We are experiencing technical difficulties...

Really? No, not really... Only in the sense that the geek in charge hasn't had enough time to take all the pictures for this post. I suppose I could write the article and add in the pictures later, though... let's go with that.

At the Dollar Tree, you will find many products to round out your pantry/fridge/freezer, but at the same time, those inexpensive items need to be rounded out to keep the feel of restaurant-quality food... keeping in mind, though, that some of the products I'm going to mention are also available at Dollar Tree if you are truly hanging on to your last few bucks before payday.

The first thing in your pantry that you should really splurge on is olive oil. The Dollar Tree brand tastes okay, but it is mixed with soybean oil to keep the price down. Spending 10 or 15 bucks on a good bottle of virgin/extra virgin will last you a good while, and will improve the quality of your food easier than just about anything else.

The second thing with which to truly spoil yourself is coarse ground black pepper. The Safeway brand is the right amount of heat to use sparingly, and will really punch up your expensive olive oil. :)

Lastly, before you shop at Dollar Tree, check your local circulars for major grocery stores. Especially with name-brand items, packages are generally smaller to keep the cost down. It might be cheaper to go to the grocery store and buy the bigger package with the smaller cost per ounce.

Ok, so I have ONE picture...

That being said, let me tell you about the fabulous pizza that Dana and I made a few days ago. The last time I was at Dollar Tree, I bought a few packages of yeast rolls. They come about six to a package, and are frozen. You have to put them in the fridge overnight, then set them out on the counter to rise. By the time Dana and I got around to taking them out of the fridge, they were all "smooshed" together, and weren't really amenable to being broken apart. It was time to improvise. Dana kneaded the dough flat onto the pizza stone, and then we brushed it with olive oil. On top of that, we added garlic paste (cheap at Safeway), black pepper, roasted red peppers, salami, and feta cheese. It was absolutely delicious, and the only items that cost more than a dollar were the olive oil, pepper, and garlic.

Yesterday, I made a cheap and delicious cocktail with peaches from the frozen section (p.s., some Dollar Trees don't have them- you might want to check ahead). I put two shots of gin, an ounce of Triple Sec, and 6 ounces of Bone Daddy's Margarita Mix into the blender, but instead of adding ice, I added frozen peaches. After tasting in the first time, I added 4 generic Equal packets (also bought at Dollar Tree), and several dashes of Angostura bitters. The sweet peach and the bitter orange balanced each other perfectly. I blended the drink until there were almost no ice chips left, because I didn't want it to be frozen, exactly... just incredibly, bracingly cold.

So, the bottom line is that for the most part, shopping at Dollar Tree for groceries is the best thing I've ever done, because you cannot even imagine what $80 worth of groceries looks like when each item is a dollar. I mean, you know it's 80 items, but the number of bags is staggering. :) And, of course, Dana and I live on the second floor of our apartment complex, and will do damn near anything not to have to come back to the car and make a second trip. So, up we go, loaded down like pack mules, up the stairs and into the kitchen, where even more experimenting can begin.

One piece of advice, though. If you do nothing else, get the peaches. I'm thinking about French toast with warm compote already...

Exordium... or in English, The Beginning

Today seemed like a great day to start a blog. The idea came to me in a flash as Dana and I were making pizza for the first time on our pizza stone. I realized that all the ingredients had come from Dollar Tree, except for the sauce, which was minced garlic paste and olive oil. "Wouldn't it be cool," I thought, "if I could show people the things I cook at home where the entire recipe costs about $5 to make!" I am definitely going to have a lot of product placement going on, but only because Dollar Tree does have some things every week, but a lot of what they sell is overstock from other stores. I will especially have pictures of those things so that you know what you're looking for when you shop. I chose Dollar Tree as my dollar store of choice because it is one of the few belonging to a national chain. However, that does not mean that these ingredients cannot be found at other dollar stores, like 99 Cents Only, etc. This blog is not about being loyal to one store, but being able to widen my community of readers because there's usually a Dollar Tree in most cities.

With so many cooking/food blogs already out there, I had to decide what would make mine different and exciting. For me, different and exciting means "cheap." Never would I advocate a product where "cheap" meant poorly made, or worse, the product being good because it's cheap, but cannot stand on any other merit. I am out to get the most food for my money without sacrificing taste at all. This is important, because like many other families, this recession is hitting Dana and me where it hurts- our wallets. What's exciting is still being able to make the gourmet food that I made when Dana was working for an extremely high-end grocery store, even though our paychecks are quite different.

More good news- all of the food items at Dollar Tree can be purchased with the Oregon Trail debit card, which is even more cause to celebrate amazing cooking, Dollar Tree-style.

There will be so much more to come- please stay tuned.