Day 4: 13 Inches of Powdered Sugar

Would anyone like to borrow a cup of sugar?  Any kind, I have white, brown (light and dark) and four pounds of confectioners sugar, minus 1/2 cup.  You see today I discovered that I'm not the only one in the house that is adding to our grocery shopping challenge. 

But first I must admit that I cheated again.  Now I'm not much of a gambler, not out of moral judgement but lack of luck. Case in point I would have put a new crisp $100 bill on having powdered sugar.  I swear I saw it the other day in the roundabout, but today I got all the way through the first steps of Cookie Dough Dip, melting the butter, whisking in the brown sugar and the vanilla, locating the new jumbo sized bag of chocolate chips hidden in the back of the cupboard, only to realize that I did not have powdered sugar, a very critical element that I assume takes this super simple delicious looking recipe from butter goo and cream cheese to a replica of everyone's favorite indulgence.

For a moment, just a one brief second I thought about making my own powdered sugar, and literally laughed out loud and then cringed at the not so distant memory of my mom's very sweet attempt in an effort to skip going to the grocery store one more time.  My sister Lillie was home from college and we all agreed that puppy chow was exactly what we were craving.  Mom had everything, except powdered sugar (thinking back I think she would have taken a bet on that too!)  She said, no problem I'll just make it.  Huh?  Lillie and I didn't believe her, but she swore that Grandma had made it a time or two when she was growing up, and that all you had to do was put refined white sugar in the blender.  Let me just tell you that Christmas Elves could have kept a buzz on that puppy chow for weeks.  It was a huge sticky mess, and something we frequently laugh about. 

Thankfully for me, Kevin wanted to brave the snow for light bulbs and offered to pick some up.  After a ten minute conversation about the type of sugar, packaging to expect, and no please, please do not bring home brown sugar, he arrived 20 minutes later with the goods.  But not just the small bag I was hopping for, two 2 lb bags of powdered sugar.  When asked why, he said they were on sale 2 for $5.  I agreed that it was a good deal, but reinforced the point of Use-It-Up February.  His comment, "But if it's on sale, you buy it.  I'm sure you'll figure out something to do with it."  Puppy chow anyone...

That aside, it was an incredibly successful Use-It-Up day.  We enjoyed a rare opportunity to enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner as a family at home, and I had the added bonus of extra time to cook a few things.  I was lazy for lunch and we used-up a couple of cans of Campbell's and part of a left over bag of frozen cheese sticks from Christmas Eve.  I used the extra afternoon time to put together the two dips I talked about yesterday (reviews to come tomorrow), and put a roast in the crock pot for supper.

So what did I use up today...
Beef roast
Frozen carrots
Leftover mashed potatoes from Day 2
Grans biscuits
The last of the EVOO
Remainder of the shredded parmesan cheese
Block of cream cheese

If you have any ideas for my vast assortment of sugars, please let me know!  Or if you are in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by and borrow a cup.