Is it just me, or is super glue a household essential? This pair of earrings has been out of commission for a bit (one pearl came loose from its post), and I finished off my last tube of super glue a few months ago. A perfect opportunity to visit the dollar store, right? The Dollar Tree had many varieties of super glue, but I chose the standard type — three tubes for $1 . And now my earrings are as good as new!
Today I had ice cream for lunch and for dinner, and I don’t regret it. I have been following the Ben & Jerry’s truck on Twitter this summer (they are in Boston for the month of August), but I had yet to find them in real life. One day a few weeks ago Tim and I sprinted down Newbury Street — pushing shoppers out of our way left and right — but we somehow missed the free scoops by mere minutes. So today, all my wildest dreams came true when the truck made its way to the new 7-Eleven in Watertown. Late Night Snack was the flavor of the day, and I am now obsessed with the sweet/salty combo — vanilla bean ice cream with a salty caramel swirl and fudge-covered potato chip clusters.
As good fortune would have it, Taza Chocolate was promoting its new partnership with Steve’s ice cream at the factory store in Somerville. Steve’s is not only a Boston original, but the creator of ice cream mix-ins. Steve’s is pushing for yet another ice cream revolution, and this time the name of the game is pure, simple, and natural. The result is small-batch, craft ice cream, using local, sustainable dairy and other socially responsible ingredients (like Taza). We enjoyed scoops of mint cacao creme (dairy-free coconut creme dotted with dark-chocolate-covered cacao nibs and peppermint extract) and Mexican chili chocolate (creamy dark chocolate ice cream spiced with hints of cayenne, cinnamon, and guajillo chili chocolate). I don’t even know what to say about the amazing-ness of both flavors. I was near speechless. Also, please note Taza’s darling ice cream cart (but ignore the rat-tail on the kid who wouldn’t get out of my shot).
Moving on to our next adventure of the day. I’ve been itching to make Gourmet magazine’s honey-glazed wax beans (what else do you do with wax beans?), but we’ve been out of honey for some time. And I can’t just buy any old honey. Ever since I donned a beekeeper’s suit (initially terrifying, then exciting) and wrote this Utah Valley Magazine article about local food and the benefits of raw honey, I have avoided the pasteurized commercial stuff. Since I was already in Lexington for an eye appointment, we stopped by Wilson Farm to buy honey and search for a dollar deal. After enjoying the day’s samples — incredible tomatoes and peaches, plus a to-die-for tomato casserole — we found our honey and picked up an almost $1 enormous chocolate chip cookie, made fresh in the bakery. I decided it might not be wise to eat the cookie today, considering the amount of ice cream I consumed, so we’re saving it for a Friday treat. See you then.
Every now and then I need a free day. This dollar-spending business can be extremely taxing. So allow me to introduce my first substitute spender — Mackenzie! Mackenzie sent me an email a few days ago sharing photo evidence of one of her dollar purchases and I was like, “Duh, I will blog that.” So here’s the deal: Feel free to let me know about your dollar purchases, and then I can get a free day by blogging your spending successes. Here we go…
Mackenzie and her husband, Beau, spent a very busy day in Middleburg (Virginia) last weekend. If you know Mackenzie, this shouldn’t surprise you, since Middleburg is basically the nation’s horse capital. Anyway, they lunched at the Upper Crust Bakery — turkey on rye for her, grilled chicken and swiss for him — and were delighted to see a selection of baked goods marked at $0.95. Mackenzie chose a cute horsey sugar cookie, partially because she loves sugar cookies, but mostly because it was a horse.
I hate to be repetitive about the locations of my purchases, but when you find four red onions for $1 at Johnny D’s you don’t think twice. I’m not much of an onion fan (I can’t handle the crunch), but I sure like the sweet, rich flavor of a caramelized red onion. We used this batch as the solo topping for a classic pesto/mozzarella pizza. Pair the pizza with a side of farm-fresh local tomatoes and you’ve got yourself an ideal summer meal.
This Monday morning was a little unusual. The first out-of-the-ordinary moment came at about 3 a.m. when I woke up and noticed our air conditioner (window unit) was off. I have absolutely no problem with no AC (the hotter the better, for me), but I was pretty baffled as to why Tim would turn it off without me begging him to (the colder the better, for him). Anyway, at 6 a.m. I made my way to the kitchen (which is also my office) and flipped the light switch, but nothing happened. A peek at the microwave — no lights on — convinced me the power was out. No power also meant no internet, which meant I had no way to get my work done ahead of my impending deadline. So off we went to Starbucks, where a delicious $1 Asiago cheese bagel kept me going through my morning work rush. The bagel was cheesy and soft and chewy, just like a bagel should be, and if I have to repeat the ordeal again tomorrow (our power is scheduled to be out between 2 and 8 a.m.) I won’t be too broken up about it.
Here we are, more than six months into blogging about dollar purchases, and I have yet to buy a single item from a dollar store. That changed today. I have a love/hate relationship with dollar stores. I generally don’t like the idea of them, because in my head most of the items are poor enough quality that a dollar is no bargain. But then when I go into a dollar store, I’m totally won over by the fact that you can buy absolutely anything for just a buck. Today we were in the vicinity of the Allston Dollar Tree (finally got new tennis shoes, thanks to the New Balance outlet!) so we decided to peruse the cheap goods there. The ice cream freezer near the front of the store was all I needed to see. This Blue Bunny Mississippi Mud ice cream sandwich was twice the thickness of a normal ice cream sandwich, and I’m a sucker for the chocolate-on-chocolate variety. Plus, this one had almond bits in the ice cream! So, I guess dollar stores are on my good list right now.
After attempting eggplant parmesan twice (plus the time I ordered it at a restaurant), I’ve decided I just don’t like the taste and texture of it. But I have two jumbo eggplants at my house, so I was determined today to try something new with them. So… how about eggplant sandwiches? I made a garlic mayonnaise for my toasted slices of Iggy’s Francese bread, then layered roasted eggplant, tomatoes, lettuce, and feta. I couldn’t actually taste the eggplant because of all the other great flavors going on, so maybe this is how I’ll eat it from now on. And when you go to Shaw’s at just the right time of night, there is a pretty great selection of Iggy’s bread on the day-old rack!
Disclaimer: Many months ago I bought a two-pound container of strawberries at Johnny D’s for $1 (on the never-failing dollar shelf) and I never blogged it. I guess I had an abundance of dollar finds at the time, and I’m sure I polished off the strawberries within a couple days of the purchase. So today I will blog about strawberries, though the particular berries in this image did not actually cost $1.
When my alarm goes off in the morning, I have two immediate thoughts: first, how many reports do I need to edit by my 7 a.m. work deadline, and second, what shall I eat for breakfast? I nearly always have cereal with fruit, but there are a lot of options in that category. Today I went with Kashi’s warm cinnamon oat Heart to Heart cereal, and I topped it with strawberries. You would think I’d get tired of cereal and berries every single morning, but I just can’t get enough of it.
In fact, I love cereal so much that when Tim and I were new friends and he told me he didn’t like cereal, I considered ending our friendship right then and there. The very idea of not liking cereal was one of the stupidest things I’d ever heard. Luckily, he’s seen the light — this morning he had a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.
UPS dropped off my Walgreen’s package yesterday, and I remembered another dollar item I added to my order — Expo dry erase markers, priced at two for $1. We don’t have a dry erase board at home, but Tim prefers to have some in his arsenal of school supplies to do nerdy stuff like write equations on the white boards at the library. This summer he taught his first class — statistics — and he almost convinced me to be his guinea pig and listen to his lectures before each class period. But then I reminded him that I successfully learned nothing in my college statistics class the first time around, so why would I make another attempt? Maybe someday I’ll learn…
Target’s clearance section came to my rescue once again, with $0.48 packages of Ice Breakers cool lemon ice cubes gum. These little sugar-free cubes taste like a refreshing summer lemonade, although the flavor doesn’t last quite as long as I’d like — I guess that’s the way it goes with fruity gums, right? These two packages will make a perfect addition to my gum-as-dessert collection.
