QFC Grocery Basket 5/27

Now readers of Miss MoneyPenny know that her partner in crime for the last 30 years is Miss MaggieMae.  Usually after we finish up with the craziness that is Costco we head on down the road to Starbucks.  While we were there last Saturday we viewed Miss MaggieMae's granddaughter Miss  Sage's first art show.  Miss Sage is nine years old and she is a smart cookie.  She talked the manager of Starbucks into letting her hang her art with half the proceeds going to charity.  See what I mean??

I apologize for the quality of these photos but I took them with my phone while my butt was in the middle of a table of six very nice people.  When I explained what I was up to they got up and looked at Miss Sage's art.  They were very gracious.  The lady in the photo says her daughter goes to school with Miss Sage so she didn't mind being in the picture.

Half of the pictures had already sold.  It made me kind of misty when I read the cards next to the pictures with the title and each one of them said "by Sage".  This was my favorite but it had already sold or it would be hanging on my wall.  It is called Seattle:

Okay - let's look at the ad for this week.  The front page said that Copper River salmon is here but no price.  Hmm.  I think that we will be paying a premium for fresh fish from now on due to all the stuff the we hear about on the news.  Over fishing, global warming, El Nino, on and on.  At QFC the price of fresh halibut never went below $19.99 a pound.  Us fish lovers need to rethink our protein budget.

Here are my suggestions for the week and don't forget the digital coupons on the QFC site:

Seattle's Best Coffee - $4.99/12 oz
La Victoria Salsa - $2.50/16oz
Kroger Sour Cream - $1/16oz
QFC Milk - $ .99/1/2gal
Boneless Pork Top Loin Chops - BOGO
Ribeye Steak - $7.88/lb
Kroger Smoke Sausage - $2.50/14oz (great on BBQ)
QFC Large Eggs - $1.50/doz
Blueberries - $3.99/18oz
Asparagus - $2.49/lb
Avocados - $ .99/ea
Red or Green Seedless Grapes - $1.88/lb
Colored Bell Peppers - $1.25/ea
Sweet Vidalia Onions - $ .99/lb
Roma Tomatoes - $ .99/lb
Yellow or Zucchini Squash - $1.29/lb

This is my garden so far.  I was gonna cut back this year.  Famous last words.  I'm trying out a couple of things this year.  I'm growing my spuds in a big potato bag instead of the garden because they were taking over the place.  I decided to grow my summer squashes and cucumbers in the garden instead of the wheel barrow.  And I installed trellises in the hopes that I could get them to grow up instead of all over the yard, which they will probable do anyway.

So far I've been eating a lot of lettuce and radishes.  I also made a batch of rhubarb sauce and I'm starting to get a few ripe strawberries.  It will be a while for the blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries but they are all covered in berries.  Eating from the MoneyPenny plantation is truly the best way to eat organic food, get good exercise, and stretch that buck.  The strange flip flop tan is optional.

QFC Grocery Basket 5/20

A couple of weeks ago I drove down to Seaside, Oregon and met up with my sister, Miss SmartyPants.  We had glorious weather for the four days that we were there as you can tell from this photo of the sunset from our balcony.  Actually, the first day it was 81 degrees!!  The only problem was a huge die-off of jellyfish so it was pretty miserable getting down to the water.  In fact, I think that I still have jellyfish gick on the bottoms of my flip flops.

One of our days we drove to McMinnville to see our very favorite Aunt Barbara.  She is the last of our older relatives but she is gonna be around for a long time.  She has always treated us like we were her kids even though she has four of her own.  When my mom had a long stay in the hospital she cared for my sister.  She took this on while in the middle of having a new baby and her own little toddler.  I can't imagine three kids in diapers.  Here she is (in yellow) with her best friend Bonnie:

I wanted to show you how gorgeous my dogwood is this year.  It would have been a better shot from the other way but I didn't think that you needed to see the neighbor's garbage pile.

Here is a closeup of the petals:

This beautiful old fashioned iris came from Miss Judith and it is everything that an iris should be.  One time I cut a bouquet of irises and put in a few stems of Don Juan the rose.  It was so over the top fragrant that I couldn't have it in the house with me.

This is my first batch of French Breakfast radishes.  I planted all my cool weather crops early this year and didn't get burned by cold weather.  I've also been eating lettuce and I made rhubarb/strawberry sauce from the Skidder rhubarb.  I used half the sugar and it was still plenty sweet.

I want to tell you about my new cool tool.  This thing is put out by Fiskar and they call it a planting tool.  The gals up at Hadlock Building Supply Garden Center assured me that it was the best thing since pizza for weeding.  So I put it up on the counter with my other stuff and went home to use it.  They were totally right!!  Best weeder ever!! but the second time I used it I broke it.  I knew it had a lifetime guarantee so I dug out my receipt and went back up to get another one.

Come to find out it wasn't listed on the receipt.  Everybody was embarrassed, including me.  I said well it looks like I stole this thing, then I broke it, and now I want another one but I will pay for one of them.  They gave me a new one that I have worked the devil out of and it is just fine.  They found that there was rust in the welding join, so it must have been a lemon.

Anyway - buy one of these.  It is under ten bucks and you can also use it for a weapon:

Did you have a good Mother's Day??  My son, the plumber, went out fishing and Miss PeggyRae and I went down to the Valley Tavern and had beer and hot dogs to rev ourselves up for some serious nursery hopping.  My Mother's Day card had a fifty in it which I promptly spent at the first nursery.  My receipt came to $48.79 which is cutting it pretty close.  Now that was a great Mother's Day!!

Okay - let's look at the ad for this week.  Will wonders never cease??  The ad is for one week only this time and they are heavy on Memorial Day weekend cookout stuff.  I was expecting to see wild fresh salmon this week but if they have it it didn't make the ad.

Here are my suggestions:

Peet's Coffee - $6.99/12oz
Hebrew National Beef Franks - $3.50/pack
Kroger Sour Cream - $1.25/16oz
Draper Valley Boneless Skinless Breasts - BOGO
Boneless Pork Top Loin Chops - $3.99/lb
Fresh Wild Halibut Fillets - $19.99/lb
Lean Ground Beef - $5.99/lb
Ribeye Steak - $7.88/lb
Driscoll's Strawberries - $3.99/2lb
Asparagus - $1.99/lb
Medium Hass Avocados - $ .99/ea
Tomatoes on the Vine - $1.49/lb
Colored Bell Peppers - $1.25/ea
Fresh Cut Tulips - $10/3 five stem bunches (15)

Every morning after all the critters have been watered, fed, and medicated I grab my coffee and sit in my chair and watch Charlie Rose on CBS.  All the animals join me except the Boston Terror.  She heads back to bed and doesn't get up until I make the bed or the UPS truck drives by - whichever comes first.  I don't know if she loves the driver or hates him but she barks her head off at him and his truck.