Cheating on C-Town

I cheated on C-Town today. With a different C-Town. My main C-Town, the one I mean when I write C-Town, is about 4 blocks from my house. It's not very big. It's produce is increasing--a while ago, it had none, then it got some cabbages, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce on a stand in a space in the back, and now it has a real section. But the prices are gentrifying faster than I am. I still go. I like all my stores. But I find myself buying less.

Usually when I shop elsewhere, it's at Key Food, Associated, Western Beef, Food Bazaar, or Bravo. In that order of frequency or money (but not geography, because Bravo is the closest of all. It used to be called Cat Pee). With so many stores, I don't go to extra C-Towns.

But there were two forces that led me to another one this week. One is that Chase Freedom gives 5% back on groceries from April through June. June is almost over. So I should buy pasta and sardines and whatever won't go bad now. C-Town's circular said Ronzoni was $1, but when I went in twice, that wasn't true. Second, C-Town's circular said they had Heinz mayonnaise (new). I went twice, and didn't see it. If any of my other stores had had pasta this week for $1 or less, I would have just bought it there. I checked them all. None did. So I went to the other Williamsburg C-Town.

Now, I've been there many times. I used to be good friends with someone who lived near there and shopped there frequently. And since I'm an avid shopper and he was an adept cook, I accompanied him often. I didn't think much of it then. Today was different. Today I liked it because it respected the weekly circular. But it also had the best price on tomatillos I've seen ($1.49 instead of $1.69) and the best price on jalapeno peppers ($1.29 instead of $1.49). I didn't buy those things, but I liked it. It carried braunschweiger. It didn't carry Iron City. It doesn't tweet to me or have tumblr. But it's a nice store.

I bought 6 boxes of pasta (they were out of spaghetti, so I got thin spaghetti, which is worse. And I don't eat as much pasta these days). I got strawberries ($2.50), leaf lettuce ($1.59?), Heinz mayo (on sale for $2.99), Fresca ($1.67... eh), chamomile tea ($3.99? $2.99? I don't know the correct price for that, but needed it for the Gin test kitchen), and maybe something else. I don't recall. I spent $20, which is a big trip for me.

I wouldn't have bought so much, but Agnes said she'd come over for the Gin Test Kitchen and I needed to make her dinner. I had just eaten so I wasn't clever with ideas. I went for the strawberry/fennel salad I invented on Sunday. It has a bitter green  (ideally, but I used leaf lettuce today), strawberries, fennel, and red wine vinaigrette. I put some balsamic in it today too cause I had too much oil and didn't want to use the rest of the red wine vinegar. It's pretty good. Agnes agreed that it's pretty good. I forgot to serve it with pecorino romano. I bet it would be good with some croutons too. This is a salad I want to build upon and create variations of. It's the best salad I've invented since apple coleslaw.

Grocery Disappointment

It is very hot. I haven't been leaving the house much. Yesterday I went to grocery stores. I didn't buy anything at Key Food because they seemed to have taken down all the signs saying what was on sale for the week and I didn't want to operate from memory. At Associated I got a bunch of things, but I'm happiest about the ham. At Jesus, I was going to buy tomatoes, but they were all a color between pink and white.

Maybe today will be better. I still have 8 days to get 5% back on groceries with my Chase Freedom card.

Limes, etc.

Western Beef's lime prices have been plummeting. Before I went to Pittsburgh for Memorial Day, they were 15/$2. I know all about Pittsburgh lime prices ($0.50 each at best, $0.69 or $0.79 more frequently) so I brought my own. When I got back, Western Beef dropped its price to 8/$1. And this week, they are 1/$10! (And spelled wrong). I have been drinking many many Moscow Mules with them and the Good-O ginger beer which is $1.25 for 2 liters. It's nice and spicy too. But with limes at these prices, I might make ceviche.

I haven't been shopping much otherwise. I have only used the stove once in the past week. I eat tomato sandwiches because tomatoes are $0.79 or $0.99/lb and I eat ham sandwiches because I love the Hormel Ham from Associated that is $3.99/lb. (I don't like ham with crust on it. I like cheap good ham. Boiled ham. Cooked ham. Not baked ham.) I eat hard boiled eggs because eggs are way cheaper these days than I've ever seen them in New York.

Grocery Shopping by Database

This woman who works for the NY Times created a database of her recipes and prepares shopping lists very specifically.

My database constructs my shopping list in three phases: First, I push a button that produces a checklist of recipes by name, along with other household items. I then select the recipes I intend to prepare in the coming week, as well as other things I need to buy. The tags make it easy to select a dish from each category.

When I’ve made my choices, I push a second button, and all of the items, including the recipe ingredients with their quantities, appear on one long list. If two recipes call for one onion each, my list will indicate that I need to buy two onions; it won’t list onion twice. I flag items that I already have and don’t need to buy.

She certainly takes grocery shopping seriously, but I think she's taking the joy out of it. Her husband says she has Just-In-Time inventory. I kinda do too--I go to grocery stores several times a week and buy what I want right before I use it.

Maybe if I were shopping for a family, I'd appreciate her approach more.

Tomatillos!

I just learned about tomatillos. By that, I mean I finally bought some and used them. I made salsa verde. It was the best salsa verde I ever had. Then I made more salsa verde by adding new things to the old, but it wasn't as good.

I got tomatillos at Associated for $1.69/lb. At Jesus they are $1.99. At Western Beef they are $1.99. At Key Food they are $2.99. At Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh, they are $3.99. I lucked out by buying them at Associated without comparison shopping. But you make your own luck--they seemed like they'd be cheapest there based on how their other prices go.

I didn't really look up a recipe for salsa verde other than to check wikipedia to see if I had to cook the tomatillos. (You don't, but you can.) I ended up using this many tomatillos, a jalapeño pepper, some shallot, some cilantro, and some lime juice.

 They come in papery wraps. Tear it off.

 Inside it is not like a tomato. It is more like an eggplant. They are all members of the nightshade family.

Then I put it all in my quart container for Chinese soup take-out (I don't usually go to restaurants, but sometimes I want a quart container and soup is a good way to get one) and used my immersion blender. And it was done.

NY Times Magazine writes about coupons

I don't really use coupons because I don't like talking to people, but I do like reading about grocery shopping.

Coupon Clipping as the Key to Economic Rebirth

Forty-five minutes before midnight on a wintry Tuesday evening, Cathy Yoder and Monica Knight, a pair of 30-something Boise women who run a popular coupon blog called Fabulessly Frugal, strode with purpose through the parking lot of their local Albertsons supermarket. It was the third and final night of “doubles” at Albertsons. This biweekly happening, during which the store issues coupons that double the value of manufacturers’ coupons, is to dedicated coupon clippers what the full moon was to Druids. Yoder and Knight, who are Mormon and have nine children between them (Yoder: seven; Knight: two) had spent the day working on their blog and then taught a three-hour couponing class — all without a drop of forbidden caffeine. Yet with the supermarket in sight, they grew visibly jazzed, like Vegas high rollers entering a casino. “We’ll have it all to ourselves, and we’ll know all the cashiers,” Knight said.

This article is so good. They know the price of everything! This is my favorite part of the whole thing.

Later I asked Knight whether she ever buys a brand of ice cream or shampoo, say, at full price. “I don’t really,” she told me. “Cathy does. Like, she admitted that she buys chocolate-chip cookies just because she likes them.” 

Cinco de Pie-O Shopping

Tomorrow I am hosting Cinco de Pie-O. It's exactly what it sounds like. I am going to make pizzas, a lentil-based shepherd's pie, a quiche, a kool-aid pie, and a shoofly pie. Other people are bringing other pies. I might make guacamole too.

I lost my to-do list on the way to the store, so I don't know if I bought everything or bought it right. On the way home from the second grocery store, I lost my money. Someone ran a couple blocks down the street to catch up with me and give me my $4 back. No one runs down the street for your to-do list. Someone is probably out there achieving all my goals and throwing the party I want to throw.

That's a lot of stuff I don't usually buy, so I don't know if I got good prices.

Key Food's having its 75th birthday this week, so I got a dozen large eggs for $0.75. I don't know how much I paid for frozen pie crusts. I paid $2.49 for a graham cracker crust. (I'm making too many things, including a crust for shoofly pie and all the pizza doughs to make all my own crusts). Crushed tomatoes were $5/3 as usual.

At Jesus, I got 12 limes for $2. That's about as good as you'll ever see. Avocados were $1.99. I guess if I want to make guacamole, I need to go buy avocados now so they ripen some. I don't think I will. I got a big bottle of sriracha for $4.99. A container of tomatoes was $1. I think I'm going to cook them on the pizza so they don't have to taste great. I couldn't find basil, so I have to go back. I got cilantro for $1.

At C-Town I bought a 101oz can of extra virgin olive oil for $14.99. I never had a can before. Mozzarella was $3.99/lb.  I wanted to get the $2.99 kind they had in their ad but I didn't see it.

Now I still have to get avocados, lime juice, and booze. Or maybe just booze.

Chase Freedom

Chase Freedom gives you 5% back on groceries starting today and up through June!

I'm not entirely sure, but sometimes I think it treats the liquor store like a grocery store.

No More Chewing

After a grueling day of numbers today, I went for a walk. At the liquor store I bought 2 bottles of cheap whiskey and 1 bottle of cheap Scotch. At C-town I got a half gallon of milk, 2 liters of root beer, 2 liters of ginger ale, and 2 cans of chick peas. Lest you think I might chew them, I am turning them into hummus.

Fish and Bean Pasta. Pungent Pasta 2.

I have eaten a variation of this every week since I made it up. I usually make it with sardines, but I made it with tuna today. That's what you see in the picture. It turns out that everything you put in a sauce to make noodles taste good also makes beans taste good. And beans have protein and fiber. I rarely have whole wheat pasta around, but I think it would go well in this.

Here's how to make it.

Nouns:
2 tins of sardines or 2 cans of tuna, drained
1 can cannelini beans
1 lb/1 box pasta. every shape has been good so far
pecorino romano
olive oil
dried parsley

Optional nouns:
diced onion, a little crushed red pepper, a lot of black pepper, anchovies or fish sauce, fresh parsley

Verbs:
Boil some water with a lot of salt in it. Put in some garlic powder if you want.
Drain the pasta. Save a coffee mug of the flavorful water if you think of it. It can help thin/make your sauce.
Add olive oil to the pan and heat it and add the onions and anchovies if you're using them. Then add the sardines/tuna and beans and let it cook a bit. Stir it to break up the sardines and anchovies. Add the red and black pepper now.
Add about half the pasta to the pan and stir it. Add dried parsley and fresh parsley if you're using that. Add the rest of the pasta and grate a lot of cheese into it. Stir it. Serve with more grated cheese.

Note about the parsleys: As famous cookbook authors accurately point out, dried parsley is no substitute for fresh. However, dried has its uses. Namely, it's very small and coats the pasta in a way that makes it greener and nicer looking. Without the green flecks, you're looking at a food made of up of shakes of white and ecru. I used fresh parsley once in this when I had it, and it tasted good, but I didn't cut it small enough so I didn't like how it looked and added dried parsley too.

The cheapest cabbage I've ever seen.

Must be on sale for St. Patrick's Day. Apparently the Irish have a cuisine. The lowest price I had ever seen before this was $0.49/lb.

Tuna Microeconomics

My price of tuna went up, so now I eat more of it. How does that work?

I used to pay $0.75/can for tuna at Western Beef. That was the chunk light variety in water, though I'm not very particular. Then Western Beef raised the price of its store brand to $1. At first, I cut back on my tuna consumption, but now I see tuna on sale at every grocery store for $1. It's frequently higher, but with all my grocery stores and all the brands of tuna, I can always find it somewhere for $1. Now I don't have to make a special trip to Western Beef, so I tend to buy tuna frequently and I'm spending 33% more per tuna-unit.