A "Die hard" fan of...

My lovely friend at http://www.gratefulforgrace.blogspot.com/ has issued forth 2 challenges for us this week. The first one, which should be fairly easy, was not so much for me. What am I a "die hard" fan of...or in other words, of what am I a product snob? She is interested to see what all of us might know about certain products, why we prefer them...learn a little about new things. Well, much to the chagrin of my wonderful hubby and my awesome pal Batgirl, I tend to buy WMart or grocery store brands in a lot of foods b/c, well...it's cheaper and it seems to taste the same to me. (They are Kraft Cheese snobs for sure, both of them, right Batgirl? :) I will buy WMart brand cheese, it just makes them so sad). So, last night, I literally thought about this for hours (while watching a movie, working on the computer, etc...). I couldn't think of anything at first because I don't seem to be partial to anything. Then it hit me. There are 2 things that I will almost refuse to cook without. The few times I have had to under dire circumstances, the results were not nearly up to par.

The first is a rolled pie crust...yep, you guessed it...Wally World brand (not my photo, couldn't find one of the actual product!).

I have tried them all, my mom has always used the frozen Pet Ritz brands, which don't have much of a taste to me. I have found that the good old WM brand has a better flavor, (actually has a flavor) and is flakier than other name brands. I'm sure homemade is much better, but seeing as how I'm lazy.... I will only buy Pillsbury in a crunch and thankfully most people aren't hording WM pie crusts so that crunch rarely comes :-)

My second item, because once I started thinking, this one became so obvious, is La Vencedora Mexican vanilla.

During hurricane Ike, we were forced to clean out the refrigerator so my treasured bottle of vanilla headed to the trash. I decided to buy a small name brand bottle at the store to keep on hand. What a mistake. You can taste the alcohol flavor in it, it's horrible. It's not near as sweet and oz for fluid oz costs way more for such a tiny amount. My parents started buying La Vencedora many years ago on trips to the valley and over the border and we have all become Vanilla Snobs, I guess you could say. In fact...as I have been out since Ike, I'm taking a bottle from their stock home with me today because I just can't bring myself to use the name brand anymore. Chocolate pie is not so good with an alcohol aftertaste!

So there you have it, I am a product snob in a few ways :) And I try to sneak in organic products when T isn't looking (or I'll get the "that's too expensive" speech). Visit http://www.gratefulforgrace.blogspot.com and let GFG know what products you are a "die hard" fan of !!