Peace, via Kitty Grass

This week, I finally got back to my usual routine of going to the Farmer’s Market early Saturday morning, followed by Trader Joe’s to supplement the grocery shopping.  I’ve been dreading it, because the power outage on November 30 decimated our condiments, or what I like to call “pantry staples” with the fridge being unable to keep them at the required temperature.

Pickles; HP, Frank’s Red Hot and Worcestershire sauces; mayo.  Mustard, Wasabi, Teriyaki and Ponzu.  Those are just the short list.  All gone.  That’s a lot of condiments when you think about it, huh?  Maybe I don’t need to replace everything.  Maybe I need to be a little more austere with my sauce?  We certainly can’t afford to replace everything at once.  Have you seen what Mayo costs?  Apparently it’s fairly easy to make, but that’s one thing I do not want to mess with.  Salmonella poisoning is not something I enjoy.

With a clean fridge and time to wander about slowly, I set off.  Grocery shopping is something I really enjoy, and let me tell you why.  Every Sunday, my Mum and I would have my Dad drop us off at the Safeway down the street and we would shop.  We would take our time, and it was the best Mom-Daughter time I ever had with her, because, for that two-hour span, she seemed genuinely happy. 

She grew up in Scotland during the Second World War.  She and my Dad tell stories about how hard it was; they tell them with humour, but underneath there is still pain.  Example: one morning my Dad went out into the garden to feed his pet rabbit, but it was gone.  He went down the shops with his Mum later on that morning, only to see his lovely rabbit hanging in the butcher’s window, poached.  Ugh.  Think about not having any access to fresh eggs, milk or meat.  What kind of culinary whiz would you have to be to feed your family then?

Sometimes, I can’t even fathom how hard it was for them.  And see how lucky I really am.

This was why we usually had six or seven tins of baked beans in the house.  And if you were at the store and passed by the beans, we usually picked up two more!!  Because you didn’t want to be short.  I think my Mum felt good being around such bounty as the store.  Safe, for once.  We’d wander the aisles and she’d wonder at the spread, what delights she could make with cheaper cuts of meat, like chicken thighs, calves liver, pig’s trotters.  I still use her recipes for chicken thighs in mushroom sauce, and her Swiss steak (anger therapy – try tenderizing that cut of meat with the edge of a saucer like she did).

I have inherited this love of grocery shopping.  My husband cannot abide being in the store for longer than absolutely necessary.  So I’ve stopped asking.  He doesn’t like it, so why force it?  Instead of feeling resentful because I feel rushed when we shop together, I just shop alone.  I’m much happier wandering around, taking my time. I think I make better choices too.

On to the Farmer’s Market – I was astounded at the beautiful cornucopia of produce that was there.  This week’s bounty seemed to focus a lot on root vegetables.  There were all types of carrots – white, orange, purple.  All types of squash.  Lovely, creamy parsnips.  I bought a heap of the parsnips and put them in my bag.  I also added Swiss chard, kale, celery, fennel and Italian parsley.  4 types of fingerling potatoes – Peruvian purple, French pink and white, and Red.  Two of each of those, and then two bunches of radishes – the regular red, and tri-color, pink, white and coral, each with a slightly different heat and flavor.  My hubby loves to chop them in half, add a little butter and salt, and pop them in his mouth.  Beautiful golden beets were added to my bag, and a little tray of kitty grass for the cats as well.  They love the fresh greens; it helps with their digestion and makes them really, really happy.

(Look, a Switzerland moment - the white cat ABHORS the other one!  Kitty grass peace!)

The challenge is to not go where my Mum went and buy too much of something because I’m afraid it will run out.  Only buy what I can use in the week.  There’s nothing worse than having a really healthy compost pile because you can’t use produce before it rots.

My last purchases of the day I had been waiting for – eggs and bread.  I have never really been a huge fan of eggs when I was younger.  But these eggs are a revelation.  Seriously.  I challenge you to buy eggs from your regular grocer, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods, and compare them to these.  They are free range, organic hens from a farm less than 60 miles away and they are amazing.  Two dozen Jumbo brown A eggs, $5.50.  That’s $2.75 each.  Even in Vons the free-range, healthy-heart added-Omega ones are over $3.  These don’t run all over the pan when you break them, and the yolk colour is gorgeous, an orangey-yellow, not sunshine yellow.  Poached eggs on toast?  The perfect meal.

Finally, the bread – from a bakery in Rancho Cucamonga, who give you a discount if you don’t need an additional plastic bag to carry your bread in.  There is a whole table full of real, hand-baked and made bread.  We usually get the rosemary-garlic sourdough in a loaf.  They also have sourdough in a round.  They have all types of other bread, including cinnamon raisin, sweet brown bread, wheat, pumpkin, zucchini and more.  It is very minimally processed and you can taste the difference.  That loaf was $4.50, and it lasts the whole week as usually we don’t need more than one slice because it is filling.

All in all, I spent $46 at the Farmer’s market.  I spent an additional $130 at Trader Joe’s, most of which was meat – chicken, a whole turkey breast, some pork chops.  And they do have great cheese.  Not as varied as Whole Foods, but still great.

Total this week: $175.  It seems a bit high, but it’s been all fresh, not processed, and it’s also forced me to go outside my comfort zone with recipes.  I’m finding I’m wasting less food.  And I know I won’t be buying the same items every week so the total will even out.

So far, I have made an AMAZING Tuscan bean soup with the Swiss chard, fennel and parsley.  I say AMAZING because I’ve always wanted to eat Swiss chard but never knew what to do with it. 

www.allrecipes.com has been great because I can just put in one or two ingredients and it will pull up all types of recipes that have those ingredients in it.

We have also had Wedge salads, baby greens salad with herbed goat cheese and golden beets, and seasoned pork chops with fingerling potato crisps.  Tonight I will make the turkey breast, roasted parsnips and steamed broccoli crowns.  I think for a snack, if we’re not too full, will be kale chips – kale torn into pieces, tossed with olive oil, salt and garlic powder, then broiled in the oven for about 10 minutes.  They are addictive and so much better than potato chips!  Mornings have been heaven with scrambled eggs and herbs.

I’m not missing all the sugary, calorie-laden condiments so much.  But I’m not giving up my yellow mustard.  God, I love that stuff!!!!  The salt is slowly getting less and less too.  I can definitely tell the difference in my blood pressure.