Storemade Roast Beef

I went to C-Town on Tuesday and did all the buying I had wanted to do at Key Food when it disappointed me. And I spent $25, just like I expected. My best find was "storemade roast beef." It's the kind that is generic and not Boar's Head. It isn't homemade. Other stores might call something that's storemade homemade. But C-Town is scrupulously honest. Unless they didn't make it in the store. I am untroubled by that.

I think I'm going to the Trader Joe's Wine Shop tonight. Maybe Nora F will ring me up! I better get a different kind of wine so she can tell me about it. Or the same kind of wine so she can say "have you tried this before?" and I'll say "that is what you asked me on Monday." And I'll say that with all the off-the-cuffedness of someone who decided at 2:45 pm what his lines would be that evening.

Nora F. is a Great Cashier

I went to Trader Joe's Wine Shop after work (again) today. I got a bottle of Three Buck Chuck Merlot, a bottle of Pinot Grigio ($3.49 I think, but maybe it was a dollar more), and a bottle of San Giovese something ($3.49). My cashier was Nora F. again. Nora F. was my cashier the first time I ever went. She wasn't the next time, and maybe not the next time if I've bought wine four times. I lost count. She was my cashier again today and she is a good one. When you buy something from her, first she asks for your id. She has to do that because the wine shop is in an NYU dorm. They all do that at Trader Joe's, so I don't hold that against them. Then she asks you if you've tried one of the wines you're buying before. The first time she asked me if I had ever tried the Charles Shaw. I hadn't. I think I bungled my answer to the question though. This time she asked me if I had ever bought the Pinot Grigio. She said it was one of their best sellers and for $4, you can't go wrong. She's right. My first time, I tried to pay with American Express, but she said that is "like the only credit card we don't take." I wonder if they take Diners Club. I wonder if they take Discover. I'd like to pay with Discover, but I've been using Mastercard.

I have definitively bought wine 3 times. I remember how many times I've used my Mastercard. I have a sharper mind for credit cards than for grocery shopping, even.

By the way, before buying wine, I went to Walgreens to buy L'Oreal Studio Effects Whipped Filth for my hair. It was $4.49, but I decided to buy it because that seemed about right. The lines were way too long though, so I left. I bought my wine, then I went to Duane Reade. It was $3.99 there, and there was almost no line!

Stay Out of Key Food This Week

What a disappointment! I expected to go in and spend $25 or more, but I only spent $5. I got some braunschweiger ($2), 2 boxes of pasta (buy one get one free, $0.99 each, limit one per family), Diet Coke ($1.50) for Pachelbel, and some bananas ($0.59/lb). Some pierogies were on sale, but I already had pierogies. The frozen pizza sales were not that good. McCain fries were on sale, but I still have some, and I decided if I'm going to buy brand name frozen potato products, I'm getting Ore-Ida from now on because Ore-Ida's based in Pittsburgh. My frozen beef ravioli were $2.99 for a box, but there were only 2 boxes, and both had brown ooze on them. I wanted to buy a bag of frozen onions (on sale for $0.99) but I couldn't find them. I should have gone to C-Town.

The Jesus vegetable store had 4 tomatoes for $1. Maybe I should have got them so I could make insalata caprese. But I didn't, so I'll just have to look at this picture of it.

Slithery Onions

I ate those onions last night. They were quite good. They reminded me of slimey onions, and they were slightly better than the slimey onions I made one day (er, month) by accident. Here is the recipe:

1. Chop up some onions for something.
2. Don't use them all.
3. Put the left-overs in a plastic sealable bag and put it in the refrigerator.
4. Find it 3-4 weeks later and put it on a sandwich.

Perfectly fermented and slimey. I miss those days.

Here's another fun thing you can do with an onion: cut it in half and put it in a bowl of vinegar and leave it in the corner of your room. I don't know why you would do this though. I just do it out of instinct.

Why I haven't been posting

In short, I haven't been shopping. Easter was on Sunday, so Pachelbel and I did a lot of shopping for that, but we didn't get any deals. Since then, my refrigerator has been full and I've been eating leftovers. However, at the recommendation of my boss, I picked up some Sabrett push-cart style onions for hot dogs. I haven't tried them yet, but I imagine they're good--he's a hot dog connoisseur. Except he doesn't like ketchup.

Toothpaste

I was debating which toothpaste to get when I was at Price Chopper last night, and I saw this Aquafresh one on sale for $2.50. It has micro-active foaming action. And it foams so much! I love it! I'll never use anything else.

Cheese, Trader Joe's Wine Store

I bought 2 lbs of mozzarella! I don't even know what I'm going to do with it yet.

I went in the Trader Joe's Wine Store today. There was so much cheap wine. I'll never buy wine anywhere else. I'm not that big on wine, so if it's not cheap, I won't buy it at all. I bought 2 bottles of white and 1 of red. The red is Charles Shaw (i.e. 3 buck chuck 'round these parts.) The only trouble was that they don't take American Express. I was so depressed that I didn't even go into the regular Trader Joe's store, even though there wasn't a line to get in today. I was also carrying three bottles of wine and 2 balls of cheese though.

Holy Cow! Cheese Week!

I had to use my "Holy Cow!" subject again because this is a cheese post.

In addition to the $3.99/lb Pecorino Romano at Key Food I posted about on Saturday, there is $3.99/lb Mozzarella at Gourmet Garage this week. It's usually $5.99/lb! That's 1/3 off! There are little 1 lb globules of mozzarella all over. The only thing that prevented me from making my first purchase at Gourmet Garage since 2002 was that it said it should be refrigerated.

They also have Sharp Cheddar on sale for $3.99/lb, which is regularly $5.99/lb. Frankly, only Italian cheese excites me, though. I wouldn't make this post if that were the only cheese deal.

I'm probably never going to be able to buy cheese again. I'll be unwilling to pay more than $3.99/lb and it will always be more than that. That is really really sad.

Holy Cow! Great Deals at Key Food!

If you happen to be throwing a party tonight and need to pick up some mixers, you need to go to Key Food. Coke/Sprite/Dr. Pepper/Seagrams Ginger Ale is on sale for $0.89 for 2 liters (limit 5) with your card! I picked up three, and I'm merely attending a party.

The problem with that deal is I bought three bottles and that cost me about $2.70. The credit card minimum there is $5, so I had to keep Chopin. I thought about getting limes, but they were 5/$2. This was the only shortcoming at Key Food. The Jesus vegetable store had them 5/$1. You have to spend $10 there or pay cash, so I don't usually shop there. I can't buy limes that are not priced competitively, so no limes.

Anyway, Pecorino Romano is $3.99/lb this week! I made the most delicious macaroni and cheese the other night by boiling some macaroni and then grating too much cheese on it. By too much, I mean more than you'd think you should be using. Grated cheese is something that people have a weird idea of what "too much" means. You should be using a lot more, and at $3.99/lb, you can! (You shouldn't be paying more than 50 cents for a 1 lb box of pasta, by the way. When you see that deal, stock up on it. It keeps.)

Franceso Rainaldi pasta sauce is 10 bottles for $10. Or you can buy 2 for $2 like I did.

Elio's frozen pizzas (9 slices, which is actually 3 pizzas, for $4.69) are buy one get one free. I got them.

All this because of the $5 credit card minimum!

Malta India & Milk, Tomatoes & Spam & Christ

I'm told that the worst part of drinking Malta India (which is like Malta Goya only worse) and milk is that it still tastes like malta india, but there's more of it to get down.

One time on the subway I saw a man drinking Malta Goya and he didn't even wince. I almost threw up on him because that was so gross. At least when you see a guy wince, you know he's alive.

Tomatoes are $0.79/lb at the Jesus vegetable store on Grand St. They're redder than the other ones I've seen. I might have to have some more Spam sandwiches this weekend!

Beware!

Malta Goya is on sale 3/$1 at Key Food. Ew gross!

Yesterday I went in grocery stores four times. First I went to C-Town and didn't see anything I wanted and I was just going for a walk anyway. I walked north to Greenpoint and found a huge Key Food on McGuinness Blvd. It had wide aisles and all sorts of food. It was almost suburban. It was attached to a 24-hour food court that had a Taco Bell in it. I noticed that tomatoes were only $0.99/lb and thought that was a good deal. I've been waiting for tomatoes to stop being $1.49/lb and $1.99/lb. I walked some more and took a bus and a subway and came back to C-Town.

This time I found things to buy. I wanted to buy some meat, but I didn't see any I liked. I got a can of Spam Lite though because it was on sale for $2.50. The label showed a delicious-looking Spam sandwich with cheese and tomato, so I bought some hamburger buns too. I had cheese at home. I went next door to the vegetable place and was pleasantly surprised to find tomatoes for $0.99/lb. I guess they're cheap now.

Later, Pachelbel convinced me to go to Cat Pee with her to get Diet Coke and Pop-Tarts. There was a white and grey cat there. No wonder it smells like cat pee.