1. How often do you go to the grocery store? All together, I guess just about every other day.
2. Do you love or hate going grocery shopping? Neither, it is just a necessary part of life, part of keeping my family alive and healthy and fed. I would rather have the food come to me as a recluse-in-training, but the artist part of me does like going to the store for the visual stimulation (especially the produce section), and I do always get that chance to make a checker smile or interact if I feel like it.
3. Where do you go? We go bi-weekly to Costco, then weekly during the summer to our CSA Farm, Camp Joy for the basket of produce, then up to daily to NobHill, Safeway, Ben Lomond Market or New Leaf Market (the crunchy hippie granola store!).
4. Are you a faithful list writer? Yes, I try to have a list going otherwise I use my mental list which is renowned for getting an item "stuck" on it for months so that we end up with a cabinet filled with dry soup mix or toilet paper. oops. Can't trust the mental faculties so much anymore, so I rely on a list. And if I'm trying out a new recipe which require buying a new item or a specific ingredient then I definitely make a list.
My favorite recipe that I made recently was from Sunset Magazine: Vietnamese Calamari Herb Salad, which I will certainly make it again this summer. It took freakin' forever, was really complicated, but it was beyond delicious. And I swear this time I'll remove the seeds from the jalapeno peppers so that it won't take the roof off your mouth with the heat. 
(not my picture, this is from the magazine! but it did look this good, really truly!)
5. Do you write it but never remember to bring it? Yes, I do this a lot, but if I've written out a list I usually can recall it (mostly) at the store by closing my eyes and picturing my hand writing it out.
6. Do you use coupons? Hardly ever as I'm usually buying store brands of packaged foods.
7. What do you ALWAYS have in your fridge? Condiments, SoyVay Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce, dairy products (milk butter cheese eggs), tortillas, tofu and maple syrup.
8. What is the thing in your fridge that is a "guilty pleasure"? Toby's Blue Cheese Dressing. The best blue cheese dressing you can buy at the store!
9. What is that one or two things that you feel like you buy every single day? I feel like I'm always buying bread. Even though I buy two loaves at a time and throw one in the freezer. I also mean sourdough or french bread. I buy one loaf a day practically and most times it is gone before dinner time. We go through spells of compulsive bread making, use our bread maker, or make the no-knead bread and I'm always thinking I ought to get a sourdough starter going. But around here, fresh-made bread gets eaten even faster which is good and bad I suppose!
(not my picture, this is from the magazine! but it did look this good, really truly!)5. Do you write it but never remember to bring it? Yes, I do this a lot, but if I've written out a list I usually can recall it (mostly) at the store by closing my eyes and picturing my hand writing it out.
6. Do you use coupons? Hardly ever as I'm usually buying store brands of packaged foods.
7. What do you ALWAYS have in your fridge? Condiments, SoyVay Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce, dairy products (milk butter cheese eggs), tortillas, tofu and maple syrup.
8. What is the thing in your fridge that is a "guilty pleasure"? Toby's Blue Cheese Dressing. The best blue cheese dressing you can buy at the store!
9. What is that one or two things that you feel like you buy every single day? I feel like I'm always buying bread. Even though I buy two loaves at a time and throw one in the freezer. I also mean sourdough or french bread. I buy one loaf a day practically and most times it is gone before dinner time. We go through spells of compulsive bread making, use our bread maker, or make the no-knead bread and I'm always thinking I ought to get a sourdough starter going. But around here, fresh-made bread gets eaten even faster which is good and bad I suppose!
10. What items do your children consume in ABUNDANCE? We don't usually have soda so if we do, it is gone in the blink of an eye. Cherries, berries and most fruit disappears super quick. And tortilla chips and salsa, gone daily if I buy it. But besides those things, Everything! They don't call teenagers grocery gobblers for nothing. We used to joke that I'd have to go back to work a paying job once our boys turned into teens, and now I'm starting to realize that isn't too far off from the truth, yikes! Our grocery bill is going up quickly and not just because of the food prices going up so quickly.
11. What's on your fridge? On top is the wine rack and the watering can and the lunchboxes. The rest is covered with magnets and papers that the magnets are holding up for me. Hey I did a quilt about this called Refrigerator Map. There was a whole challenge on QuiltArt Refrigerator Wardrobes, check out what other artists did with the subject.
12. Are the fridge magnets special, or random? Most are special, some are gifts, some are ones I've purchased on trips that we've taken, and the rest are those photo sleeve magnets with pics of our friends and relatives.
13. When you go to the store do you just throw things into the cart, or do you stack them neatly? I start out neat, then get messy towards the end. I try really hard to put the squishable stuff up in the baby seat part of the basket, but invariably the bread ends up on the bottom...
14. Brand name or generic? I like a lot of the store brands, so I usually go for those since they're cheaper, unless the brand names are on sale.
13. When you go to the store do you just throw things into the cart, or do you stack them neatly? I start out neat, then get messy towards the end. I try really hard to put the squishable stuff up in the baby seat part of the basket, but invariably the bread ends up on the bottom...
14. Brand name or generic? I like a lot of the store brands, so I usually go for those since they're cheaper, unless the brand names are on sale.
15. Do you read labels? On new products yes. And especially after I've read my Nutrition News newsletter where they talk about the latest thing we're supposed to avoid in our food. The list is getting longer. So as a result we buy a lot less of the processed foods to avoid all the extra chemicals.
16. Do you use paper or plastic? Cloth! Usually I use the bags I've sewn. And boy do I ever get comments on them which is always a nice ego-stroke in the grocery store! Sometimes I get plastic bags as we need a few of those for disposing of the weekly cat litter.
16. Do you use paper or plastic? Cloth! Usually I use the bags I've sewn. And boy do I ever get comments on them which is always a nice ego-stroke in the grocery store! Sometimes I get plastic bags as we need a few of those for disposing of the weekly cat litter.
I'm a blue cheese fan big time. haven't seen this brand in this area but will call (can't afford to drive just for gp) some of the foo-foo stores that cater to deeper pockets to see if they carry it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking my meme - or rather, the meme I found. That salad does look rather tasty - I wonder if I could replace the calamari with cold prawns since finding calamari here - uhm, no.
ReplyDeleteAnd maple syrup, of course. Forgot to include that in my always in the fridge part.