Checking apple prices at Natural Grocers and Frontier yielded only modestly helpful information. Natural Grocers had most standard varieties, organic of course, at prices substantially higher than the supermarkets. Their Granny Smiths and Golden Delicious were over $2/lb. They did have an intriguing new variety called Sunrise at $2.09/lb and a 3 lb. bag of something called Gingergold (which looked a lot like golden delicious) at $3.99. Frontier's prices were about $1.49 to $2.49 for most varieties. They did have McIntosh.

Fresh Atlantic Salmon is on sale this week. The designation "Atlantic" means that it is farmed salmon. While this practice is somewhat controversial, it does produce decent fish at a modest price.

Hot Dogs or Franks may not be the most glamorous food around, but most kids like them and they are quite inexpensive. We offer you several ways to use them, both in buns and out.

Comparing Prices this Week

Salmon

• Safeway: Fresh Atlantic Salmon $4.99/lb
• Albertsons: Fresh Atlantic Salmon Fillets $497/lb
• Fry's: Atlantic Salmon Fillets $6.99/lb

Hot Dogs

• Albertsons: Bar S Meat Franks, 16 oz, select varieties. $1
• Fry's: Bar S Meat Franks, select varieties, 16 oz $1
• Safeway: Oscar Meyer Meat Franks, 16 oz. select varieties BOGO*

Best Prices on Every Day Items

Milk: No milk on sale by itself. Albertsons has a Buy 3 Get a Gallon Free with General Mills Cereal, select varieties, cereal is $2.49/box.

Bread: Albertsons, Roman Meal Bread $1.49; Safeway, Nature's Pride $2.50

Eggs: Fry's Cage Free, $2.50/dz

Best Bargains this Week

Fry's

Special Sales—Basket Buster, low prices on many items in all departments

Meat and Seafood

• Pork Extravaganza, select cuts and sizes BOGO*
• Beef, boneless chuch roast BOGO*
• Chicken, Foster Farms whole BOGO*

Produce

• Broccoli or Cauliflower $.99/lb
• Apples, Gala or Granny Smith, organic $1.49/lb
• Strawberries, blackberries or raspberries, 6-16 oz BOGO*

Other Grocery

• Mild Cheddar cheese, in the deli $2.99/lb
• Nabisco snack crackers, select varieties $2
• Chips Ahoy cookies, select varieties $2
• Quaker popped rice cakes, select varieties $1
• Banquet Brown and Serve frozen sausages $.88
• Tombstone frozen pizza, select varieties $2.50
• Red Baron frozen pizza, select varieties $2.99
• Thomas' English Muffins, select varieties BOGO*
• Pepsi 2 liter, $.99

Safeway

Special Sales--$5 Friday-- Hormel Chili, 5/$5; 31-40 ct Raw Shrimp $5; 3 lb. pristine grapes $5; 20 pack Coke products

Meat and Seafood

• Pork loin chops $1.99 lb.
• NY Strip steak, $4.99 lb.
• Salmon fillets, $4.99 lb.

Produce

• Honeycrisp Apples, $1.48 lb.
• Corn on the Cob, 8/$2.
• Avocados $.99 each
• Pineapple $2.99 each

Other Grocery

• Chitos and Fritos BOGO
• Progresso Soups 4/$5
• Post Honey Bunches of Oats, other varieties, $2/$5
• Barilla Pasta 5/$5

Albertsons

Special Sale

Bag Sale-Frozen food, get 10% off all frozen food items you can fit in a bag

Buy 5 participating items, get $5 off at checkout. Items include: Quaker cereals, Frito Lay family size chips

Basket Buster savings on items from all departments

Meat and Seafood

• Land o Frost Deli shaved meats, 9 oz, select varieties $1.99 (if you have a coupon from Sunday's newspapers, you can get an additional $1 off on two—bringing the final price to $1.50 each)
• Chicken, tray pack, thighs (bone in or boneless), legs, BOGO* (identical item only)
• Chicken breast, tray pack Buy One Get Two Free
• Beef, bottom round or cross rib, steaks or roasts BOGO*
• Pork, center cut loin chops, bone in BOGO*

Produce

• Yellow onions $.69/lb
• Bell peppers, red, yellow or orange $1
• Fresh asparagus $2.99/lb
• Cantaloupe, large size $.99 each
• Apples, 3 lb. bag, Gala, Granny Smith Red Delicious, Fuji $3.99

Other Grocery

• Premium Saltines $3.00/2 boxes (must buy 2)
• Chicken of the Sea Tuna $.69
• Jennie-o sliced turkey breast $3.99 (in the Deli)

*BOGO=Buy One, Get One of Equal or Lesser Value Free

Things to Do With Hot Dogs

Whole Dogs

Make a slit in each dog. Stuff in a small stick of cheddar cheese. Wrap a piece of bacon around, and secure with toothpicks. Line a baking dish with aluminum foil (makes it much easier to clean up and keeps bacon from sticking). Bake in a 350 degree oven until bacon is cooked. Serve with or without buns.

Open and heat up a can of chili (either in a small pan on the stove, or in a bowl in the microwave). Either grill or boil dogs. Put each dog in a bun (toasted if you prefer). Ladle on a good amount of chili, top with shredded cheese, onions etc.

Next time you make sloppy Joes, make twice as much, freeze half, and when you need a quick meal, thaw and heat, and proceed as for chili dogs above.

Dogs Cut Up

For an appetizer, cut dogs into one inch pieces. Fry up in non-stick skillet. Serve with toothpicks and a sauce. Take ½ cup ketchup, 3 Tablespoons spicy brown mustard, 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce. Mix together in a small bowl.

Hot Dog Chili

In a crock pot place:
3 15 oz cans of beans of your choice: Great Northern, Pinto, Black etc (drained and rinsed)
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup diced onion
1 diced bell pepper (any color)
2 Tablespoons Molasses
½ cup Barbeque Sauce or Ketchup
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 lb hot dogs, cut in 2 inch pieces

Cook covered on low for 5-6 hours.

Serve with toasted bread and a salad.

German Chili

Last week, we brought you Susan Cohen's delicious Bison Chili. This week, we'll bring the 1st Place Winner at the Alzheimer's Chili Cookoff, Deutscher (German) Chili, prepared by Marsha Douglas. How appropriate to make in honor of Prescott's new Sister City, Zeitz, Germany.

You can see the original recipe for yourself here at the SparkPeople website, although the recipe we got from Marsha was missing one of the ingredients.

Here's Marsha's version:

1 lb Ground Chuck (to really add flavor, use Kobe Beef)
1 lb Sirloin Steak-chopped (to really add flavor,use Kobe Beef)
3 German bierwurst (sausage from a Edelweiss Deli)
8 slices of bacon (from a Edelweiss deli)
2 cans of red kidney beans
2 cans of black beans
1 can of sweet yellow corn
2 medium white onions
4 cans wedge tomatoes--PEELED
3 dried bay leaves
coarse salt
powdered black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
4 tblsp red chili powder (from a Mexican grocery store)
8 ounces of Green Chili Sauce from Sanchez Taqueria
4 ounces of Red Chili Sauce from Sanchez Taqueria

Directions

1. Mix in a bowl the following: red beans, black beans, corn--mix thoroughly and set aside.

2.Heat a heavy 5-quart pot with a tight-fitting lid over high heat until a drop of water sizzles upon contact. In three batches, cook sirloin until no longer pink; remove each batch with a slotted spoon. Set aside.

3. KEEP ALL seperate and set aside: Chop onions coarsely, set aside; remove Bierwurst from casing, chop into 1/2" pieces-set aside; using kitchen scissors, cut up 4 slices of bacon into 1/4" pieces-set aside; cut up 4 jalapenos into 1/4" pieces-set aside. Fill up a crockpot with water and turn on high.

4. Return sirloin to pot add in the tomatoes, green & red chili sauces, jalapenos, red chili pepper powder, oregano, cumin, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, chicken broth--bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cover; cook until sirloin easily breaks apart with a spoon, about 2 hours

5. In a different sauce pan, render the bacon, remove the bacon, with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the bacon to the simmering pot of chili.

6. Combine the ground chuck with the chopped Bierwurst in a bowl--make sure they are thoroughly mixed. In handfull batches, add the ground mixture to the sauce pan with the bacon fat. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and add to simmering chili mixture. When all the meat is in the pot, add the onions to the rendered fat in the saucepan and sautee onions. Save this rendered fat. It will be utilized for the croutons.

7. Remove onions with slotted spoon add to chili mixture. Stir Chili until well combined. At this point, empty the crock pot of the water and put the chili mixture and the all the beans in the already heated crockpot. Turn to low and let cook for an additional 4-5 hours.

8. Let chili simmer and stir occasionally. Concentrate now on your garnishes. Turn oven on bake at 350. Cut up the remaining 4 slices of bacon and sautee in the saucepan with the fat in it-remove bacon with slotted spoon--these will be your bacon garnish. Leave the fat in the pan to cool.

Recipes from Around the Internet

Garlic Ginger Salmon Recipe

Food Wishes is one of my favorite YouTube channels. Here's another awesome-looking recipe.

Stuffed Salmon

This looks to me like a recipe that could be adapted in many, many ways.

Potato Crusted Salmon

Savory (Salmon) Cupcakes - and more