I found the best grocery store in the area- WinCo! Sprouts/Trader Joe’s/Whole Foods are just too upscale to be sustainable longterm, and that basically leaves you with Fry’s, Wally World, and local places asian/middle eastern markets to buy your staples. And as far as savings go, winco is the clear winner.
And it is employee owned. It’s big, but no flashy bullshit like the fancy stores. No one running around fucking with you asking if you need help. Kind of like an American Aldi’s. Very happy to have “discovered” it. Limes were 25 cents!!! Red bell peppers 75 cents!! And it was clean and there was a wide, wide variety of items. And the prices on their private label stuff were great, too.
I also liked their massive bulk section- all the grains and nuts and legumes and flours and seeds and dried goods, and they had the big bulk wall of coffee which sorta seemed to disappear in the mid 2000’s but I always loved- 7.98 a lb for a light roast tanzanian peaberry. I mean who doesn’t love going to an upscale coffee grinder and buy something ridiculously overpriced and then fool yourself into somehow thinking it tastes better. The reality is it really doesn’t unless you have a very serious provider, and for most Americans who manage to drink their coffee both too weak and overroasted, you could have grown the bean anywhere and they wouldn’t notice.
Chock full O’ Nuts- that’s a brand I recall fondly. That and eight o’clock coffee are very serviceable fucking coffees and premium at the price. I remember drinking that fondly for years.
We were supposed to go out tonight to see some music but I was not feeling it and knowing what I am all about, I asked Joelle if she would like a margarita knowing full well she would, so I squozed some limes and made a mix and freshened up the guac before picking her up. Got her home, got some food and booze in her, and she was this close to calling it but not there yet so I sealed the deal by asking “I think I’m in the mood for a cookie you want me to bake some cookies” and I knew then and there I was not going to have to put my shoes and socks back on and go out into the world. The cookies turned out terribly- I didn’t add enough sugar or butter.
Joelle says she thinks I have lost weight but I am only a lb or so lighter than the last time I weighed myself a week ago, so maybe she’s just grown used to being around a fat man all the time and lost perspective. I did mention that I felt like my head was a little smaller and she nodded in agreement while sizing up my melon and said that she thought so to. I guess she thought I might be getting a little too pleased with myself so she quickly added “It’s still gigantic. Your head. It’s still massive. But a little smaller than it was.”
This is the greatest website in the world. Bookmark it. Then, every time you try to find a recipe online and it is pages and pages of bullshit, just copy the url, go to that website, paste the url, and it strips out all the bullshit. I love it. I know there are extensions and scripts you can do, but this is easy enough for EVERYONE to use.
I’ve been watching a lot of cooking videos lately, and I have to say that of all of the people I watch regularly, Jacques Pepin and Matty Matheson are two of my favorites for how simple and accessible and easy to remember everything they do is. They are wildly different, but have a lot more in common than you would realize at first glance.
I like how casual and effortless and completely fearless they are- “ehh, a little bit of this, some of that.” Pepin is notorious for it- you just watch him open a fridge for one thing and he’s like “oh look here a half a leek we can throw this in.” And Pepin does everything with what looks like a 4.99 paring knife from evilcorp.
At any rate, it is 8 pm so I am getting ready for bed. Maybe a little tv. Busy day tomorrow.
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