Fries my hide....we had Aldi's in town....and they left....said the facilityw asn't large enough...
Not I have to drive almost 30 to Aldi's...bah!

Claire, I did buy the Damascus knife. I didn't need one either...so what. LOL

However, every time I buy a new knife I remind DH that my Wusthof is stuck in a tree; that's where he stuck it when took it outside to cut vines. I have never taken it out of the tree as a cruel reminder, he had no idea how much it cost. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of that knife stuck in the tree!

I bought the cast iron braising pan last year and use it a lot. I have 3 stores within ten minutes of me in 3 different directions!

Tami

Great deal on lobster tails, too! Yikes, I may have to take a trip to Aldi!

Linda

Tami, thanks for the thumbs up. Dad saw the add and we had to go yesterday morning at 9 am to pick one of the cast eneamel pans as an Xmas gift. So I stood there and unpacked the 5 qt. round and the braiser and hemmed and hawwed....the braiser won out. They are heavy, no nicks or scratches, and can take up to 500 degrees. For $30, why not! It is now under the Christmas tree. And for kicks I checked the price for a Le Crueset..$249 at Amazon.

Dad did eyeball the knives. Are they sharp? The pack was heat sealed so I could not check (like I need another knife).

Those knives do look good. I've often been tempted by the dutch oven, slow cooker, and pressure cooker (Crofton brand I think... maybe their house brand?). I was given a slow cooker and bought a Presto pressure cooker at Wal-mart, but the dutch oven still calls my name. I'd shop there more if they weren't 45 minutes away!

I also noticed the lobster price... wow!

Bobby, Knowing your knife situation, go the extra mile(s)!

Augie, yup, they are sharp!

Glad I read this post. Ran to Aldi and picked up the braiser, baking dish and 5" knife. Wasn't sure about the knife until I saw it was using VG-10 steel and then couldn't resist. They were almost sold out of the stuff so I got there just in time.

Cathy, I'm getting along with my Farberwares just fine, thanks :o) Now I'm going to get shamed off the forum :o(

I just got home after my shopping trip and having dinner out, so in a way, I guess I could call it date night. It's interesting about the braiser, because that's the one I bought too! If anyone thinks they might use the 12 inch frying pan, I noticed the braiser lid fits it. Those knives were really a great buy, but I resisted. (That's a funny story about the knife in the tree! I'd be tempted to leave it there too. It might be interesting to see if you like the German/Asian knife better than your Wusthof. Do you think your new knives fit your hand better?)

I'm very happy with my $30 pan. The last one I really considered was a Le Creuset at TJMaxx for $129, but I just couldn't go there. I'm so glad I didn't! Thank you so much for telling us about this.

Just as a side note, I found a package of Candy Cane Sandwich Cookies, and thought I might make a peppermint version of Oreo truffles with this. What's not to like? If it turns out well, I'll let you all know!

Bobby, I forgot that you got new knives, sorry!

Claire, I like the feel of the 5". I cut parsnips and carrots tonight-piece of cake.

JG2, I take it VG-10 steel is a good thing.

I think I will go back tomorrow and pickup the larger knife. Hopefully I can resist the pots again. I will look into those Candy Cane Sandwich Cookies. The truffles I bought today were good!!

Not to be an enabler or anything, but I think you need to pick up the Chef's knife while you're at it! You know you'll be glad you did. Except for the handle, those knives are very much like my Kershaw Shun Damascus blades. They are quite beautiful aren't they? I always thought Wusthof handles were kind of clunky, which is why I wondered how they felt to you. I also think the Asian knives hold an edge better, yet I really like these are made in Germany.

Do you think the red cast iron color might match your Dansk collection? The braiser is very nice!

Mamma Cozzi's Spaghetti Sauce is pretty good.
Lou

Crofton is their house brand. I got one of their deep fryers when I was in KY. Works like a champ and far better than my MIL's one that cost 4x what I paid.

Claire-lalalalalalalalalalalal Sorry I didn't hear you, I had me hands over my ears.

Boo-hoo. Aldi is another (like TJs) that we don't have here in Houston. We have a lot of really great stores, which might be why Aldi & TJ haven't ventured in here yet. But I still wish they'd come!!!

Watch the handle on the lid of the braising pan if you put it in the oven. Mine bubbled a little bit, but otherwise seems fine. It hasn't cracked.

Tami

Excuse me May, you have Penzey's and Central Market!

Aw, carp. Now I may have to run back.....lobster is a favorite of mine....

Yes, Cathy. You're right! And Whole Foods. And a local place called Phoenecia which has some cool imports and a large variety of cheeses and wines for EXTREMELY reasonable prices. (kinda far from my house so I have to STOCK UP when I drive out there.) And a few other great places as well....

But heck, I'd still like an Aldi and a TJ!! :)

Peppi, If you do go back, get the truffles and tell me how they compare to TJ's. I have both side-by-side and had to force myself to keep taste testing for the benefit of the CF.

Harrrump! No Aldi's, no TJ's, no Whole Foods, no Penzys. I thought for a while I lived near civilization.

Tami, I wondered about that so I'm glad you mentioned it. The handle has a very convenient screw I thought I'd remove and replace with an all metal version from the hardware store. For the cost of the pan, it's an easy changeout, and...I like parts!

If you replace the handle make sure it is unlacquered. Most brass handles are lacquered. The lacquer will burn. Get steel if you can.

Yes, Thank You linnea! That's exactly what I'm looking for, and hope to find. I've tried two places so far with no luck yet, but I'm tenacious. If I don't find one today, I know exactly where to look tomorrow!

I can't wait to try the Maine lobsters.

Claire, I got a couple of these from the Le Creuset outlet in my area. Gee, when you come down I can take you there!

Here is a link that might be useful: Knob

Oh! Cathy, I can't wait. Next year won't come too soon to suit me.

Just a little update though...I found a satin nickel knob (large and simply simple) at Lowes this afternoon and now have a great knob for my lid. It only took me three tries! I'm happy; it really doesn't take much to give me a thrill. (My husband thinks I'm easily entertained AND a cheap date.) It looks like I'll be cleaning out some cabinets tomorrow.

Thanks to all your prompting (enabling?), I stopped by an Aldi for the first time today. I checked their website first to look at the pans. I have been looking for something stovetop to oven for a while. The website listed a lot of good looking specials, so I made out a list.

I got the braising pan and a few things, but it was a weird store. I donÂt know if they are all like this, maybe it was just this one. Definitely no frills, even less than SamÂs Club, poorly lit, things displayed in the corrugated cardboard boxes they came in. One checker, no bags. I was carrying my own grocery bag with me fortunately. Carts could be unlocked only by inserting a quarter deposit into a machine, like in the airport. And I didnÂt have a quarter. (This is not a bad neighborhood. I later thought that maybe it just means they have no staff to go retrieve carts from the parking lot.) Like the Tuesday Morning of grocery stores. It's not like I need a fancy grocery store: maybe it was the contrast having just come from Trader Joe's.

But they still had some good things. They were featuring a lot of chocolate, but all no-name brands, so I didn't try any but some baking chocolate. I got a small assortment of things I will try and maybe will go back another time. With a quarter in hand for the cart. IÂm wondering if it was just this store, and if I should try another.

The braising pan looks really good, though. They had lots of braising pans left, but not many of the others. That was really the one I wanted the most. I was happy to see it is enameled on the inside. ThatÂs a plus. ItÂs so heavy I will need to find a shelf strong enough to hold it. Now I will need to find my own knob.

linnea, yes, it's a very BASIC store. The quarter is incentive to get the carts put back in the right place, and it really works. It's always nice to see them where they should be, instead of banging into my car in the parking lot. Actually, a lot of the chocolate is very good. I tend to stay away from some canned goods, as I don't know about the pesticides used on the fruits/vegs in other countries. It's great for basic baking supplies like salt, flour, oils, etc. and of course, cold water lobster! A friend really likes the stollen this time of year, which is imported from Germany. There are many good deals if you feel adventuresome!

Basic is how they keep their prices low. No fancy displays, no baggers, no kids to corral the shopping carts. Produce is limited as they do not have much refridgeration for it. On the whole the products are good and do comapre well with name brands. The snack foods and ceareals compare, as do the baking items. Meats are good, but not always as low in price as the chains. And the canned veggies are good too, better than some of the house brands of chains.

On my "do not try again" list is there coffee (I am very picky), instant mashed potato (very gummy/gluey), frozen salmon (plain old nasty).

At this time of the year, the stollen, both butter and marzipan versions are fantastic, as are the special cookies and spiced German cookies. They also carry the true whole grain dark breads. And the whole shank/butt hams are nice too. At 69 cents/pound, you can't go wrong.

Cathy, thank you for sacrifing yourself to taste test the truffles. I swear the chocolate truffles are the same as at TJ's, just packed dfferantly and cheaper too.

In Germany, the Aldi stores are huge, selling everything from food to liquer to vacation packages. Check the website and click on another country to see. Dad is always blown away at what he sees there.

We have an Aldi's a few minutes from my house and right next to all the other grocery stores - it's in a previous Winn Dixie store- so I go about once a week. There are many things I only buy there now.

And today I bought the roasting pan... very nice for the money. I was looking for a red baker the past several weeks at tgmaxxs but couldn't find one I liked.
I would have bought the grill pan too but they were out.

I stopped at our local Aldi's today. Again..not impressed. It was small, very limited selection and the fact that they don't even give out shopping bags, plastic or paper was a bit irritating...c'mon! Anyway...I did buy some jumbo shrimp for 6.99 and 2 packages of crab cakes for 3.99 each. Not sure how the quality is...will know in a couple of days....this store is pretty basic and I doubt I will go back unless these frozen seafood items are spectacular.

Duane

We have two Aldi stores, both about 15 miles away in opposite directions. Some of their products are comparable to other brands, while others are not, IMO.

Their oatmeal (regular, not instant) is very good. But my dc do not like and will not eat their boxed cereals. Their canned veggies and fruits are okay -- and the prices are very good. I don't think I've ever bought frozen foods there, so can't comment on them.

Their fresh produce is not bad, and the prices are great. But we did buy a bag of apples once which were so bitter we could not eat them.

Their cheese didn't taste like cheese to us. The milk, eggs, and cottage cheese were fine.

Their vanilla extract, chocolate chips, and other similar baking products were fine. But the flour didn't rise like other flours and it tasted chalky to us.

I haven't tried their paper or cleaning products or their in-house brand of household goods, only food, so can't comment on them. I have bought a few clothes there for dc and gc, which were well-made. They're also sized big, with growing room.

In years past I have found amazing deals there on name-brand toys. This year they had a wooden dollhouse for $77.77 (howdya like that price? LOL). I'm still kicking myself because I didn't buy it for my twin gd's for Christmas. I did find a deal which was similar at Amazon (a Melissa & Doug product), with free shipping.

My main beef with Aldi is that when they first opened a store here, the prices were WOW -- 69 cents for a 36-oz bottle of ketchup, 18-oz jar of PNB, and large size mustard, plus rock-bottom prices on milk and eggs, for example. BUT, after about a year, they suddenly went up on their prices. My second beef is, they do not sell 1% milk, which is the only milk I buy.

Because their stores are not as close to me as Walmart and my favorite warehouse store, and because I can get comparable (often better) prices on better products at those stores, I rarely go to Aldi anymore. My dc love English muffins and Aldi's price can't be beat (plus, they're really good), but I'm not going to go out of my way just to buy English muffins. I may stop there if I'm already on that side of town and I have time.

I did figure out a way to get around the hassle of not having grocery bags (I refused to buy theirs, LOL), and I didn't like the time it took to put groceries in manufacturers' boxes before taking them out to the car.

What I did, which is what I also do now at the warehouse store (and Walmart), is this: I keep two large laundry baskets in the back of my van. When I leave the store, I just put what I've bought directly into the laundry baskets. (Bulky products, like huge pkgs of TP, go between the baskets.) This is quick, and when I get home, it only takes a few minutes to carry two laundry baskets in the house as opposed to zillions of grocery bags.

IMO, Aldi's prices should be lower than what they are, considering how small their stores are, how limited their inventory is, and the scarcity of services they offer. In our area, their stores are not even listed in the phone book, which means one would have to go directly to the store with any questions or complaints.

I buy nuts (particularly almonds), eggs, skim milk, crackers, tortilla chips, frozen oj, frozen skinny green beans, fresh spinach, some produce, turkey ham, wine, and some of the better cheese.
Their half and half and sour creams have gelatin added and I don't buy those. The regular cheese like block cheddar and such is flavorless.
I have several bags I keep in the trunk for Aldi's trips.

My favorite purchase have been non-food items, well other than the terrific truffles availble this time of year.

I love the knife I bought a few weeks ago, wish I had bought the chef's knife too.

I bought a German made brushed nickel bathroom faucet months ago. I just installed it yesterday. It's beautiful!

There makeup was highly rated by our local panel of consumer reporters.

I LOVE their dark chocolate with hazelnuts! I usually buy all they have, when I go. ;)

Their sherbet is really good too. I buy lots of stuff there, but I mostly go to hear others speak German too. Make me feel like home. ;)

In Germany are lots of stores where you have to bring your own shopping bag, thus this isn't an issue, same with the coins for shopping carts.

I already ate all the Mandelsplitter Spekulatius and both Stollens. They didn't have my fav. chocolate last time I was there... and my chocolate craving is HUGE. LOL

Moni... from Oklahoma, formerly from Germany

Cathy, were they out of the Chef's knife? Would you like me to check for you at my store after Christmas?

There products are hit or miss, like any other store, but if you don't like something you buy at Aldi's, they cheerfully refund your money. I think the cart thing is genius! Only parking lot in town where you could be pretty sure a loose cart wouldn't hit your car. And I take my own bags, so have no problem with the bag situation either. The few times I forgot a bag, they gave me a box and that works better than a bag anyway. Aldi's is what it is, and that's not a HEB or Wegmans. It's not something everyone is going to like.

We used to have one right across the street from the store. Because there was only a Sonic nearby for lunch (which never got above a B in health code), I'd dash over to Aldi's for a frozen meal for lunch. Some of them were quite good, and I've eaten more than my fair shair of their breakfast burritos and lime-pineapple popsicles. Love the canned pink grapefruit, too (which was lunch sometimes.)

I wish they'd open one in North Nevada. I'd have been all over that dutch oven and skillet!

Gotta ask but are their pans and knives made in China by any chance?

I have THREE Aldi stores within 5 miles of my house but hardly ever go there. Does that make me a food snob?

DH loves their chocolates though and I love truffles so I may stop by this weekend.

Probably 15 years ago I was introduced to Aldi's in Germany and thought the auto-shopping cart corral was a great idea. I guess because carts all over the parking lots of US make me crazy, yes, I always walk mine to a cart corral or back to the store. Italy adopted the same idea. 10 years ago in Italy I was intreged with the bar code reader that you picked up along with the shopping cart. The cart had a holder for the reader. As you shopped, you scanned your items. At check out the checker downloaded your bar code reader and would also download it to the mag stripe on the customer's card. I hope I observed that process correctly. Anyway, I thought it was brilliant.

The "bring your bag" took a long time to catch on here. I saw many ideas in Europe that took awhile to be accepted here. Someone told me that it was harder to implement small ideas here because our country is so large.

Claire, That's a very generous offer. I'll check this week to see if they still have any, there were very few when I got mine.

L246, They are German made. I got a very nice brushed nickel faucet at Aldi and it was German made also.

Moni, which chocolate are you looking for? We may have it and I would be happy to send it. Aren't the Mandelsplitter Spekulatius good? It brings back memories for me too.

Cathy? One store here had the small ones left on Tuesday. Shall I look tomorrow?

Dad put my braiser under the tree, so I thnk short ribs on Sunday to break it in.

L2C46, Most of the items we've bought there were made in Germany or Canada. DH says he has seen some Chinese-made items "but not all that many", and his memory is better than mine about such things.

Nah, I don't think it makes you a food snob at all. LOL!
It's the kind of store that when you walk in the first time it's like, "uhhhmmmm...okay..." but there can be some hidden gems there if you have the inclination to take a gamble.

Just let me know! (My store is very close by and I'd love to do this for you.) There were quite a few of the chef's knives when I picked up my braiser last week. BTW, I've used it twice now (with its new handle/knob) and absolutely LOVE IT.

Loves2Cook...those knives are made in Germany and cast iron pans are made in China. I was skeptical at first, but when I read some of the reviews here I gave it a 2nd chance. I looked up VG-10 steel and it is well made. I bought the smaller knife and it amazes me. It cuts through a cold orange like butter, same with cold, dense fruitcake. I have never had a knife this good, even the Henkels that I have.
'beentheredonethat' is right, there are hidden gems in those stores.

June Lynn

I also bought one of the dutch ovens. I am leary of Chinese products, but since it was enamel-coated. I thought I'd give it a try. My existing cast iron pans/Dutch Ovens are either Lodge or Griswold, made in the USA. My Griswold is old, came from my aunt, is pitted but still works well, with no lid.

Claire, Thanks. Please get the Chef's knife for me. I'll send a check to you and you can bring it to me when you come down.

Peppi, I got the smaller one. Thanks for the offer.

June Lynn, the under-eye-moisturizer was one of those gems.

Will Do! Please don't send me anything; I'll let you know when I have my hot little hands on it which I suspect will be early next week.

I went to Aldi a couple days ago. I did see the knives, and though tempting I didn't come home with any. I did buy 44 dollars worth of food though! At Plublix, that would be about 3 or 4 things.... but at Aldi it was so much that I had to cram it in my freezer and now I'm scared to open the door for fear of an avalanche!

For those of you who have a problem with no shopping bags given at Aldi's, are you aware of the fact that you ARE paying for them at the regular grocery stores? I'm not sure about now, but the regular grocery stores used to take of about 5 cents per bag I brought of my own. Since all my tote bags disappeared a few years ago cause they got used for other things and not put back, I got out of the habit of taking my own bags, so I don't know if they will still take off for them.

As to the quarter for the shopping cart, I think it's a great idea. I very seldom have a cart in the lot to worry about hitting my car.

I don't like the paper products, except for the TP for use in the camper. I find them rather thin.

The milk and eggs have been rather high priced lately. As with anywhere else, I have to read labels carefully due to my garlic allergy. (Which reminds me I need to email Vlassic, who doesn't have garlic on the ingredients list, ut has it in the pickles!) DH hasn't complained about the Salmon. I don't eat it, so I don't know. I buy my tomato paste there and canned mushrooms. Legos were a great price a couple of weeks before Christmas, but I didn't get there to get any before they were gone. Darn. Bought a LOT of Legos for DGS for Christmas! I seldom have a problem with thier produce, and it's usually a good price.

Tami

SCORE !

Thanks everyone

I went over yesterday and did buy the 5" knife. I spent about an hour in the store reading labels and wondering around while waiting for dh to come back and pick me up.

Almost every canned item either had no country of origin or had China as such so I didn't buy any canned items even though the price was very cheap.

I did buy cream cheese, store brand Oreo cookies (going to make the Oreo truffles), granny smith apples (source USA), pumpernickel bread (Germany) and the Stollen (Germany).

We buy organic milk and they didn't carry that and I asked and the truffles were sold out.

I did put my shopping cart back for the quarter but forgot to take the bags out the car when I went in. The cashier ran into the store to get me a box - very sweet of her.