Grocery Shopping and Me

I've always had an interesting relationship with grocery shopping.

For most of my early twenties, I did the majority of my shopping at Safeway (or, when I lived in Ireland, at Tesco's)-- I ate what was cheap, because I was a college student on a budget. I tried to shop at Shopper's Corner once a month, as my "splurge." Essentially, I ate a lot of pasta, a lot of boxed macaroni and cheese, and a lot of rice-with-things-in.

Now that I have a real job! With a real paycheck!, one of the things I like being able to spend money on is food. I shop at New Leaf (which is also where my younger brother works!), I shop at our local farmer's markets (there are about nine million of them), I will goddamn shop at El Salchichero when it opens. I still shop at Shopper's Corner-- they've got the best butcher's corner in town, as far as I know, as they actually process much of their meat on-site, meaning that I can totally special-order some pork fat from them later this year to make more sausages. Occasionally, guiltily, I shop at Whole Foods.

Usually, this combination leads to pretty good meals, with the more-than-occasional stop at my old stand-by of boxed macaroni and cheese. I make spaghetti, stew, tuna-noodle casserole, crepes, and burritos. I make lemony chicken with peas and rice.

Sometimes, though, things go wrong, and occasionally, this combination of markets leads to interesting purchases... such as this weekend, when I returned from the Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz farmer's markets with five pounds of beef bones and a pound of stew meat from TLC Ranch (which, I was very sad to learn, is closing! I've really loved their meat over the last few years, and will miss them quite a lot), some cippolini onions and a flat of just over-ripe heirloom tomatoes from Happy Boy Farms, and some pesto focaccia from Beckman's Bakery. Nothing, you will notice, that makes a complete meal without some work (although tomato-based beef stew with cippolini onions would taste really good!), which led to last night's dinner (Burger King) and tonight's (housemate's very tasty japanese curry).

Tomorrow, though, there will be lasagna (from the Moosewood cookbook, but with the addition of some ground beef, because NOM) made with some of the tomatoes. Later this winter, I'll be able to cook beef stew with the broth I made yesterday from the bones (and some locally-sourced carrots, onions, and leeks), and spaghetti with the orangey tomato paste I made yesterday. In between, there will be knitting, a craft fair, and Thanksgiving break (oh, how I long!)

It's been a long day.