Monday Morning Coffee Time

Good morning to everyone here in the Fredericksburg area!  I'm writing from my dining room table, enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee freshly made in my French press.  Eight O'clock Coffee, hazelnut, from the shelves of Wal-mart.  I make coffee for myself and my husband every morning.  My husband will sometimes troll all the local Wa-wa's when they are selling coffee for a dollar a cup no matter the size.  It gives him a chance to use all those fancy little fake creamers.  Otherwise, we are strictly into home brew.  I go to Starbucks about once every six months, just to remind myself that I can indeed make better coffee at home - even frappes and chais and mocha-whatsits.  It just takes a few minutes, probably fewer minutes than I'd spend getting into the parking lot, standing in line, and waiting for my order.  Now, I'm not knocking Starbucks and their many cousins.  For some people, it's worth the time and expense.  But I'm not such a coffee connoisseur that I care enough to spend big bucks on my morning cup of caffeine. 

I can be a bread snob, though.  I bake my own, make my own pita bread and dinner rolls and specialty breads like naan and cornbread.  When I buy, I buy plain old cheap white bread for toast and grilled-cheese sandwiches, but for a really good deli style sandwich, it's the Panini bread from the deli counter at Giant.  I think a loaf is about five bucks.  So there you go.  I save money on coffee so I can spend it on bread.  The sad thing is, my kids (five kneebiters) love the panini bread, too, so it gets eaten very fast unless I stash it in the freezer right when I get home and fail to mention to the kids that I've bought it.  Then I'll pull it out when the older kids are at school and the younger ones are in front of the TV watching Team Umizoomi.  I love that bread.  I'll butter it and then top it with sliced pickles, or sardines in tomato sauce, or turkey and cheese and mustard, or even my own home made liverwurst.  I seriously have an anxiety attack if I go to Giant and they are out of panini bread.  I'd really appreciate it if anyone reading this does NOT run and buy it all up, or if you do, tell them to order more because I'm going to stop by in the next couple of days.  Stop by for bread and maybe a little smoked salmon.

Oh, fancy bread, you say.  Oh, smoked salmon, you say.  This is one fancy Nancy.  She's a gourmet shopper!  Well, yeah, in my dreams.  I indulge in smoked salmon once every few months.  My oldest son loves it too, sigh, so there's another thing I can't keep to myself.  But overall I avoid the high-dollar items and I'm pretty frugal.  We eat a lot of chicken, and I'm always serving pasta and rice alongside.  I can be pretty creative, and, let's face it, nowadays chicken doesn't have any more flavor than tofu, which means you can make it taste like almost anything with the right flavorings.  I get most of my chicken from Giant because they almost always have a sale. I stock up on my favorite, chicken thighs, and when the breasts are on sale I get them, too, and make my own chicken nuggets.  Oh, I can really do chicken.  I'll have to share some of my recipes with you.

So, what do you like?  Where do you save and where do you indulge?  Do you have a favorite food or drink, a little bakery you can't live without?  We all have to have something.  I mean, being frugal is not the same as being a miser.  Being frugal means saving where you can so you can spend where you want to.  My bread is my "want to".  What's yours?