Prudent and Practical

November 5, 2009

Grandma’s Pistachio Bread Recipe

Filed under: food — Tags: food, holidays — K @ 11:50 PM

Many many years ago my paternal grandma gave my mom a very special recipe.  There are quite a few similar recipes out there that call for added cinnamon, sugar, and food coloring, but I think this recipe is just perfect.  My mom began the tradition and has been making this recipe every Christmas for as long as I can remember.  The tradition has been passed down and now I make it every year.  Since there’s only D and me, I usually make smaller loaves and give them out to extended family who have come to love the recipe as well.

Although the recipe is called “bread” it is more like a cake in a loaf form.  Don’t let the pistachio scare you away, the dominant taste is the yellow cake mix and the cinnamon-sugar topping which becomes delightfully crispy while baking.  I’m not a cherry fan, but the maraschino’s are really good in this recipe.  This recipe freezes nicely for a long time, but you sacrifice the crispy crust.  I’ve personally frozen a recipe for 10 months and I know D’s mom has frozen it for a long time too.

Ingredients

  • 1 yellow cake mix
  • a 4 serving package pistachio pudding
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (Mom makes the recipe with them, I make it without them)
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 3/4 cup maraschino cherries – chopped
  • 1/4 cup cinnamon-sugar mix

pistachio bread ingredients 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

Instructions

1 – Heat oven to 350 degrees F

No, it's not lunch time, it's baking time. (aka: Half past midnight) That's how much I love you guys!

No, it's not lunch time, it's baking time. (aka: Half past midnight) That's how much I love you guys (and baking)!

2 – Combine and mix all ingredients except for the cinnamon-sugar

pistachio bread mix 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

3 – Pour into two 8×4 loaf pans or one 8×4 and two or three mini loaf pans or all mini loaf pans to give as gifts

pistachio bread unbaked 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

4 – Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on top of loaves

pistachio bread unbaked sugar 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

5 – Bake for 45 minutes

pistachio bread baked 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

6 – After it has thoroughly cooled… enjoy!  I think this is one of those recipes that tastes much better the second day anyway.  (If it’s still to warm, it will also start to fall apart when you cut into it.)

pistachio bread slices 300x225 photo Grandmas Pistachio Bread Recipe

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages.  If you want to know what I’ve been up to this week, visit my front page!

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today!  You can find many more recipes here:

November 4, 2009

Early Christmas Shopping Deals

Filed under: saving money — Tags: bargains, Black Friday, discounts, free, holidays, online, sales, save money, saving money, shopping — K @ 11:59 PM

It’s that time of year again!  The Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are gradually getting posted as we eagerly wait to see how good or bad the discounts are this year.  For those who may not know, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving.  It’s a day when many businesses make a profit and are in the black.  It’s also a day when greed takes over many people and bad things can happen.  Cyber Monday is the online version of Black Friday happening the Monday after Thanksgiving when people go back to work and apparently spend the day shopping online…

Going from personal experience, when the economy is good, there are a lot of freebies and awesome discounts.  When the economy isn’t great, the deals aren’t great either.  However, this year many businesses are taking part in online pre-Black Friday sales and not waiting until Thanksgiving weekend.  I’ve looked through some of the deals and so far there isn’t anything that has sparked my interest.  I’d love a new digital SLR camera, but the deals I’ve seen for both the pre-sales and Black Friday aren’t good enough to warrant a purchase.  See the below links for posted Black Friday ads and the pre-Black Friday sales that are happening right now!

Do you have a favorite Black Friday site you go to? Mine is GottaDeal which shows bargains all year long on a forum, but also has a Black Friday site that lists the Black Friday ads as they come out.  The following ads are currently listed:

  1. Gander Mountain
  2. Gymboree
  3. Half Price Books
  4. Harbor Freight
  5. Kmart
  6. Lowe’s
  7. Old Navy
  8. Sears
  9. Tanger Outlets

“Become” also has a Black Friday deals area.  One thing I like about their site is that you can click on a general item you’re interested in purchasing, such as digital cameras, and they’ll show you every store that has that item on Black Friday.

Many of the following stores have been in the news because of their early deals, so I’ll summarize what they’re offering for you here.

CVS and CVS Holiday

  • Offering weekly deals.

Kmart

Kohls

  • Power Hour pricing on November 6 and 7 (this Friday and Saturday).  There will be many deals and stores will be open until midnight.
  • Redeem Kohl’s Cash and Pick-Your-Day savings.
  • Save 20% on toys already marked 10-40% off.

Sears

  • Every Friday at 5pm through Saturday morning – “Black Friday Now” features weekly deals through Christmas.
  • Every Saturday 7am-12noon – doorbuster deals
  • Offering a credit for any November-release book you have purchased through Amazon.com, Target.com, or Walmart.com.  Use the credit on a purchase over $45 at Sears.com.

Target

Toys ‘R Us

Vistaprint

  • 50% off 2010 calendars, holiday Cards and many holiday products
  • Free shipping on orders over $50
  • Up to 50% off custom photo gifts

Walmart

  • 100 toys for $10 each through the holiday season.
  • Popular books will be selling for $8.98.
  • 2 for $30 specials on Nintendo Wii games.
  • Saturday (11/7/2009) – pre-Black Friday sale.  Hot deals include a Sharp 42″ LCD HDTV for $498 and an Xbox 360 System with free $100 Gift Card for $199.
  • Walmart.com has also started a “Deal of the Day” where they will be selling one item each day at a Black Friday-level price. Today’s deal is a 32″ LCD HDTV for just $298 with free in-store pickup.

Do you participate in Black Friday?  Why or why not?  What’s the best deal you’ve found? Is there anything you have your eye on this year?

November 3, 2009

How to Get Cheap Tickets in Vegas

Filed under: saving money — Tags: bargains, discounts, eating out, entertainment, food, free, restaurants, review, saving money, travel — K @ 6:50 PM

During my shuttle from the airport to the Las Vegas Hilton, the driver explained how to get cheap tickets if you hadn’t purchased any yet.  I already had two Cirque Mystere tickets, but there were three of us that wanted to go so I checked out Tix 4 Tonight.  Tix 4 Tonight sells discount vouchers usually the day of the show.  The available showings post at 9:30 AM and the store opens at 10:00 AM.  They also offer discounts for local exhibits (Bodies Exhibit at Luxor and Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum at The Venetian to name a couple) and discount vouchers for the local restaurants and buffets.

My Experience:

I used (or was with someone who used) the service three times.  The first location I visited was at Hawaiian Marketplace.  After standing in line for 15 minutes, Mom and I made it to a sales rep.  The rep was friendly, helpful, and fast, explaining different exhibits we might be interested in.  We purchased tickets for the Bodies Exhibit and Madame Tussaud’s and the tickets had to be used that evening.  If we didn’t have enough time, we could bring the tickets back and trade them for tomorrow.  We stopped at the Bodies Exhibit first and learned a lesson.  The tickets that you purchase at Tix4Tonight have to be traded in for actual tickets at the event or exhibit.  This meant standing in line another 10 minutes to trade the slips for actual tickets.  Mom was only there for 2-1/2 days – all the waiting was annoying.

Since Darren and I had tickets to Mystere, after lunch the following day we stopped at the Bills Casino location across from our hotel, Bally’s to get a ticket for my mom. (I switched hotels when the rest of the family arrived in town.)  Lesson #2 learned - when you purchase a voucher for a show, you’ve simply bought a seat for that show.  So, you must haul your tush across town and trade that voucher in for a ticket as fast as your legs will carry you – the sooner you do the trade, the better seat you’ll get.  You don’t get an assigned seat until you have an actual ticket from the show’s venue.

For buffets and restaurants, you pay a $2 or $3 service fee per person and they give you a discount pass.  The average buffet we went to was over $18, so a 25% discount per person definitely helps.

There are now 7 locations along the strip:

  1. Fashion Show Mall (strip entrance in front of Neiman Marcus)
  2. Hawaiian Marketplace (along strip in front of Polo Towers)
  3. North Strip (south of Riviera Hotel)
  4. Showcase Mall (south strip near the giant Coke bottle)
  5. Downtown (4 Queens Hotel at the Fremont Street Experience)
  6. Bills Casino (on the corner between Bally’s and the Flamingo)
  7. Casino Royale (across from the Mirage and next to Denny’s)

What I Liked:

  • Discounted tickets – the shows out here are expensive!
  • The employees were efficient
  • You get a $2 fee discount and entrance to the short (VIP) line if you bring your used ticket stubs back the next day
  • Online coupon for a fee discount
  • Many locations

What I Didn’t Like:

  • The long waits in line
  • Running around trading vouchers for tickets

If you’re not pressed for time and don’t mind waiting in lines or taking chances on ticket availability, Tix 4 Tonight may be for you.  If you are staying at a casino-hotel that is the home venue for a show, you may be able to get discounted tickets there.  For example, the Price is Right tickets are $50, but because I was staying at Bally’s (where the show is) I was able to snag tickets for $37.

There are also the freebie attractions at the casino-hotels.

There are a few other attractions that I didn’t list because I didn’t visit them.  You can see them at About.com’s Vegas page.

Have you used Tix 4 Tonight?  What did you think and did you save a lot?  As far as the freebies go I really enjoyed the Bellagio attractions, how about you?

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