Grocery deals!

[Jusa]

Prices are the same here, taxy. The ones that taxy has shown are the store brand ones I believe, no? Brand names start at Cdn $8.00 plus. On a really rare occasion you will get a Brand name on sale but it is usually still higher than the store brand.

If you can find anything under $6.00 Cdn. grab'em and run, yelling "Start the car! Start the car!"

Jusa - until I moved here I almost always used margarine - even for toast. I did keep butter for certain things. Have no idea why I started using more butter here - but with the prices as they are - I'm seriously thinking of changing back.

Butter tastes better to me but when using margarine for baking no one seems to notice and its what my mom used.

We use about 1 stick of butter (=1/4 lb or 1/2 cup) per week so it really doesn't cost that much. I do like the Irish butter. Kerry Gold is $4 on sale for the equivalent of 2 stcks or 1/2 lb. Aldi comparable brand of Irish butter (both come in foil) is about $3.35 for the same size package. This is strictly for bread or toast, I'll fry my husband's eggs in regular butter or bacon fat.

If you are spending $8 a month on butter that's not terrible. You're worth it!

 

[Jusa]

I needed pecans for my Thanksgiving pie. I was online pricing them and everywhere they were $9 lb or more! I have a Sam's Club membership that a company i work for paid for so I looked on their site and yes, success! They had 32 oz (2 lb) bags for just under $11. I went down there late afternoon yesterday (they close at 6) and got them and nothing else.

I looked for Karo syrup and Pumpernickel bread there too, but nope. Thankfully there are 2 stores near there I needed to go to for othe things so I found the dark Karo syrup for $2.99 each...not a great price but less than other stores that carry it. Got large cans of tomatoes for .88 cents each, 16 oz tubs of Daisy sour cream for $1.50 each, and cream cheese for $1.33 per 8 oz package. Went to that other store to fill my raincheck for the skinless boneless chicken breasts at $1.79 lb.

Still no Pumpernickel. I saw it online for $8 a loaf at another store. I'm just going to make my own. I'm off work tomorrow and Wednesday (and of course Thanksgiving).

 

[taxlady]

Prices are the same here, taxy. The ones that taxy has shown are the store brand ones I believe, no? Brand names start at Cdn $8.00 plus. On a really rare occasion you will get a Brand name on sale but it is usually still higher than the store brand.

If you can find anything under $6.00 Cdn. grab'em and run, yelling "Start the car! Start the car!"

Jusa - until I moved here I almost always used margarine - even for toast. I did keep butter for certain things. Have no idea why I started using more butter here - but with the prices as they are - I'm seriously thinking of changing back.

Yes, the store brand. I did mention that in the post. But, the point of posting the prices was how much more it costs to buy sticks rather than blocks of the same butter. For that store brand of butter it's 38.5% more.

 

[Jusa]

Yes, the store brand. I did mention that in the post. But, the point of posting the prices was how much more it costs to buy sticks rather than blocks of the same butter. For that store brand of butter it's 38.5% more.

It's the same here with specialty and imported butters. If you can find them in sticks they cost more.

 

[dragnlaw]

So your Kerry Gold is the same price as our regular butter. Think I've seen Kerry Gold here but truth to tell, never even look at the higher price ones. LOL, my eyes are very adverse to going past the lowest prices.

butter in cookies produces a soft, collapsed shape - especially in ones like chocolate chip
margarine in cookies produces a stand-up shape of cookie, albeit still soft, but more shape. IMHO

 

[Jusa]

So your Kerry Gold is the same price as our regular butter. Think I've seen Kerry Gold here but truth to tell, never even look at the higher price ones. LOL, my eyes are very adverse to going past the lowest prices.

butter in cookies produces a soft, collapsed shape - especially in ones like chocolate chip
margarine in cookies produces a stand-up shape of cookie, albeit still soft, but more shape. IMHO

I really do have a fondness for the Irish butter. It's from pasture raised cows over in Ireland and It's got a distinctly different taste. I don't know what kind of cows they are but we need some of them in the USA! But yeah it would be a waste in anything other than just spread on some warm bread or toast.

Yeah I haven't baked cookies in a very long time...last Christmas I made some peanut butter cookies for my FIL because he loves everything peanut butter. I baked some banana bread last night using Imperial margarine and I am sure it's quite tasty. I only baked two loaves and they are both for other people, much to my husband's disappointment, LOL.

 

[blissful]

Today's grocery deals, reduced produce, 6 1-lb containers of sliced mushrooms, $1/each, and 4 bags of bananas for $1 each totalling 29 lbs of bananas and 1 bag of oranges for $1. I'm cooking up the mushrooms and will be using some in thanksgiving stuffing/dressing. The bananas will all get sliced and dehydrated for us to snack on.

 

[Jusa]

Today's grocery deals, reduced produce, 6 1-lb containers of sliced mushrooms, $1/each, and 4 bags of bananas for $1 each totalling 29 lbs of bananas and 1 bag of oranges for $1. I'm cooking up the mushrooms and will be using some in thanksgiving stuffing/dressing. The bananas will all get sliced and dehydrated for us to snack on.

That's a great score!

I wish I had your bananas. I need to make some more banana bread for other family members and I used up the soft ones I had on hand. I will look today, I have several days for them to ripen.

 

[pepperhead212]

And nobody could make a shortbread with margarine, and tell me they can't tell the difference from butter.

And speaking of butter and shortbread, something that will produce an absolutely heavenly shortbread, and many other butter cookies I've used it in, is browning the butter first.

Here's how I do it, so that it can be substituted pound for pound with butter - Heat up a pound (or 2 or 3!) of butter, over medium heat, and scrape the browning bits off frequently, and when it gets to 280°, scrape the butter into a metal bowl, getting as much of the specks as possible. When it cools down to about 170 or 180 degrees, add enough milk (I first use the milk to deglaze the saucepan, of all the caramelized bits) to bring the weight of the butter back to its original weight, then whisk it together, and occasionally whisk it, to emulsify it, and eventually I pour it into 1/4 lb and 1/2 lb containers, and refrigerate, until I need it. It's not as much trouble as it sounds like, and the flavor is incredible. Almost everyone I've given cookies to that I've made with this want to know how to do it, but once I tell them, they tell me "I think I'll just keep coming back to your place!"

 

[taxlady]

I prefer butter over margarine, not just for the flavour. It's made of food, often with added, ordinary salt (NaCl).

 

[dragnlaw]

Although now it is pretty close in price with margarine and butter.

But before, I guess it depends on your history, how many kids you were feeding and what your wages brought in.

 

[Andy M.]

. . . butter in cookies produces a soft, collapsed shape - especially in ones like chocolate chip
margarine in cookies produces a stand-up shape of cookie, albeit still soft, but more shape. IMHO

Yes, but if you chill the dough before portioning it to the cookie sheets, you get nice firm cookie.

 

[taxlady]

Although now it is pretty close in price with margarine and butter.

But before, I guess it depends on your history, how many kids you were feeding and what your wages brought in.

Not only the big difference in price, back in the day, they told us that margarine was healthier than butter. Most of us believed that.

 

[Jusa]

And nobody could make a shortbread with margarine, and tell me they can't tell the difference from butter.

And speaking of butter and shortbread, something that will produce an absolutely heavenly shortbread, and many other butter cookies I've used it in, is browning the butter first.

Here's how I do it, so that it can be substituted pound for pound with butter - Heat up a pound (or 2 or 3!) of butter, over medium heat, and scrape the browning bits off frequently, and when it gets to 280°, scrape the butter into a metal bowl, getting as much of the specks as possible. When it cools down to about 170 or 180 degrees, add enough milk (I first use the milk to deglaze the saucepan, of all the caramelized bits) to bring the weight of the butter back to its original weight, then whisk it together, and occasionally whisk it, to emulsify it, and eventually I pour it into 1/4 lb and 1/2 lb containers, and refrigerate, until I need it. It's not as much trouble as it sounds like, and the flavor is incredible. Almost everyone I've given cookies to that I've made with this want to know how to do it, but once I tell them, they tell me "I think I'll just keep coming back to your place!"

You guys all have me beat with baking. I bake bread sometimes but before the pandemic it was a frozen loaf. Now I actually make it from scratch. I've never made a shortbread in my life and I've only made cookies a handful of times and some of that was from refrigerated dough, lol. Cakes made with box mix. Pies are 1-2× a year and usually scratch made, and I've made banana bread forever. And biscuits. That's about it.

 

[Kathleen]

Most of my kitchen disasters have been while baking, @Jusa.

 

[jennyema]

I buy boxes of butter sticks and just toss the whole box in the freezer.

I also usually have some Plugra or Lurpak (if I can find it) — or Kerrygold if I can’t get the other — around for toast and other non-cooking applications.

 

[Jusa]

Most of my kitchen disasters have been while baking, @Jusa.

Me too. I am horrible about following recipes and while winging it works quite well for most of my cooking, baking is another story...LOL!

 

[Jusa]

I found my ripe bananas this afternoon for .29 cents per pound.

 

[dragnlaw]

Good price! We don't get them much chea per than $.69 per pound. Unless in the reduced bin.

 

[Jusa]

Good price! We don't get them much chea per than $.69 per pound. Unless in the reduced bin.

They were in the reduced bin. It's for banana bread. Ours are the same price as yours.