Tomatoes

It's tomato time. They are $0.99/lb at any store that wants you to buy tomatoes. They are more than that at farmers' markets where they are better and more than that at grocery stores that don't care if you buy tomatoes. (Just like how Associated, Food Bazaar, and Western Beef never care if you buy pasta from them. Some stores just aren't interested. You have to get pasta from C-Town or Key Food. Whole wheat pasta from Trader Joe's.)

Since Friday, I learned how to make panzanella. I had heard of it, but before I looked on wikipedia before making it Friday, I thought it might be soup. It is a salad. It's a salad of stale bread, tomatoes, cumbers, red onions, basil, olive oil, and whatever. I made it Friday and I thought "this is going to be the kind of thing people ask me to make more." And then Agnes loved it so I was right

On Sunday, I had some more stale bread but not much more inclination to cook besides missing my panzanella, so I went to get more ingredients. C-Town's circular said it had plum tomatoes for $0.99/lb and diet Mug Root Beer for some good price I don't remember (but it was probably 3/$4).

When I went there, I found slicing tomatoes for the same discounted price. I like plum tomatoes for sandwiches, but for a food that you want a bunch of extra juice to soak your stale bread, these were better. (The cashier rang them up as plum tomatoes. Maybe their inventory will be off, though the price was the same.) Basil was $2.59 or so, which is absurd ($1 at Jesus, $2 at Food Bazaar) so I improvised my recipe using herbes de provence. It was good.

Tonight I had a leftover tomato and still half a cucumber ($0.50 at C-Town. Off and on I see them cheaper, but it's not worth shopping around. I was happy with that price.) so I diced them and put them with a can of chick peas (probably $0.80 at Western Beef) with some olive oil that I am now out of. And capers ($3.49 for a big jar at Trader Joe's. No one can touch that price.) That was a good dinner.

It's the height of tomato season now, so I should find a famers' market to buy some. I thought I was living ok with tomatoes until 2 years ago when I ate a tomato my cousin grew. Tomatoes are supposed to taste great! I would pay $3/lb for a great tomato (I would only buy 1) but I would be jealous that my cousin gets them for free. And so does my brother by visiting him. He also grows basil. And dill. I never want to move, but sometimes I wish I could have tomatoes and basil and dill. And mint.

Let Me Tell You About Associated

I meant to tell you about C-Town, but I'm telling you about Associated first because that's where the story starts. I've been shopping there more lately. I mostly liked it, except when I walk out without buying something and they question me about that. Sometimes I just don't want to buy something! Sometimes I'm just perusing prices before I make my big purchases. Sometimes your tomatoes are ugly.

Today I went in to get some stuff and saw their ATM was still broken. When I went to check out, they told me the credit card system was on and off. The cashier tried. It was off. I left. If you want me to buy groceries, give me a way to pay. I just left all my groceries there for them to put back because they should pay me to work there if they want me to do that. But I don't know how they'd get money to pay me if they won't even take my money.

So maybe I have to go shop at C-Town more, even if it is gentrifying faster than I am, if only because it will take my money. (Except I didn't shop at C-Town after this. I went to Bravo. But Bravo has a $10 credit card minimum and I can only commit to about $7 so it will never be my regular store.)

P.S. I am 30 years old and I am bad at cooking rice, so my new rice store is the Chinese restaurant next door. It was $2.95 for a "large" of brown, but it is already cooked and I cook rice so infrequently and so poorly that this makes sense for me. I'm stuffing some peppers.

Ceviche Times

One of my goals this summer was to make ceviche (also spelled "seviche," especially by me). On Monday I finally did. Food Bazaar has oysters and mussels for me in the winter and now it has my seviche creatures. Medium white shrimp are $5.99/lb, as are bay scallops. Bay scallops might be too small for ceviche, but sea scallops are $11.99/lb and I'm not made of money. Tilapia is $4.99/lb. That's what I put in the first time I made it, but I'm about to make another batch to which I'm adding squid at $4.99/lb.

Limes got cheaper since Monday. They were 13/$2 but now they are 15. I bought 30 of them because I want to feed people micheladas when I feed them ceviche. I also put the juice of a small grapefruit ($0.67), some tomatillos ($1.29/lb), very fine slivers of red onion ($1.29/lb) and maybe some jalapeño pepper ($1.29/lb) and cilantro. Food Bazaar wanted $1.50 for that, but the going rate is $1 so I didn't get that yet.

I like foods based on festering.

A Bazaar Attack

From the Brooklyn Paper:

An unknown assailant who claimed to be a security guard at a Manhattan Avenue supermarket accused a man of stealing and slashed him on Aug. 8.

The victim told police he was at Food Bazaar between Varet and Moore streets at 5:30 pm when the knife-wielding lunatic came up to him and declared, “You came here yesterday and stole,” slashed him, and ran away.

Very weird. I went there Monday to buy fishes. I might write about that.

Western Beef had a lot of empty shelves

But I lived. I also had my bag fly out of my bike basket on the way there. Some girl picked it up for me so I got it back. And I realized I forgot to wear my helmet when I got to the store and went to take it off and it wasn't there.

I spent about $14. I got a tomato ($0.99/lb), three beets ($0.99/lb), a gallon jug of red wine vinegar ($2.99) because they didn't have Colavita on the shelves, Gulden's mustard in the squeeze bottle ($1.50), light wheat bread ($1.89) because they didn't have my normal wheat bread, 6 English muffins ($0.88), Dr. Brown's diet root beer ($1.19), a bag of Great Lakes shredded mozzarella ($1.99 for 8 oz) and 2 cans of chick peas ($0.67 each).

I ate English muffins for dinner. First I made pizzas like Agnes did Saturday (hers were better) using Colavita crushed tomatoes I had on hand, frozen Trader Joe's peppers, and the cheese. Agnes's were better. I think she let them get toastier. Or maybe her sauce was better. Then I ate another English muffin with my dilly egg salad.

I hope I like the red wine vinegar. I own a lot of it.

Dandelions and Fruits

Fruits are in season, so that means they taste as good as they're gonna taste all year and it means they're on sale. Last week I got blueberries and strawberries for $1.50/container each. I think they were 8 oz and 1 lb respectively.

I also learned about the technology of the food processor, so now I can make beet salad in 4 minutes instead of a half hour. It does my grating. Beets are $0.99/lb loose. Sometimes they have their leaves attached. The price is the same, so sometimes if I want leaves I get the leaf ones. Then I can make beet salad with grated beets and carrots, lemon juice and oil (canola or olive, depending on what I want it to taste like) and parsley. When I visit my parents, I add goat cheese and toasted nuts. But recently here I have been adding blue berries. What a lot of colors that has. Probably pretty healthy too. Raw colorful vegetables are healthy.

My usual side salad is chicory or escarole with a dressing made with olive oil and either lemon juice or red wine vinegar. Lately I've taken to adding slivered fennel and quartered strawberries to that. It's pretty good. Agnes likes strawberry salad.

The other day she was coming over, so I was going to make strawberry salad for her. Jesus didn't have the chicory or escarole out yet, so I bought dandelions for $1.49 for a bunch. I never had them before, but they looked interesting. I got home and tried and leaf and it was SO bitter. Too bitter for a strawberry salad, especially one for Agnes. So I went back later and got escarole.

I decided I could use dandelions in a pasta. I used whole wheat pasta, sausage, a shallot, and some fennel. Top it with lots and lots of grated cheese. The dandelions get less bitter if you cook them down and if you salt them and if the sausage is fatty. I tried making it again with chicken sausage a week later and it was too bitter.

Most stores sell whole wheat pasta in boxes that are only 13.25 oz instead of 16 oz and they still cost more than regular pasta. I found a bag of whole wheat pasta that was 16 oz and only $1.33 at Trader Joe's, so that's where I'll shop next time I made dandelion pasta. I don't know what else I can use dandelions for yet, but I like them.

Never thought I'd say this: I'm getting sick of going to grocery stores!

In the past 2 days, I have gone to:

• Trader Joe's wine store
• Bravo, to try to find something to break a $20 bill and check prices
• Associated, to actually break that $20 and get dried chick peas
• C-Town to look for $2 apple juice, which wasn't there. But I got cheese, orangeade, and orzo.
• Key Food where I got hot dog buns and I can't remember what else
• Western Beef for hot dogs, chicken, some vegetables, etc.
• C-Town to look for apple juice agian. Wasn't there, but I got oil and Diet Mug root beer
• Associated, where I did get apple juice. And jalapeno peppers.
• BQE liquors for liquor

My bike quit working while I was at BQE, so I walked home. I still have to go to Key Food for hot dog buns tonight, Gem for aluminum foil trays (unless Key food has a good price) and probably some bodega to get beer to bring to a party tonight. Tomorrow I have to go to Jesus for vegetables and herbs and Associated for ice. And then I am done.  Except for cooking.

I'm done until Thursday when I have no food because all these trips are for a party that will be over.

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.