Easter Deals

Easter isn't a holiday I cook for because I always go to Agnes's. I do like cooking for Lent, so I'm peeping the Key Food circular to see if it has the things I need for a fish fry. They have a section of next week's ad that celebrates Easter with sales on ricotta, mozzarella, spaghetti, and tomato sauce. I guess that's what Italian people around here eat for Easter? I guess I grew up eating Carpatho-Rusyn food for Easter.

The prices are good though. $3 for 32 oz of ricotta. $2 for a pound of mozzarella.

Luxury butter is on sale for $3 per 8 oz (Kerrygold). I have to buy a lot of luxury butter anymore for my sourdough bread.

I'm not sure if they have fish for my fish fry. I guess I could use basa or swai (which Bing tells me are the same).

Fine Fare Name Change

When a new grocery store opened around the corner, the craigslist ad for jobs called it Grand Market. The store opened as Graham Market (it is on Graham Ave), but its website changed to Finefaresupermarkets.com. FineFare is a chain, and Graham Market seemed to be this specific stores name. That still is the website, but now the circular I'm looking at says Fine Fare changed its name to Gala Foods.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Why?

Why is cantaloupe $1.50 at food bazaar now? Why are tomatoes cheap there and at Key Food today? They looked red, but can you trust them? (No, because only garden tomatoes or farmer's market tomatoes are actually great, but I buy the other ones all the time anyway. Well, not if they are pink.)

Why is store brand swiss cheese more expensive than comparable cheddar and pepper jack? Does it take longer to make? Or are they selling it by volume and I am paying for the non-cheese holes in it?

A price mystery at Fine Fare. And olive oil prices by volume.

This morning I went to Fine Fare because the circular said that 10 oz bags of Cafe Bustelo were $2.50. But they change their prices over on Sundays and no signs about new prices were up. The price on the shelf said $4.25 or so. I found a scanner to check a price and it said it was $3.33. I needed coffee, so I bought just one. It rang up at $2.50. I was surprised the self-scanner and the cash register would show different prices.

I was just thinking about the price of olive oil because I don't want to do my homework. My roommate has a 250ml bottle of Filippo Berio Pure that cost $5.49, according to the price tag on it. I am going to Key Food this week to buy a 3 liter can of the same kind for $16. I hope he quits buying the small one.

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.

Grocery circular round up

Associated:  Bananas are $0.49/lb. I just put some bananas (for which I paid $0.49/lb) in the freezer because they were getting overly ripe. I will turn them into vegan ice cream. (Which is what happens when you put frozen bananas in a food processor).

Cabbage is $0.39/lb. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Skippy Peanut butter is $2. I need that. Rolling Rock is still $8 for a 12 pack, which I appreciate.

Key Food: I hope they have luxury butter on sale! I see pecorino romano is still on sale for $4.99/lb. That's a good price! I recommend you go get some.

Oh my word! Cabbage is only $0.19/lb. Hold on--I have to text someone.

Plugra luxury butter is on sale for $3.49 for 8 oz. I might have to get that. Brussels sprouts are still on sale for $1.49, so I guess I didn't have to go stock up yesterday.

C-Town: They want $0.29/lb for cabbage. Remember back when I thought $0.39 was a good deal?

Bravo: They also have cabbage for $0.29/lb and bananas for $0.49 and Skippy peanut butter for $2. They have "slicing tomatoes" for $0.69 but I am skeptical about tomatoes in March.

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Kroger bought Murray's Cheese

I thought "oh, that's smart. They can put Murray's branded cheese shops in all their stores." But they've been doing that for years, and I'm behind the times.

via DNA Info

Hmmm. What to cook for the Super Bowl

It's the only time of year I can ever remember seeing wings on sale. Food Bazaar has a 5 lb bag of frozen ones for $10. Which is still a rip off compared to the usual $0.50/lb I like to pay for quartered legs. But it's a special occasion. I think someone else might bring wings to my party and save me the trouble of spending $10. If I make the wings, I'd make a variation of Melissa Clark's green goddess roast chicken.

Key Food's sales are lackluster, except a pound of Galbani mozzarella for $3.

C-Town has Frank's Red Hot on sale, which I will need for my infamous Buffalo Chicken Jello Salad.  And Wishbone salad dressing for $0.79. Bleu cheese dressing is another ingredient in my masterpiece. C-Town has sour cream on sale for $1. I'll need that since I am going to make nachos. I can't inflict only savory gelatin on my guests.

Cock-a-leekie

Yesterday was Burns Night, so I looked at Scottish cuisine on wikipedia. I can't make haggis, but cock-a-leekie seemed easy enough. It's chicken (cock) and leek (ie) soup.

Graham Market/Finefare sells leeks for $0.89 each. That seems like a good price, but now I have to look everywhere else. I watched a Jacques Pepin video about how to prep leeks and he said they are expensive.

Here's the video. It's about 2 minutes.

Eggplant Emoji

Eggplant is on sale at Bravo for $0.79/lb this week, and my exroommate made me a good pasta dish with sausage last night, so I bought eggplant at Bravo and sausage at Associated and some other stuff and fed people.

Now I'm eating leftovers and I think all I fed people was fat and salt. Which people like

I need to go to Trade Fair

Since my last post, I talked about Heinz BBQ sauces in an interview to get into grad school, then I got in. Good ol' groceries. And then I packed a sandwich of peanut butter, pickles, and barbecue sauce every day.

And I made a friend who moved to Astoria who told me about Trade Fair and now I need to go there. They have 10 pounds of onions on sale for $2. They sell a 32 pound BOX of oil.

I hope I don't end up biking over the Pulaski Bridge with 42 pounds of food I don't need. Heaven and my roommates know that I do not need more oil.