A duck. What to cook with a duck. Side dishes for duck.

 The backstory is I got a frozen duck from Gideon for my birthday in December. It is too luxurious to eat by myself, so I stuck it in the freezer. Now it's April and the Omnicron wave around my the end of the year has subsided, the weather is nicer, and it is time to cook a duck.

The first problem with my meal plan is the flip side of it being too lonely to eat a fancy duck by myself. I started by inviting Yasmin. Then I invited Matt and Emily because they also gave me lot of fancy ingredients for my birthday (most of which I still have, and may incorporate into the meal). And I had to invite Gideon of course, but he hasn't told me if he will come. Also, roommates. So I am dealing with not a lot of duck per person and also a lot of uncertainty about how many people I even need.

Two people have suggested I make Peking duck. I do not know how to make this. I am not really sure how to make any duck (that is the point of Gideon's gift.. he gets me weird things I have to figure out). But I especially don't know how to make Peking duck.

I currently think I will make a large amount of some sort of risotto (that was a gift from Matt & Emily) as a first course, then a small serving of duck with a side of some vegetables as a second course. This is basically the Italian meal style. Which means I could flesh it out with an antipasto course. My main risotto ideas are either mushroom (risotto ai funghi), saffron (risotta alla milanese) or to be very weird, strawberry (risotto alle fragole). This one for orange risotto sounds good too. (risotto all'arancia)

The point of this blog post is to take notes while I look through all the grocery circulars to see what is on sale this week and maybe come up with ideas. The title of the blog post was accidentally SEO bait and then I thought it was funny so I made it more baity.

Bravo: Asparagus $2/lb. Mozzarella $3. They don't list them on sale, but they sell bulk white mushrooms for $3/lb which is a pretty good price and I could use a ton of those with a few porcini (gift from Matt & Emily).

Brooklyn Harvest Market: Asparagus. Mozzarella.

C-Town: Asparagus. Mozzarella. All the sales are the same this week. Escarole $2/lb.

Food Bazaar: Lemons 5/$2, but I'm not dealing with that whole store for that.

Ozzie's: Asparagus. Mozzarella is 2/$4 (must buy 2) so at least that is a little different. And ricotta is only $3.

Green Corner: Strawberries $2/lb. Lemons 5/$2 (I will go here just for that).

My Planned Menu

Antipasti: various olives, some cheeses, giardiniera, roasted red peppers, and maybe some sort of crackers

Primo: Risotto ai funghi

Secondo: Orange duck (anatra all'anatra)

Contorno: Escarole or arugula salad with strawberries, gorgonzola

Snacks and some other grocery thoughts

 I used to not even notice potato chips.

Now I always do, and that's not very good. They aren't that healthy.

I don't know a good price, but those seem ok? I dunno.

Asparagus is coming into season. $1/lb at Key Food this week.

I bought so much ground turkey at C-Town last week. And Greek yogurt there and Key Food the week before. All the people in my life doing WW Points have affected me. I walk home with 0 points of food all the time. I'm gonna add a WW tag to my posts.

Today I went to Bravo and walked home with 10 lbs of bread flour, which is many points. I never owned bread flour before. We'll see what happens! I also got a little jar of sambol olek for $1.5. I have remnants of a big jar (that cost $4 according to the tag) in the refrigerator that is probably 40 years old. I'm gonna gry to use it more. This week I used up a jar of mapo tofo sauce this week that said use by 2015. (I didn't buy that... many roommates ago left it)

Tofu was $1/lb for last week so I bought so much of it. I even told my roommate Taha about it.

What's on sale this week - Coronavirus Week 3

I saw "Week 3" because this is the 3rd week when it's been relevant to my grocery circular perusings and musings.

First, Food Bazaar:

I think the rest have circulars though. Whether I'll be able to find things when I go, who can say?

C-Town: Colavita pasta is $1. That's my preferred brand now. Coke products are 4/$5. Asparagus is $1.99/lb. Krasdale flour is $2 for 5 lbs. I have been on a focaccia kick. I can't spell it though. Maybe that's right.

Western Beef: 

Their sales always suck anyway. I do like their pickled things.

Green Corner: They also canceled their circular, but they put it on their website on a weird way so no picture.

Bravo: Cans of Luigi Vitelli tomatoes are only $1, but when I did a taste test with Scalfani, Luigi Vitelli lost by a lot so I don't know if I will bother.

Key Food: Asparagus is only $1.49/lb here. Gala apples are $0.99/lb. Flour is $2/lb. Powerade is $1. A pound of butter is $3. A half pound of luxury butter is also $3. Goy dry beans are mostly 3/$5. I want to get more cannellini. I might as well find out what fava are like too.

Shopping at Key Food while the feeling of Coronavirus sets in

I have still been going to grocery stores, and today it felt different. It was pretty crowded at 2:30pm. People were shopping with carts. I don't think Key Food even has carts most of the time. The shelves were mostly stocked, so it was interesting to notice what was out of stock: fancy rice, regular flavor Cholula hot sauce.

I went because this past week's sales are better than next weeks. I got more asparagus ($1.99/lb) and mushrooms ($2.99/lb). I got yeast ($3) and cornmeal ($2). I got 2 bottles of diet tonic water. The only part of this that could be considered hoarding/preparing for a quarantine is the 2nd bottle of tonic water.

Grocery Sales for the First Friday of Lent!

I hope I see some fish! I have been stocking up on canned fishes. Which will also be good if coronavirus wipes out food supply chains. I will already have lots of canned food.

Green Corner: They didn't update their circular, but they are celebrating. This is the top of last week's circular.

Food Bazaar: Instant mashed potatoes are on sale. I am going to make gnocchi tomorrow, so maybe I'll go get them. I don't really know what a good price is for them, but they're on sale so it must be better than normal. I was hoping for a good sale on fish sticks but there is only a bad sale. Potatoes are $1.5 for 5 lbs, so maybe I'll go today and get whole potatoes and instant mashed potatoes.

Western Beef: Barilla pasta is $1/box. Barilla has more of the interesting shapes so it might be worth it to go for orzo or ditalini. The mashed potatoes are on sale here too but I don't even know if they are cheaper than Food Bazaar because I forgot how much they were there. $2 for 13.5 ounces here. Grapefruit is 3/$2. It's not on sale, but they have big jars of pickled hot cherry peppers and regular red peppers that are $4 for 2 lbs or so, which is a great price and I will get those if I go.

Bravo: I haven't shopped here in quite a while. It got gentrified like C-Town, but is always worse than C-Town. There's not really anything on sale there this week.

C-Town: I went there yesterday and the cashier tried to ring up my romaine ($0.99/lb) as green leaf lettuce ($2.49/lb) and then I spent more money than I expected so I thought it was still on my receipt. It wasn't, but it was still stressful so I'm unhappy. Anyway, the sales:

Asparagus is $2/lb. Galbani mozzarella is $4/lb. A fennel is $2.

Key Food: Polly-o mozzarella is $4 here. A pound of mushrooms is $3. I still have a pound of mushrooms from a week ago, but maybe I'll eat them so I can buy more. Here, 26.7 oz of mashed potatoes are $3, which seems better than Food Bazaar and Western Beef.

What's on Sale Next Week?!

I have to wake up early to attend a networking event, which I am trying to convince myself will be fun or good, but I just got an email from C-Town about next week's sales, so I am going to do something I like instead.

C-Town: Palmolive is on sale for $0.74! That's better than Dollar Tree. I like Palmolive, Ajax, or Joy for everyday use. Dawn Platinum for special occasions. But middle class people tell me to just use Dawn Platinum every day.

Colavita pure olive oil is $20. Hmmmm.... Key Food has Filipo Berio for $16, and I do need pure. And I only use pure for cooking, mostly. But Colavita is so much better. (If I won't use Dawn Platinum every day because that's too luxurious, maybe I will just buy the cheaper pure olive oil.)

Nothing else at C-Town looks like a good deal (their website's circular is terrible though), and I might be too embarrassed to go stock up on just Palmolive, so maybe I won't go there.

Associated: Asparagus is $2/lb, which is because it's spring and in season. I should get that.

A lot of Colgate products are on sale, but not Palmolive for $0.79 :(

Bravo: I don't trust their $0.79 tomatoes. March tomatoes taste like paper. $0.88/bag pasta is ok. I need some. They have $2/lb asparagus too. But like C-Town, I can't tell what Bravo puts on sale.