Apparently, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has been holding charity gingerbread house competitions for the past seven years at the Rideau Centre. Proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity. This year's participants include local businesses, bakeries, restaurants, and culinary institutes. The winner was an entry by Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute. More information can be found at the CMHC website.

When Jenn and I walked by the display of gingerbread houses at the Rideau Center, the following was our favourite.

Gingerbread house competition entry by the Rideau Bakery
It seemed that many gingerbread men were injured to make the entry.

For the developing gingerbread house artiste, Superstore at Richmond and Kirkwood sells kits, no baking necessary.

Ginger Bread House Kits

A No Assembly Required Kit

For the more mature cookie enthusiast, President's Choice has introduced Do-It-Yourself (DIY) "kits" of sorts for baking fresh "Decadent" Chocolate Chip Cookies this Christmas.

Ready Made
For the no bake, no fuss crowd, there is the traditional (Delia Smith approved) ready-made version.

Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies
Just open and serve.


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Cost: $2.49 for a 350 g package (approximately 30 cookies)

The Mix
For the more baking inclined crowd, there is the Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie mix.

Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Powdered Mix
It comes with a powdered mix and chocolate chips. All you have to do is add butter, mix, portion, and bake.

Here are some my better half baked:

Portioned

Baked
Truth be told, they looked, tasted, and smelled like the original, cakey and rich.


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Cost: $2.49 for a 500 g package of mix (made 16 cookies)

Frozen Batter
For the more baking inclined and rushed crowd, there is pre-portioned frozen batter.

Frozen Batter

All you have to do is arrange and bake.

Cost: $3.99 for a 456 g package (makes 16 cookies)

If today's performance of the Toronto Stock Exchange is any indication, Canada's economy is wavering. Despite Canadians having more conservative banking practices than our American neighbors, our economy is not entirely insulated. It is being affected by what ctv calls a "deepening global recession." There is simply no confidence in the near term. To make matters worse, Statistics Canada released its monthly findings on inflation. While September's inflation rate fell 0.1 percent from last month, Statistics Canada reported that gas and food prices pushed overall prices upwards. In fact, food prices overtook transportation costs as the second major factor pushing inflation upwards.

With food prices changing, it becomes difficult to judge bargains in the supermarket. In the meat department, I remember when economy cuts like chicken legs and pork shoulder sold at $0.99/lb($2.18/kg). Today, chicken legs regularly sell for $1.29/lb($2.84/kg) and pork shoulder, $2.49/lb($5.49/kg). Better cuts like beef rib steak sold at $3.99/lb($8.79/kg) and pork loin, $1.88/lb($4.14/kg). Today, beef rib steak sells for $5.99/lb($13.20/kg) and pork loin, $2.49/lb($5.49/kg).

So, when one of your local supermarkets (Superstore at the corner of Kirkwood and Richmond) advertises skinless, bone in, chicken breast at $1.99/lb is it a good deal? Usually, chicken breast is sold both boneless and skinless.

Skinless, Bone In, Chicken Breast - $1.99/lb

There's only one way to find out. Let's do an experiment and compare prices with another supermarket.:

One package of chicken breast

Please note the recorded mass from the store is 1.2 lb

Here is the what my digital kitchen scale came up with: 1.19 lb

Having removed the bones...

Here's what the bones weigh by themselves: 0.38 lb

Here's what the boneless and skinless chicken breasts weigh: 0.85 lb

At $1.99/lb, we payed $2.41 (before taxes) for the skinless, bone-in, chicken breast. If the mass from the bones is removed, this means, we paid approximately $2.84/lb for just the meat.

If the following advertisement from Food Basics is any indication, Superstore's sale isn't a bad deal.

Skinless, Boneless, Chicken Breast - $2.99/lb
The only difference is that Food Basics sells theirs with the work already done.

Conclusion: Skinless, Bone in, Chicken breast is a good deal at $1.99/lb

However, to complicate things, here is the price of boneless, skinless, chicken breast from Loblaws.

Skinless, Boneless, Chicken Breast
The wrinkle: it's air chilled and not water chilled chicken.

While we at foodiePrints consider how to compare air to water chilled chicken, please take a gander at how Hyundai is using price/mass to sell cars.

Car vs. Chicken Wings
The image was taken of an advertisement tacked to the rafters of a local bus. I wonder if Hyundai would allow me to purchase a car with chicken...