Yummy Frosting

Ingredients

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3-4 tablespoons of very hot water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Add cream cheese and butter to powdered sugar in a mixing bowl.
   
2. Add 3 Tablespoons of the hot water.
3. Beat with an electric mixer, adding additional tsp of hot water if necessary to achieve thick but spreadable consistency.
4. Add vanilla.
5. Beat well until smooth and shiny.
6. Frost cake or brownies.

The brownies pictured below are my $ Store brownies. I saw this mix at the grocery store for $2.99. I think I got a real $ Store deal! The frosting is the Yummy Frosting, plus I chopped a handful of pecans I had in the freezer and sprinkled them on top. It was "yummy."

$ Store Brownies

The Joys of $ Store Shopping

"How do I love thee...let me count the ways!" I do indeed love the $ store. Here is what I buy there regularly.

1. Paper products...paper towels, tissues, napkins, and often toilet tissue.
   
2. Gift bags and tissue paper.
3. Dish detergent.
4. Dryer sheets.
5. Regular Aspirin, coated Aspirin, and Ibuprofen.
6. Hand soap.
7. Toothbrushes and Tooth Paste.
   
8. Candles.
   
9. Hand sanitizer.
10. Color books.
11. Assorted office products.
12. Party supplies.
13. Sliced sandwich cheese.
    
14. Kosher Salt.
15. Polish sausages.
    
16. Tea.
17. Rice.
18. Brownie mix.
19. Pickle relish.
20. Cookies.
21. Spaghetti.
    
22. Spices.
23. Anything else I use that is less than what I pay elsewhere.

I am picky about what I buy there as sometimes things are more expensive than comparable on sale items at the grocery or drug store. Shop carefully. The key is to know your prices.

Even an occasional trip to your nearby $ store will save you money. The $ Store rates an enthusiastic "thumbs up" in my book.

Taco Salad

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. ground beef
• 1/3 cup diced onion
• 2 cans Ranch Style beans
• 1/2 head iceberg lettuce
• 1 Roma tomato diced
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese
• sour cream
• green onions (optional)
• corn chips
  

Directions

1. In a heavy skillet over medium heat, brown ground meat, breaking up the meat as it browns.
2. Add onions and saute until the onions are beginning to get translucent.
3. Add some shakes of chili seasoning to the meat and onion mixture. Stir to mix well.
4. Drain the cans of beans, discarding liquid.
   
5. Add beans to meat mixture, stirring well. Lower heat to low. Cook until beans are heated through.
   
6. Skillet can be covered and left on the lowest heat until the salad ingredients are prepped.
7. Shred lettuce.
8. Dice tomatoes.
9. Chop green ends of onions.
10. Assemble by layering first chips on plate followed by shredded lettuce, bean mixture, shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, a dollop of sour cream and top with a sprinkle of chopped green onions. Serve with prepared salsa. Enjoy!

Serves 4.

Such a deal!

So I try very hard not to buy anything at the grocery store that is not on sale. I check the ads and often shop only the leader items. The grocer's plan is to get you into their stores with those great leader items and then hope that you will buy lots and lots of other products at full price, that's how they make their money. I try to disappoint them!

My favorite spot on the meat isle is the discounted meat bin. Often that is where I spontaneously plan my evening meal. You can usually find the bin chocked full around mid-day. You need to use or freeze this meat the day of purchase, always plan on that. So the other day I found a 2.5 lb. pkg. of "Private Selection Angus" ground round originally priced $7.66 at $3.19/lb. marked down to $2.50, that figures to $.99/lb. Score! 2.5 lbs. of ground beef will yield 5 meal portions, 1/2 lb. each, which I freeze, generally saving one out for dinner.

At home, I had shredded cheese, corn chips ($1.89) a package, sour cream ($1.00) for 16 ozs. and lots of salsa. I grabbed a head of iceburg lettuce at $.99 a head and 4 cans of Ranch Style beans (2 cans for later use) at $.89 a can (30 cents a can savings) and a couple of Roma tomatoes for $.66.

Taco salad for dinner! Total cost for main dish for four, about $3.70.

A tribute to my mother:

She was born 100 years ago at the beginning of the 20th Century to a nondescript Texas family who scrapped out a living by sharecrop farming. She was the fifth child in a family of nine. She learned firsthand how to "make do" at home and then as a young wife living in construction camps. My father worked as a highway construction superintendent all around Arizona during the depression.

My mother became an exceptional cook on a camp stove no less. Her cooking style was basically Texas/Southern. She cooked basic country, stick to your ribs food. She made incredible fried chicken, potato salad, pies and an array of other dishes. Sadly, I have never been able to even come close to the excellence she achieved with chicken.

I was raised in rural Northern Arizona during WWII. We had a farm and we lived off of what we grew and raised. We always had beef and we also usually had game, deer and elk my dad brought home during hunting season. Probably one of my favorite meals Mother prepared was chicken fried venison breakfast steaks with bisquits and gravy. It was wonderful.

I suppose we were poor. We didn't have as much as some but I know we had a lot more than others. We made do and I never felt deprived. And although I was an only child I was never lonely. I had dogs and horses and cows and goats and sometimes pigs to entertain me. It was a lovely childhood. Looking back, it was almost magical.

I never cooked as a child, never had any particular interest in it. Why should I when I could tromp through the woods with my dog or my friends.

Not until I was married did I ever really think much about cooking. My assumption was that I had a goodly share of intelligence and I could read, so a cookbook and intent was all it took. What was the big deal? You had a family, you cook, so I did. Then, what I realized was, I had learned to cook from my mother. I learned to "make do," learned to innovate, learned, in essence to "punt."



Those skills I unwittingly absorbed from my mother have served me well, and for that and many, many other things she taught me, I thank her with all my heart.

I miss her.