Trader Joe's in Williamsburg is opening December 10!

 I guess I will buy capers and nuts and buttermilk and gorgonzola more often.

Trader Joe's Williamsburg outpost will officially open Friday, Dec. 10, the store announced Thursday. https://t.co/TfEsO0UJhZ

— Brooklyn Paper (@brooklynpaper) December 3, 2021

Key Food's Clearance Sale

 Last night I went and it was packed and way more cleared out than I expected. I got 2 jars of peanut butter and 3 bags of dried cannellini beans (all the rest).

Today I needed to break a $20 to do laundry, so I went back. I didn't end up breaking the $20 there, but I did get gorgonzola, 2 cans of tomato juice, a jar of hot horseradish, a tube of anchovy paste (which I've never bought before), a bag of Starbucks coffee beans (which I've never bought before, but people have given me both a French press and a coffee grinder within about the last 6 weeks, so I am going to try something new). I also got sun-dried tomatoes, which I'm not sure if I even like much or if they were a good price. I ended spending $25 after they took the 30% off. Oh, I got dark soy sauce too. I've wanted dark soy sauce for a while, though I don't know why.

Maybe tomorrow they will have different sales (since it's Friday) or they'll increase from 30%. Nobody is buying their oil or pasta at all.

Thanksgiving! What's on sale?

 I don't know if I will celebrate Thanksgiving. I'm definitely not having a bunch of people over, but I would like to eat turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and gravy. Whether I do that will depend partly on what I find on sale and partly on how much room I have in my refrigerator. It's currently very full.

I think most stores don't put the price of turkey in their ads. They put the price "if you spend $100" or whatever. I'm not going to spend $100. I just want to know how much the turkey is!

Anyway, here we go.

Key Food: The turkey is $0.39/lb if I spend $50. I'm sure that will be the cheapest, but I definitely can't fit $50 of groceries in my apartment. Last year I went with Eric and he bought a lot of groceries and I tacked on a turkey. Sweet potatoes are $0.59/lb. A pound of mushrooms is $2.50 and a bag of cranberries is 3/$5 (they had been $2 all month). A bag of stuffing is $2.5. Butternut squash is $0.79/lb. There is something called "steamable sweet potatoes" for $1.67/lb but I don't understand that because all sweet potatoes are steamable if you put them over steam.

C-Town: I don't see anything I'd go here for. But maybe I'm not in the mood for this. I'll try one more store.

Brooklyn Harvest Market:  14 oz of "stuffing mushrooms" are only $2.50. Mozzarella and ricotta remain on sale. I haven't made lasagna yet, but maybe I will today. I think a turkey is $1.49/lb.

Groceries have gone too far.

What the heck? Why would you put gorgonzola in coleslaw? I love gorgonzola and coleslaw and yet...!

A lot of these sales are the same as last week. I guess that's how they get to have 10 page circulars. I don't mind. At least I can look up how much everything costs from bed.

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.

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 :(

Trader Joe's Always Does This to Me

I went to Trader Joe's today because I had to go to Manhattan. I spent about $26. I bought olive oil, canola oil, a can of cannelini beans, frozen peas, frozen broccoli, frozen spinach, frozen asparagus, gorgonzola, buttermilk, and beer. Everything was a good price and so I spent more than usual (I rarely spend $20 on a single trip.)

Yet I still don't know what to eat for dinner. I might drink olive oil.

This afternoon before I went, I tried concocting a meal of rice, broccoli, sardines, soy sauce, and hot sauce. Unfortunately for him, Dylan dropped in while I was cooking it, so I fed him some.

Update: Toast!

Finally, Gorgonzola at a Reasonable Price

Today I went to Manhattan. I was at Chelsea Piers for the first time. Then I walked around for a while. I found a Western Beef I didn't know existed on West 16th St. It's much smaller than the one in Ridgewood, but the prices are the same, which means it's possible to live in Manhattan after all.

 How beautiful. I didn't buy anything though. I like my Western Beef better and I wanted to go to Trader Joe's.

I went to the one on 6th Avenue and 21st St. I had never been there either. What a pleasure. The store wasn't crowded at all. I guess I was hungry because I finally bought food. I got gorgonzola for $5.99/lb, which is a really good price. I got a 6 pack of some store brand of their beer that I had at Roxy's before for $3.99. I don't think it's bad. It's 6.2% alcohol, so it's strong regardless. I got frozen peas and frozen artichoke hearts for $1.29 and $2.99 respectively. I need the artichokes for pungent pasta (along with the gorgonzola) and C-Town quit having the ones I liked before.

I need the picture to remember what else I got. Frozen party (meaning small) meatballs are $3.99 now. They used to be cheaper. They're good for my spaghetti. Buttermilk is only $1.69 there. I had a glass after dinner. I got some peanut butter, which is cheaper than those national brands anyway. I guess that's my effort to stock up before the looming price increase. It was $1.79. I got a can of cannelini beans for $0.89. I ate them.

I considered getting some oregano for $1.99, but I got a brand at a dollar store for $1 yesterday. Maybe I should try using that up quick.

So now I need to make pungent pasta.

C-Town Tweets to Me! My Christmas list for C-Town

Let me tell you, I hate a lot of brands and companies this week. Chase is canceling free checking. State Farm had an annoying bordering on rude insurance agent. Allstate had a really nice insurance agent, but quit working with me when I wouldn't sign something certifying that 2 or fewer people live in my apartment. (She suggested I amend it to "1," which was even further from 3.) AppleCare wanted me to submit proof of payment for the AppleCare I ordered directly from them with a credit card on a date I provided the date and exact amount for. And I applied for a job that was being handled by a third party and after they made me answer a bunch of personality questions, asked me to submit my credit score which they had helpfully linked me to get for free.  No.

Here are the companies on my good side:

• J.C. Penney
• C-Town
• Delallo's 
• Key Food
• Amazon

I like C-Town and Delallo's the most because they talk to me on Twitter the most. I like C-Town the most of the most because they don't have ridiculous prices. (I'd like them even more if they carried some Delallo products though.)

That is all just the set up to addressing a very important tweet. Perhaps the most important tweet I've ever read.  "Let us know what else you would like & we will work on it!"

C-Town, here is my wish list.
Easy stuff:

• There used to be marinated artichoke hearts for $1.29 that were kind of hidden about 1 step down the first aisle from the Goya ones. These were the best. Now there are $1.50 Cento ones and they taste funny and have hard bases. Bring back the cheap good ones.
• Carry tomato juice in a can. I like to keep it on hand in my house for impromptu brunches. Key Food charges $2.19. Compare charges about $1.79. Associated charges $1.99 I think. V-8 doesn't count. They carry Sacramento, but I'd buy a cheaper brand since it's just a base for my bloody mary.
• I never buy my cheese at C-Town (except for sliced cheese from the deli counter). Here's why. The pecorino romano, which is my main cheese (check the tags for this blog), is never in big hunks. It's in those cute vacuum packed seals from Bel Gioioso that cost too much. Key Food and Western Beef have nice attractive big chunks that somehow or other they can put on sale for $5/lb at times, but I will pay $10 in an emergency. The gorgonzola, when I can even find it, is always crumbled already. I like the chunk. I want chunky Italian cheese. I was glad to see ricotta salata added recently.
• Add Delallo products. I saw some at the Met Food on Fulton Street and made Agnes buy them.

Harder Stuff:

• I'd be elated to find Iron City, I.C. Light, or any beer from the Penn Brewery there. I meet lots of people from Pittsburgh around here.  I read that the assistant manager of Motorino is from Pittsburgh. The Penn Brewery has good beers. I'd buy them for special occasions.
• There isn't the turnover to support a lot of your produce. In an emergency, I bought a green pepper twice, and regretted it both times. Onions are fine. Potatoes are fine. Much of the rest isn't. Know your strengths. Key Food has some sections with anchovies, capers, and lots of other jarred Italian products that 1) don't spoil 2) are good. That'd be a much better use of the space. Heck, put in more beer even.

Gripes

• Dried beans cost twice as much as at Associated. So do eggs. If that's where the profit margin comes from, fine. But I know better now! 

At least C-Town doesn't ring up all my purchases at the wrong prices all the time like Key Food does.

Ginger Ale Sale at Key Food

Now's the time to stock up on ginger ale at Key Food. It's all on sale. I wonder why. I went with Schweppes because my friend Rachel prefers that brand and I don't know anyone else with a ginger ale preference. Since I started drinking Schweppe's, I think I've enjoyed ginger ale more. Now would be the time for me to do a taste test.

There is never a time to stock up on eggs at Key Food. Their prices are ridiculous.

If you can't read it, that says $1.89 for the medium eggs at the end. At C-Town they're $1.50. At Associated I think I bought a dozen eggs for $1. Key Food's eggs are not 89% better than Associated's!

Despite that, I felt like I got good deals at Key Food. I got Gatorade for $0.88. Ginger ale was on sale. By avoiding those eggs, I was happy I saved money. Barilla pasta was $1/box for any shape. And gorgonzola was labeled $7.99/lb. I've wanted some of that for a while, but it's always $9.99/lb. You don't need a lot of it to taste a lot of it, but I still am much happier with $7.99.  So I paid and on the sidewalk I looked at my receipt. That was when I noticed they charged me $9.99. So I was no longer happy about getting a good price. Key Food always messes up their sales.