whew.

[daniwithtea]

productive weekend, for sure.

got rolling on our dykewaddery thang.
Made a run to Swann's for bulk goods, and hit some great sales at Redner's, including whole chickens for $0.69/lb, italian sausage for $1.59/lb, and mushy bananas (for Mer's muffins) at $0.20/lb.
Freezer, pantry, and fridge are bursting at the seams. Still have more stuff that needs to go in the freezer (mac & cheese, which is cooling) - not sure how we're gonna do that. Need to get a chest freezer for the basement ASAP.
Successfully butchered 3 chickens from the aforementioned sale, so not only do we have lots of various chicken parts, I've got three carcasses plus other chicken detritus in the freezer waiting to be made into stock. Yum.
Made two batches of OAMC muffins - banana walnut for Mer and corn for me.
Mer made two big batches of oatmeal - banana apple walnut for her and apple cranberry for me.
Made lasagna and mac and cheese.
Once we come up with a solution for freezer space, I need to make swedish meatballs and meatloaf.
Mer's done some kick-ass work in the kitchen.
There's a pork loin defrosting in the fridge for one night this week.
Price book is done and ready to be filled with pricey goodness.

I'm exhausted.

Comments

[okayokayigive.livejournal.com]

i suppose i should hve used a different word there...i didn't butcher it so much as i...cut it into standard pieces? wings, thighs, boneless/skinless breasts, tenders, drumsticks, carcass. if you can find a clip online of Alton Brown's instructions (he uses a dinosaur skeleton model to explain it), that makes it easy.

a price book is a notebook/binder where you write the stuff you buy, and the prices you can find it for at different stores, per unit so it's comparable. For example: my Chicken page lists the store, price per lb, and whether that's a sale or regular price. Other items, like canned mushrooms, I list store name, price per ounce, and whether or not it's a sale. It takes a bit of work to get it filled out - going through different stores getting prices, watching sale fliers, etc. - but it's really worth it. I have access to quite a few discount places and other places with great sales - if I think something is a good price, I can check it in the book to see if chicken at Redner's, our local grocery, is actually cheaper than Shady Maple, which is an amish grocery about 90 minutes away with terrific meat and cheese prices. You can find pre-printed price book pages online (organizedhome.com has one), but a small 3-ring binder (my current one is hole-punched 3x5 index cards) is simple and works well for me. (It needs to be small enough that I'm willing to carry it).

I'm glad you're enjoying all this - feel free to poke me with other questions!

[little_star]

wow, i'm impressed.
yeah we've got 1 store we shop at, Fairway.
Everything else is more expensive
or we have to drive to get there.

it's kind of a simple equation for us :)

how much would you have to save to go 90 miles for a price difference?

[fuzzybutchkins.livejournal.com]

Well, the prices at shady maple are a little bit better than normal sale prices everywhere else, and their sale prices are phenomenal. at certain times of the year, you can buy whole chickens for 29 cents a pound, for instance. they also do bulk meats and sell full primals like nowhere else except a butcher, and we'd pay more at a butcher. the kicker is that their meats are the best in this part of the state, as far as we can tell, so while there is a "gas tax", it pays for the super-high quality of the product.

I think it's a bit of an indulgence, but honestly it's probably a wash money-wise. and since amish cows taste better, and since it's really kind of fun to go, why not?

[little_star]

sounds like fun!

[fuzzybutchkins.livejournal.com]

In addition to everything Mer said above and Arcadian below, there are two more things that make it a worthwhile trip - it's a great "outing" for Mer and I that doesn't cost anything more than what we're already looking to spend, and it's also within 15 minutes of my aunt & uncle's house, which is currently where my brother is staying while he gets clean. A well-timed trip to see them and hit shady maple on the same day is definitely worthwhile.

As far as price savings - with the amount of cooking I do, there are certain things I can find at Shady Maple and its neighbor stor, Goodes, that I just can't get anywhere else - like margarine-tub-sized containers of spices for a little over a dollar. An equiivalent amount in a grocery store would cost anywhere between 4-20 dollars, depending on the spice.

We don't go there often - even when we lived closer, we went probably once every three months - and that was more for the meat quality than the price savings.

damnit.

[okayokayigive.livejournal.com]

that was me - apparently Mer was still logged in on my computer...

They also

[arcadian72.livejournal.com]

sell loads of foods you CAN'T find other places...like graham flour and odd bulk items only weird natural eaters who don't want 90 pounds of processed crap in their food need. :)