Shopping Around the World

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!

This month we have a suggestion from my cousin Sammy on highlighting cookies or other sweets for December.  Is there a special treat that you fix only around the Christmas holidays?  A certain cookie to share?  It does not have to be five items or less this month.  Share your recipe and picture of your sweet items.

This time of the year mom loves to fix what she has always called reindeer noses.  Now they have been called other things like yummy, pure grace, delicious, Rolo droppings, etc.  Snorts with piggy laughter.  It doesn’t matter what you call them because you will absolutely love them.  AND they are so easy to make.  You will need:  1 bag of pecan halves (prices range on this – the bag I bought was $8.99); 1 bag of Rolo caramels in milk chocolate candies ($4.00) ; and 1 bag of small pretzels ($1.50 on sale).  Total paid around $14.50 for some priceless candy 🙂

Turn your oven on to around 250-300 degrees.  While that is pre-heating, start taking all of the aggravating pretty foils off of the Rolo caramels in milk chocolates.  Yes you can be like my mommy and eat some for all of that painstaking foil removal.  Then, put some parchment paper on a baking pan.  Add a bunch of small pretzels and top with one Rolo each.  Now, here is the tricky part.  You don’t want to put so many on the baking pan that when you pull it out of the oven you don’t have time to top them with the pecan half.  You see they will cool fast and you want that finishing touch – trust me.  Okay so now you have your pan planned out.  Place it in the hot oven for around 5 minutes until the Rolo melts all over the pretzel.  Once that happens, remove the pan and quickly add a 1/2 of pecan to the top squishing it down in the chocolate.  mmm – just thinking about it.

Let these cool before trying one.  Trust me on this – daddy found out the hard way.  Once they are cool, put in a air tight container and share… or not 🙂

 

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             Thursday, December 31st.

Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices and recipes.  I know this is going to be around Thanksgiving so mark your calendar so you can do a posting with us.

This month we have a suggestion from my cousin Sammy on highlighting cookies or other sweets for December.  Is there a special treat that you fix only around the Christmas holidays?  A certain cookie to share?  It does not have to be five items or less this month.  Share your recipe and picture of your sweet items.

Come join the fun of Shopping Around the World – mark your calendars – Thursday, December 31st.

 

Shopping Around the World

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

Items to price this month:

FIVE items of your CHOICE – Something that you go to when making the family dinner.  Perhaps this is one of your family’s favorite?  A quick meal?  A snack?  List your FIVE items and discuss what the meal is.  Having pictures will also be fantastic to share.

Having this in mind and that it has been raining and yucky a lot this week, mom went for something that was warm and soul comforting.  First up, get out that crockpot that has been sitting in your cabinet not earning its keep.  Wash it out and put it on the counter.  Then grab a box of slow cooker liners.  (You will thank me for this later.)  Put one of the liners in the crock pot – they are awesome.  Easy cleaning which is right up my mom’s ally.  This is what the box looks like.  You can usually buy a box in the grocery store for around $2.00 – don’t worry, they won’t melt in the crock pot.  Now here is what else you will need:

Now let’s break it down.  One box of Zatarain’s New Orleans Style Red Beans and Rice ($2.49); one package of Smoked Sausage ($2.00) and one bottle of Francis Coppola Pinot Noir ($20.00).  Open the bottle of Pinot Noir and pour yourself a glass to enjoy.  Open the box of Zatarain’s and pour contents into crock pop with the directions on the box in adding water.  Then with a sharp knife, slice the entire package of sausage into tiny mouth sized bites.  Now here’s the important part to remember.

1) Make sure your glass of Pinot Noir never gets empty.  Repeat often and necessary while cooking in the kitchen.  2) While putting the ingredients together, chopping and drinking, make repeated groans to show how much you are working in preparing dinner.  This goes well when the spouse and children are in the next room.  Let them think that you are really overdoing in your cooking capabilities.

Now, throw that cut up sausage in the crock pot, put on the lid and place the dial on high for a couple of hours.

 Now remember that glass – don’t let it be empty.  When the Red Beans and Rice is almost done – trust me you will smell the fabulous aroma throughout your crib, turn on your oven.  Mom uses these Dinner Yeast Rolls.  She bought the entire pack at Sam’s for around $10.  She pulls out for, sticks them in a pan and sprays them with butter and then pops them in the oven to warm up.

In the meantime, she sets the table and tells everyone to clean up and get ready for dinner.   Now, remember the crockpot?  Open up and serve.  Afterwards if you have any leftover, remove them and then pull the bag out of the crockpot and toss it in the garbage – the crockpot is now clean 🙂

.And here is the final product.  Look at all of those spices and yum-yum!

 

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, recipes and pictures from around the world!

Me and my pal Fozzie started Shopping Around the World in April 2014.  This has become a huge hit and we all want to know if we are paying more or less than everyone else – snorts.  Our next scheduled Shopping Around the World will be – Wednesday, September 30th.

Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices.  It should be interesting to see the differences between.  Mark your calendar so you can do a posting with us.

Items to price this month:

FIVE items of your CHOICE – Something that you go to when making the family dinner.  Perhaps this is one of your family’s favorite?  A quick meal?  A snack?  List your FIVE items and discuss what the meal is.  Having pictures will also be fantastic to share.

Come join the fun of Shopping Around the World – mark your calendars

 

Shopping Around the World – MARK YOUR CALENDARS

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

Me and my pal Fozzie started Shopping Around the World in April 2014.  This has become a huge hit and we all want to know if we are paying more or less than everyone else – snorts.  Our next scheduled Shopping Around the World will be – Wednesday, September 30th.

Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices.  It should be interesting to see the differences between.  Mark your calendar so you can do a posting with us.

Items to price this month:

FIVE items of your CHOICE – Something that you go to when making the family dinner.  Perhaps this is one of your family’s favorite?  A quick meal?  A snack?  List your FIVE items and discuss what the meal is.  Having pictures will also be fantastic to share.

Come join the fun of Shopping Around the World – mark your calendars

 

Shopping Around the World

My friends – thank YOU so very much for everyone’s wonderful responses to my and Fozzie’s Shopping Around the World blog posts.  We are having so much fun seeing the different prices from around the world AND looking at some intriguing recipes and dinner suggestions.  They are so totally awesome!  Let’s keep up the great work – remember to link back to my blog here so we can keep up with who is playing and keep up with all of the recipes.

This month we focused on FIVE items of your choice in a dessert.  MMM – licking my piggy lips – this sounds so delicious already!  My mommy promised to make me and daddy one of her all time wonderful desserts – Easy Peanut Butter Pie.

   Now I know you are looking at this picture and going there’s six ingredients not five.  Bacon, can your mom count?  Yep, she can.  One is up to you.  Let’s break the items down first with prices:

Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust – $1.50; Jif Peanut Butter, smooth – $2.50; Lite Whip Cream – $1.00; Cream Cheese – $1.00; and Confectioner’s Sugar – $3.29; Reese’s Mini Cups – $.69= $9.98

Now you really can’t say this easy Peanut Butter Pie cost $10.00 to make because it didn’t.  You’re not going to use the entire jar of peanut butter or the entire bag of confectioner’s sugar.  With that in mind, I would guess perhaps around $5.00.  And the Reese’s Mini cups are optional.  Mom just thinks they look pretty decorated on the finished pie.  And yes she got the mini cups because the paper is already taken off of them – that’s right.  Mom goes for easy – easy to eat while decorating the pie that is – snorts.

  Directions from mom for Easy Peanut Butter Pie:

Make sure that the cream cheese and cool whip are at room temperature.  Mix the cream cheese (1 package), 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar and 1/2 cup peanut butter until smooth.  Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping.  Spoon the mixture onto the chocolate graham cracker crust.  You can use regular flavor graham cracker – the chocolate just kicks it up a bit.

Please the remaining whip cream topping over the pie.  Now we garnish with chopped up Reese’s peanut butter cups.  This is optional.  You can also drizzle with chocolate.  Chill for at least two hours or overnight.  Now, I would like to say that this picture is what mine looked like.  We made the pie.  Popped it in the fridge overnight and then after dinner the next night we had some friends over and ate the pie…. without taking a picture of it!  Of course, that could have given us an excuse to make another 🙂 winks.

 

Shopping Around the World – REMINDER

My friends – thank YOU so very much for everyone’s wonderful responses to my and Fozzie’s Shopping Around the World blog posts.  We are having so much fun seeing the different prices from around the world AND looking at some intriguing recipes and dinner suggestions.  They are so totally awesome!  Let’s keep up the great work – remember to link back to my blog here so we can keep up with who is playing and keep up with all of the recipes.

This month we are focusing on FIVE items of your choice in a dessert.  MMM – licking my piggy lips – this sounds so delicious already!  Mark your calendars to meet back here on Wednesday, August 26th.  Can’t wait to see recipes and pictures 🙂

 

Shopping Around the World – Mark Your Calendar

My friends – thank YOU so very much for everyone’s wonderful responses to my and Fozzie’s Shopping Around the World blog posts.  We are having so much fun seeing the different prices from around the world AND looking at some intriguing recipes and dinner suggestions.  They are so totally awesome!  Let’s keep up the great work – remember to link back to my blog here so we can keep up with who is playing and keep up with all of the recipes.

This month we are focusing on FIVE items of your choice in a dessert.  MMM – licking my piggy lips – this sounds so delicious already!  Mark your calendars to meet back here on Wednesday, August 26th.  Can’t wait to see recipes and pictures 🙂

 

Shopping Around the World

My friends – thank YOU so very much for everyone’s wonderful responses to my and Fozzie’s Shopping Around the World blog posts.  We are having so much fun seeing the different prices from around the world AND looking at some intriguing recipes and dinner suggestions.  They are so totally awesome!  Let’s keep up the great work – remember to link back to my blog here so we can keep up with who is playing and keep up with all of the recipes.

This month we focused on FIVE items of your choice in a meal.  It was a “Go for what you know” kind of meal.

 Mom’s “Go to meal” is something easy that she puts in the crock pot all day long to simmer – Spicy Cabbage Soup.  And we all love it – yep we have tasted it.  It’s that good.  It’s an easy meal, has a little spice to it and is great for a cold wet day.  We hope that you enjoy it too when you fix it 🙂

2 cans of mixed vegetables, $2.38

1 package of sirloin, about a pound.  On this date it was cheaper to buy it as a small piece of sirloin instead of it already being cubed.  It was $7.43 for the pound.

1 head of cabbage, $1.28 for the head.

2 boxes of beef broth, $4.98

Seasoning in the form of pepper, salt and pepper flakes.

Directions:  Plug in your crock pot and put on low in the early morning before leaving for work.  Pour in the two boxes of beef broth.  We get the low sodium kind.  Chop up the entire head of cabbage and put in the crock pot. Stir the cabbage in to make sure the broth is covering it.  In the meantime, cut up your sirloin into small cubes.  You can buy the sirloin that is already cut up – whatever you prefer.  This date it was cheaper to buy it whole.  Salt and pepper the beef and throw it in the crock pot with a quick stir.  Then add in your canned vegetables, black pepper to taste and pepper flakes to taste.  Remember, pepper flakes are spicy.  Less is best if you are not sure what kind of spice you want.  You can always add more in when you serve the individual bowls.  Mom likes to serve it with cornbread or a crusty type bread for dipping.  Goes great on cold rainy days or cold winter nights.

 

Shopping Around the World – REMINDER

My friends – thank YOU so very much for everyone’s wonderful responses to my and Fozzie’s Shopping Around the World blog posts.  We are having so much fun seeing the different prices from around the world AND looking at some intriguing recipes and dinner suggestions.  They are so totally awesome!  Let’s keep up the great work – remember to link back to my blog here so we can keep up with who is playing and keep up with all of the recipes.

Mark your calendars this month for Wednesday, July 29, 2015. This month will again be FIVE items of your choice in a meal.  Go for what you know.  What meal is your ‘go to’ meal that you fix regularly at your house?  What meal screams COMFORT to you?  What does your family absolutely love when you fix it?  Price at least FIVE of the items and then share your recipe and hopefully a picture of your meal.

Hope to see you here my friends.  Happy Shopping and Happy Cooking!