January's Grocery Shopping Now Finished, Plus Another Retro Recipe

1962 Recipe and My Modified Version Using a Salad Kit as the Base

The above photo was Tuesday's dinner. I made a Mexi-tuna salad bowl, using the below recipe as inspiration. I've made the Guacamole Salad Bowl many times. It's delicious, and one of the few ways I actually like to eat canned tuna.

For Tuesday, I didn't have all of the "right" ingredients, but I did have enough to make a modified version of this main dish salad. I used 2 5-oz cans of tuna, 1 bagged salad kit (Dole's Chipotle Cheddar flavor that I got free with a coupon), some additional cabbage, 1 tomato, canned olives, additional cheddar cheese, some tortilla chips (bought with a coupon this week), some lentil sprouts, and additional mayo and salsa to stretch the dressing. I crumbled most of the tortilla chips into the salad as well as put a few on each plate. To round out the meal, we had mandarin segments and pumpkin pie squares with the salad.

I'm sure you've noticed, cans of tuna have shrunk significantly over the years. Did you know that the 5-oz on current can labels includes the water weight? Just below "5-oz" the label says "4-oz drained." To make a main dish salad for 4 adults, I find 2 of these cans necessary.

If I had had ripe avocados at the time, I would have mixed a half of one into the dressing packet that came with the salad kit and perhaps added a few of the seasonings in the recipe for Avocado Dressing. The recipe below is quite good, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a tasty tuna main dish salad.

This recipe was in my mother's cookbook. She clipped the recipe out of the July 1962 edition of Better Homes & Gardens magazine and inserted it into the cookbook's binder rings. I don't know when this began or ended, but in my mother's day, BH & G magazine accepted reader recipe submissions, which the magazine would publish in their monthly editions. The magazine suggested that readers clip these recipes and insert them into their own copies of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. In case you're not familiar, this cookbook is published binder-style, so pages can be added or removed. My mother routinely clipped these recipes and filed them under their appropriate headings in the cookbook. Some of my and my mother's favorite recipes from this cookbook are from the reader submissions. 

Grocery Shopping for January

I hadn't planned on finishing the grocery shopping so early in the month with still another week to go. However, two in my family were heading in the direction of WinCo this morning. I suggested a grocery stop there to save gas. And so, I purchased what we'll need for the rest of the month. Here are the details of shopping for January.

For the month, I spent $297.21, which is not bad. Of course, I didn't buy very much meat this month, just a couple of items for variety. I did, however, need to buy several bags of soy milk powder that will last a few months. I was after the free shipping offer, hence the five bags and not just one.

This is January -- no garden, and we're beginning to run low on the produce that I froze in summer and fall. Although I try to stick with budget-oriented winter produce, it does add up. Other purchases this month are part of restocking our back-up pantry, such as the 2 of gallons of vegetable oil, 2 bags of organic flour, and 2 jars of mayo, replenishing what we've used in the last few months.

The rest of my list is pretty standard for my household. Here's what we bought:

Dairy/Refrigerated

5 dozen eggs

3 gallons whole milk

5 pounds of pizza blend shredded cheese
2 pound block of sharp cheddar cheese

2 containers of tofu

2 pounds of butter

Fruits & Vegetables

fresh

6 bags of apples
several bunches bananas
3 lbs mandarin oranges

10 pounds carrots
4 heads, combined, green and red cabbages

2 green peppers

4 avocados

4 Roma tomatoes

1 family-sized bagged salad kit (coupon item)

dried

dried fruit (dates and cranberries)

frozen

2 bags frozen peas
2 bags frozen spinach
3 large bags frozen  broccoli cuts

canned

3 cans green beans (coupon item)

Pantry

roasted peanuts
peanut butter powder
2 gallons vegetable oil
2 jars of mayo
80 oz jug of honey
2 bags organic flour
2 boxes bran flakes (coupon item)
2 bags tortilla chips (coupon item)
chia seeds
large canister of oats (coupon item)
5 bags of powdered soy milk

unsweetened chocolate
wheat bran for muffins
sliced almonds
flax seed meal

Meat

large pack of boneless chicken breasts

pepperoni

2 cans of tuna

There are some ingredients in this list for a 1940s treat that I'll be making next week. Can you guess what those ingredients are?

I'm not always living in the past

This week, I've also been living in the future, the near future that is. 

I'm gathering my Valentine's things and those things that can "pass" for Valentine-oriented decor and scattering them about. Since Valentine's Day is a minor holiday (and I think overly-commercialized), our decorations and celebrations tend to be frugal. In keeping with that mindset, I like to repurpose other items we have around the house.

My sister-in-law gave this cast iron heart mold to me about 30 years ago. I've brought it out to use as a decor piece for February and to make heart-shaped biscuits in the coming weeks. Right now it's resting against the backsplash of the kitchen counter.

Here's our Valentine's tree. In a pile of sticks and small branches outside I found a bare evergreen branch (all the needles have fallen off). It looked like just the sort of branch that could make a nice Valentine's tree. I also have 7 gold-painted glass heart ornaments that are used on the Christmas tree each year. So, I got out my can of gold spray paint and painted the branch to make a gold tree. I stuck the new "tree" into a pot that had floral foam already inside, hung the ornaments, and voila, a tabletop Valentine's tree. I had wanted a white painted little tree, but gold paint is what I had.

I've seen several Valentine garlands on fireplace mantels online. Many of them are lighted. I like the look of a lighted garland this time of year in the living room. The days end early, so we can enjoy the lights in the evening hours. I had a pink painted, wooden heart garland that I made years ago. Since I'm going for a gold, white, and pink theme, here, I used my gold pen to add a gold edging to each heart (not visible in the photo). I scavenged a white light strand from my daughters' childhood room stuff. The lights had small pastel shades on each light bulb -- I carefully pulled each shade off. Next I entwined the pink heart garland with the light strand and hung them on the mantel. 

We're still working on some decorations as well as planning Valentine's Day meals. I know it may be early for some to be thinking about Valentine's Day. My medical and dental appointments start up again February 1. So, in part I'm distracting myself from what's to come and also getting ahead in case February finds me busy again.

How about you? Do you like or dislike the thought of putting up Valentine's decorations? 

My Thoughts, Reviews and Observations of Last Week's 50's Dinner

I had a lot of thoughts about this meal and the cookbook from which the recipes came. First, I want to say we all commented that the entire meal was really good. Here are my thoughts on the different recipes.

Club Chicken Casserole (all of the full recipes are in this post)

Ingredients:

• butter
• all-purpose flour
• chicken broth
• can of evaporated milk
• water
• salt
• cooked rice
• cooked chicken
• canned mushrooms (I skipped)
• canned pimento (I skipped)
• green pepper
• almonds

The things I liked about this recipe:

1) It used basic ingredients. Many creamy chicken casserole recipes call for a can of creamed soup. This one used a sauce made from butter, flour, chicken broth, and evaporated milk. I made my sauce with homemade chicken stock and soy milk in place of the evaporated. In my opinion, the green pepper is a must in this recipe, but the mushrooms and pimento are optional as far as flavor goes.

2) The recipe used common leftover foods -- rice and chicken. This casserole would be a good one to follow roasting a whole chicken or subbing leftover cooked turkey after the holidays. Rice is a common leftover food in our house. Because half of us like brown rice and half of us prefer white rice, when I make rice to go with dinner, I make a pot of each. For this casserole, I used a combination of leftover brown and white rice.

3) It was fairly fast to put together. Actual hands-on time was under 30 minutes. 

4) The casserole was suitable for making ahead then holding in the fridge until just before baking. The recipe didn't call for covering with foil, but I did anyway. I baked it for an additional 10 minutes to compensate for it being chilled before cooking.

5) The recipe is versatile. I thought of several variations to the vegetables and topping with this casserole. In place of the peppers, mushrooms, and pimento, one could use about 2 cups of chopped broccoli and then top it with shredded cheddar cheese in the last 10 minutes of baking. Other vegetables could also be substituted or used in addition, such as frozen peas, canned green beans, or chopped frozen spinach. Toppings other than almonds would work, too, such as buttered bread crumbs or cracker crumbs. My thought is this recipe could be used as an outline for a basic chicken and rice casserole, modifying according to what one might have on hand.

6) This was comfort food at its best -- creamy and savory. Yet, this could also be a "company" dish to serve for a casual evening with friends or family. I mentioned previously that my mother used this as a luncheon dish. She also served it at bridal and baby showers. This was one of her signature ladies' lunch dishes.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

1) The portion size. The full recipe says it makes 8 to 10 servings. I made a half-recipe (so 4 to 5 servings according to the cookbook). I gave my husband extra and myself less so he would have enough. My daughters are not huge eaters, so they had just a little more than I did. We all cleaned our plates, something that doesn't happen often in our house. A half-recipe just barely gave us 4 servings. Two thoughts -- perhaps in the 1950s, folks ate less, or perhaps families would have had some sort of bread served with this meal.

Cabbage Plate (the hot vegetable side dish for our meal)

Ingredients:

• cabbage
• carrots
• celery
• onion
• sugar
• salt
• vegetable oil
• water

What I liked about this recipe:

1) Again, very basic ingredients -- foods that I have on hand all through winter. And not just basic ingredients, but budget-friendly produce items.

2) This vegetable dish was surprisingly flavorful. I wasn't sure we would like it, but we loved it. One daughter asked me what it was seasoned with, and I told her salt and a bit of sugar. She thought certainly there were other seasonings added. The combination of flavors came together to produce a delicious side dish.

3) Actual hands-on time was under 10 minutes.

4) I was able to make this ahead up until the cook stage. I had it waiting in the saucepan, ready to cook near the last minute.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

Absolutely nothing! It was a budget vegetable dish that was also very easy to make. I'll be making this over and over all winter.

Pickled Beets

Ingredients:

• beets
• water
• vinegar
• brown sugar
• salt
• cinnamon
• ground cloves

What I liked about this recipe:

1) It was very quick to make. I used canned sliced beets. I chose to julienne slice them. I could have just used the slices as they came out of the can and saved myself 4-5 minutes. In total, I had this made and in the refrigerator to chill in about 8-9 minutes. If I had made this with the whole slices, I think I could have made the marinade in about 3-4 minutes, using the microwave to heat it before pouring over the drained, canned beets, then getting it all into the fridge in about 5 to 6 minutes.

2) It made a tasty cold vegetable dish that gave the meal flavor and added color. Pickled beets are always a winner in my book.

3) As far as winter salads go, pickled beets, made from canned beets and scratch dressing ingredients, is a budget-friendly dish. At Walmart currently, a can of Great Value sliced beets is 78 cents. All 4 servings would cost me about 90 cents or less, including spices, sugar and vinegar.

4) This was another make-ahead-and-let-it-sit recipe, so I was able to make this early in the day and it was ready to serve at mealtime.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

Nothing!

Apple Brown Betty

Ingredients:

• stale bread
• butter
• apples
• sugar (brown or white)
• lemon juice
• lemon peel (didn't have this)
• water

What I liked about this recipe:

1) It was delicious without being overly sweet -- a little bit of tang, a little bit of sweet, and a nice crispiness to the top crust. The bread crumb layer on the bottom completely held together, making a soft "crust". 

2) Brown Betty is frugal, using stale bread to make both the crust and the topping. I used bottled lemon juice, which I always keep on hand. And I skipped the lemon peel.

3) It's an easy recipe to put together, easier than a pie or cobbler, perhaps on the same level as making a crisp. Although this recipe called for bread crumbs, I've seen other Brown Betty recipes that just used torn bread. I used a blender to make the crumbs. And I left the peel on the apples.

4) I baked this in the morning and then warmed individual servings in the microwave at serving time.

5) Brown Betty is a versatile dessert. The recipe suggested a couple of alternatives, chopped rhubarb or blueberries. This would be a good way to use any kind of surplus and over-ripening fruit.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

Once again, nothing!

Note: The recipe also called for a homemade lemon sauce topping. I completely spaced that and didn't fully realize until near dinnertime. The dessert was delicious as it was. I think Brown Betty would also be nice topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Key takeaways from this menu:

There are a few recipes in this cookbook that do call for convenience items or more expensive cuts of meat. But on the whole, these recipes focus on simple scratch-cooking techniques using basic, humble ingredients. The recipes are easy to follow and don't take as much time as one might expect, especially if putting together a whole meal. I spent about 2 hours, total, making this entire dinner for my family. 

For being as easy as it was to make, these were all very frugal recipes, some using leftovers, others using the most basic, budget-friendly ingredients. I didn't need to go out and buy anything special to make any part of the meal.

I will be making all of these recipes again in the future. 

If you have access to some old cookbooks, you might enjoy making a meal from a different era. Perhaps you'll be surprised as I was that many of these old recipes are fairly simple and very budget-friendly.

Dinner at 50's O'Clock: Cooking 50's Recipes

I decided to make a complete dinner from my mother's cookbook, the one with a copyright date of 1953. This is exactly the kind of meal my mother made in the earlier years of my parents' marriage (the 1950s to early-mid 60s years). In fact, I remember my mother making 3 of these recipes. 

I began cooking in the late morning hours, just as my mother would have done. This way, my afternoon would be completely free until time to put the finishing touches on everything and serve. 

I began by starting the main dish, poaching a b/s chicken breast in some homemade stock, measuring the rice, and chopping the vegetables. While the chicken cooked, I made the pickled beets. Once those were in the fridge marinating, I assembled the cabbage and carrot dish and put it all into the stainless saucepan in which the dish would cook. Next I made the dessert. While that was baking, I assembled the chicken and rice casserole. Whew! By the time the Brown Betty was out of the oven, the casserole was covered and in the fridge, waiting to be baked in the late afternoon. Also, about half of the dishes were washed. I finished the cleanup in time for a late lunch. And now I have some time to write to you, friends, before I do my workout, fold laundry, and finish getting dinner together.

I took shortcuts where I could, such as canned beets instead of fresh, using the smoothie blender to make the bread crumbs for the dessert, and using frozen apple chunks and celery dices that I'd made last summer from garden produce. 

The menu I chose follows the guidelines provided in the cookbook for putting together a full, budget-oriented dinner, containing a main dish with both a starch and protein, a hot vegetable dish, a cold salad, and a dessert. I chose the recipes that I did because I had almost all of the ingredients on hand, and the combination of the dishes provided a good balance of savory, tangy, sweet, and spicy, and seemed to have a nice amount of color.

Here's the menu:

Club Chicken Casserole

Cabbage Plate

Pickled Beets

Apple Brown Betty

Here are the actual recipes and how I adapted them:

I cut this recipe in half, as I'm only serving 4 adults, and I have enough cooked rice for a half-recipe. I left out the pimento and mushrooms and substituted soy milk plus some soy milk powder for the evaporated milk. My mother always kept a jar of pimentos and a jar or two of mushrooms in the pantry, so she would have included both of those. But she would not have had evaporated milk on hand. She would have simply used regular milk in its place. Since I had 1/4 of a whole green pepper needing to be used up, and I didn't have the other vegetables, I went ahead and added all of the pepper, diced. It was a little over 1/3 cup of dices, which should be fine in this recipe. 

I've made this before, sometimes using red pepper in place of pimento. It does add a pretty look to the casserole. I will add the almonds after the casserole is baked. Below is what it looks like ready to go into the oven. Although the recipe does not call for baking it covered, I will have it covered with foil for the first 15 minutes, to keep it from drying out too much. Then I'll remove the foil.

Cabbage Plate is our hot vegetable for the meal. I've never made nor eaten this dish. I'm not sure what my family will think of it. But we did have all of the necessary ingredients. Sometimes, that fact trumps everything else. The only change I made was to use frozen chopped celery. The dish is in the saucepan, ready to set on the stove to cook while the casserole heats through.

Here's what Cabbage Plate looks like ready to cook.

I had a single can of sliced beets in the pantry, waiting to be used. I julienne-sliced the beets (just as my mother always did) and heated the dressing in the microwave in the same measuring cup that I measured the julienned beets. I had a total of about 1 1/2 cups of the beets, so I made a half-recipe of the dressing. Pickled beets are our cold salad for the dinner. It's now chilling in the fridge. To ensure they marinate equally, I'm stirring the beets every couple of hours.

Here's what the Pickled Beets look like ready to serve.

Of course, no 50s dinner would be complete without a homemade dessert. I chose what I thought was the quintessential 1950s baked dessert, Brown Betty. My mother made this often. I love that it uses bread crumbs, as stale bread seems to multiply in my kitchen. My mother would have used white bread. I have half white/half whole wheat bread. I ground up the crumbs in the smoothie blender, which worked so awesomely. Afterward, I rinsed it briefly and made my lunch smoothie in it. I do have some fresh apples on hand, but I wanted to use the frozen chunks for baked goods and save the fresh for eating as fresh apples. I didn't have the lemon peel, but did have bottled lemon juice.

Here's the finished dessert.

I'll update with photos of my plate and feedback from my family later.

This is the type of meal my father loved. When I was a new bride, the newlywed advice my father gave to me was to cook like my mother did. My father was thinking that my husband would love these sorts of meals as he had. And he was right. I try to cook full meals like this one a couple of times per week. My husband always appreciates that I go to this effort for him. 

Cooking an entire meal from a 1950s cookbook was a fun change of pace. I may do this again soon, as my mother's cookbook contains many wonderful meal ideas.

Budget Winter Fruits & Vegetables, My List

Tuesday's salad comprised of diced green cabbage, diced red cabbage,
lentil sprouts, and tangerine segments,
tossed with a dressing of sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and honey.

After several days cooped up in the house, I got out to Walmart on Tuesday. This is the second time I've grocery shopped in January. The primary foods I needed from Walmart were milk and produce. We all know that fresh produce prices are higher in winter for most items, than they are in summer and early fall. There are still some budget fruits and veggies to be had, some fresh, but many are frozen. (Convenience, yay!)

Since we all have to navigate the current food inflation, I've compiled a list of the fresh, frozen, canned, and grown-at-home fruits and veggies that I use regularly throughout winter.

Fresh Produce

Winter Fruit

bananas -- always a good deal for fresh fruit. Walmart and WinCo sell bananas for 58 cents/lb. Fred Mayer (Kroger) has bananas for 65 cents/lb.

apples -- can still be found in multi-pound bags for under $1 a pound through the month of January. Earlier in the month, I found 3# bags of Fuji apples for $2.48, or 83 cents/lb. Walmart currently has 5# bags of Red Delicious for $4.78, or 96 cents/lb (but my family doesn't care for Red Deliicous). Apples at Fred Meyer are over $1/lb this month.

By mid to late-February, the quality of fresh apples is deteriorating, and only the priciest of apples have much of a crunch. 

oranges and tangerines -- while tangerines can be expensive per pound, there are many pieces of fruit in a 2 or 3 pound bag, which means they go far in our household. I also try to stretch the tangerines by separating the segments and adding to dishes like slaw type salads. In Tuesday's cabbage and sprout salad, I used 2 tangerines for a family of four adults. To further stretch them, I cut each segment in half before adding to the salad. Tangerines were $3.97/3# bag, or $1.33/lb.

Oranges are a better price per pound and still beneath the $1/pound mark. At Fred Meyer this week, an 8# bag is $7.99, or $1/pound.

Winter Vegetables

cabbage  -- typically 78 cents/pound in either WinCo or Walmart, slightly more expensive at Fred Meyer at 89 cents/lb. I use cabbage in slaw and other salads, stir fries, faux stuffed cabbage rolls (a layered cabbage/meat/tomato casserole), soups (Cabbage Patch Soup is a favorite in my house). Because cabbage is one of the least expensive fresh veggies I can buy in winter, I use it for stretching other, pricier veggies such as broccoli, in addition to serving it as a stand-alone vegetable. I buy red cabbage when the price per pound is within 10 to 20 cents of that of green cabbage. Red Cabbage is 99 cents/pound at Fred Meyer this month. Red cabbage adds color and additional nutrients to our meals.

carrots -- in 10-lb bags, about 60 cents/pound. I bought a 10-lb bag of carrots at WinCo earlier this month for $5.98. Pureed cooked carrots can be used either to stretch canned pumpkin puree to make pies and breads, or straight in pumpkin bread and cookie recipes. I made a pumpkin pie the other day with home-cooked and pureed pumpkin. That batch of home-cooked pumpkin looked a little bland, so I added a little cooked, pureed carrot to the pie filling. The finished pie's color looked better and no one in the family guessed I added carrot to the pumpkin filling. I also use fresh carrots to stretch more expensive frozen vegetables. See below for frozen peas.

yellow onions -- bought in multi-pound bags, 50 to 65 cents/pound. Onions add flavor and stretch other vegetable mixes in recipes. See below about frozen peas and canned green beans.

potatoes -- really a starch food, but I use potatoes to stretch other vegetables (see below for frozen peas), in multi-pound bags 40 to 50 cents/pound in my area.

whole winter squash -- for a little more per pound, winter squash is a good buy for winter veggies. Our local Walmart has acorn and butternut squash for $1.28/lb. Acorn and butternut squash at Fred Meyer are $1.29. One of the aspects of winter squash that I feel makes them a good deal, even at this above $1/lb price, is that the part that is typically eaten is dense and loses less water during cooking than many other veggies. In addition, the seeds are edible just as pumpkin seeds are. I wash and freeze squash seeds. When I have enough collected in the freezer, I thaw and roast them in oil with some salt. If I don't feel like bothering with washing/freezing seeds for us to eat, I put them outside for the squirrels.

vegetables that are priced per piece, such as green peppers, cucumbers, avocados -- these vegetables can add a lot of zip to the monotony of budget winter vegetables. 

I make each piece last for several meals, as opposed to using entire vegetables in one dish. What I mean by this is the difference between serving stuffed green peppers, which would use 4 whole peppers for us or adding 1/4 to 1/2 of a green pepper to a pan of baked beans, which would also serve 4. Green peppers at WinCo earlier this month were 78 cents each. They're 79 cents each at Fred Meyer this week.

The same can be done with cucumbers (78 and 79 cents each at Walmart and Fred Meyer, respectively). I try to stretch a single cucumber with less expensive salad vegetables, or a few cucumber slices alongside some carrot sticks to eat with hummus. 

Avocados are also a good price in the winter months. I've been finding them regularly for 68 to 78 cents each at both WinCo and Walmart in December and January. Since we don't eat a whole avocado by ourselves in one sitting, that's a good deal. I add slices of avocado to plates of refried beans and rice or thinly sliced avocado to top hummus on lightly toasted bread. A half avocado can garnish and enhance a meal for all four of us.

Frozen Produce

I supplement the above fresh produce with frozen broccoli cuts, frozen spinach, and frozen peas. All of these frozen veggies are more expensive per pound than cabbage, carrots, and onions. However, I've found several ways to stretch the frozen vegetables with some of the less expensive fresh ones (or garden produce that I've frozen myself). The frozen versions of broccoli, spinach, and peas are less expensive than the fresh this time of year.

broccoli cuts -- if you're not familiar with broccoli cuts, they are chopped broccoli pieces that contain stalk pieces as well as some floret pieces. In contrast, a bag of broccoli florets will be exclusively the flowering tops of broccoli, with some stalk attached. The broccoli cuts may have a tough piece or two in a bag. 

This time of year, frozen broccoli cuts are less expensive than fresh broccoli sold in the produce section. For example, at Walmart this week, fresh broccoli in the produce section is priced at $1.48/pound. I can buy broccoli cuts in 2-lb bags for $1.14/pound or frozen broccoli florets in 2-lb bags for $1.37/pound. If I really wanted the broccoli florets, the frozen would be less expensive per pound than fresh. I buy the florets for when we have company meals. Otherwise I buy the cuts. 

I stretch broccoli cuts with turnip stem dices that I freeze in summer and fall as we harvest turnips, steaming all of the pieces together. I also stretch broccoli cuts with some cabbage shreds when making stir-fried beef with broccoli or small dices of cabbage when making a broccoli frittata or quiche.

spinach -- fresh spinach is over double the price of frozen spinach in winter. Even canned spinach is slightly more expensive than frozen chopped spinach. Best price on fresh spinach is $3.15/pound in 10-oz bags at Walmart right now, whereas frozen chopped spinach is $1.55/pound in 12-oz bags also at Walmart. Canned spinach at Walmart is $1.56/pound sold in 13.5-oz cans at Walmart. If we're eating the spinach cooked, then it makes the most sense to buy frozen spinach. 

I stretch spinach in a couple of ways. My family really enjoys creamed spinach. I add sautéed diced onion to the spinach and cream sauce. I also stretch frozen spinach in an Italian-style medley of onions, garlic, canned tomato chunks, Italian herbs, plus some spinach.

peas -- when it comes to peas, canned are much cheaper than frozen peas. However, my family will only eat canned peas when added to a soup. So I buy frozen peas, mostly. 

When buying frozen peas, there's a choice between frozen sweet peas and frozen petite peas. The sweet peas can be more starchy than the petite peas. But the petite peas are much more expensive than the sweet peas. With the exception of a special dinner, such as Easter, we stick with the sweet peas.

I stretch frozen peas with dices of fresh steamed carrots, or diced and sautéed onions, or with cubes of boiled potatoes in a cream sauce.

Canned Vegetables

We pretty much burned ourselves out on canned veggies in the last few years, with the exception of canned green beans, canned tomatoes, canned tomato paste, and canned yams. 

With canned green beans, we think they are more delicious when I add a generous amount of chopped onions that have been sautéed in a butter/oil blend. Doing so also stretches a single can of green beans to feed the 4 of us.

I use whole canned tomatoes in winter in many dishes. We made Chicken Cacciatore last weekend using canned tomatoes. I also make a veggie medley with canned tomatoes, as mentioned above concerning frozen spinach. In summer I make a similar medley, subbing fresh zucchini for the frozen spinach. I buy canned whole tomatoes at the restaurant supply, Chefstore. At Walmart, though, whole canned tomatoes are $1.48 for a 28-oz can or 86 cents/pound. Whole canned tomatoes are less expensive for me at the restaurant supply, but Walmart sells canned diced tomatoes at the same price per pound as the whole.

Tomato paste is a staple for us. I make tomato soup, pasta and pizza sauce, and ketchup with canned tomato paste. I buy tomato paste at the restaurant supply store, Chefstore. However, Walmart has tomato paste in 12-oz cans for $1.22/can or $1.63/pound. That may sound expensive compared to other produce items on my list. Keep in mind that tomato paste is a concentrated food. In every use I have for it, I need to dilute it with water or other liquids.

Most of the time, we use yams in pureed form in a casserole, which means I don't "need" fresh yams for the recipes I make. And canned yams are less expensive than fresh red sweet potatoes in winter. At Walmart this week, canned yams in 40-oz cans are $3.12/can or $1.24/pound, whereas the fresh sweet potatoes are $1.78/pound at Walmart or $1.69/pound at Fred Meyer. In addition, I often find canned yams on clearance or at the grocery salvage store marked down significantly. The canned yams we're currently using were 50 cents/can in 29-oz cans.

Homegrown Vegetables

Homegrown Indoors

homegrown sprouts -- we like to add these to salads. I sprout lentils on the counter. It takes less than a week to go from dried lentil to sprouts. The Asian-inspired cabbage, sprout and tangerine salad from Tuesday is an example of how I use sprouts in salads.

homegrown and preserved from summer

I still have beet greens, Swiss chard, turnip stems, sorrel, grape leaves, apple chunks, chopped fresh tomatoes, dehydrated tomatoes, dried prunes, dried rhubarb, pumpkin puree, applesauce, crabapple sauce, blackberries, strawberries, onion greens, and garden herbs from last summer in the freezer, as well as a couple of fresh pumpkins, a bag of garlic, a few onions, and a box of potatoes in the storage room from the end-of-season harvest.

To make a list of the primary budget fruits and vegetables that we eat in winter here:

• bananas
• apples
• oranges
• tangerines
• cabbage, mostly green cabbage, sometimes red cabbage
• carrots
• yellow onions
• potatoes
• winter squash
• green peppers
• cucumber
• avocado
• frozen broccoli cuts
• frozen chopped spinach
• frozen sweet peas
• canned green beans
• canned tomatoes
• canned tomato paste
• canned yams
• home-grown lentil sprouts
• home-grown and preserved garden produce

Occasionally I find a great buy on a dented can of fruits or vegetables. I will pick those up and add them to our meals at a great savings on produce. So, it pays to check those discount racks or sections.

"Wintering" This Week

I have a tendency to think about winter as everything Christmas. But in reality, winter has just barely begun by Christmas Day. Once the holiday decorations are put away, we will have many weeks of this winter business. Some of us are happier about that fact than others. Whether we like winter or not, it is here to stay for a little while.

Snowfall brings a stillness to the outside world. Life outdoors takes a pause. And without the hustle and bustle of the holidays, life indoors feels like it slows down.

I'm trying to lean into winter this year, feel what winter is all about. And that is what "wintering" is.

This week's wintering has meant:

Lighting a few candles in the late afternoon. Winter is the perfect season for candles, as sunset comes early, yielding more candle enjoyment hours per day.

Noticing the pink sky in those moments that the sun leaves us for the day.

Taking in the citrusy aroma as I peel a tangerine for my afternoon snack. The tangerine season is brief each year.

Using and appreciating our wintry dishes. The blankets of snow over the bridge in the engraving seems particularly apropos this week.

Really appreciating the beauty of evergreens. In spring and summer, the flowers take the spotlight and evergreens fade to the background. In winter, it's the evergreens that give us a pop of color in the landscape. Their subtle fragrance is not to be easily dismissed either. This small cedar branch with its needle-leaves was in the way as I went out to collect the mail. I began to brush the larger branch aside, then instead I pulled this tiny piece off and brought it along with the mail into the house with me.

After sorting the mail, I decided to do a couple of crayon rubbings of the cedar, like we once did as children. I didn't have the exact color of crayon, so I chose a couple to layer on color as I rubbed. Rubbing the underside of the branch worked better. It picked up more texture than rubbing the top side. 

After a few tries at rubbing, I tore the peel from my tangerine into small bits and broke the individual tiny branches off the stem o the cedar to make a small dish of potpourri to fragrance the room. The dish is now sitting in front of the floor heat vent, adding a bit of citrus and green scent to the air. When all of the pieces are completely dried, I'll add them to some potpourri in the guest bathroom.

In addition to the above, wintering for me means not scheduling anything stressful for the month of January, as much as possible. This is a time to de-stress and rebuild myself for spring.

Whether you call it wintering or not, do you make efforts to slow down just a bit in January? What would wintering look like in your life?

Grocery Shopping Then and Now: Today and Into the Future, My Kids' Generation

A tale of the income divide

As I look around at the young 20 and 30-somethings in my region, I see a growing discrepancy in individual incomes between the better off and the less well-off. The Seattle area has been known as a tech industry center for several decades. An article I read a while back suggested that it is these tech salaries (primarily software engineers and their bosses) that tremendously skew the (high) median income for the city of Seattle. In the tech industry, there aren't just a handful of software engineers making these larger-than-average salaries. Computer software technology is listed as one of the key industries for my area. There are a lot of highly-compensated software engineers working in Seattle. And most of them are young 20, 30, and 40-somethings.

On the flip-side, you have all of the workers who support the tech industry employees in one way or another, people like the Starbucks' employees making the perfect latte, or the cashier at Whole Foods who can't easily afford the foods she swipes across the scanner during her shift, or the Uber drivers (who shuttle techies to and from work, an evening on the town, or the game at Lumen Field), or the substitute teachers (like my daughters) who spend their days with the young kids of the area's software employees. 

There have always been rich and poor. It isn't that the less-wealthy are shopping in dumpsters. It's that really upscale markets have been created to cater to the young, more well-off singles and couples, stores like Whole Foods and Amazon Go, while the lower income people shop at the budget stores like Walmart, Grocery Outlet and WinCo.

Will healthier versions of food only be for the better-off?

What bothers me about this discrepancy is that it feels like sometime in our future, the healthier foods will be only for the more financially-successful people. Stores like Whole Foods sell versions of foods that used to be available to all in regular supermarkets. 

Let me give you an example from my own life. In the not-too-distant past (like 5-10 years ago), the ingredients' list on a carton of whipping cream sold in Safeway, Fred Meyer, or any other regular grocery store listed "sweet cream" or some similar wording and nothing else. At Fred Meyer right now, the ingredients' list for whipping cream reads as follows:  "Cream, Milk, Carrageenan, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80."Those additional ingredients for current cartons of whipping cream may be harmful to some peoples' bodies. For me, that's carrageenan, an additive that many GI docs say to avoid like the plague if you have any of the digestive disorders. 

It isn't just my experience. This article about luxurious grocery stores states, "Whole Foods offers shoppers the opportunity to purchase items they may not be able to find at their local Walmart. In addition, they sell products that do not contain any artificial colors, flavors or preservatives."

According to this paper from the NIH, in the US there are over 2500 additives that are allowed by our government to be added to the foods we eat. Not all food additives are harmful to humans. But there are many that are approved and have not been studied for their long-term effects. There's a general consensus that babies (in the womb or born) and small children are the most vulnerable in our population to any compound that could cause harm. The 20 and 30-something generation are the ones starting families, either now or in the very near future. It is their children who will either be fortunate to be born to a couple that are on the wealthier end of the spectrum and can pay for the higher quality/unadulterated foods, or will be born to parents who, by necessity, will be buying the highly commercialized food products that often come with as many additives as real foods on the ingredients' list.

Many in our generation might think, "well, we survived and are okay." That is true. However, many of us grew up eating fewer packaged foods and more whole foods. Just take a look at your neighborhood supermarket. The amount of commercial boxed products is astounding. When I was a kid and wanted a fruity snack, I was offered a piece of whole fruit or a handful of raisins. The fruit snacks that a lot of kids are given now are really just candy.

There have been upscale grocery stores for many decades. For the most part, these upscale stores carried the same foods and brands as the budget stores. The distinction between the two levels of grocery stores had to do with the shopping experience and not necessarily the foods sold. The difference I see happening now is that in order to find the less-adulterated food products, you have to shop at places like Whole Foods and pay Whole Foods-prices.

My son and daughter-in-law

While I've only been shopping with my daughter-in-law once, I have a sense for how they shop based on conversations. The two of them often shop together. Shopping is a sort of date experience. They buy lots of fresh foods and some high-end convenience products. Their grocery budget is significantly larger than mine. They place a greater emphasis on finding the most healthful product possible than I did in the past. They try new products or foods regularly. I have learned a lot about the merits or lack of merits of various foods from both of them. 

They shop at a variety of venues, including farmers' markets, Trader Joe's, Amazon Fresh, Costco, Whole Foods, a couple of Asian markets, WinCo occasionally (where the bulk bins are), and a couple of other local markets. I think they've tried Amazon Go (the cashier-less store). Although they can afford to spend more on food than I can, they also love a good deal. They keep a Prime membership and stock up on products at Whole Foods when there's a sale plus Prime discount. So it's not like they're wasteful. They look for value and best price on healthy food items.

I see their generation as having even more concern over the way produce is farmed, or meat, eggs, and dairy animals are raised and harvested. When my mother's generation shopped for eggs, the only differences between what was available had to do with size. Although my son and daughter-in-law could buy cheaper eggs, they're looking for quality, preferring pasture-raised eggs -- something that wasn't sold in grocery stores when I just started out.

My daughters

Both of my daughters are trying to get less-conventional careers off the ground. In the meantime, they try to pick up substitute teaching jobs in our school district. Neither have a compensation package with substitute teaching, such as medical or dental insurance, paid sick time, or paid vacation. They may work long hours at their various jobs, but they don't yet earn enough to live on their own. Our grocery arrangement is they each pay a share of the grocery bill from when I shop for the family. They also buy foods that I typically don't buy (like snack or lunch foods), or brands that they prefer. One daughter also likes to try to be more independent with food purchases and buys her own milk, oatmeal, fresh fruit and vegetables, tofu and treat foods. 

When either of them grocery shop, they stick to Walmart, WinCo, Grocery Outlet, and a nearby ethnic market for produce. They would like to have the ability to shop at Costco, but the membership fee is too steep for either of them, or to even share. (Costco carries some large packs of organic snack foods that both of them would enjoy.)

Both try to cook from scratch for their own breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. In that way, they are able to eat healthfully. But, as we all know, cooking from scratch is time-consuming. And, shopping on a budget means that they're not always able to buy organics or unadulterated products/ingredients. 

I can hope that in the future there will be "healthy" choices available at all income levels. Will some manufacturers decide to ditch some of the additives without having to pass on a price increase to the consumer? Can a major corporation even put peoples' needs before its responsibility to shareholders? What do you think the future will hold with respect to grocery shopping?

It's been interesting to me to think through the changes in grocery shopping since my grandmother's day. I have a keen interest in learning about the lived experience of people from the past. I feel I can learn a lot that I can in some way apply to my own life now, as well as be grateful for what I don't have to do because of progress made. I hope my little exploration of the decades has been interesting to you, too.

Grocery Shopping, Then and Now: The 80s, 90s, and Beyond, My Story (pt. 2)

Other ways we saved on groceries

Deals at the back of the shelf

I began grocery shopping for a family when some stores still priced their products with stickers. The age of scanning bar codes had arrived, but was not adopted in every store just yet. When I shopped at any of these price sticker stores, I would reach to the back of a shelf to find items that had been missed in the markups and still had the old price on them. It may have only saved pennies with each item, but every penny counted for us.

The age of the coupon queen

I wasn't a coupon queen, but I did pretty well with coupons for a small-timer. We had a store that offered double (common) and triple (rare) coupon days. I was getting $1 and $2 off coupons regularly, both in the paper and magazines. One double coupon day I grabbed all of my $1 off dry cereal coupons and headed to the store. I wasn't able to use every coupon, but I did come home with 18 boxes of cereal for a grand total of 37 cents. I was ale to do the same with powdered laundry detergent coupons, too. The real coupon queens were selling or buying bundles of coupons. 

Some coupon-ers picked up leftover newspapers from stores and libraries for the coupon inserts on Monday mornings. I had a friend who went to our local library when it opened evert Monday and was able to get the day before's copies of the paper, garnering 4 or 5 sets of coupon inserts each week. This cost her nothing but time on her way to drop the kids off at school. She then paired the coupons up with sales and rebates. Her garage looked like a little store, with shelves of products she had gotten not only for free, but manufacturers paid her to take the products through rebates. My friend would donate what she could to shelters and food banks.

Most of my local stores had trays near the entrance doors where a shopper could both drop off needed clipped coupons and pick up ones that were of use. Each week I would drop off the dog food, hair dye, cosmetics or cleaning product coupons and pick up ones for cat food, some packaged foods, and some paper products. Again, not a huge savings for me, but I was helping someone else out while saving some pennies for our family.

With help I taught myself how to make all kinds of foods in the kitchen

Just after arriving in our new town, my sister-in-law showed me that baking bread was not as mysterious as I'd previously though. I hadn't tried baking my own bread since an unsuccessful attempt in college. Following a good recipe and doing the kneading made all the difference in my loaves.

I also learned how to make yogurt. I've been successfully making our family's yogurt now for 12 years, all using descendants from the original starter.

Many years ago, my husband brought home a copy of Laurel's Kitchen from the free table at work. In that cookbook I found recipes for homemade flour tortillas and soybean sandwich spread, among others. I use those recipes to this day.

When peanut butter prices skyrocketed, my two daughters were in high school. Sunflower seeds were still quite reasonable in price. I used my blender to make sunseed butter. My daughters liked it well-enough for daily sandwiches for about a year in high school.

I used the local library to find many new recipes. The ones that my family really enjoyed I copied onto notecards to reference through the years. One of our favorites is for a country French marinated lentil salad. It's super frugal and a delicious way to serve legumes in the hot months of summer.

Keeping foods

Somewhere in our early years of owning our own home, we bought a food dehydrator and the first of our stand-alone freezers. We've since added another stand alone freezer, plus we now have our old fridge/freezer in the garage, for 4 freezer spaces total.

We've had stand-alone freezers for most of our marriage. We currently have 2 freezers and 2 refrigerator/freezer combos. I have kept some sort of vegetable garden every summer of our marriage. And all but one summer we've had fruit trees where we lived. We currently have 4 apple trees, 1 plum tree, 2 cherry trees, 4 pear trees, 2 fig trees, a strawberry patch, 8 blueberry bushes, 2 raspberry patches, several currant bushes, several rhubarb plants, a small buy growing cranberry patch, and a blackberry patch.We also have a lot of competition for all of this fruit, raccoons, bunnies, squirrels, mountain beavers, and coyotes (coyotes will eat low-hanging fruit if they're hungry enough). In addition to growing all of this fruit, we also forage for additional blackberries every summer. We have a couple of local spots that are good for this, one a park near a small lake nearby, and the other the grounds at the local elementary tare school. Summer of 2020, we saw a lot of folks foraging for blackberries. I can and freeze as much produce as I have energy to do each summer and fall. This last fall was not great for me for putting away produce. I hope this next fall will go better.

Where I shop today

Our house is about an 8 to10-minute drive to the major north-south highway that connects the cities of western Washington state. Every budget grocery shopping venue is along this highway. You can drive into the towns off the highway and find other grocery stores. But most of those tend to be more expensive. So, for the most part, I grocery shop along the highway. 

To our north, just next to Home Depot, there is an ethnic market where I find fabulous deals on produce. Closer to our house, there's Walmart Neighborhood Market (not a super center, but a grocery store). Walmart is in the same strip as Value Village. So I'll often hit one while I hit the other. Directly across the street is Grocery Outlet (a salvage store). In the same strip as Grocery Outlet is Dollar Tree. Dollar Tree is hit or miss when it comes to groceries. Package sizes are now quite small. But I occasionally find something I want from there. Boxed crackers at $1.25 are still a good deal at Dollar Tree. Since I'm usually going in to Grocery Outlet, a pop into Dollar Tree doesn't cost me anything but a few minutes of my time.

There are several Asian markets on the highway near the Walmart/Grocery Outlet shopping area. Asian markets are a great source for dried spices, specialty condiments used in Asian cuisine, some produce items, rice in large bags, whole tapioca pearls (I make tapioca pudding with the pearls, much less expensive than the little boxes of cracked tapioca sold in supermarkets) and tea. 

Further down the highway is Trader Joe's. I don't shop at Trader Joe's as much as I used to, but there are still some deals there, especially if you have particular dietary needs or want a particular pre-made food for a special occasion. I love Trader Joe's frozen croissant dough. They bake up into the freshest, crispiest croissants, a favorite treat for my birthday or Mother's Day. We had a Sprouts just across the street from TJ for several years. They went out of business at that location during the shutdowns. That was truly unfortunate, as I found a lot of great produce deals at Sprouts. 

Just a few blocks further is Chefstore, the restaurant supply. We discovered this restaurant store 25 years ago. At that time, it was one of few that would sell to the public. You had to pay cash, then. Only businesses could write checks there. Now, like every other place, they take credit from anyone. I shop at Chefstore about once every 3 months. It's where I buy pizza and block cheese, cases of raisins, 25 and 50-lb sacks of grains/flour/sugar, 12.5 lb bags of popping corn, eggs by the 15-dozen case, 1-lb blocks of butter (not in sticks, but blocks), 25-lb bags of carrots, large canisters of spices, 2-lb bags of dried yeast, gallon jugs of vinegar, soy sauce, molasses, lemon juice, olive oil and vanilla flavoring, and in some years, 88-count cases of oranges. In the past, I've also bought bacon ends and pieces, 35-lb boxes of cooking oil, 5-lb bags of frozen vegetables, and ingredients for making a Greek dinner at home at Chefstore. Since we have never had a Costco membership, this business supply does what I'd want from Costco.

At the end of my shopping route is WinCo and the large seasonal produce stand, Country Farms. WinCo is well-known for its very large bulk bin section and general low prices on everything they carry. It's my favorite store for several items, not just because of price, but their quality is better on some store brand products than the same product at Walmart. And just after WinCo is Country Farms, the produce stand. I used to shop here weekly when my kids were in high school. It was right on that daily route. I probably only get down here once a year now, for their end-of-season sale on long-keeping produce items, such as cabbage, winter squash, and pie pumpkins. 

I also occasionally shop off the highway at Fred Meyer, a Kroger affiliate. Fred Meyer's store is cleaner inside than any of my budget options, but their prices are generally higher than my other stores. They do, however, send out coupons for free items one every month or two. I received another coupon for a free bag of salad just this week. If I have recently done a lot of shopping at their store (in November and December shopping for holidays, or during the gardening season buying supplies), I can rack up significant cash-off on gas for the car. We were recently in a nearby town that has much cheaper gas than ours here. We stopped in at the Fred Meyer there and used my cash-off of 30 cents/gallon and saved big for that tank of gas (savings on 30 cents/gallon plus lower gas prices in general in that town). I tend to spend more on non-food items at Fred Meyer than food. I buy stuff for the garden there every spring and summer. It's the only place nearby that sells chicken manure, and seed packets are always buy one/get one free. This is also where I get my potting soil in early spring for starting seeds and organic fertilizers to use throughout the gardening season. I tend to prefer Fred Meyer for garden stuff over Home Depot, which would be my only other nearby gardening venue.

I guess you could say that my car has become one of my greatest tools in saving money on groceries.

In September, we added a new place to get some of our meat, beef from a small-operation rancher. The beef is fabulous quality, supports a family and not a corporation, and is a reasonable quantity to be delivered at one time. However, it's a lot more expensive per pound. But, but, but . . .the quality is so good, I'm not sure we could go back to eating supermarket beef again,

My mother would occasionally make a stop at a produce market after doing her shopping at a supermarket, but she would never have shopped 4 or more stores in a morning as I have done. She used her time differently that I do. Part of that is I enjoy this sort of challenge, to save as much as I can on groceries. I don't think that aspect of shopping appealed to my mother in the same way as it does me. The other aspect is it's simply harder for a family to live on one income now (and in the last couple of decades) than it was for my mother's generation. And I fear it is becoming more difficult for this next generation. 

This isn't the end of the Grocery Shopping, Then and Now set of posts. My husband and I are now part of the oldest generation in both of our families. We've adapted to many new technologies.  For instance, my husband signed up for biometric identification shopping this fall to get a free $5 coupon at Whole Foods. To be clear, this wasn't the implant thing, but a wave of a handprint linked to your credit card. Yet, there have been other technological advances that we've been slow to take on. My kids are the ones who are trying new things. But their story isn't so straightforward. It's really the tale of two income levels, the wealthier and the less wealthy in the Millennials and younger. The divide seems to hit them at every turn. I'll talk about both poles of grocery shopping for the next generation in posts about my kids' shopping next week.

Grocery Shopping, Then and Now: The 80s, 90s, and Beyond, My Story, (pt. 1)

This will be a two-parter. Here's the first part. The second part will be posted some time tomorrow.

While my grandmother and mother focused on menu planning and shopping from those menus, I was all about the deal. Working hard at saving money would mean we could afford the American dream of home ownership sooner rather than later.

When my husband and I married in the late 1980s, we each had our own car. We also had a joint bank account, so there was no need for my husband to pay any bills for me or to give me an allowance. When I first began grocery shopping, I shopped once per week, just as my mother always had. At that time, you could pay for groceries with either cash or a personal check. The "teller's booth" near the front of the store disappeared sometime in the early 80s. Instead you would write your check at the cash register, holding up the line of multiple impatient people behind you. Many supermarkets adopted "cash-only" lines to ease tempers of the impatient. By the 90s, credit cards were accepted at most grocery stores, speeding up those checkout lines.

In my early marriage years, I was not nearly as organized as my mother or grandmother had been with their shopping. The luxury of having two cars meant I could run to the store to get something I needed whenever it was convenient for me. My shopping lists were very incomplete. I would often decide what I would serve for dinners that week, while in the store walking up and down the aisles. And then came the baby! 

Slashing our grocery spending 

When our oldest was a baby I discovered that I could save more if I read the weekly ads for all of the stores in the area and buy only the loss leaders at each store, often visiting 4 grocery stores in a morning. We had 6 grocery stores within a short drive of each other. Until this point, I had been spending about $70 per week on groceries and household needs for a small family of 3. 

The first week I shopped only loss leaders (and then built my meals out of what I bought -- dubbed the pantry principle), I spent $30. I went from spending $70 per week to spending $30 per week. And I maintained that low grocery budget for many, many years. I wasn't just buying enough to feed us for a week. I was stockpiling excesses with loss leaders. Our meals changed in content, but not nutrients. We ate more beans and whole grains and switched to the less expensive meats that were often featured as sale items. 

One thing I discovered in those days (80s and 90s) -- the more upscale the store, the better the loss leaders. The more budget-oriented the store, with overall low prices, the fewer stellar deals on the ad's front page. I balanced this by getting the great loss leaders at the upscale stores, then filling in around the edges at the budget stores.

Another thing about grocery shopping back in the 80s -- some stores still had baggers who would also push your cart out to your car for you. With a baby on my hip, having someone push my groceries to the car then load them into the trunk was an invaluable service.

The mega-supermarkets, carrying all kinds of house and garden items, in addition to groceries, were popularized about the time my son was a baby.

Aside from the first year of marriage, we've lived in the suburbs of a major city our entire time together. Suburbs come with lots of shopping choices. I've been able to shop at regular grocery stores, natural food stores, restaurant supply stores, produce stands, u-pick farms, farmers' markets, bakery thrift stores, ethnic stores, and now online to round out my budget grocery shopping. We also had a Costco nearby in the time when they would allow a non-member to shop by paying a surcharge on all purchases. We took advantage of this until they changed their policy. Neither my mother nor my grandmother could have imagined such an extensive list of places to shop as we have now. 

Movin' to the big city (or the suburb of a big city)

My husband suffered a 10-month period of unemployment /underemployment when he was laid off from his job at about the two-year mark in our marriage. The city where we were living was in a downturn. After a couple of months of job-seeking with nothing that would actually support our family of three, we decided to move to a part of the country where the economy seemed to be doing better. It would still take many more months for my husband too obtain a permanent job with benefits. 

vexels.com

Finding free food

During these months of searching and waiting, we moved into a duplex that had several fruit trees in the shared yard. The other occupant had no interest in the fruit and neither did the owners of the units. That first summer we had more cherries, plums, apples, and crabapples than we could possibly eat. I canned and froze as much as I could. In September we discovered a large patch of wild blackberries nearby, and thus began our annual foraging for blackberries. That summer and fall I mastered the fruit pie. In July, breakfast was cherry pie and milk/coffee. In August, we ate plum pie twice per day. Beginning in September, we ate apple and blackberry pies, cobblers, and crisps daily. We barely heated our apartment that fall and winter. I kept a box of apples in a corner of our bedroom closet, up against an outside wall -- the coolest spot in the apartment. These apples kept through the beginning of February. I had a large produce bin in the kitchen fridge packed with more apples. Our fresh apple supply lasted until spring.

I began making jams and jellies. My stepmother and father came to visit mid-summer that year. My stepmother said she was done with canning and making jams, so she brought me a couple of cases of canning jars and rings. With all of this fruit, I hardly spent anything on groceries for that summer of little income.

When we relocated to this new area, we downsized our cars. We sold my car to pay for the move and shared my husband's car for a decade. We lived in a duplex that had convenient access to public transportation, taking my husband into the city and back every day. So I had free use of the one car for the entire week. This allowed me to grocery shop at numerous stores per week. Gas prices were decent back then, which meant I wasn't as concerned about traveling to stores further away if it meant I could save a bundle on food and household items. 

Our area of town was growing rapidly. New stores opened every year. With these openings came blockbuster deals. My son was a toddler and our daughters weren't born yet. With just one child in tow, I stood in line for all of the store grand openings. In exchange for my patience on these days, I received free packages of ice cream, bacon, hot dogs, cheese, eggs, canned tuna, loaves of bread, donuts & coffee. Stores were eager to quickly garner a large share of the market as the town grew. And I took advantage of every opportunity to save on groceries that I could. 

There was something of a grapevine in my toddler son's library storytime group. One week, a mother told me that a local grocery store would be putting all of their unsold pumpkins out for free the day after Halloween. Believe me, I was up and with my son before the store opened that November 1. We brought home four 10-lb pumpkins, all free. I cooked up the pumpkins, one every 2 or 3 weeks, making soups and more pies, plus freezing enough puree to serve as vegetable side dishes through winter. We would continue to collect free pumpkins every year right after Halloween for over 20 years.

You may be wondering, "why didn't she just go get a job so they could spend more on groceries?" I did work and have worked very part-time for our entire marriage. But my priority has always been taking care of the family and home. This was our choice as a couple. From the start we knew it would be difficult to afford what our parents could on one income. But we were up to the challenge. In fact, after 8 years of marriage, including an almost 1-year unemployment, relocation to another state on our dime, paying off school loans, and the birth of 3 children, we had saved up enough money to put over 40% down on the house we live in today. Sometimes I have wondered if the sacrifices we made were worth it. I think they were. We got to have the life we wanted, despite not having all of the luxuries our contemporaries had.

Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope."

--Lady Bird Johnson

I'm taking a little break from writing Grocery Shopping Then and Now. I spent so much time writing the last 2 days that I got behind on my work at home. I wound up working much later than usual yesterday and am trying to finish the catch-up today. So, sorry about the interruption. 

What I did want to show you is an update on my primrose plants that I started from seeds last spring, posted about here. These were the seeds that my two daughters (lovely as flowers themselves) gave to me for my birthday. 

One of the plants began blooming in December. The blossoms are very pretty and much more peachy than I'd anticipated. I think I like these better than how I thought they would look. 

We're expecting snow in the next couple of days, and I wanted to show you what they looked like before the blossoms become affected with snow and frost.

There are more blossoms on the way. I'm very curious if they will have the same coloration or if they will be a slight variant. They should survive cold and snow just fine and will blossom a few weeks after this week's cold air goes away.

Be back tomorrow.