As most know, I am a huge fan of Aldi’s. Their prices are hands down the lowest anywhere. Even Wal-Mart, and I like their products. One especially. Their sausage from Appleby Farms. I am a sausage lover. I prefer Gunnoe’s over Jimmy Dean, but if it’s sausage, I’ll eat it. One thing I’ve noticed about inexpensive sausage is that it’s full of fat. Fry a half dozen pieces and they float to the top … [Read more...]

When our group first started going to the Oyster Festival in Urbanna about 20 years ago, a quart of oysters was $10. Then they went to $11, then $12, and higher. Last week, I bought a quart of oysters and paid $39.95. But they were really good. When I was a child, oysters were cheap. My Uncle Sidney would go down to Morehead City and return to Raleigh with a bushel of oysters for $3 or $4. Then … [Read more...]

You don’t see them often, but if you do, and if you are a meat and steak lover, buy them. Denver steaks - perhaps the best cut of steaks you’ve never heard of. Denver steak, also known as the Denver-cut or Denver chuck steak, is a relatively new addition to the world of beef cuts. It’s sourced from the chuck primal or serratus ventralis muscle, which lies beneath the shoulder blade. For this … [Read more...]

It's a Southern thing. Pimento Cheese, that is. For at least a century Pimento Cheese has made its presence known at church picnics, funerals, weddings, graduations and in the lunch boxes of millions of freckled faced kids. Southerners have adopted pimento cheese as one of their favorite foods because it doesn’t readily spoil at room temperature and was widely consumed by those in the textile … [Read more...]

Food Savers: Multiple Uses I confess. I do not use Food Saver as often as I should. We throw tons of food away and most could be saved with a Vacuum Sealed Food Saver sheet.  Meat, veggies, everything. But I have found even more uses for these heavy-duty plastic sheets. A few weeks ago, I put a package of chicken directly from the store in the bottom of the fridge, and it leaked. … [Read more...]

I should shop at Trader Joe’s more often. They have some really interesting items – stuff you won’t find at other stores – like Branzino Sea Bass. I was at Trader’s last week to stock up on Moon X wines and poked around in the side aisles where I saw a package of frozen Sea Bass, not Chilean Sea Bass but Branzino Sea Bass. I am always looking for a fish to serve and I am leery of tilapia. You … [Read more...]

Here’s another great reason to shop at Reid’s. Not only do they offer the best trimmed and most tender chicken in town, their Pork Cutlet’s are simply superb. There are two types of pork chops, most come from the loin. They are generally very lean, and can be tough and tasteless. The chops near the shoulders have more fat, thus more flavor. The Reid’s butchers carve their Pork Cutlets from … [Read more...]

  Ran across an amazing product recently, again from Aldi’s. I was poking around in their ice cream section looking for some “lite” bars or popsicles. I saw a box of Fit Active 20 Calorie Bars. 20 calories? That’s like one bite of steak. I figured they would be awful, but if we could enjoy a little something sweet after a meal and only spring for 20 calories, it was worth a try. Plus, … [Read more...]

  I understand that somebody won over a billion dollars in the latest lottery. Big deal. I won a Melon Lottery last week. I bought a melon, and it was good. This is the season when melons show up in the grocery stores from Argentina or Mexico or wherever and you are tempted to buy one. You knew that the melons in the stores for the past 6months weren’t ripe nor edible, but now there’s … [Read more...]

It was nearly lunchtime, and I wanted a BBQ. I was also in Kroger’s and knew exactly what to do. I went back to the prepared foods section and crossed my fingers, hoping to find some Doughtie’s BBQ. It was there and within the hour I was eating BBQ you would normally only find in Eastern North Carolina. Doughtie’s is whole-hog BBQ with a little smokiness mixed in with the pork, vinegar, and … [Read more...]