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!

New Credit Card (Again): American Express Blue Cash Everyday

I didn't even last a month using my BankAmericard credit card. I bought a whole lot of things on it (boy 0% interest is nice) so they got a lot of my spending. But I got $100 for free. But I'm off to a new card, which is kinda my old card.

When I was looking up credit card reward programs, I found out that American Express quit offering Blue Cash's old way (0.5%, then once you spend $6500, 1.5% or something) and now has Blue Cash Everyday. This gives, well I'll copy and paste:

Get 3% cash back at U.S. stand-alone supermarkets*, 2% cash back on gasoline at U.S. stand-alone gas stations, 2% cash back at select major department stores; and 1% cash back on other purchases.

In under a month, I went from getting 1% on groceries to 3%! I should go shopping. I'm hungry. Maybe I'll return to writing about groceries instead of how you should pay for them.

Cookie Butter

My sister is a big fan of Trader Joe's Cookie Butter.

Maybe I'll try it someday. I like cookies, and I don't like chewing.

I'm switching to BankAmericard Cash Rewards

I applied for this card this morning and was approved. I currently use Chase Freedom, which gives me 1% back on everything and rotates through different categories every quarter when it offers 5%. That was my old recommendation. BankAmericard Cash Rewards offers 1% on everything, 2% on groceries, and 3% on gas. So I'm going to double my rewards on my favorite thing to buy!

It also is offering $100 when you sign up and you spend $500. Just yesterday I was thinking about buying a $100 food processor. Perfect!

(I have so many credit cards. Chase Freedom, Chase Slate, PNC, 1st Financial, American Express Blue Cash, Discover. I don't have any store cards though.)

Cheese Louise

I need to stop. Or stores need to quit putting cheeses on sale.

 Key Food had this on sale 2/$5, must buy 2. So I did. I've been meaning to make pumpkin ricotta gnocchi anyway.

Tilt your head to see my savings. I forgot to rotate it.

Pumpkin Pasta using Trader Joe's Ingredients

I just invented a new pasta dish. I'm not even done eating it yet. As I was making it, I realized almost all my ingredients were from Trader Joe's. It's pretty good. Here's the recipe.

1 lb (1 bag) whole wheat penne $1.39
1/2 can pumpkin (1 can is $1.99)
1/2 stick of butter
a bunch of diced onion
a bunch of capers (a jar is $3.69 at Trader Joe's)
oregano ($1.99 for a jar at trader joe's)
grated parmesan (parmesan is $6.49/lb)
15 oz (1 can) cannelini beans (optional. $0.89)

Melt the butter and cook the onions until you can smells them. You can add salt and pepper and oregano at this point. Then add the pumpkin and capers. Beans if you want them. I like adding beans to pasta because the same things that make pasta taste good make beans taste good and beans are healthy. Add some of the pasta water to thin the sauce out a little. (Dip a coffee mug in that pot, pour it in the sauce pan.) Once you mix it all together, grate some cheese into it and stir it, then grate some more on top of your plate when you serve it.

I like whole wheat for this because it's nuttier than regular. I don't ever really want to eat whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, but it's great for this pumpkin sauce. Likewise, I like parmesan over pecorino romano for this because it's nuttier. Romano is my go to cheese, but parmesan's better here.

Ok, time for another bowl.