Dean Barlow » Food

I hate when that happens!

Dean — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:00:34 +0000

My wife is a mystery shopper, and today she was given the job to do a mystery shop at a local grocery store. She likes doing those shops because it is the grocery store that we use all of the time anyway! So she gets paid a few dollars to go buy stuff she would have bought anyway. How great is that! Anyway, off we went to the grocery store, all ready to load up on good deals – we had sorted through our coupons and made a list and we were ready to save some serious money, since the store gives us double coupons.

We got into the store and opened up our reusable shopping bag to get the list and coupons out – they weren’t there! Oh no! Checked her purse – not there either! Went back to the car – nope, not in the car! Called home, son answered the phone. Yup, we left the list and coupons on the counter! Man, I hate when that happens! Well, we bought the stuff we could remember from the list that we knew we did not have coupons for, and luckily for us we remembered the requirements for the mystery shop. We’ll just have to finish up the grocery shopping the next time we go into town – with the list and coupons next time (I hope!)

Merry Christmas

Dean — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 02:59:17 +0000

Well the gifts have been all unwrapped, the dinner eaten, dishes done. Another Christmas come and gone. This year was low key, calmer than most. There were no little ones running around the house. I’m not sure, but I think I kind of missed the energy of a young one at Christmas. And there were very few gifts exchanged; the economy has had a strong effect on everyone. It was good to see everyone, but you could tell that there was a subdued feeling because of everyone’s financial stresses. I hope next Christmas is a better one.

Nectarine won’t ripen

Dean — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:05:39 +0000

I never realized that nectarine’s bought from the grocery store won’t ripen. I bought a nectarine about six weeks ago, expecting it to soften up so it would be nice and juicy. I’ve been checking it every couple of days and that thing is just as firm as the day I bought it! I had bought two at the time and ate one immediately, but it was not ripe so I decided to leave the other one to ripen. I don’t know, maybe it’s going to petrify! Very disappointing!

Scallops for supper

Dean — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 21:35:34 +0000

My wife came home with a pound of fresh sea scallops that she picked up at the store on her way home from work. She said they were a good price, and since we hadn’t had scallops for a long time (probably a year or more!) she decided to cook them for supper tonight. She also picked up some fresh snap beans. So she cooked a great baked scallop dish with a cream base and stuffing on top, and served them with the fresh beans and sliced tomatoes picked from our garden. We had freshly baked sourdough bread along with the meal. What a feast that was!

Shrinkage

Dean — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:48:33 +0000

I am outraged at how the consumers are being ripped off once again at the stores. Companies are raising their prices and providing less product, both at the same time. This means I often have to buy two of a product when I would normally only buy on. When I think of how much more plastic and cardboard is being wasted and put in landfills, just so I can have the products I need, I get really upset. We are paying more money for a product AND creating more waste at the same time. This really bothers me a lot!

Farmers market

Dean — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:45:24 +0000

I really would like to support the local farmers as much as possible. But when I went to the new farmer’s market at South Wales last weekend, I could not believe my eyes at the outrageous prices that were being charged! One lady was selling freshly baked bread for $6.00 for one loaf of plain white bread! Now I’m certain that her home made bread was probably healthier than the commercially produced bread, but I just can’t bring myself to pay $6.00 for one loaf! I wonder how many loaves of bread that woman sold that day.

Well, it did pop the corn

Dean — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:17:39 +0000

I had the chance to try that new microwave pop corn popper that I mentioned a few days ago. It is supposed to pop “one service” of pop corn. That “one serving” was 1/4 cup of unpopped corn.

I used Orville’s pop corn because that is what was given to me. And I guess the commercials about it popping larger might be true because the corn popped so much that the lid had a hard time staying on the popper. So next time I’ll put it a little bit under the 1/4 cup. The popcorn came out quite good, actually. I think I’ll be using this little gadget quite a bit in the future!

Popcorn popping

Dean — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 19:16:44 +0000

A few years back I heard that there was a large controversy about how bagged microwave popcorn was bad for you. The kind that was already buttered, that is. Well it seems that the people that worked in the factories were getting sick from something that was in the butter. People were freaking out and throwing their microwave popcorn away! I didn’t do that; I reasoned that people in the factories were exposed to a lot more of the “bad stuff” than the average home-owner that only pops corn on occassion.

I did, however, stop buying microwave popcorn. I figured it was the right thing to do. Last month my niece gave us a big jar of regular, unpopped popcorn. My wife has been hinting at me cooking it. I’ve told her that I would, but somehow it has just never happend. Imagine my surprise when UPS delivered a box today addressed to my wife, and when she unpacked it we found two microwave popcorn poppers! These things are individual serving size, and are dishwasher safe. They are in the dishwasher as I write. I wonder how the popcorn will turn out!

Eggs

Dean — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 12:48:57 +0000

When I was a kid, I really didn’t like hard boiled eggs. At all. I did not even like fried eggs where the yolk was hard. (Still don’t!) Yet I love devilled eggs! And egg salad sandwiches! Seems to me that if I liked devilled eggs and egg salad sandwiches, that I’d like hard boiled eggs as well! I was thinking about that this morning as my wife was boiling some eggs (to make devilled eggs) and I was trying to figure out why that was so.

After all, the major difference is that a little bit of mayo or salad dressing is mixed in. Maybe a touch of mustard. Then it came to me – I don’t like plain hard boiled eggs because they are so dry! I need that little bit of extra moisture! Whew – another one of the nagging mysteries solved!

Kool Aid

Dean — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:37:15 +0000

I’ve always enjoyed iced tea for a nice gold drink for the hot summer months. I grew up in an iced tea drinking house hold and we are creatures of habit. Anyway I have gotten to where I’m getting a bit burned out on drinking the same thing day in and day out and have decided to give a few of the Kool Aid flavors a try. They make a good amount of flavors these days so you’d think I’d find at least one that would be good.