Showing posts with label Tasty Thursday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tasty Thursday. Show all posts

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Tasty & Thrifty Thursday - Totally Related


Last week I was hit with the idea to marry Tasty Thursday from Southern Fried Mama and Thrifty Thursday from Bloggerittaville. How fun! So what is usually tasty and thrifty? You got it leftovers or as Sandra Lee calls them, 2nd rounds. Plus I have a bonus thrift story that I only realized while making my 2nd rounds. So here ya go - enjoy - we did!


2nd Round Potato Salad


I started out with leftovers from the night before. I snagged a Roasted Red Potato recipe over at One Perfect Bite (one of THE BEST food blogs ever) and everyone loved this dish. How I had leftovers is something I am still amazed at, but I am so glad I did so I would have something to post about. I had BLT's and potato salad on the menu for the week so I went looking for a recipe that would compliment the seasonings already on the potatoes. Good ol' Paula Dean came through, here's the recipe:

Ingredients
12 cups cubed red potatoes
1 cup chopped green bell pepper (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup minced red onion
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Directions
Cook potatoes, covered in boiling water, 10 minutes, or until tender; drain well and cool.
In a large bowl, combine potatoes, bell pepper and onion.
In a small bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour over potato mixture, tossing gently to coat. Cover and refrigerate.



I tweaked it a bit, as you can see, I clearly did not have 12 cups of potatoes left. And there was already enough Dijon mustard present from the original recipe.



As I was chopping the vegetables I started cooking my bacon, and thought I would share a little trick I use: cut the bacon package in half before you start frying. The bacon cooks more evenly and is sandwich ready.


I just added all the seasonings, the vegetables and mixed. It was so easy! Let me tell ya, green and purple, don't just look good together, they taste great together!

As I was mixing and mashing, it dawned on me that my potato masher (or ricer) was also a Thrifty Thursday find.

Why, you ask? Because this little handy dandy tool is a Cutco brand masher and I bought it about 8 or 9 years ago for $1.00 at the thrift store. OMG!! These things coast upwards of $35.00 dollars and it didn't look like anyone had used it ever. Needless to say I LOVE my masher. If you find any Cutco while thrifting - buy it - it will last longer than you. I can't afford to buy it brand new so I am always looking for it when I am thrifting. Okay - back to the recipe.

Mix, refrigerate, plate, ENJOY!




That was fun! Okay -remember to join me tomorrow for Flashback Friday -leave me a comment here that you will be joining me or on tomorrow's post. The theme is Made in the Shade. TaTa for now!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Two-fer Thursday (Thrifty & Tasty...not related though)

Gooooood Mooorninnnng Blllooogland (Robin Williams impersonation inserted here).
I am especially perky as I sit here this morning tapping away, drinking my 1st cup of coffee. I don't know what it is, the weather has been unusually June gloomy here in the desert, so I am not amped up on Vitamin D (unless you count the tanning bad- I know, bad girl). It must be that I love coming here and meeting new ladies with such creative minds.
So, today is a sort of Two-fer Thursday I am posting a Thrifty Thursday hosted over at Bloggerittaville and a Tasty Thursday hosted over at Southern Fried Mama. Now, these two posts are nowhere related to each other, but it did get me to thinking that I should try to do that sometime in the future ( I bet it has already been done). Okay - here we go:

Tasty Thursday is about another store in Paso Robles - I do not have a tasty recipe like the Hawaiian Kabobs SFM has posted but I do have Cheesey pictures! My recipe plan deflated - but I will post some great recipes that we got in Paso next week. Say Cheese:

Di Raimondo's Italian Market & Cheese Shop in Paso Robles

The very helpful & knowledgeable "cheese lady". She offered FREE samples..see it was thrifty!!

This is Pont-l'Evêque = Pont l'Eveque Pronunciation: POHN-luh-VEK she said this is an ancient and well-regarded French cheese isn't as stinky as other washed rind cheeses. I said - "Oh my! that is great cheese - so creamy and sweet & nutty - let's buy some (not so thrifty)!"

There were soo many to choose from they have over 100 cheeses - the aroma was to die for (did I mention I LOVE CHEESE?)!!

You can't have cheese without cured meats, salamis, breads & wine - they have it all!

But we only bought the cheese and a few crackers and it was delish!

Now - my favorite - Thrifty Thursday - I am envious of leigh and her girls - I miss shoppin' with my Momma. The original plan was to show the cute little additions to a small collection I started at the beginning of the year. But then I realized the""big picture" is quite thrifty and one of my favorite rooms in the house...soo bloggers, meet my very humble library.

Not one stitch of furniture in this room cost over $200.00. It was all bought at yard sales & thrift stores. I need more book shelves, but I have plenty of floor space. The table is Momma's - isn't is just beautiful? we use it to read at, drink coffee and play games.


Even our games are thrifty- I love old board games, so I pick them up at yard sales all the time- look at that Yahtzee!


The majority of books I own have been purchased at yard sales, the library and thrift stores. Our library does a sale at the end of the month - hard covers for .50 each and the SA does $1 each if you buy 5 or more (cha-ching). The majority of the decor in this room is yard sale & thrift store purchases. The typewriter was scooped up for $3.00 18 years ago, the camera was free (yard sale at the end of the day), little knick-knacks amounnt to pennies, the desk $100.00 about 10 years ago.



And finally this week's buy - I started collecting "C"'s in January and now I have 4! Eventually these will go on the wall in a nice pattern, but I want to wait until I have a little larger collection. It's fun hunting for them, and I scooped both up for under $5 total! Metal is especially fun for me since welding is PC's first love.

Well that does it for me, I need to go o dishes or something. Remember to join me tomorrow for Flashback Friday - this week's theme - Fun in the Sun! TaTa for now!