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Have you seen those ads on TV that try to make you feel guilty for throwing away food?

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NormM

NormM

Rant here.  Why don't they start telling grocers to stop selling food in bigger quantities than you know you will eat?

I needed two ears of corn for a stew I am making today.  The store only sold them in packages of four or five.  I asked the produce manager if they had any smaller quantities. He said they had some individual ears but the leaves were so brown that they had to throw them out.

In other words he was telling me that the corn came pre packaged and they had to sell it like that, and by implication, the few they had to sell in smaller amounts were not fit to sell.  Do you believe that? I don't.

http://r2j1cp@gmail.com

Niagara Visitor



It's not just the food we're throwing away, but the $$$$.  I love to use fresh parsley.  The bunches are so big that half of it spoils before I can use it.  I've been tempted to ask another customer to split a bunch with me!

Crybaby

Crybaby

Norm, I had the same experience with corn recently in the store. You may remember Brian doesn't eat corn. I wanted to buy a couple of fresh ears to not only use the corn off of it but I wanted to use the corn cobs in my corn and shrimp dish, something my mom used to make and I've been craving. It's fine with frozen corn but I thought I'd make it with fresh instead, especially thinking about putting those flavorful cobs in the mix.

The store we deal with only sold shrink-wrapped packages of 5 cobs! I know I could've frozen three but I figured they just "live" in the freezer for so long that I'd end up throwing them away. It really ticked me off as fresh corn was really at its peak but I decided I wasn't going to be forced to buy too much for immediate use.

Lore, I used to have the same problem with fresh parsley and fresh cilantro. I ended up buying some of those "green bags" that purport to keep veggies fresh longer. They're pretty reasonably priced and they've worked out real well for us. They're also reusuable for a while, so you can wash out one you've already used with a drop of liquid soap and some hot water, let it drain upside down (I put it over the sink sprayer to drain) and then use it again.

I can't STAND how most groceries spray their produce periodically with water so I always shake the helll out of say a bunch of parsley before putting it in a bag right there at the grocery. When I get home, I shake it again over the sink, roll it around on a kitchen towel to dry it even further, then wrap it in a couple of paper towels, and put it in a green bag. You just fold over the top of the bag, as there's no need to seal it tightly. This has helped my parsley and cilantro last for a couple of weeks easy, sometimes longer! If the paper towel is really damp when I take it out to use it, I put a fresh paper towel around it before putting it back in the green bag.

I also use the green bags for all types of produce that I'm unlikely to use in a week and they work quite well. You may know what I'm talking about but if you don't, here's a link to them. They're often sold in grocery stores, too, around the area where zip lock bags are sold. There are several brands of them but I use the Debbie Mayer brand, and am able to rinse them out and use them many times before finally throwing one away.


https://smile.amazon.com/Debbie-Meyer-GreenBags-Freshness-Preserving-Storage/dp/B00I4V1U06/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532616905&sr=8-1&keywords=debbie+meyer+green+bag

NormM

NormM

One of the grocery stores here has a bigger selection of herbs sold with the roots and some dirt still on them.  Whenever I need a fresh herb, I try to get it at that store then I plant the rest of it in planters right outside my kitchen door.  That way it stays fresh until I use it up. What I have out there right now are mint, basil and flat leaf parsley. The chives were bought last year and came back again this year.

.Have you seen those ads on TV that try to make you feel guilty for throwing away food? 20180730

http://r2j1cp@gmail.com

Crybaby

Crybaby

NormM wrote:One of the grocery stores here has a bigger selection of herbs sold with the roots and some dirt still on them.  Whenever I need a fresh herb, I try to get it at that store then I plant the rest of it in planters right outside my kitchen door.  That way it stays fresh until I use it up.  What I have out there right now are mint, basil and flat leaf parsley.  The chives were bought last year and came back again this year.

.Have you seen those ads on TV that try to make you feel guilty for throwing away food? 20180730


I see those sometimes at the grocery, Norm, but mostly just basil. If it's spring and I don't have any growing yet (which means we've had a very cold winter as lots of our herbs will last through the season), I'll buy one too and plant it. But we use so much basil, I have two good-sized pots of it and another plant growing in my raised garden. That way I always have enough to make pesto when I want it!

I just LOVE those little planter boxes in your steps on the deck -- adorable and such a good idea!

NormM

NormM

The grocery store in my area has around 8 different herbs that are ready to plant. Most other places just have one or two. Those two planters are galvanized tubs from Walmart, but they were not intended to be used like that. They were planned to be used upside down as platforms for containers that had a spout at the bottom like for dispensing lemonade or the like. I got them because they fit in the space I needed to put planters. The bottoms of the boxes are slats of wood and would not be suitable for holding dirt that gets wet a lot.

http://r2j1cp@gmail.com

NormM

NormM

I was in Hen House today to get some more basil. They were out but I took a picture of the herbs they have that you can plant. They are the ones on the top row.

Have you seen those ads on TV that try to make you feel guilty for throwing away food? 20180731

http://r2j1cp@gmail.com

Crybaby

Crybaby

NormM wrote:I was in Hen House today to get some more basil. They were out but I took a picture of the herbs they have that you can plant. They are the ones on the top row.

Have you seen those ads on TV that try to make you feel guilty for throwing away food? 20180731


Wow, what a nice selection your grocery has, Norm! I love the local grocery we use, especially since the one closest to us is a brand new store as of about two years ago, but I was disappointed the first time I went there with the size of the produce department. It's much smaller than I'm used to and smaller than their other stores as well. They have a lot of the "newer" things groceries have, like an olive bar, in that area but I'd rather a larger produce section. When I want to get something like a celery root, I hate to wonder if they're going to have any. And I'm not opposed to asking someone working in that section if they have what I'm looking for "in the back," but I just find it aggravating that all large groceries don't have the vegetables, herbs and other items regularly used by a decent sized city with a large population of Hispanic and Asian people. I just don't consider some things to be "exotic" anymore.

I hate going to Winn Dixie but I occasionally stop to check out their produce especially if I see a special on some type of meat we like (like London broil). They're the only grocery around that has BOGO specials on meat, though I do note their price for one is really much higher than one would normally pay so getting a "free" one isn't quite the deal you may have expected. Plus though I have one of those little cards on my key ring that you need to get the lowest price at Winn Dixie, I find their ads aggravating in that they often don't show the price of something and instead have "save $2.99 a lb. with your discount card" -- which makes me think, "Save $2.99 a lb. off what pound price?" I find their ads terribly annoying in that regard.

But I've learned the hard way when I do go to Winn Dixie to immediately see if they had what I came for (it's usually advertised) before I put too much other stuff in my cart and then I find out they're out (again) of an advertised item. By then I'm so ticked off that I'm always tempted to just walk out and let them put the stuff in my cart back on the shelf. But alas, I'm too nice to do that (but not nice enough not to THINK about doing it)!!! Instead, I just purchase what's in my cart and then often stop to complain to a manager or assistant manager how they're routinely out of an item advertised on sale by the third day of a week long sale. I know they must have my picture hanging in the manager's office by now!!!

I wish I had so little concern for money that I could go to Whole Foods every time I shop! They always have just about every cut of meat you desire, have REAL butchers who not only know what they're doing but will ask you, "Would you like us to butterfly that London broil for you," or something like that. I would go more often to pick up a few things but I don't really know how to go to the grocery and "pick up a few things." I guess it's 'cause Brian does most of the grocery shopping so whenever I'm at the grocery, I take the time to look around and "discover" all types of goodies I didn't know they had. So going in for three things, I will end up with a $200 bill in no time at all! Whole Foods if just TOO much of a temptation for me.

A Trader Joe's opened in Metairie about a year ago, a nearby suburb (their map says the store is about 8 miles from my house), but we've never gone. Metairie has outrageous traffic and more idiots behind the wheel than we do in New Orleans which puts me off, plus I know I'll end up spending wayyyyy too much money.

I'm always envious when I read of all the different groceries available to some of you. I guess N.O. is just too small a market with a large population of poor people for those groceries to risk opening here.

NormM

NormM

When I first moved to KC, Hen House seemed to have every guy behind the meat counter know how to cut meat but now it seems like there is just one and if I need something, the guy I talk to has to go find him to get it for me. That happened today when I asked for a chuck steak. Tomorrow I am making a Vietnam dish that called for flank steak but I got chuck because a flank steak is too much for the two of us and it is about twice as much money per pound too.

http://r2j1cp@gmail.com

Crybaby

Crybaby

NormM wrote:When I first moved to KC, Hen House seemed to have every guy behind the meat counter know how to cut meat but now it seems like there is just one and if I need something, the guy I talk to has to go find him to get it for me.  That happened today when I asked for a chuck steak. Tomorrow I am making a Vietnam dish that called for flank steak but I got chuck because a flank steak is too much for the two of us and it is about twice as much money per pound too.


Oooh, I love Vietnamese food. What're you making, Norm?

Yeah, I remember when most of the big groceries had butchers, at least a couple. I knew even back then to ask someone behind the meat counter who looked close to 40 or older (big grin) when I wanted something done or to know if I could order a certain cut.


We used to shop at a large supermarket called Superstore, which were in N.O. for many years -- they were a division of National/Canal Villere if that means anything to you. I inadvertently made friends with a man behind the specialty meat counter (the small area where a man actually WAS behind a counter, as most of the meat if just displayed in a case with a wall behind it now). They had some favored cuts, and things like boned chicken breasts they offered already stuffed, lamb cuts, veal, and finer cuts of beef. I'd purchase some of the store's homemade sausage from this counter and when he handed me the wrapped package (goodness -- remember when meat got wrapped in real butcher paper?), I noticed he'd charged me something like $.49 a lb. instead of $1.89 a lb. or something close to that on the white label "stuck" into the meat behind the glass. I immediately blurted out, "Oh, wow, you underharged me severely." He seemed to be so stunned that I'd told him about the error; I laughed and told him I rarely looked at the labels until I got home and was re-wrappiing stuff for the freezer so he was lucky. He rewarded me by giving me a substantial per lb. discount on the next piece of meat I bought that day.

At any rate, I did all the shopping back then and he remembered me, and always made me laugh by saying something like, "And what would the honest lady be wanting today?" One day he noticed I had two turkeys in my cart. Back then you could buy a darn turkey when it wasn't holiday time and I got two since we usually smoked two when we were planning on having one (second shelf in that smoker, you know?). We'd either freeze it if we had the room or give it away to a friend or a family member. He asked me what I was planning for them and we got in a discussion about smoked meats. He asked me if I ever boned a turkey and then stuffed it. I laughed and said I'd watched people bone a whole chicken and a whole turkey on television before but I'd NEVER attempt it as I know it wouldn't turn out well. He told me he used to work at a place that made turduckens (back then, you had to explain to someone who wasn't from LA what a turducken was as I do believe they were first made here, though even people here fight over who first came up with the idea so the Lord only knows!). He said he could do it really quickly and even told me the minute count, which I no longer remember. He told me the next time I bought a turkey and had some time, to ring the buzzer and he would bone it for me! I still kick myself for not taking him up on it.

Brian smiled when I told him about the guy, as he said he was obviously flirting with me. I told him, no, I didn't think so but rather just liked talking about food and cooking just like we did. When I went home and told Brian he'd offered to bone a whole turkey for us, Brian said, "You know, it might make that guy feel really good if you would flirt back with him once in a while." My head snapped around and he was waiting for it -- we both howled laughing over that crack. Later that evening, Brian told me, "You know, honey, maybe that butcher is all alone in life and would really appreciate a nice woman who can cook flirting with him every once in a whlle," and we were laughing all over again. We had quite a few laughs over that man but alas, we never did get our boned turkey!!

NormM

NormM

This is what I plan to make tomorrow.

Vietnamese Steak With Cucumber Salad
MELISSA CLARK YIELD 4 to 6 servings TIME 25 minutes, plus 30+ minutes' marinating
Evan Sung for The New York Time The marinade on this steak is based on a classic Vietnamese dipping sauce called nuoc cham. Since it consists mostly of pantry staples – Asian fish sauce, brown sugar and garlic – all you need to pick up on the way home are some fresh limes and jalapeño. Nuoc cham works as a salad dressing, too. Here we drizzle it on crisp cucumbers and radishes, but sliced ripe tomatoes work just as well. You could serve it as it is with the salad on the side, or put everything on top of a bed of rice noodles or rice for a more substantial meal.
Featured in: Vietnamese Marinated Flank Steak. 

½ cup fish sauce
1 tablespoon packed lime zest
⅓ cup fresh lime juice (from about 3 limes)
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, grated or minced
1 large jalapeño, seeds and veins removed if desired, minced
1 flank steak, about 1 1/2 pounds
1 small seedless English cucumber, thinly sliced
1 large bunch of radishes, thinly sliced
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon vegetable, peanut or olive oil (optional)
Cooked rice noodles or rice, for serving (optional)
Sesame seeds or crushed roasted peanuts, for serving (optional)
Fresh mint leaves or cilantro, for serving (optional)
In a small bowl, combine the fish sauce, lime zest, lime juice, brown sugar, garlic and jalapeño. Pour 1/2 of the mixture over the flank steak and let marinate at room temperature for at least 30 minutes (or refrigerate for up to 24 hours). Let meat come to room temperature before cooking if necessary.
Combine the cucumber, radishes and scallions. Pour in just enough of the marinade sauce to coat.
Light the grill or heat the broiler to high. Pat steak dry with paper towels.
If grilling, cook until done to taste, about 3 minutes per side for rare. If broiling, heat a 10-inch skillet over high heat for 5 minutes. Add oil to pan and sear the meat for 2 minutes. Flip meat and immediately transfer pan directly to top shelf of oven and broil for 2 to 3 minutes for rare, or longer

Zucchini Pancakes
ELAINE LOUIE YIELD 12 pancakes
TIME 30 minutes
Mucver (pronounced moosh-vair) are delicate, crisp zucchini pancakes popular in Turkey. This version has not just shredded zucchini, but also tiny clouds of feta and a sprinkling of minced fresh dill and scallions. They are crisp on the outside, tender within and subtly herbaceous.The trick to making the pancakes crisp and not soggy is to squeeze all the water out of the zucchini before mixing it with the other ingredients. A little brute force is required.
Featured in: Zucchini Pancakes, Turkish Style. 
Vegetarian, Turkish, Dill, Feta, Zucchini
Ingredients for the pancakes
3 medium zucchini, shredded
Salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 large eggs, beaten
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 scallions, finely chopped
⅓ cup finely chopped dill
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 to 6 tablespoons vegetable oil, more as needed
FOR THE YOGURT SAUCE
⅔ cup plain yogurt
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ teaspoon salt 
Directions FOR THE PANCAKES
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place zucchini in a colander over a bowl, and mix with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Allow to drain for five minutes. Transfer to a cloth kitchen towel, and squeeze hard to extract as much moisture as possible. Squeeze a second time; volume will shrink to about half the original.
In a large mixing bowl, combine zucchini and eggs. Using a fork, mix well. Add flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, olive oil, feta, scallions, dill and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Mix well, add baking powder, and mix again.
Place a cast iron skillet or other heavy skillet over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and heat until shimmering. Place heaping tablespoons of zucchini batter in pan several inches apart, allowing room to spread. Flatten them with a spatula if necessary; pancakes should be about 3/8 inch thick and about 3 inches in diameter. Fry until golden on one side, then turn and fry again until golden on other side. Repeat once or twice, frying about 5 to 6 minutes total, so pancakes get quite crisp. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels, and keep warm in oven. Continue frying remaining batter, adding more oil to pan as needed. Serve hot.
For yogurt sauce: In a small bowl, combine yogurt, garlic and salt. Mix well, and serve on the side or on pancakes.

http://r2j1cp@gmail.com

Crybaby

Crybaby

NormM wrote:The grocery store in my area has around 8 different herbs that are ready to plant. Most other places just have one or two.  Those two planters are galvanized tubs from Walmart, but they were not intended to be used like that. They were planned to be used upside down as platforms for containers that had a spout at the bottom like for dispensing lemonade or the like.  I got them because they fit in the space I needed to put planters.  The bottoms of the boxes are slats of wood and would not be suitable for holding dirt that gets wet a lot.


Laughed at your perfect description of what the platforms were made to be used for. Super that you recognized that they'd fit in your little wood cubbyholes perfectly. I just love that idea for small planters on steps on a deck!

Crybaby

Crybaby

Sounds wonderful, Norm, and thanks for the recipes. I have everything needed except the meat to make the marinated flank steak. Glad to have that recipe for the nuoc cham as well, because Brian and I both like it. We’re always tickled when we get to-go food and they include lots of the little containers of nuoc cham. I’ve learned if I ask them to make sure it’s included when I pick up, they put a few extras in there for us.

I sure hope you post pictures because I can’t wait to see the pictures, especially the zucchini pancakes, as the description sounds so good (e.g., “tiny clouds of feta”).

Cooking is really a super hobby/interest, isn’t it? This is one of those days when I wished we lived closer to you!

NormM

NormM

The meat and cucumbers have been marinating since this morning and I just measured everything for the pancakes. All I need to do is mix them together and cook then grill the meat.

http://r2j1cp@gmail.com

NormM

NormM

About the bull in my avatar. Calvin Trillion mentioned it in an article for Time mag. about how New York stole our steak.  This is the first two paragraphs from that article in the 90's

A Steak Through The Heart
By CALVIN TRILLIN

I have never stopped bragging about my old Missouri hometown, but there have always been boosters in Kansas City who thought I bragged about the wrong things--barbecue and the cow on the top of the American Hereford Association headquarters, for instance, instead of Continental restaurants and similarly sophisticated cultural attractions. I liked the motto Kansas City had when I was a boy: "The Heart of America." The boosters liked the motto "More Boulevards Than Paris, More Fountains Than Rome."

In the 1970s some of the boosters hired a New York City public relations firm to persuade people that Kansas City was not a cow town. They said I should quit harping on that American Hereford Association cow and that, contrary to what I kept claiming, its heart and liver do not light up at night.
Eventually they abandoned the campaign, but I suspect that they continued to avert their eyes when they passed the American Hereford Association building. Nobody thought the campaign had done any lasting damage; it's not easy, after all, to hurt the feelings of a cow. Then last week I read in the Wall Street Journal that the boneless sirloin known for decades as the Kansas City strip, a cut of meat invented in the Heart of America, is now on most steak-house menus as the New York strip--although in Kansas City outraged customers forced Ruth's Chris Steak House to correct the misnomer. In other words, once Kansas City had become accustomed to avoiding the subject of beef, New York snatched our steak.



Last edited by NormM on Sat Jul 28, 2018 3:44 pm; edited 2 times in total

http://r2j1cp@gmail.com

Crybaby

Crybaby

NormM wrote:More about the bull in my avatar. Calvin Trillion mentioned it in an article for the Times about how New York stole our steak.  This is the first two paragraphs from that article in the 90's

A Steak Through The Heart
By CALVIN TRILLIN

I have never stopped bragging about my old Missouri hometown, but there have always been boosters in Kansas City who thought I bragged about the wrong things--barbecue and the cow on the top of the American Hereford Association headquarters, for instance, instead of Continental restaurants and similarly sophisticated cultural attractions. I liked the motto Kansas City had when I was a boy: "The Heart of America." The boosters liked the motto "More Boulevards Than Paris, More Fountains Than Rome."

In the 1970s some of the boosters hired a New York City public relations firm to persuade people that Kansas City was not a cow town. They said I should quit harping on that American Hereford Association cow and that, contrary to what I kept claiming, its heart and liver do not light up at night.
Eventually they abandoned the campaign, but I suspect that they continued to avert their eyes when they passed the American Hereford Association building. Nobody thought the campaign had done any lasting damage; it's not easy, after all, to hurt the feelings of a cow. Then last week I read in the Wall Street Journal that the boneless sirloin known for decades as the Kansas City strip, a cut of meat invented in the Heart of America, is now on most steak-house menus as the New York strip--although in Kansas City outraged customers forced Ruth's Chris Steak House to correct the misnomer. In other words, once Kansas City had become accustomed to avoiding the subject of beef, New York snatched our steak.


Really funny, as I'm sure you remember Ruth's Chris Steak House was one of my clients when I was in advertising! Yep, down here it's known as a NY Strip as well. Loved that KC made the local RCSH change it on their menus -- reminds me of what New Orleanians would do as well!

Norm wrote:The meat and cucumbers have been marinating since this morning and I just measured everything for the pancakes. All I need to do is mix them together and cook then grill the meat.


Mmm, my mouth is watering yet again, Norm! Down here I'm waiting for a pain pill to kick in and then I'm headed downstairs to make Brian beef stroganoff, one of his favorites. I like it, too, but he ADORES it!

NormM

NormM

When the Hereford association moved, the new owners took the bull down and put it in storage.  A few years ago, by popular demand, it was put out on view again. This time they put it overlooking the Live Stock Exchange and the American Royal which has horse and cattle shows, the worlds largest BBQ contest and gives scholarships to students majoring in Agriculture.

the black and white picture is where it was originally and the color picture is where it is today.

Have you seen those ads on TV that try to make you feel guilty for throwing away food? 37668010
Have you seen those ads on TV that try to make you feel guilty for throwing away food? Thumb_10

http://r2j1cp@gmail.com

Crybaby

Crybaby

I love it! I like when people remember the things that we enjoyed years before. Down here, there's lots of that going on all the time. Lord knows people scream when you want to change anything, even the stuff that really needs changing. But we're all kind of nostalgic about the cool things, like your bull on that stand!

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