Thanksgiving shopping

Other than a free turkey if you spend $150 (how you do that without a car, I don't know), Associated doesn't seem to even realize it's Thanksgiving in this week's circular.

Western Beef hasn't updated their circular page of the website. C-Town's is broken.

I bought a turkey yesterday at Key Food. Key Food takes Thanksgiving seriously. I end up getting most of my stuff there every year. This year I didn't buy the smallest turkey. First time I did that I think. I got one that's 15.65 lbs. I'm going to supplement it with some more turkey legs. I think about thirty people are coming to Midnight Thanksgiving.

In non-Thanksgiving news, Associated has my olive oil for $18 if you spend $15. Too late, I got it at Key Food last week. Bravo has cans of pineapple juice for $1.69. I'm going to stock up on that.

At long last! Olive Oil!

On July 10 I wrote about needing a big can of olive oil and waiting for one to go on sale. And on November 15, I will FINALLY get one. Key Food has Filippo Berio extra virgin on sale for $20.

I've been using Trader Joe's olive oil in the mean time. That's good too. And I did find a big can of pure olive oil which is useful for a lot of things.

Peanut Butter

I was worried I'd have to remember to go to C-Town today to get some Jif peanut butter while it's on sale 2/$5, but I just read the Key Food circular for next week and they have that same sale. I'm safe.

I eat a lot of peanut butter and bacon bit sandwiches lately. The dog is very envious.

Now at Western Beef: Lamagna ricotta cheese!

I'm so excited. I was walking around Western Beef yesterday with a basket too full to add anything and I spotted Lamagna ricotta cheese. This stuff is the best. It was the first ricotta I had in my life and no other kind has ever lived up to it. Its curds are ever so slightly bigger. And it tastes much better. Other ricottas don't really taste like anything. When I make my Christmas Eve feast for my family, I make sure I use this. You can't even find it at Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh, but now it's at Western Beef! (Lamagna's from just outside of Pittsburgh.)

It's baked ziti season now. What timing. You'll never find another ricotta cheese in my refrigerator again. Unless you come over right now because I still have half a container of some inferior brand that I have to use up so I can go buy Lamagna. I should have a toast party too.

Bogopa and Food Bazaar

Finally, I know what that means! The New York Times is the best.

He would eventually open a chain of supermarkets under the corporate name Bogopa, which in Korean means “yearning for you,” in low-income neighborhoods.

 One of those stores, the Food Bazaar on East 161st Street in the Bronx, is enormous...

I'm so glad I know.

I also like thinking about moving to another country and naming a brand "yearning for you." I don't say yearning enough as it is.

2 Months Later: Still Olive Oil

Nowhere has put a big can of olive oil on sale in the last two months! I did buy a can of pure, but I need extra virgin too. So I've been buying it at Trader Joe's. I just got back from there.

There was a line to get in the door. That used to happen when Trader Joe's first opened and had only one store, but I haven't seen it since. But I biked 4.5 miles to get there so I just waited in it. I sure bike far for that.

I manage to spend more at that store than any other grocery store. I got extra virgin olive oil ($7), coconut oil ($5.5), 2 cans of cannellini beans ($.9 each), farro, bulgur wheat, gorgonzola, asiago, and parmesan. And frozen broccoli and frozen kale. And capers. I already had capers, but I forgot. I wanted frozen peppers but they didn't have any. Oh, and soy sauce because I noticed we were out of soy sauce this morning.

I guess I'll make polenta for dinner so I can use up some cheese and get to fry an egg in my cast iron skillet. I should make another post soon about my cast iron skillets. I love them.

Olive Oil

I still haven't recovered from the 4th of July, but I'm getting there. I read the NY Times food section last night and it made me think positively of food again. Maybe I'll cook someday.

I need olive oil soon. Since I buy 101 oz cans, it makes a big difference if I can get them on sale. I wish I knew which brands I liked most. C-Town has Cento on sale, but the review on Amazon said it's not good. I can't remember if I've liked that. I'm sure I've had it. I currently have Filippo Berio, which isn't bad. If I run out and can't find a sale, I'll buy a bottle at Trader Joe's to tide me over.

I'm tired of grocery shopping!

This is not a common feeling for me. I still have two more trips.

I have to go to Key Food for bacon bits, orangeade, penne, and buns.

Then later, once some hunks show up to help, I have to go to Associated for ice.

Happy 4th of July.

More grocery notes

I went shopping! Boy do I love a party because I get to buy so many groceries.

I don't even know how much the daikon was, but they had them at Jesus. They're huge.

Braunschweiger is $2.49 for half a pound. In Pittsburgh, it's that much for a pound. I need it for my banh mi dogs.

Western Beef was the best! Limes are 10/$1, which is the best price! Tomatoes, miraculously, were $0.49/lb! They looked good too. Everything I'm making is tomato based, so I feel blessed. Loaves of Italian bread are 3/$2 as always, so I got some now so they'll be stale by Thursday for my panzanella. Ketchup was $2 for 38 oz, which seemed pretty good.

I bought a lot of beans at Associated. I got lost in Associated because of their expansion, so I might avoid there for the rest of the week while they figure things out.

I'm making Dylan come over to learn me how to pickle carrots and daikon for the banh mi dogs. Later today or this week, I'm making Agnes come over to bake 6 or 8 or 12 dozen cookies for ice cream sandwiches.

Notes on Grocery Prices for the 4th of July

Key: WB = Western Beef, KF = Key Food, CT = CTown, FB = Food Bazaar, J = Jesus, A = Associated

Hot Dog Buns: 12 = $1.5 WB, 8 = $1 or $1.39 CT, 12=$1.5 KF
Hot Dogs: 8 chicken $1.79 CT, 8 beef $2.5 WB, chicken $1.25 WB, beef $3 KF, beef $3 A
Cheez Whiz:
Bacon Bits: $1.79 KF
Sour Cream: $2 WB, $2 A, $2 KF
Carrots:
Daikon:
Vinegar:
Oil: 96 oz $5 WB
Eggs:
Celery: $1.5 WB
Beets:
Chick Peas: $1/can KF,
Parsley:
Basil:
Penne: $1/lb A
Mozzarella: $3.49/lb WB, $5/lb KF
Tomatoes: $0.88/lb WB,
Cucumbers: $0.66/A, $.66 KF
Avocados: $2 KF
Bread: $0.66/loaf WB
Water melon: $0.49/lb at WB, $0.49/lb A
Corn: $0.4/ear WB, $0.4/ear A
Charcoal: 18lbs $5 WB
Aluminum pans: $0.33 WB
Ice: $3 16lbs WB
Apple Juice: $1.88 WB, $2 KF
Orangeade:

A sad postscript to the Fresca tale + Party Plans

The last two times I've gone to C-Town looking for Fresca, they've been out :(

But I'll move on. I'm having a 4th of July party in 6 days and making a lot of food. It's going to require all my grocery skills to minimize costs. I'm going to make hot dogs 3 ways, plus hot dog salad, beet salad, chick pea/orzo salad, pesto pasta salad, and probably some other things. Probably pimento cheese. I don't know what the three ways of hot dogs will be yet. Definitely baked potato dogs. Maybe taco dogs? Banh mi dogs?

Expansion of Grocery Capacity in Williamsburg Heights*

Two of my local grocery stores are expanding a bunch. C-Town added a back room that has all its beer and snacks and pop. That's why I told them to start getting Fresca. Where the pop used to be, they now have bread. Where the bread and snacks used to be, they now have freezer and coolers and some cheese. I haven't eyed that stuff that much yet.

Associated is also expanding. Who knew the building next to them was unused? They moved into that. I can't even tell how it will all be laid out, but yesterday I got a bit lost trying to discover where they put the eggs. The medium eggs were $1.69, which is hardly better than Key Food now. I bought medium eggs to keep uncooked and large eggs to have a dozen hard boiled ones on hand. I also bought 1.25 lbs of jalapeno peppers ($1.49/lb) to pickle, but my jar only holds about 0.75 lbs so now I have to use up all these hot peppers and don't know what to do.

*Williamsburg Heights is what I've taken to calling the areas around the Graham and Grand stops of the L. When I moved here, I wondered if this was East Williamsburg or Bushwick. As more people moved to the Montrose, Morgan, Jefferson, and Dekalb stops, meaning actual Bushwick, it became clear that if I said East Williamsburg I would not convey my location. So I went back to saying Williamsburg (my zip code is Williamsburg's). One of the good things these hurricanes we get has done is give me flood zone maps. So Williamsburg Heights is the area that is not in any sort of flood zone around the Graham and Grand stops of the L. It hasn't caught on yet, but it might as well.

A Fresca tale

C-Town added a new room (which I'll write about later) and has room for Fresca now. So I asked them to carry it. Then I went to the beach and drunktweeted them a picture of the Waist Watchers fake Fresca we were drinking. So they got it and tweeted me back that it was in and on sale until Thursday.

When I went to buy it, the price rang up without a sale. So I tweeted my receipt and said they forgot to tell the cash registers about the sale. C-Town said "I owe you a Fresca" and asked for my address to have it delivered. That was funny, so I allowed it. I also said I'd be home all day because I tried using my key as a bottle opener and I broke it. Later that day when they delivered Fresca, there was a surprise bottle opener/corkscrew thrown in! Wow.

Friday is new grocery circular day.

I got my tabs open. Now let's see what's good this week.

Key Food:
Diet Coke etc is $4/4. They include Fresca in the list, but every time Key Food puts Fresca on sale, they clear the shelves of it and only have Coke and Sprite. I actually haven't seen Fresca there for ages. I have a good Fresca story for another post.

Hunts BBQ sauce for a dollar. I go through phases of loving bbq sauce. I might as well get some.

Only two things at Key Food worth getting.

C-Town:
Beef is $2.69/lb. Maybe I'll eat raw meat this week. Tomatoes are $0.99/lb! I just bought some yesterday for more than that. I'll eat all the tomatoes. I like them. Hunt's BBQ sauce is $1 here too. Actually, $0.99. I'll save a penny. Diet Mug Root Beer is $1 again! I went in yesterday to get $1 Diet Mug and they were clean out, so I got cream soda. I like that too.

Food Bazaar (I really only care about the seafood department here):
Lobster's $6/lb. I never made or ate a lobster. I probably won't now either. I also never made or ate a whole fish. I should just eat smelts.

Western Beef:
I can get a bag of chicken legs for $0.69/lb. It's a 10-15 lb bag though. I'd need to have a lot of people over. I can't inflict 10 lbs of chicken on my roommates. Wait, I can. One just left the country or 2 weeks. I can throw away all her stuff!

I'm sick of this. Nothing else was good at Western Beef. Nothing was good at Associated.

Tahini

I never bought tahini before because I think it's probably expensive. Yesterday I bought 16 oz of Krinos tahini for $4.99 at Western Beef. That was cheaper than I expected. But I don't know. How much do other people pay for tahini? My siblings were no help.

R.I.P. to my Gorgonzola

Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's and bought a lot of stuff and nothing to really cook. I also spent more money than I ever do at regular stores.

When I got home, I quit unpacking my groceries halfway through. Then my new roommate's dog stole my gorgonzola and ran all around with it! He's good at smelling things. I threw it away :(

Greek Yogurt

I went back to Key Food to buy more cottage cheese because at $2 for 16 oz, it's the cheapest I can find. And because since my first post, I've found that I like it a lot and eat it a lot. Even though I haven't figured out anything to do with it.

Key Food at Fage Greek yogurt on sale for $2.5 for 17 oz, so I figured I'd try that. I've never eaten it before. The price seemed good.

It didn't impress me. I don't need it anymore. Unless I change my mind soon.

Reminder: Quit Buying Pasta Sauce

You're getting ripped off and it's worst for you and it tastes worse.  Buy crushed tomatoes (with 2 ingredients) instead. I like Colavita and Dei Fratelli, depending where I'm shopping.

1. Jarred sauce is a rip-off. Crushed tomatoes cost $1.67 or $1 for a 28 oz can. Pasta sauce costs $2 or $3. And for what? For the extra ingredients.

2. It's worse for you. My Colavita crushed tomatoes have about 6% of my daily sodium allowance per serving. A jar of pasta sauce has a lot more. Newman's Own Sockarooni has 19% of your sodium.  Cabernet Marinara has 25%. Roasted Tomato & Garlic has 21%. You can always add salt and salty grated cheese, but there's no way you're going to add this much!

3. Crushed tomatoes taste better. And you can doctor them up however you want. I know some people who doctor up jarred sauce. WHY?! You can doctor crushed tomatoes and not start from expensive sodium juice! Colavita crushed tomatoes are so good you can eat them plain. You can spread them on toast. I once made pizza and my pizza sauce was undoctored crushed tomatoes and everyone asked how I made the sauce taste so fresh.

Key Food Sucks on Thursdays

I was going to go to Key Food, but it sucks on Thursday evenings because they take down all their sale signs. Last week I heard an old lady sassing the manager. He said they have 3,000 items and need to take them down early. The other stores somehow manage. Especially since Key Food has them down about 4 hours before the store closes.

Grocery Transport by Bike

One of my bikes, Bike Cherepko, has a basket. So when I buy groceries with him, that's what I use.

When I take the other bike, I have always looped my bag over my wrist. It works pretty well. I finally bought a backpack though because I have a shopping problem, especially with Asos. In the past 2 days, I have tried shopping with the backpack twice. Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's to buy dried dill and dried oregano. Today I went to Western Beef to buy a big Tapatio, some dill mustard, a tomato, and a can of mushrooms.

Now that I've tried both ways, I think I like the bag on my wrist. Things on your back poke you. I think I can carry about as much, though I haven't tested that yet. The wrist way doesn't make you sweaty all over your back.

Malt Vinegar

I asked C-Town to carry malt vinegar, preferably Heinz. They got some weird brand and told me it would be in yesterday. So I'm going to go look for it today. I like malt vinegar, but I'm not sure what I should eat it on. I will probably start by putting it on everything. Maybe I can put it on cottage cheese? (I've been eating cottage cheese plain so far. It's good).

Malt vinegar can be good for salads. Marinades. Maybe it can finish a dish? I will figure it out.

Cottage Cheese

I bought cottage cheese for the first time in my life. It was $1.99 for 16 oz at Key Food. I should go eat it or put it away instead of spreading the news.

If you have any advice on what I should do with it, let me know.

Dwolla - The Inconvenient Alternative to Paypal

(Sometimes this blog veers from groceries to talk about how to pay for things. This is such a time.)

I was shopping for a cast iron skillet because I've wanted one for a while. My roommate recently moved out and took a lot of things, so I m in a buying mode. He owned a cast iron pan, but it had grill ridges on it, so I rarely used it. I used Google shopping to find a pan that was very cheap. I'm getting a 12" skillet for under $9. As soon as I paid, I realized this seller ONLY accept Dwolla, which I never heard of before. So I signed up, was annoyed for several days, and then tweeted this this morning.

I accidentally bought something online that requires me to pay with Dwolla. If you aren't familiar, Dwolla is the inconvenient Paypal.
— Mike Cherepko (@mikecherepko) April 9, 2013

To their credit, they emailed me to ask if something was wrong.

Dwolla Support
APR 09, 2013  |  11:36AM CDT
Mike,
Noticed your tweet that you were maybe having some issues with the Dwolla account. Any feedback you can provide us?
Sincerely,
Dwolla Support

And so I went to town.

Since you asked: 

You tout that you're the most secure payment network. I wrote that you are the inconvenient alternative to paypal. Those are two sides of the same coin. Dwolla made me make a password that is so secure I can barely remember it (though if I write it down, it becomes much less secure.) On top of remembering the password, I have to enter a PIN. The PIN gets away with only being 4 characters. I haven't used Dwolla enough to know if I will always have to enter a password and a PIN. If I do, that's just another level of inconvenience. If I don't, 4 digits seems markedly less secure than a password I can make up of whatever digits and numbers I want. 

This reminds me of the time I closed my ING account because their system was just too annoying to log into. 

I came to Dwolla against my will. I bought something online and only noticed after I agreed to purchase it that the seller only accept Dwolla. After verifying that you aren't a scam, I signed up. Then I found I had to link a bank account. Then I found I had to wait for deposit verifications. That took days. (I signed up Saturday. I finally got the deposits today.) I realize that financial institutions don't move very quickly over weekends. I just don't care about that because every other method of me paying this seller would have been faster. In between finding out I needed to enter the deposit verifications and them actually showing up, I received an email from Dwolla reminding me to verify my account. That added insult to injury because I was already checking 3-4 times a day. This morning when I finally did verify it, I was happy that I could finally add less than $9 to my account to pay for that item I bought Saturday. Now it will take 3-4 days before that money is available! Again, I understand that banks don't like to move money very quickly. And again, I don't care. This is so far just an extremely slow and extremely inconvenient alternative to Paypal or to emailing money to people directly from my bank, which I also do.
I do have suggestions to make Dwolla better. I'm not all complaints.

1. Loosen the password security. There's no reason Dwolla needs to be more secure than my accounts with PNC, Ally, Chase, Bank of America, American Express, Citi, Discover, Paypal, or Etrade. 

2. Speed up the time from sign-up to first payment. I don't know how to do this, but in a modern economy, it should not take a week to move $9.

I just noticed that they have a link to send someone free money on them to entice me to get people to sign up for Dwolla. I'm not going to do that. I think you should run away from Dwolla. But I'm also annoyed that if they will just give people free money, why can't they front me $9 while they're making me do all the stupid verifications?

Update: Dwolla just did give me $9. I feel bad for their customer service people who seem good at what they do because they still have to back up an annoying product.

Shopping Hiatus

My roommate of almost 6 years just moved out and there are so many things in this apartment that were his that he left or that were mine the whole time and I didn't know about. So I'm trying to purge. I'm particularly focusing on food because my new roommate likes to cook (and I let him move in anyway) and will want space in the kitchen. I don't want to waste food, so I am eating.

Right now I am making a stew that has frozen corn, canned corn, kielbasa, a jar of pasta sauce, a can of butter beans, a can of spinach, and maybe some other things.

I am sodium.

Notes on Grocery Circulars 3/22 - 3/29

I only was able to wake up today because I thought of perusing the grocery circulars.

Key Food has a 101 oz can of Filippo Berio extra virgin olive oil for $14.99. That's a good price and a good brand. When you buy it in the can, it doesn't go bad as quickly because light doesn't get to it. Key Food also has white mushrooms for $1 for 8 oz, which is pretty good. Nothing else is that good a deal. Maybe pork shoulder for $1/lb. A 32 oz Powerade is $1. That's helpful for hangovers.

C-Town has bananas for $0.49/lb and Diet Mug root beer, among other Pepsi products, for 4/$3. A 32 oz container of ricotta is $2.50. You can also get a pound of mozzarella for that price. Must be lasagna season, because they have that on sale too.

Western Beef has 2 liter bottles of Pepsi products for 4/$5. But I dont' think they consider Mug a Pepsi product. It's also harder to bike up the hill with a ton of liquid. Pecorino romano is $4.99/lb, which is pretty good. You can buy a whole or half lamb or kid for $4.99/lb. A whole or half pig is $3.99/lb, which is the same as leg of lamb. It's the Easter sale over there. I don't know if these prices are even good, but you don't see this stuff in circulars that often. Powerade is only $0.79 at Western Beef.

Associated doesn't really have anything this week. Maybe a can of black olives for $1.50, but you can usually get that price at Key Food everyday.

At Western Beef, Braunschweiger is on sale for $2.50 for 8 oz. That's pretty good for around these parts, but nothing like what it goes for in Pittsburgh. You shouldn't eat too much of that though anyway, especially if you like to drink. Vitamin A does a number on your liver. Medium shrimp are $5/lb and mussels are still $2 for 2 lbs, which is the best price. I recommend eating mussels.

Buying Sardines at Western Beef's Fishmonger

I bought some. It was annoying. The guy wanted me to pay him instead of at the cash register when I checked out. And then he wanted me to pay cash. I'm sticking to Food Bazaar for my fish.

I haven't cooked them yet. I should.

Cheesed Off

 Even though yesterday I complained about the price of cheese at Key Food, I might have to make huevos rancheros soon, so when I was at C-Town, I remembered to look. This nice block of Monterey Jack had a big $1.99 sticker on it, so I bought it. But look at my receipt! They charged me $2.59, 30% more!

I shouldn't be too mad though. I had just bought a pair of red shoes. Shoes are the one thing I'm not supposed to buy. Also, they carry Old Bay now for Ridgely. I asked them to via Tumblr.

Pop Sale

I had an exciting day today that required a trip to Manhattan. Afterward I decided to celebrate with some Diet Mug Root Beer* and the Key Food circular told me it was on sale 4 for $5.

Lo and behold, all the Pepsi 2 liters had tags on them that said if you buy 3 bottles, you get a dollar off! So I got 2 Diet Mug Root Beers and 1 Diet Pepsi for $2.75, or $0.92 each. That's a Pittsburgh price there.

I also got 2 cans of chick peas because I am going to try to eat beans until my clothes fit again. And a can of olives. I didn't care for the price of cheese, so no huevos rancheros for a while. All that for $6.33.

*Diet Mug Root Beer is the best kind. Dr. Brown's is good. And Diet Faygo might be as good as Diet Mug. Barq's and A&W are ok if you are in a desert. And no non-diet pop is good at all because it's too thick.

Playwright

The other day after I went to Trader Joe's, some guy asked me "are you a playwright?" out of the blue. Then if I was an artist. Then said "well, you're a good dresser."

Powerade

The sign at Associated said $0.99, but they charged me $1.19!

Olive Oil

I'm eagerly awaiting the grocery circulars for next week. I need to find out who is finally going to put a big can of extra virgin olive oil on sale for me. I'm out! I'm starving! I don't really care what brand, but it should be $15-16.

Key Food lets you see its circular a day early. They don't have it. I'd like an excuse to visit the Foodtown over on North 3rd and Bedford. I've never been there. (Their website is suspiciously like Key Food's, but I don't think they're related.)

I might have to buy a regular sized bottle from Trader Joe's to hold me over. I need a bunch of other things from there anyway.

Coffee and Inflation Measures

I bought my instant coffee today. I haven't had any since the end of December. I like Café Bustelo and I like paying $4.99 or $5.49, but places only had it for $6.39, so I quit drinking coffee. I had some at my parents' house over Christmas, but I never had any around here. I drank tea or pop instead.

About a month ago, there was a lot of talk about whether social security benefits (and tax brackets) should be changed. They're both tied to inflation, but the question was whether to change to a different way of measuring inflation. The current way is that if the price of my instant coffee goes up, inflation goes up. This is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The other way to measure it is to take into account that when the price of coffee went up, I started drinking less of it and drank more tea. Since my expenditures didn't go up as much, this measure would show less inflation. It's called the Chained Consumer Price Index (C-CPI). Detractors of it like to exaggerate and say this method lets you substitute cat food for beef. (Changing to C-CPI is just a way to cut social security benefits and the longer you live, the more they're cut. And social security is basically the most solvent government program we have, so tell anyone who wants to cut benefits either directly or sneakily to go pound salt).

Anyway, back to groceries. I got some ham for the first time this year. Gideon gave me a ham for my birthday, so I couldn't buy more ham. I got some eggs so I can make quiches and omelettes to use up all my dumpling filling leftovers. I was surprised by how hard it was to find chick peas. I want to make hummus, but I need to buy olive oil first. And I got some red pepper flakes.

Shrimp

Last Friday I was invited +Margot over for dinner before we went to see +Eric be Miriam. Ridgely and Kevin came too. I wasn't sure what to make, but the Food Bazaar weekly circular told me shrimp were on sale, so I made shrimp tacos.

The shrimp were 2 lbs for $10, or if you got less than 2 lbs, $6/lb. They didn't have a scale, so my first guess was low by a quarter of a pound and I had to go get more. I over guessed and wended up with 2.5 lbs of shrimp. (I also got 2 lbs of mussels for $2 and they were great.)

For the tacos, I peeled the shrimp and kept the shells to make stock with later. Then I steamed them and seasoned them. But I got sick of peeling shrimp and we had enough for our tacos. So I had all these leftover shrimp. I decided to just steam them with the shells on. I figured we could peel them later.

Peeling the cooked shrimp was so annoying and hard. And I had been drinking, so I just ate the shell too. What a revelation! You can eat the shell. And that's where all the shrimp flavor is. If you buy shrimp flavored snacks in Chinatown, they never taste like what you expect shrimp to taste like. That's because they taste like the shell!