Looking for Food
Feb. 22nd, 2009 02:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hkellickTwo experiences, both similar and yet different, both I want to touch upon briefly.
Experience the first: The Farmer's Market
We pulled into the parking lot of K's church and were immediately much more impressed with what we saw. There were definitely more than two stands up. The Farmer's Market was arranged in a corner sort of thing. Closest to where we came in was the lady with a bunch of different sauces and toppings... chipotle sauce which was a little hot and very smoky, as well as white-chocolate raspberry. Next to her, our first stop, the vegetable area. They had a bunch of things, actually (which was surprising to me): vegetables, jams, maple syrup, chickens, breads, sweets, etc., next to them was the bread lady with four different sorts of breads. And in the corner, an empty tent with a few recipes and a signup sheet for, I'm guessing, the group behind the farmer's market. Moving to the other side of the corner.. first was the beef guy. Next to him, the sausage and bacon guy and at the end, the homemade pasta end.
So.. it was a pretty big farmer's market for.. the end of February. There was more there than I expected.
We ended up getting into about $50 of trouble: A bag of carrots, two big sweet potatoes, one big onion, one winter squash, a bag of hydroponic lettuce, a small canister of strawberry preserves, two loaves of bread: beer and cheddar bread and whole-wheat bread, two "soup bones" of beef (beef on the bone, especially for soup (we're using it for stew.)) and some home-made ravioli with meat sauce.
We came home and made the Ravioli and it was delicious! As was the beer and cheddar bread.
We're sing most of the vegetables and the beef, right now, to make stew. And hopefully that, too, will be yummy! Though there was a problem with the squash (Some sort of white stuff on the shell K thought might have been mold and the Onion had some sort of brown/mushy layer inside that was kinda gross. So.. part of it, we need to be better about selecting produce carefully, but.. the onion, ew.)
Then this morning, to make sure we had the stuff we needed to get through the week, I went to our local Wegmans.
I have to admit, I'm a whole lot unimpressed with Wegmans. Alot of the Wegmans-brand stuff is so NOT Food. As a perfect example the Wegmans-brand Chicken Broth.
Let me list the ingredients of the Chicken Broth. This is really terrible!
Chicken Broth, Chicken Fat, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Maltodextrin (from Tapioca and Corn), Chicken Meat, Sugar, Cornstarch, Natural Flavors, Onion Powder, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed and Soy Oils, Turmeric, Garlic Powder, and Spices.
Seriously? Trans-Fats in Chicken Broth?!!
I did find some appropriate substitues. Things with maybe one or two additives but were otherwise FOOD, but... wow, so unimpressed with Wegmans.
That said, we also made an effort to pick dishes to help us get rid of some of our food, so even despite buying some "specialty items" (read: Food when all the other alternatives are cheaper but.. not food), the bill still wasn't bad.
Since I started writing this, I ended up doing some work at home and lost my train of thought, so.. I'm going to end this.
Experience the first: The Farmer's Market
We pulled into the parking lot of K's church and were immediately much more impressed with what we saw. There were definitely more than two stands up. The Farmer's Market was arranged in a corner sort of thing. Closest to where we came in was the lady with a bunch of different sauces and toppings... chipotle sauce which was a little hot and very smoky, as well as white-chocolate raspberry. Next to her, our first stop, the vegetable area. They had a bunch of things, actually (which was surprising to me): vegetables, jams, maple syrup, chickens, breads, sweets, etc., next to them was the bread lady with four different sorts of breads. And in the corner, an empty tent with a few recipes and a signup sheet for, I'm guessing, the group behind the farmer's market. Moving to the other side of the corner.. first was the beef guy. Next to him, the sausage and bacon guy and at the end, the homemade pasta end.
So.. it was a pretty big farmer's market for.. the end of February. There was more there than I expected.
We ended up getting into about $50 of trouble: A bag of carrots, two big sweet potatoes, one big onion, one winter squash, a bag of hydroponic lettuce, a small canister of strawberry preserves, two loaves of bread: beer and cheddar bread and whole-wheat bread, two "soup bones" of beef (beef on the bone, especially for soup (we're using it for stew.)) and some home-made ravioli with meat sauce.
We came home and made the Ravioli and it was delicious! As was the beer and cheddar bread.
We're sing most of the vegetables and the beef, right now, to make stew. And hopefully that, too, will be yummy! Though there was a problem with the squash (Some sort of white stuff on the shell K thought might have been mold and the Onion had some sort of brown/mushy layer inside that was kinda gross. So.. part of it, we need to be better about selecting produce carefully, but.. the onion, ew.)
Then this morning, to make sure we had the stuff we needed to get through the week, I went to our local Wegmans.
I have to admit, I'm a whole lot unimpressed with Wegmans. Alot of the Wegmans-brand stuff is so NOT Food. As a perfect example the Wegmans-brand Chicken Broth.
Let me list the ingredients of the Chicken Broth. This is really terrible!
Chicken Broth, Chicken Fat, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Maltodextrin (from Tapioca and Corn), Chicken Meat, Sugar, Cornstarch, Natural Flavors, Onion Powder, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed and Soy Oils, Turmeric, Garlic Powder, and Spices.
Seriously? Trans-Fats in Chicken Broth?!!
I did find some appropriate substitues. Things with maybe one or two additives but were otherwise FOOD, but... wow, so unimpressed with Wegmans.
That said, we also made an effort to pick dishes to help us get rid of some of our food, so even despite buying some "specialty items" (read: Food when all the other alternatives are cheaper but.. not food), the bill still wasn't bad.
Since I started writing this, I ended up doing some work at home and lost my train of thought, so.. I'm going to end this.
