Living the Pantry Lifestyle - a little stock up here and there

We have been experiencing a chilly but dry period of weather in our part of the Midwest.  Which was a blessing with numerous appointments last week.  I always like to wake up on a morning I must go somewhere to find the roads are not slick.

I know the budget is extremely tight this time of year, we even have three important birthdays at the Holidays.  However, I have wanted to take advantage of Holiday sales to stock the pantry at least a little.

I now have about six cans of pumpkin on the shelf, ready to be made into pumpkin bread or pumpkin bars this winter.  I can buy canned pumpkin all year but the prices are usually lowest in November and December.

There are seven packages of cranberries in the deep freeze, especially for making cranberry orange bread and a favorite cake when they are no longer available at the store.  We have no brand of frozen cranberries sold in our area.  I've been able to take advantage of sales and I bought two packages of cranberries on clearance today at Aldi for making cranberry bread as gifts this Christmas.

My reason for going to Aldi this morning was to purchase a package of their beautiful European chocolates that are wrapped in Christmas decorated foil.  They are very inexpensive and just what I needed to fill a small silver bowl.  They look quite festive.

I also picked up another round of their delicious Cranberry White Cheddar Cheese.  If left unopened, the sell by date is in May!  I'm hoping to get one more to put back for future enjoyment.  It is a fairly low carb treat and would be beautiful on a cheese board.

If you see a cranberry theme here, I do love them... and if the only cranberry dish you have ever known is that jelly stuff that comes in cans... well, that is like comparing canned spinach to fresh spinach.

I have a few more food items that are available mainly during the Holidays on my Pantry Wish List but the above purchases are the most important.  Isn't it a good feeling when you have at least a small stock up waiting for future recipes?

I've also been looking at possible Christmas gifts at the grocery store.  For instance, I gave my son a cheese/charcuterie board for his birthday and included a bottle of California olive oil and a bottle of Avocado oil, both from Aldi and he enjoyed getting those.

I had given him a nice cutting board for Christmas one year but this kind of charcuterie board is used for serving cheese and sliced meats.  I knew he would be able to use something like that.  I'm including a link to a similar cheese/charcuterie board on Amazon to show what it looks like.

Can I share a funny store about my son's enjoyment of cooking?  When I saw my retinal specialist last week, we were talking about having to slow down as we are both now in our mid-60s.  I mentioned that Thanksgiving really tired me out this year and he said my kids should take over the cooking.

When I told him that my son had already offered and that he enjoyed "smoking many kinds of things", I saw the smile on his face.  Ummm... let me clarify that.  He enjoys smoking various kinds of meat in the smoker in his backyard!  One must be careful about the context of their words...

I hope if you enjoy cooking and baking, lots of good stuff is (are?) coming out of your kitchen.  I will be baking more as gifts closer to Christmas.

Mentioned in this Blog Post
The cheese/charcuterie board closest to the kind I bought my son for his birthday is... here.  It is not exactly like it but close... and the one I bought is not available at the moment.

Disclosure:  Most links to Amazon.com are Associate links.  I thank you.

Image:  Christmas Glow