Search Results for: blog going gourmet

The Poor Woman’s Guide to Gourmet Coffee

I love my coffee. What I don’t love is spending money on it. After all, water is free. Add some brewed beans, and you have to pay for it. Doesn’t seem to make much sense, does it? Well, combine my need for coffee and my need for living at our means and you get one motivated woman. I’ve learned a few things about saving money on coffee, even the gourmet kind. Organic coffee usually doesn’t cost any more than standard coffee. It is one of those weird but true things. So, if you only want organic, you don’t usually have … Continue reading →

Rachael Ray’s Food Going to the Dogs

She’s already gone public admitting that she is more interested in raising “four-legged kids than ones with two legs” so I suppose it should come as no surprise that celebrity chef Rachael Ray is expanding her culinary empire to include gourmet dog food. The super cook turned TV talk show host just launched a charity-driven line of dog foods based on recipes she has created for her beloved pet pit bull, Isaboo. The Food Network star is no stranger to designing meals for all types of eaters and she says she has no doubt that your pooch will gobble up … Continue reading →

Fun With Gourmet Foods

A few days ago, while waiting for the twins to be done with “Farm Camp”, my oldest and I killed a couple of hours by running errands. Now running errands doesn’t sound a bit fun, particularly not on a beautiful summer day. So to make it more fun, we didn’t just pick up what we needed and run as we usually do. We lingered. And we stopped in stores that we never have time to go in. Our favorite find was a gourmet food store. We were thrilled to see some of the yummy chocolates and candy we ate in … Continue reading →

Going Gourmet

A couple of weeks ago, we were in one of those fancy chain gourmet stores looking at some dinnerware. Our current set is a hand-me-down set that is missing many pieces. The pieces are missing mostly thanks to Mrs Butterfingers over here…me. While I was pregnant, my joints would loosen up so much that my husband swears he could hear my bones rattle around as I walked. An average rate of one broken plate/bowl/cup a month times three pregnancies..well, you get the picture. While we were in that gourmet store, we spied a very pretty canister of gourmet chocolate waffle … Continue reading →

Save on Room Service

When was the last time you ordered room service? If you are adhering to a strict travel budget, then splurging on a formal meal to be delivered to and consumed in the privacy of your hotel room may be out of the question. Or is it? Recently, some hotels have been experimenting with a frugal version of room service much to the delight of budget-conscious guests. PUBLIC Chicago, a boutique property in the Windy City, has been garnering headlines for its affordable room service described as “fast food with little human interaction.” The service is called “PUBLIC Express,” though instead … Continue reading →

Barnes & Noble has 8 Huge Holiday Sales!

Barnes & Noble is having not one, not two, but 8 “Huge Holiday Sales”! Now is a great time to shop for gifts for the readers in your family. There’s sales on books, toys, Christmas cards, and gift items. Sale number 1: Buy 2 Toys & Games, Get the 3rd Free Choose from a total of 2,513 toys and games. When you purchase 3 or more eligible toys and games you will get the one that is the least expensive for free. This offer is valid through December 17, 2012. The website might have more choices than your local Barnes … Continue reading →

The Easy Way to Cook from Scratch

Cooking from scratch is a great way to reduce your overall food bill. Eating out can cost three or four times as much as cooking at home, on average. Faced with the reality of the savings, why don’t we all cook more and eat out less? Well, one of the main reasons is that the idea of cooking every meal at home when our lives are so busy can seem daunting. Guess what, though? Eating at home can actually be less time consuming than going out in many cases. Plus, if you follow the following advice, you will see that … Continue reading →

Four Alternatives to the Grocery Store

Just fifteen or twenty years ago it would have been unusual to buy your groceries from anywhere other than your typical neighborhood grocery store. Things have definitely changed since then and the average consumer has a whole range of opportunities to shop for food. Gone on are the days when the supermarket was practically the only place most people went to get their groceries. According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans are only shopping for groceries at supermarkets 51 percent of the time. So where are they going for grocery purchases, and will those places save them money? 1. Big … Continue reading →

Cold-Weather Gear for Your Pet

As the weather turns colder for most of us, it’s time to get our coats out of the back of the closet. Some of our pets require winter apparel as well, and ZooToo has a rundown of some of the latest products out on the market for keeping your pets warm. You can go with the traditional cute little sweaters and jackets that fill aisles at pet stores, or you can try something a bit different for your pets this winter. What you need depends on you and your pet’s lifestyle, so we’ll take a look at three different types. … Continue reading →

Salmonella in Dog Food Infects Humans

Remember that giant Diamond Pet foods recall from earlier in the year? It stretched from December through May, and covered a staggering variety of pet foods. It wasn’t just that hundreds of specific bags of pet food were affected, but also that so many different brands of kibble were all infected. I thought the story was finally over in May when it seemed like we’d heard the last of the recalls. I’m not writing today to inform you that another recall has been announced, but to update the story. At the time although some dogs were reported as coming down … Continue reading →