AND, REALLY, AREN'T FUNYUNS A MEAL IN THEMSELVES?:

Throwing a party with dollar-store food deals (KIM PIERCE, 11/13/08, The Dallas Morning News)

We asked culinary instructor Anne Legg, who teaches area cooking classes on entertaining, to take us along to the Dollar Tree and show us how to shop cheaply without being cheapskates.

She had great ideas, from using the store's spicy Mexican seasoning on jicama slices to starting your own dip with some Land O Lakes sour cream. ''It's always better to make them yourself,'' Legg says.

Dollar Tree is one of the stores where most things really are $1. We met at a location that has refrigerator and freezer cases. (Not all do.)

Besides our finds, the Dollar Tree was also a good source for items such as chips (Cape Cod potato chips), Funyuns (original and ersatz), surprisingly good fresh corn and flour tortillas, disposable salt and pepper grinders, staples such as canned tomatoes and stock, soft drinks, bottled water, nuts and trail mixes, Duncan Hines baking mixes (cupcakes, small-batch brownies and cookies), spices and seasonings.

You have to watch expiration dates: While nothing was expired when we bought it, some dates were within a month.

Most dollar stores also stock disposable foil bakeware, pretty good wine glasses (at $1 apiece, you won't cry if you break one, Legg says), disposable paper goods (including tablecloths), plastic cutlery and, best of all, plastic serving dishes designed to look like cut glass.