Wrapping Situation!

Every year it's the same scenario; when I go to my wrapping paper stash, I find it boring and uninspiring....So when I saw a sale at .59 cents a roll in a drugstore flyer,  I couldn't help myself.
So yesterday I hop on my bike and head to the drugstore. It's a new drugstore and there's hardly ever any customers. Since I discovered Shopper's has crazy high prices; trust me I had time to check...I've decided to shop at the little new drugstore.
So I find one roll advertised at .59c with big shiny red & green ornements and then I see the same patterns as in the ad...little snowmen on a lime green background and another with red,green & white stripes. I grab one of each. So I'm at the cash and the same 2 patterns as advertised scan for 1.99 each, I pulled out my flyer and pointed the ad to the cashier. She called the assistant manager who proceeded to tell me that the patterns were for demonstration purposes only and the rolls I'd picked had twice as much paper...yada,yada,yada she couldn't do anything about it and left.
At that point I turned to the cashier and said: look as a consumer, I see the patterns in the ad they're .59 cents a roll, there's no mention of quantity i want them at .59c! I'm here because I'm boycotting Shopper's Drug Mart! So she called the manager who told me the same crap, and I told her, there's nothing specified in the ad....
So after waiting 30 minutes and thinking I can't believe that a struggling store is willing to loose a potential customer for 2.80$, the manager came back and I got the rolls at .59c! Boy was I tired after that! lol

But not too tired to finish installing Xmas lights outside!

Here's Robbie the Reindeer and a still unnamed snowman that I rescued this summer from my neighbors trash. Hey it works great! You know what they say: If it's free, then it's for me!

This little guy sits near my front door with the metal sign I bought at the Christmas Tree Shop in October.

And i had time to make a speedy chicken pot pie for supper! In Pyrex of course!

I also had time to make a specail batch of B-Day cupcakes for Dan and I even shot a short video but was unable to load it up. Rats!

 I must say that for the 3rd of December I'm pretty up to date on my Xmas tv shows/movies watching. So far I caught Scrooged (how can you not AMC is showing it for 4 days), Hoe the grinch stole Xmas (the original) and Shrek the halls. This weekend I plan to watch A Christmas Story on dvd, it was one of Dan's B-Day gifts....and maybe Home Alone.

Tomorrow I'll be drawing the name of the winner of my Totally Awesome Holiday Giveaway

Good luck to everyone!

Have a great weekend! 

Vintage Thingie Thursday: Le Creuset cuties

I came across these cuties a couple of weeks ago while helping my Dad de-clutter....

Yes, Dad is going through his own declutter fest 2009. I'm really happy that I inspired him to get rid of some stuff....

The individual casseroles were used by my grandma (Gran-Mimi) to cook chicken pot pies when my Dad was a kid. How fancy was that! Individual chicken pot pies....Living large!

So that means that those dishes date back to the 30's or 40's. Wow!

They came in a set of 4. The 2 green ones are gone. But these are in great shape! I actually made a small ding in the lid of one! 5 minutes after my Dad gave them to me!

I couldn't wait to make chicken pot pies! I discovered a Kraft recipe, that I tweeked (of course). I already posted the link here...but here it comes again!

www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/cheesy-chicken-pot-pie-111373.aspx

I don't put the cheese in (What's up with Kraft and all that cheese?), I use fat free cream of chicken and reduced fat sour cream. Oh and I add freah chopped parsley in the biscuit mix. It's is delicious and Dan says it's the best chicken pot pie in the WORLD! LOL some people are not objective!

I cannot tell for sure if they're Le Creuset, they don't have a stamp but they are soooo old and if Dad says it's Le Creuset then it's good enough for me!

They mean a lot to me because they belonged to Gran-Mimi a great lady I didn't get to know as much as I wanted to.

In case you're wondering...Yes in the last picture, it's a Pyrex casserole. It was a special edition in collaboration with Heinz, you bought Heinz products and you had a casserole! Cool

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and readers!

Be sure to visit Colorado Lady's VTT at www.coloradolady.blogspot.com for more VTT fun!

It's Guy Fieri's fault! Again....

Ok flashback to my beach vacation! So it's the last night, it's nearly supper time, I don't want to cook....We don't want to eat seafood....I'm watching the food network while reading a book,while savouring a cold one....And I see the commercial for Famous Dave's BBQ And of course I think of Guy Fieri and triple D....The commercial is so tacky that we decide to go and sample some of Dave's fare!

Man oh Man that is a big restaurant! I like the bbq shack decor, I spy a horizon 442 (but I forget to take a pic). The menu is not too big and the prices are reasonnable.

I get the brisket and Dan the chicken. The brisket was DELICIOUS (is it real BBQ? I don't know? But since Guy Fieri won't return my calls-kidding!). Dan's chicken was way udercooked, I flagged our waitress and presto changeo a new chicken appears perfectly cooked, with profuse appologies!

Of course it was way too much food for us! we really liked our experience. Great service, great food, we already know what we'll be eating next time we go!

We took a walk in the nearby mall and ended up at Haven's candies (of course!) Yes ,we bought some, but I forget what because we ate them all!

Later that night while surfing the web, I found out that Famous Dave's is a HUGE chain with more than 120 restaurants! I had never heard about that chain (???), of course I can't know everything....rats!

Good food!

I love trying new recipes, but I find that nothing was enticing me lately....Too much recession cooking! Don't get me wrong, some of the best recipes are thrifty recipes and I have been cooking like that for ever.

My mom was really frugal and my dad as well so I went to the frugal cooking school. I make my own chicken broth, I buy chicken breats with the bones in (cheaper) and rarely buy convenience food.

So I was really surprised to see (first photo) the salmon in pastry sacks on the Rachel Ray show...that one got my tastes buds going! Not exactly a cheap recipe, but if you like salmon it is an excellent recipe for company (or a romantic diner...) Very tasty and easy! Here's the link : http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=2638

Last night I tried Sticky Hoisin Chicken from Chatelaine and that was delicious as well. Skinless,sweet, simply yummy! And the chicken tight were on sale!

I found that recipe while I was cleaning my humongous folder where I keep all the recipes I save from the magazines....I really should stop doing that because I try maybe 5% and the rest just yellow....

I served it with asian coleslaw and steamed broccoli....Mucho Yummo!

I made another batch of sauce to marinate small chunks of tofu...That was tonight's super....Delicious as well

http://recipes.chatelaine.com/recipe2/article.jsp?recipeId=8722

If you ever make one of those recipes,please leave a comment I'd like to hear from you!

Goodnight my friends

Color and Chicken pot pie.....

I went to look at my Pyrex set in flickr and I realised that what I miss in the winter was the color.

My eyes need constant color stimulation (That sounds kinda dirty..lol). After seeing that there are a lot of Supermarket groups in Flickr...I joined one!

And took out my camera during my latest supermarket visit! Maxi & cie (the superstore for the rest of Canada) is having a big 'recession' sale featuring the No Name brand. Most of their labels are yellow, which is a great treat for my color deprived eyes so I let loose....lol

You have the wall of shame; now it is the wall of No Name! Second picture is pretty self explanatory.....tomatoes and cukes!

Last picture assorted veggies....Yum

Will the recession really change the way people shop,cook and eat?

Will people be leaving convenience food behind and start making food from scratch? We will have to see.

My mom was a real skinflint. She would wash saran wrap and aluminum foil. She would remove the mold from food and serve it up for supper and god only knows what else she did to save money! But we splurged on vacation. So I grew up being thrifty and repairing my socks instead of throwing them away, and making stock from chicken bones and buying an LCD TV. So I alternate between the thrifty and the spendy!!!

January is always a thrifty month because a lot of bills are due at the beginning of the year: the license plate renewal, the home and car insurance (but no Xmas credit card bills, because everything was paid on the spot!!!) At least I learn from my mistakes...

We're in a cold snap so all I can think about is comfort food. Yesterday I was surfing the web looking for a chicken pot pie recipe using biscuit mix for the topping and I found one in the Kraft canada site. here's the link if you want : http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/cheesy-chicken-pot-pie-111373.aspx

You can tell that Kraft want YOU to BUY their cheese...you have cheese in every recipe (cheese is good but you need to leave the cheese alone sometimes!)

I didn't use the cheese, used a low fat cream of celery soup, fat free sour cream, skim milk and last but not least added fresh chopped parsley to the biscuit mix. Oh I also used frozen peas, fresh carrots and fresh green beans insteas of the frozen veggies (I know they are a gig time saer but I'm not crazy about the taste...lol

It was delicious easy and very satisfying for those cold nights....Brrrrrr