How Much?

It was still pretty darn cold here on Saturday.

Seat warmers were definatley called for while in the car.

We grabbed a couple of friends and headed

over to Maple Grove.

Destination:

Trader Joe's.

None of us had ever been.

But we'd all heard so much about it.

It wasn't quite what I had expected,

but it was AWESOME!

I was expecting to find very little to purchase.

After all, we don't require gluten free products.

I'm not (at least not yet) on the organic band wagon.

And there are no food allergies (obviously),

in this family.

We did plan on buying their much heard about,

premade pizza dough.

What we hadn't heard was how cheap it was!

Yes, I said cheap.

How's .99 sound to you?

It sounded great to us.

They offered whole wheat and regular.

We almost cleaned them out

as it can be frozen.

It's  a beautiful, tasty dough.


Miscellaneous treasures were found on each and every isle.

Everything was reasonably priced.

However...
I found the deal of the century!

Have you ever heard of saffron? 

It is a very, very, very

expensive spice .
I've always heard about it on cooking shows

and have always wanted to try it.

But alas, I had resigned myself

to never being able to try it due to the price.

Until now!

I picked up this little bottle of it while

at Trader Joe's.

Isn't this the cutest little bottle?
The great news...
it was only $5.99!
I just had to buy it!


You might be asking yourself what I'm going to make with it.
Well, I've taken up cooking in a dutch oven.
I got a cookbook for Chrsitmas
that is all about cooking in one and
 several of the recipes
call for saffron.
I can't wait to try it!


We rounded our girls day out by having lunch
and one more stop at Costco.
Two Moms and two daughters,
all out having a great day.
Uh, make that a mostly great day.


It seems that people in Maple Grove
are not too welcoming to those
of us that are not from there.


And apparently, they could tell we
were from "other parts"
as a clerk at one store
and our waiter asked us where we were from!
Oh my goodness!
We were only about 45 minutes from "home."


I began thinking the issue was all in my head.
But then my friend commented.
Then her daughter commented.
Then my daughter commented.
People shopping were very,
ummm, the only way I can say it is rude!


We have never had to jump out of the way
of so many shopping carts in our lives.
At times (most times),
it felt like we were running through
an obstacle course!
The icing on the cake though
was when a man actually waited for
me to move and then
leapt out in front of me with his cart!
Thank goodness I have good reflexes! ha!

All in all, it was a wonderful day out with friends.
Next time we head to Maple Grove though,
we're getting some football gear to
protect us!
You might want to do the same,
should you ever visit that area.

Ahhh...this old country bumpkin
was glad to be
home again!

P.S.  My apolpogies to any of the nice people
in Maple Grove.  Other than the wonderful service people,
we just didn't see you that day.  Maybe next time! =)