Why I Oughta...

For the past 3 or 4 years, we've gone to a Vintage Christmas Fair that is part of the Randolph Street  Market/Chicago Antique Fair and takes place in November right ahead of Thanksgiving.  In years past we've always come away with an item or two of Christmas decor/decorations and this year was no different.  We bought 3 vintage items:  2 Santas and a new tree-topper Angel. The Santas have a neat texture on them where the trim is on his suit and while they are both different Santas (and likely makers) the texture binds them together.  Here's a close up of the Big Guy on the left. He's cute, eh?  Oh...what's that?  His neck wobbles?  Like a bobblehead Santa from the 50's?  Yep. And his sack is going to be used by us as a candy dish!  He already has candy canes in there.   But does his head have any 'action' left it in?  You bet it does.

Nothing says Christmas like 6 shatter-proof (read plastic) golden owl ornaments from my gal Martha Stewart, right?  I'm a bit ashamed that I actually like these a bit.  If they weren't plastic, they likely would have ended up in my cart at Home Depot last week.

Allow me to let you in on a little secret:  After a life-long search for the tastiest, best cheese for pizza, I am happy to tell you that the journey is over.  Here it is:  Chellino Brand Scamorza Cheese. I've been using Chellino Scamorza for 2 or 3 years after first reading about it on PizzaMaking.com and then seeking it out and finally finding it at Zeppe's Italian Market in Naperville .  It is NOT cheap - a few more bucks per pound than your run-of-the-mill mozzarella, but that few dollar expense is more than worth it. This particular brand of Scamorza - which is, as I'm told by the guy who answers the phone at Chellino Cheese Co in Joliet, IL, is the only Scamorza made this way (the rest it sounds like are a bit more like fresh mozzarella).  It is the perfect blend of creamy and salty.  And the key part?  It looks, grates, and smells just like mozzarella.  But it tastes a bit different (better) and it must have a different (higher?) burning point because it browns

I *think* I've found a new carwash spot.  During the warm weather months, I use the DIY Sparkle Car Wash on North Avenue, but with the freezing temperatures, they've mostly closed up their bays - not to mention that I don't really want to be using a hose and soap wand in sub-freezing temperatures.  So I was left to use the Delta Sonic - which does a decent job.  One day last weekend, Nat was set to take my car (the small one) but she didn't want to use it because, as she said, "it is gross inside".  So, I had to find a place that could do the interior.  Using Google Maps on my phone, I found the Addison Car Wash, located just a bit north of North Avenue not to far from our house. View Larger Map The prices are great ($7.50 for a interior clean with vacuum and wipe down along with a nice exterior wash), but the place is a little grimey.  Actually, it is pretty close to being a dump.  But with a $7.50 wash, who was I to complain.  After entering the bu

During my time on the Frankfort Village Board, we often spent time in committees talking about the type of amenities that the government should undertake/build to make our downtown a bit more appealing.  Benches, water fountains, public restrooms all came up.  Those are easy.  They're all things that the local government can build that help bring shoppers down to your downtown.  That's always the goal:  improving the experience, which leads to more sales tax dollars. You know what we didn't think about?  An outdoor fireplace.  Too often, I think, we focused on the warmer months, but shoppers are out and about in the winter.  I saw this one (above) in Holland Michigan.  Theirs is gas powered and just about always on.  While I was standing there waiting for Nat to finish up at Tip Toes , I saw a few different groups of shoppers stop by for a brief warm-up.  The fireplace was working!

I received a pair of these 'Ove' Gloves from my mom back at Christmas and I scoffed at the idea.  My mom persisted and said that they came highly recommended and in fact, the woman at Walgreens (yeah...that's where she bought them!) told her she HAD to buy 2 of them! Guess what?  These have become my go-to oven mitt and I don't even reach for anything else.  For breads, this thing works perfectly as I can pick up the loaf directly.  Same with pizza skins. I know what you're thinking...my oven mitts are fine.  That's what I thought, too!  This is one of those "As Seen on TV" products and, surprisingly to me(!), this one really works well.  Can't recommend it more.  Sounds silly, I know! Go buy it here with the link below:

My days as a beer-spotter continue as I found a bunch of 12 packs of Buck Range Light beer on an end cap near the dairy section at the Elmhurst Jewel.  There are both Miller and Bud products (as you can see) on the lower shelves, so this stuff clearly has priority placing by whomever is merchandising this space in the store. Priced about the same as Big Flats 1901 Lager , Buck Range comes in at less than 50 cents a can - which isn't terribly bad, especially for the Elmhurst College crowd.  But...can't you still get a $9.99 30 pack of High Life Light these days? As for the beer itself, there isn't much on the web to find out if this stuff tastes any good, but I'm guessing it falls down  near Milwaukee's Best and Natural Light.  I *think* it is new to market - as I sure haven't seen it before - and can't find much about it. Even the guys over at Beer Advocate haven't posted on Buck Range Light yet!

Over on Rachelle's blog, she pointed out the hilarity in Peapod's labeling of American Cheese as "Cheese product" and how certain cheeses are labeled to be "made from REAL cheese" , but think I ran into a situation this week at our local Jewel that might be the BEST example when it comes to goofy cheese labeling.    Yup.  That's right.  Although it may be a good source of calcium, this is in fact "Imitation Cheese"!  They sell it in two varieties (mozzarella and cheddar) and as I was whipping my phone out to take photo, the guy stocking the shelves commented that they may have been to honest with their packaging for consumer's tastes.  This stuff was marked down and won't be restocked, he said.  $0.94 for a package of cheese is pretty good.  But...this stuff isn't cheese! Looking at the label, there is milk-ish items involved, but after that, the ingredient list goes downhill fast. I'm guessing that there are plenty of othe

Having made Tom Thayer's Italian Beef recip e twice in the past few weeks, I've been to the grocery store buying a lot of giardinera - as each batch calls for two bottles.  I've tried a lot of them, and I keep coming back to what is my favorite:  Scala's Original Giardinera .  At the local Jewel's, you have to be a savvy shopper to know where to find it because they keep it on top of the deli counter, not in the salad dressing aisle with the rest of the various giardineras (including Il Primo, Marconi, and others). They've always had that distinctively generic white label you see on the left.  But, the last time I went to pick it up, the display (Which really is just a small basket of 8-10 jars) had both the white labels and this new, much more professional-looking red/green/white label and identity.  I don't love change, but in this case, I think the new look is an upgrade.  But...most importantly...they've only changed the jar - not the recipe.  The

When we were in Holland Michigan last week, we were pretty bummed to find out that their big bookstore closed.  Seems they're part of a national trend of bookstores closing - succumbing to the digital revolution.  Sad.

Our local Jewel has rolled out a new private label brand that they've positioned as a bit more upscale called Culinary Circle .  They bill it as "chef inspired" and generally, the products are pretty good.  As I was in the store this week doing checking out my favorite Home Run Inn frozens, I noticed that Jewel (and their parent Super-Valu has  recently extended the Culinary Circle line to frozen pizzas.  They're nicely packaged, merchandised well, and generally look pretty appealing.   Being a store-brand, they get a lot of real estate in the freezers.   But, things get interesting when you take a closer look at the boxes.  From a few feet away, things look harmless enough, right? But, once you zoom in on the lower left corner (where the pizzaiolo is shaping the dough), we run into a bit of trouble.  Note the text:  "Product is NOT handmade."  As if we all didn't realize that each frozen pizza didn't start from a hand-stretched skin. Really? 

At what we still call "The Hilltop" even though it is a Harding's Market - and has been for 10 years or so - I ran across these retro Doritos in the chip aisle.  (The store was called "Hilltop Groceries" or something like that prior to being bought by Harding's.  We began going there in 1989, and the change happened sometime in the Aughts, so 20+ year long habits are hard to change!)  You can tell this is Michigan because you can spot the price tags on the Fritos dip below the chips.  More here about price tags in Michigan ) But...back to the retro Doritos.  I didn't buy them, but the bag just about had me convinced that I should!  The new bag is CLEARLY aimed at teenage boys - the same demographic who are buying Monster Energy Drinks - with the edgy, electric graphics.  But the cuddly, retro, 80's logo is aimed squarely at 30-somethings that will be hit with a wave of nostalgia - remembering their childhood of brown-bagging their lunch to grade

After MUCH experimentation, the High Priests of Pizzanerds over at Slice are able to claim that these plum tomatoes from Trader Joe's are the BEST tomatoes for pizza .  (Go check out their spreadsheet.  There's nothing I like more than a food-based experiment tracking spreadsheet!  Seriously!) Many of you know that for the past five years or so, I've been using 6 in 1's - and liking the results.   In fact, I was a 6 in 1 evangelist - telling everyone that I knew about these canned beauties.  So, considering a new tomato product for my pizza making is serious business.  Upon some inspection, the key difference is that with these from Trader Joe's (that Slice recommends), you have whole tomatoes whereas the 6 in 1's are mostly sauce/pureed.  For my deep dish pizzas, the chunkage is nice, but when I'm making my skins thin, I want my pizza sauce to be smooth.   Nothing a stick blender can't fix, right?  I don't think I'll totally convert over

Right before Christmas, I spotted chestnuts and roasting instructions at Trader Joe's.  When I was in there this week, chestnuts were again prominently displayed.  These weren't raw, but rather steamed and peeled.  Are these for snacking?  Are chestnuts going to be "hot" in 2011?  Are they tasty? The TJ's buyer must be awfully close to whomever controls the chestnut racket, right?

I spotted a huge pallet of these in Costco the other day.  You send your kid to school with one of these in his lunch bag, I can guarantee he'll grow up to be a stand-up comedian.

This year, Equation Boy/Man had me in the men-only Christmas gift exchange.  As I might have told you before, we exchange gifts each Christmas Eve and rotate through the three brother-in-laws (Equation Boy/Man, Shaun, and myself).  So, that means that every other year, you give a gift to the same person.  I always look forward to the exchange and always get good gifts. Part of the gift that Equation Boy/Man gave me was this set of Beatles magnets. Not only are they awfully cute, they're perfect for our huge chalkboard that we use to hang just about everything important in our lives up on.  Much better than the basic black round magnets that we were using!

Move Over, Trader Joes.  There's a new Private Label beer on the town.  Did you know that Walgreens has their own private-label beer?  I spotted a big display of Big Flats 1901 Lager in the store in Downtown Elmhurst and was a bit confused.  First...I didn't even know Walgreens sold beer.  But, not just any beer.  Cheap beer. Although they bill it as "Premium Brew" made from the "Choicest Hops", the guys over on BeerAdvocate say that although it isn't the tastiest beer you'll drink, it is passable .  They, do, however recommend that you drink this stuff ice cold to enjoy it.  For me, the cans are pretty cute and the price is right:  a six pack was on sale for $2.99 for a six pack.  The other intriguing part is that this stuff is brewed in New York by "Brewers Choice", but the BeerAdvocate guys say that it is actually brewed by Genesee Brewing and is ONLY sold through Walgreens.  Sounds like a nice beer to have in Coloma at the lake

During the run-up to Christmas, we HORDE both Peppermint and Chocolate-Covered Peppermint Joe-Joe's from Trader Joe's.  They made my 2009 Favorite (Holiday) Things List , and should be on there every year.  Starting at Thanksgiving, every 10 days or so, when Nat (and sometimes I) head to TJ's, we grab at least one box of the cookies and usually two.  To be clear...we eat a lot of these, but so do our guests and most specifically our nieces and nephews.  But...still...we *do* probably eat too many cookies from the end of November to January 1 each year.  I'll admit that! Well...this year, there was a run on peppermint Joe-Joe's.  Our TJ's ran short and was out on two different occasions we went.  My sister went one day and they, too' were out.  Bummer.  But...on a random trip to the Park Ridge TJ's, we ran into this mysterious beast:  The Astounding Multi-Flavor Joe-Joe's package.  Inside, there were four flavors: Peppermint (which they have normal

Last week, I went to our Sears Essentials - which is really just a KMart - to pick up an ornament box. These are tubs that have special dividers that allow for an orderly packing of all of one's ornaments.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any.  The guys there said that I had to go to an *actual* KMart, not just one dressed up as a Sears Essentials.  Bummer. But...as I was nosing around the holiday section, I came across their Christmas Village display.  And...what did my wondering eyes did appear, but a bunch of heavily discounted buildings from Lemax and Department 56.   Lots of them without boxes, some with boxes, but ALL of them at rock-bottom prices.  I'm just a novice when it comes to this whole Christmas Village deal, but the structures that Sears had on display weren't the same as the ones at Menards. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't go crazy and buy up a bunch of buildings but this stuff was cheap.  Really cheap.  Especially the ones without b

Santa brought me this "Shower Tool" from Dove.  Funny how marketers try to market different to men, isn't it?  Are men not interested in loofas?  Do they need "tools"?  I've been using a loofa for 10+ years (since I went to college) and I didn't feel very feminine using one, but apparently *some* men do?  Is that why Dove had to create a men's only shower tool?  Seems like most of the time, this type of thing is being bought by women anyway, right?  I don't buy my own shower soap.  Doesn't matter all that much to me what it is called, but maybe there's some sort of marketing jujitsu being done on women - as they make purchases for men?  Don't know! Similarities can be seen with Coke Zero.  Don't get me wrong.  I like the stuff a lot.  But the Zero part?  That's clearly aimed at men who are *afraid* or *embarrassed* to be ordering "Diet" beverages, isn't it?  Just make Diet Coke taste like that, please. Oh...a