Shopping Day!

I went shopping today at Safeway. This is my big "before Thanksgiving" trip, between now and Thanksgiving, I'll only get a few things, like milk and some fresh produce. I bought the turkey last week, a 15lb butterball for $9.99. It's snug in the freezer, waiting to be thawed and brined.

Today was a great shopping day. The total was $134.35 before coupons and card savings and $68.41 after, for a savings of 49%! There was so much good stuff on sale this week, from OJ to broccoli, to apples, to grapefruit. Baby carrots, which are much eaten in our house, are $1 a bag, so I got 3!

I loaded up on all the Thanksgiving food, too...stuffing mix, big bag of potatoes, olives, eggs, bacon, monkey bread (for the day after breakfast) green beans. Now, I'll only get a few fresh items, like milk and fruit and veggies between now and Thanksgiving.

Bread!

Today I'm baking bread. I love to bake bread and I don't do it often enough. I think that I shy away from baking in the summertime because it's warm and I don't want the oven on when it's warm. With fall here and the cooler weather that comes with it, I decided to bake bread today.

I wish I could say it's more economical but I don't know about that. My family tends to eat a whole loaf a day, when it's home made bread! But then, I can't seem to resist it, either.

It's really very simple, not at all complex, to bake bread. You just start the yeast with some sugar, let it activate and then mix it with a bit of oil and salt and a lot of flour. Then let it rest for an hour or so....then you have a great excuse to read or relax or surf the net for an hour!

Then punch it down and knead and bake.

I know my kids will be happily surprised when they get home from school to fresh baked bread. They've been asking when I'd bake bread again for a while and today is the day!