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When high food prices get you down

The price for a gallon of whole milk costs just as much lately as a gallon of regular gasoline.

In some ways, rising food prices are more problematic. I can live without gasoline. I can’t live without food.

I used to enjoy grocery shopping. Now it’s so expensive that I dread it.

*Butter prices are up 31 percent, Cheddar cheese prices are up 65 percent, broiler chickens are up 17.5 percent and select beef prices are up 12.8 percent. You’ve seen it. Your budget’s felt it. Food prices are out of control.

Once upon a time I’d drive my thrifty-shopper self over hill and dell to collect food bargains. But with a gallon of regular gas hovering around $4.69 per gallon at the Chevron station at Placer and Pleasant streets, the money saved on groceries is gobbled up in gas expenses.

What can we do? We can outsmart high food prices. We can stockpile, store and freeze the least expensive foods. We can learn to live without the most expensive foods.

Best of all, we can alert each other when we’ve discovered a bargain.

For example, an Igo neighbor e-mailed me last night to report a great find: lovely honeydew melons at the 99 Cent Store on Hilltop Drive in Redding (for – you guessed it – 99 cents each). That’s the same store where last week I found 8 ounce-packages of Danish butter – both salted and unsalted. Of course, two of those packages equals 1 pound of butter. When was the last time you paid less than $2 for 1 pound of butter?

I bought a case. I’ll freeze what I can’t use within the next few weeks.

My other 99-cent wonders included 1/2 pints of whipping cream, whole bags of scallions, sacks of baby bananas and onions. But perhaps my favorite 99-cent purchases were mesh bags filled with the most diminutive avocados. They tasted great and looked adorable with a cherry tomato in each half.

The 99 Cent Store was also my source for big jugs of vinegar, and large, high-quality cans of diced tomatoes and pear halves.

I’ve written before about the benefits of grocery shopping at such discount markets as the 99 Cent Store and even the Dollar Tree. But be careful. Read labels and compare quantities. For example, $1 for a 14.5-ounce can of pears is no bargain.

Here are my other tips:

Grow your own food: I have a large herb garden, which is why I feel pretty smug when I see plastic containers of smashed mint leaves or rosemary sold in grocery stores for $2 or $3 or more. Here in the north state, our Mediterranean climate makes it the ideal place to grow fruits, vegetables and herbs. On a related note, we can also support farmers markets. You’ll help local growers and buy the very freshest foods.

Cluck cluck here: Chickens are allowed inside Redding city limits. (Roosters must remain in the country, though). I’m still working on Bruce to welcome chickens out here on Greenberg Acres. But I know many people who have chickens, and they rave about fresh eggs, and the way chickens will eat scraps and ants. (We also have coyotes out here, so I must take that into consideration.)

Deli deals: Skip the grocery deli (at first), where sliced meats can hover around $8 – $9 per pound. At places like Safeway, I’ll select packages of $4-per-pound (sometimes less, on sale) turkey and ham from meat department cases. Then I’ll take the meat to the store’s deli counter where I politely ask if they’ll please slice it. (Many meat departments used to slice meats as a service. That’s a rarity now.)

Bulk up: Generally speaking, the larger the quantity, the cheaper the price, especially for dried goods and staples. Case in point, we could buy a ridiculously pricey box of arborio rice (for risotto) in a grocery store’s gourmet section. Or, we can go to Cash & Carry on Hartnell Avenue in Redding. It sells an institutional-sized sack of arborio rice for around $10. Split that among other friends/family (who’ll pay their part) and you’ve got yourself a real deal.

Frozen assets: A small freezer is a thrifty cook’s best friend. It’s where we can squirrel away sale items, like meats (raw works better than cooked), breads, and even those sliced meats mentioned above. (But really squeeze out all the air, first.) I also freeze egg whites, and hard, blanched fruits and vegetables (like apples and corn) and cheeses. (Although when cheese thaws, its texture is crumbly. Still, it’s fine in recipes where it’s just going to melt anyway.) You can even freeze milk and half-and-half, and I discovered last year that it’s OK to freeze eggnog during the holidays. For more information about freezing foods, this Web site can help.

Waste not: Some things we have no business buying. Ever. The mark-up on things like bread crumbs and croutons is a total joke – on us. They’re so easy to make and their flavor is far superior minus all the preservatives. Also, bear in mind that recipes for bread pudding, bread crumbs, breakfast stratas and croutons often require stale bread.

By the way, speaking of waste, I never use an orange, lemon, lime or grapefruit without first zesting it. (I have a huge container full of citrus zest and juice packets on standby for recipes.)

croutons-400

Buy within your means: Take olive oil, for example. I use it a lot. And I love good olive oil. But I refuse to pay $13 to $20 a bottle for it, no matter how buttery and nutty it tastes. It’s just way beyond my budget. (As an aside, that’s why, to me, a nice bottle of olive oil makes a wonderful host/hostess gift for a foodie – even better than wine.)  But back to olive oil. Lately I’ve found some excellent Italian olive oils at the Grocery Outlet in Redding for about $7 for a huge (38-ounce or so) bottle. (Which reminds me: If you visit any of these stores for products mentioned here, feel free to tell clerks where you heard about them.)

This frugal mindset works for other things, like meats. No matter how much I love lamb, I won’t buy it unless it’s on sale, because it’s too expensive. (Lamb tip: The shoulder is  delicious, and costs far less than chops.) Then there’s poultry. You may have noticed that a cut-up fryer costs much more than a whole chicken, the latter of which can sometimes sell for less than $1 a pound. Learn to cut up a chicken and you’ll save yourself a lot of money. (Hint: Generally speaking, cut where the joints are.)

Help each other: If you hear of a great bargain, such as my Igo neighbor’s honeydews, please share the good news with everyone on Food for Thought’s food forums as often as you can. No item is too silly.

Take the pledge: Cooking on the cheap doesn’t mean eating crap.

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Best Croutons

Stale bread
Olive oil
Dried herbs, such as rosemary, oregano and thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cube the bread into sizes that make it obvious you didn’t buy them. In fact, I like big croutons. They’re more dramatic. Let air dry (or in a low oven) until they’re hardened.

Pour a few tablespoons olive oil into a plastic bag. Dump the herbs and spices in the bag and shake everything to mix. Add the bread, twist the bag shut and shake the contents well, to distribute the cubes.

Dump the cubes out onto a cookie sheet. Bake in a 375-degree oven until the croutons turn golden brown.

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*From The Wall Street Journal commodity “cash prices” section, which reported wholesale prices of key food items have risen dramatically from a year ago.

Doni Chamberlain

Independent online journalist Doni Chamberlain founded A News Cafe in 2007 with her son, Joe Domke. Chamberlain holds a Bachelor's Degree in journalism from CSU, Chico. She's an award-winning newspaper opinion columnist, feature and food writer recognized by the Associated Press, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and E.W. Scripps. She's been featured and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Washington Post, L.A. Times, Slate, Bloomberg News and on CNN, KQED and KPFA. She lives in Redding, California.

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