THAT STORE!!

It was another wonderful night in a beautiful air conditioned home.  Cooper and I get the lower bedroom in order to beat the heat.  Remember it was BINGO last night?  Yup ... my phone rang at 10:30.  The infernal machine was playing games with the substitute cashier.  I'm usually gone by 9:30, so I was surprised at the late call.    I gave some quick advice and she was done.  I laid there staring at the ceiling!!

At daylight, after two cups of coffee, I was ready to hit the road.  Ever hear of NPS?  It is a discount warehouse in Salt Lake City.  The prices here will shock you!  Let it be known however, that you want to check the pull dates.  As you know, many times that doesn't matter much, but unless you are going to eat it immediately, you may want to freeze it.

And so when we finished doing a little bit of work on the quilt, off we went.  NOT to NPS.  Oh yeah ... we went to the quilt store!!  Sorry I didn't get good pictures.  I was too busy being sold the store by the nicest of ladies.  Come to find out, this family owns a cattle ranch.  We talked for a bit about the downfall of family cattle ranching, before finding what I was after.

These are red snappers.  They hold the fabric in place while quilting.  I use pins, but by the time we got close to the end of my quilt, Ray had me convinced.  I bought them ... but you will be surprised ... I did NOT buy any fabric.  Not by choice necessarily, but for lack of space in the rig to carry much.  I'm sure I can get creative at some point when it comes to stashing fabric.

Now ... off to the store!!  Here are a few examples.  This is Aspen Mills cinnamon chip bread for $1.99. It snuck into my basket.

Apples for .99 / lb.  I think the last I bought in California were $3.99 a pound.  These were perfectly fresh.

Swiss cheese block?  I think this came out to $1.25 a pound, while the going rate at the store is $12.00 per pound.  

Ray and Cindy have a slicer, which made quick business of this huge block, all of which went in the freezer.  Some even went in MY freezer!!  I picked up four premium pork loin chops for $2.00, for the whole package.  The pull date?  Next week.  Into the freezer they went.

The prison food?  They still had boxes of the lemon chicken soup for "institutional" use, but it was enough to feed 50 people, so I passed.  Instead, truffle butter for maybe 50 cents was donated to me by Cindy.  She got a box of it, again for the freezer.  Some things you can buy separately, some you must purchase the entire box, so clean out your freezer for space.  I also got TWO tubs of my normal butter that I would pay $10.00 for at Walmart.  It was $3.50 for both, pull date 9/24.  

These two pizzas, normally $7.99 each, cost only $2.50 for both.  I haven't had that much fun grocery shopping in years.  If you have any store like this in your area, you will save a bundle.

Once home, there was a frenzy of work going on.  They took the shredded zucchini from yesterday and placed it in the freeze dryer.  Fascinating stuff this freeze drying.  I think this takes about 24 hours, maybe a few more if it is not dry enough.

Oh ... one last thing ... Cindy got 8 dozens eggs for .... no kidding ..... 50 cents a dozen.  More frenzied cooking ... she whipped up eggs, sausage, potatoes and cheese, which will be frozen in the freezer, then freeze dried for burrito making at a later date.  If you freeze the product first, it takes much less time to freeze dry.  This is not the yucky stuff you find in the store, this homemade freeze dried product comes out like you just cooked it once you add water.

Back to the quilt, while they worked upstairs, I played the stitch in the ditch game once again.  But looky here ... we are at the bottom black border!!!  If lucky, we just might finish it today.

We are all exhausted.  Too much standing up all day quilting, then prepping food for the freeze dryer for almost 5 hours.  Dinner was some of the best hamburgers I've ever had, purchased at THAT store for a song and smothered in truffle butter and Swiss cheese.  Sorry no pictures ... I scarfed that thing down like it was from Habit Burger.  Like I said, I'm eating like a Queen!!!!

We will be back on the quilt today, maybe to finish it up.  Then I think there will be some rest and relaxation going on!  High today 92, so it's cooling a bit.