(no subject)

[which_chick]

Monday night grocery post. Old budget: $1824.53. Food purchases: $15.44. New budget: $1809.09.



So I grocery shopped. Had a list, too, I did. Good for me. I got light bulbs so I'm not sitting here in the spooky light of my laptop screen like I would have been if the grocery store hadn't had lightbulbs. The grocery store *had* lightbulbs. It has quite a lot of non-food items in it. My problem with the grocery isn't with their non-food selection.

Neither the kale nor the collards really called to me, but I got kale anyway. Since it's crinkly, it looks less sad when it's wilty. I hate how the grocery store pours misty water over the fucking greens. Don't they realize that greens are sold by weight? Do they have any idea how much water weighs? I shake my greens out well before I bag 'em. Not buying water, damn it, at least not water outside the cells of the greens. Stupid grocery.

Mangoes were two for a buck, which is a good deal on mangoes. However, they were green and hard like something very green and very hard. They did not look, smell, or feel like mangoes. I did not buy them. I bought some not-quite-mealy Rome apples instead. Pink grapefruits are still out of reach of normal humans. Stupid Florida weather

The cauliflower... there was ONE HEAD of cauliflower. It was four dollars. It looked like hell. NO. I did not buy it. Has there been a run on cauliflower that I've simply failed to notice before now? Why can't I buy good, cheap cauliflower like last year? It's so tasty with soy, sesame, garlic, and ginger. Yum!

The grocery did not have loose fresh, whole garlic heads. WTF? I thought these were a staple item. I had to buy the ones in the little cardboard boxes, two cloves per. Who the hell can get through a week of cooking with two measly cloves of garlic? Enquiring minds want to know.

The grocery did not have Kikkoman soy sauce in any salinity at all. Fuck that. It's a staple condiment. Not having any fucking Kikkoman soy sauce is like not having any fucking Heinz ketchup or not having any Grey Poupon mustard. What is WRONG with these people? They did have rice wine vinegar, which is a new item, and I was quite tempted to buy some on spec, since I do use it in sushi rice, but I was pissed about the Kikkoman thing so I didn't buy anything in the teeny asian-food section. (They did have La Choy, which tastes like it's burned. I don't LIKE La Choy soy sauce and I won't eat it. I have some in my fridge as emergency backup desperation soy sauce and I still won't eat it. La Choy is a very dwarf bread soy sauce for me.)

In the near-meat department, I got milk, cheese, and eggie-weggs. The mushrooms also looked nice and I was angry about the cauliflower/garlic/soy problem so I got a container of cocktail peanuts. I stopped eating them before I ate half the can, which is good. I may use them in a hot-peanut-vaguely-asian sauce thing here tomorrow. I've got some nice noodles and some lovely kale and the last of the soy sauce... It could work. I don't have a recipe or anything, but I have faith. With red pepper, all things are possible.

I just... no garlic? No soy sauce? ONE UGLY HEAD of cauliflower? I said it before, and no doubt I will say it again. Sux0rs.

Stupid grocery.

Comments

[zhasper.livejournal.com]

Mrm, dwarf bread, yummy

*goes back to playing discmud*

[ornery-chick.livejournal.com]

Bleh. Too bad you can't come shop at the grocery in my neighborhood. Their best feature is good produce.

Grocerei

[ardvaark99999.livejournal.com]

I think the primary problem is this thing that, in the northern hemisphere, we call "winter." It is not an ideal time for produce-making. Such produce as is available has to be shipped at least a couple thousand miles, and is more likely to have been shipped nearly 8-10k miles. It's a bloody fucking miracle that you have the selection that you do at this time of year.

You are correct in noting the effects that the weather had on produce this year. Florida was bushwhacked by hurricanes, killing oodles of citrus. That may turn out to be a multi-year problem, given where some of the hurricanes hit. I note for the record that the occasional 88c cans of frozen OJ that I used to see from time to time have been replaced by 1.18+ per can.

On the plus side, those things marketed as "Florida Avocados" were likely destroyed with the bad weather, too. That is surely a culinary blessing.

In place of the unavailable produce, you might try the following (a recent fabrication of our kitchen spawned by a night of "what can we make with the stuff we have?"):

-chick peas
-crumbled feta (two oz. per 14 oz. can of chick peas)
-can of artichoke hearts (drained, quarter the hearts)
-3 T of Newmans low-fat balsamic vinaigrette
plus select one of the below (mainly for color):
-avocado (optional)
-frozen corn (optional)
-cherry tomatoes (optional)
-red onion (optional)
-red bell pepper (optional)

Usually doesn't last too long in our house, and it isn;t awful for you. The optionals (esp. the avocado) work reasonably well with the combo. It's a nice side-dish @ a reasonable price.

Chick peas ~ 75c
artichoke hearts ~ 1.25 (el-cheapo ones at my grocerei)
feta ~ 4 oz. (good for 2 batches) ~ $2.50 or $1.25 per batch (note: http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/002-5976589-4092068?node=3589141)

Avocado ~ 75c at my local WalMart supercenter, or 1.99 at Grocerei
Dressing - nominal, probably 50c per batch

$4 to $4.50 for enough to be a decent 2-3 meals if it's all you eat. It's also cheap and it feels sort of gourmet. It's also fairly flexible if you're missing one or another of the ingredients. The key bases (dressing, feta, canned artichokes, and chick peas) are pretty much available all the time.

Re: Grocerei

[electroweak.livejournal.com]

Here in lovely, still-somewhat-snowy Philadelphia we have quite a lot of produce on the shelves, mostly from California, Argentina, or Chile. I suspect part of Ms. Chick's issue may be that the local store had a problem with its just-in-time shipping, caused by the recent snowstorms in the midwest and east coast. Modern stores in the United States will have items restocked every day from a central warehouse as the store sells them, and if either a) the warehouse is low on stocks because the weather has recently been too awful for trucks to get in, or b) the trucks can't get to the store because of the weather, then the store's stocks will be low. In this case, we would be seeing option A.

I used to manage in a warehouse that did JIT shipping. ARGH.

Re: Grocerei

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

I also insist on grocery shopping on Monday nights. They stock on Thursday, so's to be ready for the weekend of grocery shoppers, and things are pretty picked over by Monday. I'm not really giving them a chance to be at their best.

Given all the targets for my impotent rage in this world, the local Weis isn't a bad choice for me to burst my hot heart's shell upon. It's better'n a damn white whale, given the lack of cetacean-inhabited oceans in these parts. :) Pennsylvania is not known for its whaling grounds.

Greens, greens, greens!

[not-your-real.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about the sneaky weight aspects of damp greens. I do point out, however, that if they don't mist them, they get yucky, wilty and spoiled. This isn't just a grocery-store fairy tale; the Giant down in VA where I lived prefered not to mist things, and they were sad-looking greens indeed.