to everyone for another great edition of Shopping Around the World last month.  It’s so awesome to see the various prices around the world – and the pictures with recipes!

Me and my pal Fozzie will be holding another Shopping Around the World scheduled for  Wednesday, May 25, 2016.  Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices and recipes.

This month we are opening the floor for you.  You can post ANYTHING (desserts, appetizers, snacks, entrees) that you want to share.  Just remember pictures and prices.  So what will you post my friends?  We can’t wait to see.

Please share this posting with your friends – the more the merrier.  Come join the fun of Shopping Around the World – mark your calendars – Wednesday, May 25th!

 

Shopping Around the World

This month we are highlighting appetizers or snacks.  

This gives us so many choices to pick from and it was really hard for us to pick one.  But after I thought long and hard about it, I had to go with dad’s crack.  Snorts – no not that kind of crack.  Dad actually has a snack treat that we call crack.  Why crack?  Because he can’t keep his hands out of the container when mom fixes it – snorts with piggy laughter.  And when mom makes this, she fixes a whole bunch because it goes fast.  You can use it as a snack or bring it to a party.  So now, all of you can fix it and get hooked to on it.  Enjoy my friends.

Dad’s Crack

1 bag of short pretzels (dad prefers these but you can use any kind of pretzel you want).  For a bag of pretzels, we pay $1.29

2 bags of peanut butter morsels.  You find these on the baking aisle.  We paid $1.50 for each bag on this shopping trip.

2 boxes of movie theater sized Reeses Pieces (you know the kind they showed in the movie E.T – ha)  These were $1.00 each in the store

Optional – a bag of toasted coconut.  Sometimes dad likes this and other times he doesn’t.  A bag of coconut costs $2.49 in the store.

Now, first up.  If you are going to do the coconut you need to do this first.  Put the coconut on a tray and stick it in the oven.  Mom puts it under the broiler for a few minutes.  Keep an eye on it because it will burn quickly.  Toast the coconut and then set it aside to cool.

While your coconut is cooling, get a BIG bowl.  Yep the bigger the better in this case.  Pour in your entire bag of pretzels followed by your Reeses Pieces and peanut butter morsels.  When your coconut is cool, throw it into the party as well.  Then stir everything together and make sure it is nicely mingled.  Mom then packages the crack into individual containers for dad’s destruction.

So you see, it’s an easy snack that goes a long way and peeps love it!  The final cost for this snack is less than $9.00 (with coconut) and that should last either a couple of weeks,  one night at a party or two days with dad – snorts.  And never fear, if you don’t like peanut butter, just substitute items for what you do love.  For example any kind of chocolate candy and any kind of baking morsels.  Happy crack my friends.