Where are my christmas baking supply sales!! No where to be found yet, O they are pimping the products left, right and center but the price’s tell the truth, even on sale they are higher then there were last year.. packages smaller, prices higher and many things just not being put on sale in my local area, the big ones I have been watching for.. sugar, icing sugar, and dried fruits/candied fruits/chocolate-coco or chips versions/as well as baking chocolate.. I have been checking each of the local flyers as both walmart and my local will honor the sale prices in the other store flyers.. but its not helping me get any deals..

The biggest and best deal to be had this week for food storage was in cases of corned beef, onsale for a dirt cheap price, and the same with cases of canned ham.. Otherwise the main things added to the house this week was more local cabbages. I know where to get a good deal on coucous in the city and so made the stop at farmboy store to buy them out again, its a over 70 percent savings buying them in their big bags vs buying them in the little box’s at our local stores, and I do like my coucous, in truth I like it more then I do rice for many dishes. While at the Farm Boy, I hit their apple sections and picked out three new kinds they carry, the garden catalogs are offering them for sale this year but I want to try out the apples before I invest in a tree, make sure we like them.. I could not help but think of C.D. post about the food wax.. boy suddenly that perfect shine on bind after bind of apples made me sigh and go.. ya right!

Other then the above, we have been eating out of storage as is per the norm for us, lots of good heathy meals coming from our cellar, pantry, freezers and fresh from the farm critters.. I have to admit that I am looking at my dwingling supply of fresh greens, and wishing that I had a much bigger cold house to put over a hoop house to stretch those greens longer into the year.. Don’t think that the dried ones can pack quite the same punch as the fresh do..

Got another pressure canner to add to my ever growing collection of all things needed to put up food, this will allow me to do alot more jars at the same time, as you do need to be in the house and watching the pressure canners, and on the farm, there are times that you want to be able to break things up a bit more, while I found that when I was doing all day canning, that it would have been wonderful to have two pressure canners going instead of one pressure canner and one large waterbath canner. We will see if the idea works as well in real life as it dream land.

I loved Deb’s comment that Christmas comes but once a year, and I do hope she will take me up on the idea of a guest post on that amazing chocolate cake she was talking about making! Here is one that I love, its not health, its not sole, but its been a favorite of mine since I was child and I have to make it at least once for christmas, its lick the bowl good!

Orange salad-dessert, your choice.

• One package of orange regular jello
• One tub of cool whip (or equal amount of real whipped cream)
• One large can of mandion orange sections
• One tub of cottage cheese

In a bowl, put your tub of cottage cheese, sprinkle over your orange jello(regular, not diet) and give a light stir, then add in your can of drained orange peices (don’t go cheap on these, or they won’t hold together) and then your whole thing of cool whip, fold in together with careful and gentle movements, then pour it into a fancy serving bowl, cover and chill for at least a couple hours.. its like orange dream fluffy candy.. If you have this, you know what I mean, and if you have not, and can let yourself and your high food standards go for just a little bit, this is one to try!