Living on a rather low fixed income means one has to be frugal. Yes, I shop for bargains in food. We have only 2 grocery stores here. One is a Texas chain, the other is a Super Walmart. Not a lot of choices. Walmart used to mark down their meats 2 to 3 days before the 'sell by' date. I found them to always be still very good. One day while shopping I overheard a customer asking about one of the employees in the meat department. Turns out she is a friend of the employee and wanted him to save all the mark downs for her. I have not seen a marked down package of meat since. Good for her, Bad for me! Seems like that ought to be against store policy. But I guess they need to sell it. I also try to buy all our groceries, and other things, too, only when they are on sale. Baked goods, not so much. But then I don't buy many baked goods. I bake our own. And it seems the stores here are not nearly as good about marking things down in the produce section as some of you have mentioned. I do envy those if you that have such choices! Unfortunately, sales don't always coincide with when we need something. Or when I have funds to buy. Rusty

Wheeew-!!.. In that case then you can mail all correspondences, gifts and gratuities to... We had a built rotisserie in our kitchen that was used quite frequently as well as many others for outdoor use. So yes, I've done a few in my day... If I could get a spit through it or put it in some type of basket I tried it at least once. It did get me a lot of free passes to fairs and pig roasts although I'd much prefer a steamship round or side of beef. I actually hadn't done any for a few years but this past Oct. we had a snow storm that cut power for about a week. We had just filled the freezer and it kept popping the generator so when things began to thaw I figured I'd better start cooking. Had to buy a new gas grill for the occasion because no one had anything wood fired in stock that was big enough and set up for rotisserie yet smaller than an old Buick Roadmaster. I ended up having to sacrifice on some features just to get one that is great for rotisserie. Unfortunately I had to return the rotisserie though because the motor was about the size of a matchbox so indeed it was a "flopper" and the spit just fit so there was no way to add an old rotisserie gearbox/motor I had (that was made by the same company) that's been kicking around, adding counter weights or anything else. The absolute best/bonus feature though is the stainless steal removable drip pan. Ended up using it to make some stocks with it that were some of the best I've ever made. Well.. Would love to stay and chat about food all day but need to finish up a few things around here for the holidays because A Dr. on TV said to have inner peace for the new year we should finish the things we started this past year and hey, who couldn't use a little more peace in their lives especially around the holidays. I must say that I was skeptical at first but wouldn't you know it, upon looking around my house I realized there were a lot of things I'd started but hadn't finished, so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of wum, tha mainder of Valiuminun scriptins, an a box a shocletz. Yu haf no idr how fablelus ah fleel wite now dat doze sings wur finiched stho ah dethided to thtart zze nu yar ahf wif thum iwish riskey. Thnendinin dith ta owl who needzez inert peath. An telininum i luvzum.. ~hugs~ Hope you all have a great holiday

Posted by joanm "----Dcarch, interesting information. I would be one of those people that would try sous vide just for the ability to get it "exact". I just don't have time to even read about it these days. Was that really london broil? And was it really tender? That would be worth the wait." Indeed, "exact", "prefect" and "repeatability" is what sous vide is all about. The only time you can run into problem is the power goes out when you are cooking. Yes, very tender medium rare London broil that was. Posted by jkom51 "My DH was born and raised in Hong Kong, so everyone eats their meat (no matter what kind) cooked well-done. ------" Well-done meat can be very delicious. Beef, chicken, cooked at 160F is well-done, not bloody and taste very good. Beef, chicken cooked at 212F is way overcooked and dry. dcarch

Thanks for all the suggestions. I bought the roast today. The largest they even had was 3 ½ pounds. I took a good look at the sides, looks like a good proportion of meat vs. fat. I should have bought on Sunday when there were more size choices, but I was afraid it might be too long to hold it til Friday. I bought it at a different store today, so no pop-up timer. Dcarch, I paid $ 9/lb, almost twice that! I pay 4.99/lb for pot roast (not willingly: grumble, grumble...) It looks like none of you sear the meat first? Interesting idea, going slow at first and finishing on high. 175 F is the lowest my oven goes. If you take it out when the thermometer registers 120 F for medium rare, how much standing time can you allow? An advantage of finishing it on the higher temperature would be that I would have enough time for the Yorkshire pudding to cook. That needs a hot oven too. I could start baking that, then pop the roast in for the last 10 minutes. I bought asparagus to go with it. I have not decided how to prepare that yet. They are very thin.