Shopping at a military commissary and some replies

Hello everyone 

My husband needed to go the VA hospital to get his eyeglasses adjusted. 

So while we were near a military base,  we shopped at a commissary.  Commissaries are grocery stores for military.  

Commissaries used to have very low prices compared to civilian stores.   Compared to stores in my town now though,  the commissary is about the same on most prices.  

We go there because their meats are higher quality and a good bit cheaper than I can buy locally.  They also have some brands we can’t get locally and they do have some good sales and coupon matchups.  

I got the  biggest  surprise and laugh when I saw a supply chain problem there. 

The meat was not wrapped on a plastic or styrofoam meat tray but was wrapped on an assortment of disposable plates.  😂

I’m guessing was did not make the butchers and meat wrappers too happy as the plates are much floppier than meat trays.  

We like to buy these big boxes of meat for $43

The commissary labels them Economy Boxes and I think they are a good economy. 

Our box had 3 packs pork chops, 1 pack of 2 pork tenderloins, 

1 beef roast, 2 trays of beef cube steaks and 4 rolls of 85% ground beef. 

I added up all the price stickers on the wrapped meat and it came to just a few cents away from $43 

I don’t know how much the ground beef rolls sell for but it’s like they were free because all the wrapped meats are things we might of bought individually anyway and they cost the total of the box. 

Our very best bargain today was eggs.  Are eggs really high where you shop?  I think the last carton of 18 eggs from Walmart was $5.89.

  

I’ve never seen eggs in 24 count cartons and these were $3.39 a carton. 

We bought 3 as we eat lots of eggs with 7 of us living here 

https://news.va.gov/101540/eligible-veterans-can-shop-at-defense-commissaries/

Commissary shopping privileges are now available to veterans rated with any military disability and their dependents  and for reserves, in addition to retirees and active duty. 

I’m not sure how vets without ID cards get that established to shop there but I do think it is worth it, especially if your nearest commissary has a great meat department like Tinker Air Force commissary.  

A few replies 

The White Lily flour made especially nice pizza crust.  It was soft on top and crisp on the bottom. 

The chocolate chip cookies were really good too and had a nice crispness to them too. 

If I am in the Deep South and can purchase this flour, I may get a few more bags but I won’t pay crazy shipping prices to get it any other way.  

About the stuffed peaches,  I used canned peach halves.  

Drain them and turn them all cut side up.

For a 28 ounce of peach halves,  I mix about 4 ounces of softened cream cheese, a little vanilla, maybe 1/4 c finely chopped pecans and 2 or 3 T powdered sugar.  

Then fill each peach half and keep chilled until serving. 

http://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/2020/12/blogidays-december-7-cream-cheese.html

That link is when I blogged about them a few years ago and also contains a link to YouTube video of  a homemaker preparing a very similar recipe.  

Sorry about my infrequent posts.

I am doing a good bit of cooking and cleaning with 7 in our home, but frankly, I just don’t get as much done as I used to.

I keep all the necessary things done but I don’t have the energy right now to do lots of creative or extra stuff.  

Hope you are well and happy 

❤️ Rhonda 

Another morning in the kitchen

Hello everyone 

First to answer a few questions- 

Cheese has always kept just in the freezer for us.  Sometimes I freeze cheese that I shredded and sometimes I freeze the pre-shredded cheese.  I can’t tell any difference in fresh cheese and thawed out cheese.  

Daughter and family are still living here.  Work is happening almost everyday at their new home but construction just takes awhile.  

About nonstick cookware, many of them say “lifetime warranty”. But in my experience, they all start sticking after a year or so.  

It’s hard for me with the cast iron, as it is heavy and my mind thinks you need soap to clean stuff.  But I use a scrub brush, hot water and sometimes a little salt.  Then I dry the skillet and use a paper towel to rub it with just a few drops of coconut oil.  So far, my big skillet is staying clean and I like using it.  I have 2 smaller skillets that I cleaned and re-seasoned. But I haven’t got in the routine of using them.  

With 7 in this home, the really big skillet makes the most sense anyway.  

About the 2 girls that came for the supper the night we had apple crisp,  it was no drama, just 2 sweet girls from out of town that had the same classes as our son and all worked at the same restaurant.

Now there was another night with some drama around that same timeframe. A different son had a girlfriend name Stephanie but they “broke up”. Then he quickly started dating Luanne. We had a family gathering around that same time and the son came with Luanne and somehow Stephanie knew about the party and she also came.  Nothing crazy happened but we were certainly on pins and needles wondering what might happen.  

On to today,  I wanted to try White Lily flour after seeing it on Southern cooking shows. Daughter and husband made a quick trip to South Carolina for his work and brought me back two bags of White Lily  flour. (Stores in my Oklahoma town don’t carry this brand) 

 So I’ve been looking on the White Lily website and found a few recipes and started them today.

Today is Friday and we almost always have pizza so I made a double batch of pizza dough. The website says pizza will be thinner and crisper made with white lily. Tomorrow is Saturday and we usually have a big cup to breakfast so I mixed up some ingredients to make biscuits. I use the recipe on the back of the bag and it calls for shortening. I don’t use shortening very often but I had a small can in the pantry. It was still in date but it smelled rancid so I just used butter instead. I also mixed up a batch of refrigerator chocolate chip cookie dough that you shake it to rolls and then can just slice off before you bake them. And granddaughter Elizabeth has been asking for peach halves that are filled with cream cheese mixed with chopped pecans, powdered sugar and vanilla.  So I made a batch of those too.  

Everything waiting in the fridge for supper and breakfast. 

On the right is a big pack of thick sliced that we bought from a fundraiser from grandson Gavin’s FFA group.

I think the breakfast eaters will be especially happy tomorrow.

White Lily flour recipes used 

Pizza recipe

https://www.whitelily.com/recipes/easy-homemade-deluxe-pizzas-3878/

Chocolate chip cookie refrigerator cookies recipe 

https://www.whitelily.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-refrigerator-cookies-3528/

Biscuit recipe on the back of the bag 

This is not a sponsored post. I think you might have to say that whenever you are talking about a product these days.
And I haven’t actually cooked any of this yet. I’ll let y’all know in my next post how it all turns out.

❤️Rhonda