What to cook for St. Patrick's Day

I don't know! I hope the Key Food and Bravo circulars inspire me. I think they made their St. Patrick's sales last week because that is when cabbage was $0.29/lb everywhere. But I didn't get any. I'll make colcannon (mashed potatoes with kale) and I don't know what else.

Bravo has some Irish beers on sale. Kerrygold butter is on sale, but it's $4 which isn't a good enough sale. I could do $3.49. Pizza rolls are on sale! I think we're going to eat pizza rolls, onion rings, and colcannon.

Key Food has avocados for $0.97. I have long thought that guacamole and margaritas are good for St. Patrick's Day because they are green and Irish food isn't that good (except colcannon). Nothing else good at Key Food.

I'll check Food Bazaar too. Corned beef is $3/lb. Hmm.

Chicken-free dog food?

Screech is my foster dog. He has alopecia and his hair fell out of his face and sometimes it thins elsewhere. When we first got him, we fed him regular cheap dog food and his fair fell out a lot. I read something that said he might have a grain allergy, so I got him turkey based grain free food, I think Rachael Ray Nutrish brand. His hair didn't grow back in his face, but the rest of his coat started to look healthy. One roommate bought that kind twice more, and still it was fine. Then I read Please Stop Buying Your Pets Grain-free Food in Slate which said most animals aren't actually allergic to grain but to a protein. Around the same time, my roommate bought a new bag of the Nutrish, but chicken-based instead of turkey. Screech just finished that 25 pound bag, and his hair is thinning everywhere again.

I went to Ozzie's (formerly Associated), Bravo, C-Town, and Key Food. All the dog foods have chicken except fancy grain-free kinds. So I ended up buying a salmon and rice bag that was $16 for 4.5 lbs. That is more money per pound than I spend on my food! But I don't know what kind of food to get him. Maybe back to the old Nutrish with turkey.

An online circular

The store that was Associated and is now Ozzie's Fresh Market (Food Universe) finally has its weekly circulars online. I had just been looking at Key Food's and assuming it was the same, and also picking up the paper one.

http://ozziefreshmarket.com/weekly-circular/

Pork butt is $0.79/lb. Mushrooms are $3 for a lb.

I got a lot of anchovies for $2.89 at Whole Foods

 I went to Whole Foods with my friend. I wasn't going to buy anything, but I noticed this big jar of anchovies for only $12.99. A similar jar (different brand) is $15 at Key Food. That's been on my shopping list forever, so I got it. Then I noticed that Whole Foods was giving me $10 off for having Amazon Prime. The icing on the cake was saving $0.10 for not needing a bag. I haven't eaten them yet, but they look good.

I got Amazon ads now!

If you click on them and then do your regular Amazon shopping, I will get rich. That's what I plan to do.

These ads are supposed to look at what I wrote on this page and be about that. I'm interested in what that will look like. That's why I put the ad at the top. The first ad I see is for 40 meat sticks. This is great.

Shrimp with heads

I've never eaten, much less cooked, shrimp with heads on. They're creepy. But they are on sale this week at Food Bazaar so I keep thinking about them.

Gala Foods seems to have shut down

The doors have been gated the last several times I walked past it during normal hours. I think it was last open during the Super Bowl.

Before closing, it seemed to have given up. Products didn't have prices. Then shelves didn't have products. It was a very frustrating place to shop.

I hope an Associated or Met replaces it. I miss Associated.

All the good sales at Key Food are over

From before Thanksgiving through the new year, Key Food had such good sales on the things I want. Mainly mushrooms and all types of cheeses, but also roasted red peppers, olives, etc. But that seems to be over now. I won't buy anything this week.

I went on Thursday, the last sale day, to get 2 more packages of mushrooms (sliced cremini and regular for $1.67 each) and pepper jack and cheddar. The cheeses were supposed to be $1.99, and they were on Monday, but they rang up at $2.49. I didn't feel like corrected them, so I am just complaining now.

That was also the first time I used my Discover Card in real life in years and years. It's giving me 5% back on groceries this quarter. That also means it's the first time I didn't have my American Express in my wallet in years.

I keep leaving Bravo with nothing

I even put things in my basket, then walk around more, put everything back, and leave empty-handed.  This is frustrating for me, but it also has to upset Bravo, who is losing sales.

I keep doing it because they are out of stock of something I went there specifically for. And because their credit card minimum is $7, which is too high when I just want a bag of sugar and some onions, or whatever.

Today, I wanted onions, sugar, flour, and milk. The big empty space is the sugar that was $1.99 for 4 lbs. I put the onions and milk back and left.

Bye, Associated

I walked to Key Food last night to buy mushrooms ($3 for 1 pound) and mozzarella ($2 for 1 pound), but they were out of mushrooms. On the way back, I saw that the "Associated" sign had been removed from the store that was once called Associated. I don't know what it will be called now. I don't like it. And now I don't have an Associated in my neighborhood.

WTF is going on with Associated?

I am quite cross. Associated seems to be trying to become Key Food.

Not all Associateds, of course. This blog is about the 5-6 stores closest to my apartment. And for a long time, there has been an Associated on Grand between Manhattan and Leonard. But Key Food branded products have started showing up. And I went there after perusing the online Associated circular (which still lists it) and found all the sales wrong. I thought I was out of my gourd (was a gourd on special? who knows!) but I found a different circular for only "Ozzie's Fresh Market" without mention of Associated or Key Food.

Also they are requiring an Ozzie's loyalty card to get some deals now.

I don't like any of this. I don't like another Key Food that is worse than the original. I don't like needing another card. I don't like the circular not being online. I don't like their stupid music that is always interrupted by announcements about what is on sale that repeats the prices so many times. I hope it goes out of business. I hope it becomes Aldi.

I'm fed up.

Also, the prices are worse.

I bet pork is going to get expensive after Hurricane Florence

Just need to sit with this for a minute: "North Carolina has 9.7 million pigs, producing almost 10 billion gallons of manure annually." Florence’s Path Is Strewn With Toxic Hazards https://t.co/VVQya8FYMP

— Joy Wang (@joyywang) September 14, 2018