Hello, readers.  Have you spent any extensive time in Europe or the Caribbean?  Have you noticed that in many places in the world, shopping is a daily, not a weekly or bi-weekly event?  I once thought that if I were in a grocery store all of the time, I would be tempted to spend more than my grocery budget, but do you know what? The opposite is true.  Since I have started shopping more frequently, I am saving money and here are a couple of my secrets:

1. I try to never shop when I am hungry (or thirsty or tired).
2. I keep an eye out for discounted product usually marked with those fluorescent stickers. Since I am shopping frequently, I can plan to use the product immediately, sometimes that very evening for dinner. This way expiry dates are not an issue because I am not depositing the groceries into my fridge for a week.
3. Not only am I saving money on groceries for my family, but purchasing items that I may not select on a regular basis, also stretches my creativity in the kitchen. 
4. Sometimes I come across a tougher cut of meat that I have to braise or place in the slow-cooker. 
5. If I decide that I cannot use the product immediately, I throw it into the freezer and I am careful when defrosting products to use them immediately. 
6. I have started reading the labels where the price is stated on the shelf. There are times when you think something might look like a great price but when you look more closely, at the cost per unit, (comparing apples to apples) you can be absolutely certain. 
7. A bigger bottle of a cleaning solution for example, is usually cheaper than a smaller one and even though you have to shell out more money initially, you save money in the long run.
8. I have also started buying refills rather than spending the money on packaging every time I need a product.
9. The best deals often come with a limited number that can be purchased. That is because the grocery store wants to spread the savings around. That is how you know for certain the item is an especially good deal. Today I bought one of my hair products at 1/3 off but I was limited to purchasing only four packages. No worries, I had the room to store them and I know that I will eventually use the entire product up.
10. I use the calculator on my cell phone for other products, where long-term savings may not be so obvious. For example each Air Wick Scented Oil refill has 50 times more fragrance concentration than a gel cone and is well worth the extra investment.

I use the money that I save on my grocery staples to buy myself a luxurious little treat that makes life more pleasant: perhaps some fresh flowers or a bar of good dark chocolate or the scented oil that I mentioned above.

Life is good, but you can make it that much more so with keeping your living space clean and clutter-free. Throw open the windows and let the fresh air in or when the weather is not co-operating, surround yourself with bright sights and fresh smelling fragrances.  

Kath’s quote: True contentment is a real, even an active, virtue-It is the power of getting out of every situation all there is in it.” –G. K. Chesterton

Love-that is all.

Air Wick® Scented Oils have 50 times more fragrance concentration than a gel cone and last for up to 45 days. Click here to try a FREE Scented Oil Kit today!

“Disclosure: This post was brought to you by Air Wick® via Glam Media Canada.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Air Wick®.”

D and I are empty nesters for a couple of weeks while Daughter #2 is in Nicaragua on a study trip with the Canada Food Grains Bank.  She is not much of a meat eater.  So, when we don’t have to take her preferences into consideration, we have meat, primarily beef at most evening meals.  Our favourite treat to have with a steak is a fleshy/steamy baked potato with the “works”, as we learned to write it on our orders, when we both worked at The Keg Restaurant.  The “works” means both butter and sour cream and chopped green onions and real pieces of bacon.  Mushrooms are another favourite to have with a steak.  I saute slices in a hot skillet with butter and garlic.

This week though, I changed things up a bit and seared a couple of thin New York steaks and then sliced them up to have over a salad of mixed micro greens with a fig and balsamic dressing.  I found that corn on the cob is now in at Sobey’s so I steamed up a couple of cobs and placed a loaf of bread into the oven to bake.  I typically make my own dough in a break-maker, but I recently found frozen bread dough (also at Sobey’s) that I used to buy, before I received my bread machine.  It is the easiest thing in the world to place a frozen loaf under a tea towel on a prepared pan and throw it into the oven at the last minute.  And what a treat-bread so hot that the butter just disappeared into its pores!

The steaks this week were the excuse I needed to try Earl’s Signature Steak Wet Rub that I received as a gift when I could not attend the preview of their spring menu event.  The rub is made with olive oil, soya, garlic, lemon juice, porcini mushrooms and cayenne pepper. To this, roughly chopped fresh basil, rosemary and parsley is added.  The wet rub tenderized our steaks and added such a depth of flavours.  I had never enjoyed the taste of lemon on beef before-brilliant.

Of course the only archived steak photo that I have, depicts it smothered in barbeque sauce….

D started his career behind the broiler bar at The Keg and prepares a perfect steak.  We are typically purists and only season a steak with Montreal Steak Spice which we enjoy on a variety of foods as well.  I think that the exact ingredients are a closely guarded secret but our best guess is that it contains (in addition to coarse salt and pepper and dehydrated onion and garlic), paprika, crushed red pepper, caraway, dill and coriander seeds and perhaps some mustard.

With D’s flare (no pun intended) for steaks, he often pulls out all the stops for celebrations like birthday dinners.  I recall one year when he offered up two choices of “toppers”.  One was sauteed garlic shrimp and Bearnaise sauce and the other was a balsamic tomato salsa and goat cheese.  Both were divine and it was impossible to choose between the two, so most of us had a nibble of each.

It has been a very long winter on the Canadian prairies but spring has finally arrived.  D has his special tongs polished up and the barbeque has been moved into position.  Let the grilling season begin!

Kath’s quote: “It is a very beautiful day. The woman looks around and thinks: ‘there cannot ever have been a spring more beautiful than this. I did not know until now that clouds could be like this. I did not know that the sky is the sea and that clouds are the souls of happy ships, sunk long ago. I did not know that the wind could be tender, like hands as they caress – what did I know – until now?” – Unica Zürn

Love-that is all.

If you are at all like me, you sit and think about what you would do if you won the lottery: how you would buy each of your family members a beach house, tell the kids that they could finish university at whichever university they wished to attend, support your favourite charities and travel.  Ah travel.  There are so many places to see and taste! This is the stuff of many of my daydreams but because I never ever buy a ticket, it will never be.  I always talk myself out of making a purchase because I know that my odds of winning are miniscule at best.

Well, here’s a contest that you would really have a good shot at: Sobeys West Tastes of the World Contest is ONLY available in Sobeys Stores in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC!  All you have to do is visit our local Sobeys store to pick up game board and pieces.  The contest started this week but there is still plenty of time because it runs until May 16th.   There are a number of instant prizes and ways to win but shoot for the stars and picture yourself in one of these amazing culinary destinations:

Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Cancun or Bangkok!

We’re having a twitter party on Tuesday, April 16th at 8pm (in Manitoba) with more prizes to be had.  I’ll be tweeting from Thompson! RSVP below the heart at the end of this post.

For more information or to pick up your passport and game pieces, please visit your local Sobeys Store.

Kath’s quote:  “You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So… get on your way!”
― Dr. Seuss

Love-that is all.

All of you, my lovely readers know that I am especially ga ga over two world cuisines-Italian and Mexican.  I have exciting news to share with you about Italy but unfortunately, you are going to have to wait just a wee bit longer.  As far as Mexican cuisine is concerned, when the Winnipeg entourage was recently on Isla Mujeres, Jackie, Sister #3 and I traveled to Puerto Moreles for the day to attend The Little Mexican Cooking School.  I am bursting with all the nuggets of info that we are going to share with you.  Sister #3 and I are going to collaborate on at least three posts: 1) chocolate 2) chilies and 3) beverages.  We actually learned how to make chocolate from a raw cocoa bean and “stone” soup.  The day was absolutely fascinating and delicious.

The world of taste is such an enormous place.  We learned that there are seven culinary regions of Mexico and even though we were in the region of the Maya, we studied about the foods native to Oaxaca.  There are another seven moles from different areas of the state of Oaxaca.  Omgosh-there is so much in this world to learn and see and taste!

I have been pinning my Isla Mujeres pics for the last couple of weeks but I would love to one day travel to other culinary regions of Mexico including Oaxaca and so I am creating a new pin board of my “Dream Destination”.

In the mean time, memories of the wonderful day that we spent under the guidance of handsome and talented Chef Christobal will be pinned to my new board.

In celebration of spring and Mexico and the tastes of the world, I (along with the rest of the Sobeys Love Food Ambassadors) am announcing a special contest.  Anyone who creates a pinboard, tagging their repins with #LoveSobeys, is entered to win one of 12 $100. Sobey’s gift cards.  You will be able to use the cards for delicious Mexican items like Roasted Tomato Chipolte Salsa, Black Bean and Corn Salsa, Salsa Verde and Extra Hot Cayenne Pepper Sauce.  D and I are heading to Sobey’s right now to pick up some Friday night supper because it has been to long without the taste of Mexico.

Kath’s quote: “Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music.” -Julia Child

Love-that is all.

This time last year, Winnipeg was in full fledged spring mode: the snow was gone, the sun was warm, flip flops were donned, gardens were being tidied and Adirondacks pulled out of the garage.  This year on the prairies, well, not so much.  The sun is in a different place in the sky and does feel a titch warmer than the weeks previously but OMGoodness, we have a long way to go.  I literally cannot see if my van is still parked on the street for the height of the snow drifts!  And, the worst is still to come because all that snow and ice has to go somewhere when it melts (memories of the flood of 1997).

My Window Box

But because I have always maintained a Katie Scarlett O’Hara attitude, I’m not thinking about that right now, I’ll think about that tomorrow.  Right now I am focused on the spring that is yet to come and how I might beckon it closer in my home, kitchen and dining room.  We are in the midst of renovating our basement family room and the colour that most reminds me of spring is a fresh, young green.  Perhaps this will get the nod for the new wall colour.

The tastes that most remind me of most of spring are cilantro and lime!

So besides planning on preparing cilantro chicken very soon, we are going to unshovel the barbecue to start grilling again.  I have salmon fillets ready to go for this evening.  And this week so that we could remember our favourite treat from last summer-I roasted whole unpeeled beets in a little bit of canola oil with a glistening of sea salt.

I am sure by now that you all know that I am a Sobey’s “Better Food Lover”, but enough about me.  You’re Invited to the #LoveSobeys Refresh Your Flavours Twitter Party!  Join us on Twitter and tell us how you’re getting your taste-buds ready for spring.  Share your best ideas on the freshest tastes of the season and every tweet gives you a chance to win a Sobeys gift card. Up to $1,200.00 in Sobeys gift cards are up for grabs.

Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Time: 8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. CDST

Where: On Twitter, using the hashtag: #LoveSobeys

Join me and other Party Hosts:

Andrea Tomkins (@missfish)     Mardi Michels (@eatlivtravwrite)     Laura O’Rourke (@LauraORourke)     Maria Lianos-Carbone (@amotherworld)     Tammi Roy (@MyChaos)     Heather Nolan (@mmmisformommy)     Rebecca Stanisic (@bitofmomsense)     Gina Bell (@eastcoastmommy1)     Jen Banks (@Jen_Banks)     Jody Arsenault (@MommyMomentBlog)    Kathryn Lavallee (@mommykatandkids)

How to Party?  It’s easy to join in—just sign in to Twitter at party time and find “#LoveSobeys”. Chime in to the conversation with your thoughts and suggestions for better food ideas by simply adding “#LoveSobeys” to the end of every tweet. Each tweet gives you a chance to win a Sobeys gift card (up to $1,200 in Sobeys gift cards will be given out). Check out the twitter party rules and regulations and be sure to R.S.V.P by scrolling down the link here.

P.S.  I would never recommend something for you, my loyal readers, that I would not use myself and I just can’t tell you how impressed I am with Sobey’s.  I had to go grocery shopping for a food styling job, after I started this post this morning.  I am feeling like I might be catching a cold, so I wanted to make the errand really easy on myself.  For one, by going first thing in the morning, there were very few customers there and I didn’t have to jostle around other carts and be squished into the aisles.  There was lots of staff on and that was a really good thing as I needed help finding rhubarb and barley flour.  At Sobey’s, they don’t just tell you an aisle number, they accompany you to the place on the shelf where they anticipate finding the product.  If they are unsuccessful, they will check with a manager instead of saying “we must be out of it”.  When there was no grated Monterrey Jack cheese, the fellow restocking the dairy shelves, suggested an alternative and then accompanied me to the deli section, where another staff member grated it for me-at no extra charge!  A deli item on special caught my attention and when I asked what the flavour was like, he sliced off a piece for me to taste.  The cashier cheerfully, tallied my two separate orders and payment and another person bagged my groceries for me exactly like I would have done myself, with dairy in one bag, meats in another, etc.  I love Sobey’s -they make food shopping enjoyable again!

Kath’s quote: “Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.” -Al Bernstein

Love-that is all.