4 Grocery Stores

I went to 4 grocery stores today. I bought the most expensive bananas ($0.79/lb) and I paid $1.89 for Fresca. I should be shot.

At last, Tuna Bean Salad

I've been talking about this recipe for a long time and eating it even slightly longer. It's pretty good. I served it to my family on Christmas Eve and it was a hit. It's also really easy and pretty cheap. It's mostly from Mark Bittman, but he'd yell at me for some of my shortcuts, so I'm just going to say it's mine. Plus, I make it for me and he doesn't. But I'll tell you where he'd do it differently.

 Here's what you need for it. Olive oil (only about 2 Tbsp), 2 cans of tuna, a can of white beans, some parsley, some lemon juice, and black pepper. Mark Bittman says to use fresh parsley and real lemon juice. Fresh parsley does make it better, but it's good with dried stuff too. The dried stuff is mostly for your eyes, but you can taste it a bit. You also need some onion, preferably red.

You can get the tuna for 4/$3 at Western Beef. I tried using the more expensive white albacore kind once but liked it less. It's drier.  Beans should be under $1 per can. Sometimes I use small white navy beans. I don't really care if you change what kind of beans you use every time you eat it, but white beans make it look the nicest.

 First, drain and add the tuna.

 Then drain and add the beans.

 Add some diced red onion. When I buy a red onion, I dice the whole thing then use about this much for the tuna bean salad and put the rest in a bag in the refrigerator for next time. I use red onion for some other things, but mostly for this.

 I added about 2 Tbsp of olive oil and maybe about 3 Tbsp of lemon juice here. You can't tell, so I just stirred everything up. If I were using a real lemon, I'd use the juice of half a lemon I think. You don't want lemon soup, but you do want more acid than oil.

 Underneath that parsley is 10 twists of the pepper grinder. I used a heavy hand with the parsley here.

Then I stirred it up. Now it's festering in the refrigerator because it's better when the flavors meld and it's better chilled.

Eat it plain or on toast or crackers or crostini (more words for toast = more excuses for toast).

I got some good deals at Key Food

This is from a trip a few days ago. I hope I remember how much I paid for everything. The eggs I remember. They were $0.99 for a dozen large. You could get extra large for $1.99. Pierogies were $2.50. "Meat" hot dogs were $1.69. I don't buy nice hot dogs because I don't care. I just want a method to eat ketchup. Crushed tomatoes were $1.50. I already had some, but I use them a lot. The pasta was $1 and it rang up as $1, unlike at C-Town where it was $1 and rang up as $1.69 and made me mad. The artichoke hearts were $1.69, which is more than what C-Town charges for the La Squisita ones I like, but they don't seem to stock them anymore. Frozen broccoli was $1.46 for a pound.

I guess I have food I could eat. I was going to put ketchup on noodles for lunch. I can't get enough ketchup lately.

Vodka's getting pricier

At BQE Liquors, the price of my Seagram's vodka went up $1 to $16.53. Now the dignity premium* I pay for the smooth vodka in the bumpy bottle is $3.

Fleischmann's whiskey is still $6/bottle.

*The dignity premium is how much extra I pay to have a jug of vodka that isn't in a plastic jug that I can share with guests with dignity. My dignity. I assume my guests intend to lose theirs if they're guzzling vodka.

What you can get for a dime

This is my favorite song about what you can buy for a dime.

Also, you can buy Fresca for $1.25 at Key Food now.

I got my Fresca.

And for $0.74! Worth the wait.

Western Beef has 2 liter Coke products on sale for $0.74 (limit 5) with an additional $10 purchase. That's not hard to do. I was almost out of pecorino romano anyway ($5.99/lb) and I live on the tuna bean salad I've been promising you a recipe for (4 cans for $3). Pre-toast is $1.79 a loaf now. Used to be $1.69, but I've been reading about the price of wheat and it costs me at least $2.50 anywhere else.

Know what I didn't buy?

Sardines! They used to be $1.15. I guess I'll just starve or buy the $1.29 sardines at C-Town and Key Food. You could argue that making a separate trip over $0.04 is stupid, but if you don't care about $0.04 I'll let you send me all the $0.04s you don't want via Paypal.

I buy a lot of Dairy

I went to Key Food today to buy Fresca, which is advertised at 5 2 liter bottles for $5, and San Giorgio pasta, which is supposed to be 5/$4. They have no Fresca. Sometimes they carry it, but not when it's on sale I guess. And there were no signs up for the pasta, and I don't trust them so I didn't fix either of my problems.

I got milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, and Gatorade. I'm only missing buttermilk.

I only really want to eat toast anyway, so who needs pasta and Fresca?

Why I Keep Shopping at Western Beef

As my unemployment benefits ran out today, my mind turned to converting my illiquid assets to liquid ones. And as far as I can tell, cheap beer is more liquid than a dollar bill, and that's why I go to Western Beef, even in the rain.

Here's what I hauled in today.

The first item is 1% milk. I just started noticing the price of milk, which means I can survive a gotcha question when I run for president. At Key Food, a half gallon of milk is $2.50. The second item there is Vintage tonic water. At Key Food, I can get the store brand for $1. $0.67 is a $0.33 subsidy to my gin consumption.

I got some white beans for $0.67 too. I turn that into a tuna salad that I'll show you sometime. It's pretty good. I served it to my family for Christmas Eve and they liked it.

Next is a jar of anchovies for $3.49. I pay between $4.99 and $5.49 for a similar sized jar at Key Food and C-Town.

And finally, my traditional 3 bottles of Baltika. At $1.88/bottle, my assets could hardly be more liquid.

My Typical Western Beef Trip

Since the weather got nice enough for me to bike everywhere, I've been going to Western Beef a lot. And since I discovered Baltika, I've been going even more. Here's my typical haul: 3 Baltikas, a half gallon of milk, and a bunch of fish products. Baltika is Europe's second largest brewery, according to Wikipedia. These bottles are imported from Russia. They're $1.88 for 51 oz, which is 1.5L. They're 8% alcohol. They only look foamy there because they just survived a ride on my bike. They're either so cheap because the ruble is so weak, their best by date is in 2 weeks, or because they're not that good. I, however, have acquired the taste. It's rather sweet. I'd serve it at a brunch with oatmeal, but not with huevos rancheros.

The sardines and tuna are pretty good prices too. I can find sardines on sale for $1/less sometimes, but $1.15 is the most consistent low price and I eat them a lot. I never find tuna for less than 4/$3.

You're looking at Delallo's Fan of the Week

Every week Delallo names a fan of the week based on submissions of memories of the store/brand. So last week I decided to win myself a free t-shirt and this week I won it. I wrote about how excited I was to see their products in Key Food for the first time.

Yesterday I took Greg to Western Beef. Western Beef should name me fan of the year for how many people I've made go there.

I'm on to you, groceries!

I knew 59 ounces was a weird size for my orange juice. The New York Times says this is how we get inflation in food. It's because we're very price sensitive but not very quantity sensitive.

Ms. Stauber, 33, said she began inspecting her other purchases, aisle by aisle. Many canned vegetables dropped to 13 or 14 ounces from 16; boxes of baby wipes went to 72 from 80; and sugar was stacked in 4-pound, not 5-pound, bags, she said.

Five or so years ago, Ms. Stauber bought 16-ounce cans of corn. Then they were 15.5 ounces, then 14.5 ounces, and the size is still dropping. “The first time I’ve ever seen an 11-ounce can of corn at the store was about three weeks ago, and I was just floored,” she said. “It’s sneaky, because they figure people won’t know.

Now I have a new thing to keep my eyes peeled for.

Eggs on Special at Associated. Beans, no.

I went to Associated today to buy some jalapeno peppers because my jar was running low and I devised a way to mass produce huevos rancheros which is going to make me famous. They were $1.59/lb, which isn't bad. At Key Food they're $4.99/lb. They were on the old side, so I almost left, but I saw medium eggs for $1.25. You can't beat that with a stick! You always want small eggs when you're making huevos rancheros, especially with my new way.

I was also in the market for some celery salt, but they didn't have it. I wanted chick peas, but they wanted $1/can for them and I was having none of that. $0.80 is appropriate. I needed milk too, but I don't think they have enough turnover of milk for it to be good so I still have to go shopping later. I didn't think their price on Mexican crema was that good either.

Here's what I do with my peppers. I chop them up and stick them in my jar of vinegar and salt. Later, they're good.















And here's the secret to mass producing huevos rancheros. Use a muffin pan. It's all in there. The best part is either that the tortilla is not soggy or greasy or that you don't need a fork or a knife to eat these. You can pick them up and they're perfect.

By my reckoning, I will be able to feed 12 people 2 eggs each for about $12, which is how much my huevos rancheros cost the last time I ordered them in a restaurant. And these are better, so I won't name the restaurant.