My Inner Sanctum: 2022-FOOD & FOOD STORE HAPPENINGS

Made my non peanut butter cookies. A hint for the new year was to experiment in the kitchen. I do that all the time. Timne before when I made these I did the individual cookies and it made 4 dozen- too much work!

350 oven large baking pan I should make them in 2 batches so they are not so thick.

1 cup sunflower seed butter

1 cup molasses

1 serving of unsweetened applesauce

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups whole wheeat flower

1/2 cup ground flax seed meal

cream wet ingredients. mix dry ingredients in a bag and add slowly to wet.

baked 20-25 minutes watch them they burn!

January 8 food shop

saw these and thought of a graving friend who eats all snack especially fried and HOT I have never had a pork rind and intend to keep it that way.

January

I love my dark chocolate cocoa Swiss Miss. They didn't have any 2 shopping days in a row. I was almost out and try to keep ahead of it.So this one week I had to have something hot so I got the White chocolate one which Mom liked a lot. Well it has either changed or my taste buds have. ugh it was awful. There were 8 in the package I think I have 2 more to go. But now it is tolerable. But I will try to not buy it again.

Had to throw away the remaining packets- just too sweet.

cold dreary day perfect for roasting acorn squash and sweet potatoes.

enough for 6 meals.

January 27

I rarely buy candy and I doubt I would ever buy any of these but they look intriguing. I do like dark chocolate Hersheys kisses.

January 27

while shopping for food I usually see something photo worthy. Mostly hind views of men or women. Tights that I would love to wear but the waistline is always too tight. See it on all ages.

February 3

while I would likely never buy these because of the cheese, the peppers, the sodium and the macaroni- they sure sound tasty. I remember loving Cheetos but hating the way it turned fingers, nails and everything orange.

February 3

while in Whole Foods trying to see if they had shelled edamame- I saw none but took a photo of the top shelf where my luck would be- that would be where they were. Just then an employee parked her cart nearby and I asked her for help. She rummaged around top shelf and yup there were 2- I wanted both. Thanked her profusely. Also grabbed tiny peas. Never see those in Star market. Checked the bagel ingredients and decided to skip those and just stick to 100% whole wheat and pumpernickel. Checking out saw this ahead of me. men's pants LOL

Then when I got out to the truck to unload. I had left decent room for the person next to me as I got out of the truck but this is what happened with the passenger side- it was fine when I went in. I felt badly that the truck door was touching , gently, that vehicle then saw it was rusted etc. Still was careful but it took more than a few trips to reach in. ugh

February 4

roasted golden yams and a huge russet potato. yum. will post also in WEATHER because power flickered all morning.one yam exploded LOL

February 15

These were so good

only used Smart balance in stead of oil because it was easier.

Oatmeal school cookies from Laurel's Kitchen- recipe tweaked

preheat oven 375

1/2 cup Smart balance or smart balance oil

3/4 c molasses

1 pack unsweetened apple sauce

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup flax seed meal

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup oats

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 - 1 cup raisins. soak in boiling water while measuring out ingredients and then drain.

cream wet ingredients. Place dry ingredients in bag and shake to mix. slowly add dry to wet by 1/2 cup and mix. slowly add raisins.

drop from teaspoons onto cookie sheet 12 at a time. bake 10 minutes and check for brown edges. cool on racks.

February 22

food shopping hazards when packaging is deceiving this looks like the lid is torn made me do a double take.

March 10

Old time junk food at check out

strawberry English Muffins. Leave it to Wonder Bread LOL

March 26

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Churros? Some things catch my eye, I never would eat them but..

and this electrolyte mix

April 2

this is so lazy and selfish- trash in a shopping cart

April 23

so shopping day. I was going to return the coffee cupa and lids that do noy fit. Glad I didn't. I won 2.00 on the lottery and wanted to cash that in and buy a new ticket with it. I usually have the correct money for it. But with the winning. well wrong. The customer service desk was closed for an audit. Another customer and I were standing in line- reading the two signs at each window that pointed at the other. The person who had her back to us the whole time turned and said closed audit. I thought to myself why not a sign that says that? So now I had to change a 5 dollar bill to get ones for the lottery self serve. I got in line and asked a cashier to change it for me. she acted like I was putting her out of her way. I wxpained the service desk was closed and lo and behold that same clerk overheard and said blah blah blah. yeah I know to use the self serve- that's what I always use. Not sure why I felt the need to explain myself. do your fucking audits when the store is closed. good grief.

April 9

In Whole Foods in Hyannis the usual struggle to see if there is edamame on the shelf. Even taking a digital photo and looking I cannot see. Luckily this time a couple were shopping and he was tall and grabbed two unseen packages for me.

April 16

flosser on the floor at self check out

April 30

back to eating a fedw Gold fish crackers every morning. none on the shelves- all cheese

I think I put some food stuff in rants. Well they were rants but.

May 28

huge bag of French Fries!

Bought cinnamon graham crackers and they had no cinnamon. In fact they made me feel "off" after eating them

this about the above was in rants

May 24 2022

RANT-OBSERVATION
I usually make my own cookies but every once in a while like a store bought treat. Usually Cinnamon Graham crackers. Been waiting for them to return to Whole Foods- been over 2 years wait for that. So I settled for Honey Made at Star Market- they finally were back on the shelves there. Opened and had 3 squares then checked the box to make sure there was Cinnamon on the package. yes. Have plenty of complaints daily and can barely keep up with them. So today in an idle moment decided to call the 800 number. I wrote down everything in large print on a separate piece of paper., knowing from experience that I cannot talk and read at the same time with a box in hand. They answer the phone basically with press 1 if this is about Oreos, press 2 for all other products. Remind me to NOT buy Oreos- that sounds ominous. So go through the "my name and phone number details" and she says "so we can call you back" WHAT??? " We are working from home still and sometimes get disconnected". okay. so I give her the number code on the box top which looks like: 07sep2022MM10707:43C OR 110707. By now I am giving the box the finger. I tell her that they are cinnamon but there is no cinnamon. she: "sounds like a quality issue". She wanted my email and that gets too tedious to say over the lousy connections so I decline. She wants to send me coupons so needs mailing address. That was fun. THEN says she will put me on hold so she can process this. On hold for longer than I thought necessary listening to fake xylophone music sounds. Ready to hang up and she comes back saying she processed it , is there anything else. no I thanked her and now my coffee is cold. LOL While I was pacing the kitchen waiting I was eating said graham crackers in tiny pieces. ( they are fragile) Took so long I needed to change ears with the phone and ended up putting a cookie piece in my ear.
It does not end here- I start reading the entire box after that call.
lid instructions: to open slide finger under flap, and loosen gently.
There's a Keep Kids Safe warning about feeding these recipes to children who are accustomed to eating these ingredients.
Made in Mexico
Contains a bioengineered food ingredient.
This my friends is why I bake my own.

May 28

roots and the quinoa and polenta are back not refrigerated

Jerusalem artichokes, cassava and taro root.

June 6

So on Saturday the store did not have any of the three breads I eat. I had at the apartment 8 slices of pumpernickel that I envisioned being spread over 21 meals. So decided to make bread today, weather fair and warm. I haven't made bread since my last cat Dorian died in 2013 so...

It was a little ragged after the first stir and took 3 hours to rise enough for me to shape it and place it in a pan and rise another 2+ hours. It smells divine. But I will not know until it cools completely whether it is a brick door stop or not. My breads have NEVER been light anyhow.

the ensemble.Mise en place

ragged start of first stir and rest

end of first rising which took 3 hours

end of baking

out of the pan and cooling

cooled enough to slice around 7pm

Jun 7

frozen then toasted this morning- half of a slice would have been plenty

May 21

there was this man shopping in the canned fruit aisle. He was standing to the left examining every item on the shelf in front of him with extreme scrutiny, his cart was on the right side. essentially blocking the aisle. A few people pushed through. I keep my distance and was also curious how long it would take him to move. He placed things in his cart like he was the only person in the store. I had hoped to be able to get through and take a photo of what the hell he was shopping for. nothing that special.

May 23

the biggest and most delicious potato. I ate the whole thing

June 11

this has got to be the most unappetizing dispaly of butterscotch pudding - it looks orange!

July 1

first of 4 avocados for the season. First 3 were perfect. Last one not so much. So that's it for 2022

July 10

I love Brussels Sprouts and may go back to buying the huge bag of fresh ones and freeze those myself. Because this happened. a big old clump of what turned out to be watery debris. Repackaged.

July 30

a new catsup not curious enough to google it but I wonder how different it is. Art of the Burger

seems to have been a contest on who makes the best burger.

In the truck at Whole Foods ready to leave and I see this person shove a cart from where they are standing by their vehicle. 2 attempts. Gets a bit closer still not leaving their vehicle- people!

and then in Star Market in Orleans people shopping in groups of three and gangs. Oblivious of others.

Windex in the aisle

August 13

let's start with the horrors of self check out. Do not get me wrong I love self check out and will continue to use it until they ban me from that aisle.

I was checking out and scanning and all of a sudden saw blue dish washing liquid on me, the scanner bed, the floor and the carrier. eek! Here, I guess, when I grabbed the Palmolive from the ledge on the cart it hit the lid and that went somewhere . I alerted the clerk and she did most of the cleaning up on the floor- I did what I could but....Then I said I had to get another. well that never happened it was so busy. I get back here and see it had scanned and I was charged for it. I shrugged my shoulders and figured - lesson learned and I hope to be more careful next time. 4.99 but like I say.

The irony of this is- the screw on cap itself is not removable LOL For whatever reason they decided that was a good thing. making it so I cannot fill the bottle to clean it out at the end- to use it up with a light mixture of detergent.

I seem to attract lid problems- apple cider vinegar and its off kilter warped rim, etc.

* same day I decide to have anadventure with a new food. a baby eggplant. I have not used it yet and it looks now like it is beyond use. oh well. I will cut into it tonight. 18 cents.

a friend in Houston Texas area was complaining about Tazo tea box changes from 20 to 16 and price stayed the same.

which reminded me- I love Tazo's Zen tea and I see it is back on the shelves.

August 18

So made lentil soup this morning first thing- then tackled the banana bread. Took 30 minutes to get ready for the oven and made me think- do they make an easy to use electric banana masher.oh my arms, my neck my back all over the freaking bananas. But as I was measuring the olive oil ( was all out of canola and did not let that stop me) I had to mess up my one pyrex measuring cup. for a 1/3 measurement. Stick with me here- there is more. As I was doing that I remembered that I bought measuring cups a couple of months ago that HAVE a 1/3 cup. LOL oh well. Then was so happy with my silicone spatulas. Years ago when they first came on the market I was skeptical thinking it was a hazardous product to be with food and get hot. After years of getting pissed off at the scrapers I had I was in Bed Bath & Beyond 3 years ago and saw these colorful Cuisinart spatulas and took the leap. oh how I love them- be damned if they leach into my food LOL But I love them so much I end up using all three and need another. so.... Go to Bed Bath & Beyond again. They have remodeled the store and I swore after one visit I would never set foot in there again. so confusing in there. So I ordered them from amazon. Took forever to show up here but yay I use all 6. LOL almost every day.
How's your day going???
Now to clean up from cooking-baking.

oh and it was a fumbles day.

August 18

I had excess bananas and decided to make banana bread squares. I need to find a lower surface to mash the bananas because it kills my wrists and arms otherwise- But they turned out great. Set them on a rack to cool with paper towels under them. Nearby was my little bag of washed gtrapes. and guess what they leaked slightly and as I was packaging up the squares I noticed too late which ones absorbed the grape leak. grrr. So half of them got tossed. But still enough for my snack.

Froze half a banana for snacks later too.

August 20

food shop wanted to get the Tazo Zen tea this week and all gone of course.

Then I got some laughs-

Then I got some hearty laughs and snickers at Star Market this morning. oh and news flash- I did not drop or break anything this week. yay me.
For a couple of years I was searching for Irish Spring soap. The pandemic was the major cause but also they moved it to the "Men" section and changed the packaging. But today Men have finally made it into the manipulation factor of companies that make you think you smell bad and their product will make you smell great for 8 hours! wow. Old Spice, Axe and Dove seem to rule the roast -roost.
Some examples:
Old Spice
Intense clean,Swagger,
Calming, Deep Clean, Timber,Moisturize , Fiji
Pure Sport, Captain,Swagger,Krakengard with Octopus and a skull, Dragon Blast,Bear Glove, Mambaking
Dove- Clean Comfort,Extra Fresh
Irish Spring

August 27

What started as a normal.shopping day ended a bit differently. But before I get to that I noticed that Pumpkin Spice Gold Fish Grahams are on the shelves. And as I approached the self-check out- Kit Kat has more than one flavor. who knew. I don't think I have ever HAD a Kit Kat bar! Not about to start.

So I get to the self checker and the clerk there is trying to persuade me to use the 2 registers open. I had to play deaf and dumb. I like the corner one on my right- it is easier for me. I let others ahead of me and am not holding things up. Normally he is a nice guy but not on the 27th LOL
If the self checkers have cameras they got an eyeful this a.m. My skirt fell down to my ankles
It was brief exposure of my old lady legs and baggy underpants. I am quick- had plenty of practice pulling up my pants fast and running away over the years. ha!

sorry no pix.

September 3

entrance to the store Halloween is a month away at least but this is inviting.

I had a wide craving for instant coffee the other night. Coffee filters and the coffee are expensive and it messes up the filter cup. I researched first if instant is bad for you. Turns out it is not- so much for 50 years of hogwash information. So I research which were best. Seems like my favoorite for years- Sanka- is the worst ha ha Nescafe Tasters Choice and Night Cap Joe. I ended up with Nescafe ( not the specific one) and Folger's single packs. The craving has gone away but I am ready for it. While looking this was most intriguing

one sip and I would have to be scraped from the ceiling.

So many foods I have stopped buying for various reasons. Grapes being number one top of the list. I think I bought 3 packages of organic red grapes in August. I usually shy away from them because of all the cleaning and rinsing involved. Well the last batch were so hard and not tasty that it screwed up my jaw for a week. So those got tossed into the woods for some wild creature.

mini cucumbers. I have been eating these with apple cider vinegar and olive oil before supper each night for a couple of years. Now they taste funny and are pithy. Maybe next year.

I take a chance each week with bananas. I have found if I cut them up in slices and freeze half a banana separately they are tolerable in the morning. Also a nice cool snack.

Yougurt I so wish the store would carry more than just the coffee flavor of Dannon yogurt- they must have other flavors and I cannot eat Greek which seems to be the rage and takes up most shelf space.

No more soynut butter which I miss so much but it was taken off the market a few years ago for bacterial issues. I switch ed sunflower seed butter but that kind of creeped me out with processing issues.

I cannot do jams and jellies - too sweet.

I really miss Pepperidge Farms whole wheat bread small slice ( not thin) and have to settle for Arnolds which is full of inedible seeds.

The 2 lb tub of Smart Balance which would save me money but I can no longer safely lift that from refrigerator to counter and back. So fucking expensive.

As I went in to the store I saw this cart on its side- one hour later still on its side. people!

September 8

I had a hankering for chickpea soup stew. so the day before I roasted sweets and yulon Golds onions and garlic. The onion and garlic to be in the chickpeas. The potatoes to be added if need be each time I ate it. Made it and it was delicious but too rich for me and too gassy. So I ate three of the frozen portions and then had to toss the rest. The potatoes were great though

oh that's right I forgot one of the sweets had excessive black streaks through it and got tossed.

September 28

bought apples, McIntosh on September 24.

Only 2 because well you know my luck with anything. Washed one today, cut it in half and it was almost totally red inside. I smelled it and it did not smell like a McIntoch it smelled like a Cortland. I ate a bite and it tasted not nice. I added some sunflower seed butter and ate some more then almost instantly had an asthma like attack like there was sulfites in it. I had to calm myself down to eat lunch.

I tossed them into the compost jug. mental note- no more fruit unless it is a peach or a banana

The roasted vegetable when done looked great!

September 12

broke down and bought instant coffee. Tried the Folger's single serve first and I am hooked and love it. The other- Nescafe is just as good though.

September 17

Childrens body wash with affirmations.

I am fantastic smart and helpful

I am thoughtful caring and fun

Covid test 11.99 I thought they were free?

puffed granola and simply granola

pumpkin spice everything

macadamia milk

oh how Mom and I loved macadamia nuts!

October 3

I have a lot of favorite foods- broccoli, Hershey's dark chocolate kisses, pumpernickel b\toast etc. but at the end of a day- after supper I have a small slice of whole wheat round bread floating in a bowl of the broth my vegetables cooked in. Very soothing and I hope packed with nutrients.

October 8

young children playing corn hole in Star Market Orleans. I so wanted to try!

in the ice cream aisle I saw this- half eaten food and what not in the seat area of a shopping cart yuk.

October 25

I wanted to roast a honey nut squash and make some bannana bread cookie bars. That entails the parchment paper which is now sold in sheets not on a roll. Not crazy about it but what can I do.

so decided to separate the 50 sheets and fold and store in a plastic bag.

so for the banana bread I thought ahead last week and froze 3 bananas making them softer and easier to use in the recipe. I left them out too long to defrost and they turned into brown water and pulp. Live and learn. ended up mashing them like I wanted to avaid.

cookies and squash were delicous

October 15

Picked up food for a friend who was down with covid. He wanted bagels from Jo Mamas but said they were expensive. I am glad I went there anyhow as Star did not have pumpernickel ones and these were much smaller. BUT 4 were 7 bucks at Jo Mamas! yikes

October 29

Someeof the zucchini looked like cucumbers

wow and the variety of frozen meals for more than one

September 23

Made bread a failure. yeast did not develope and it tasted off

November 5

food shop always has something to offer in the weird strange different category

these soaps

beer? night cap and pine!

November 7

made chickpeas this morning. Soaked a little less than a full cup of garbanzo-chickpeas to use up what was left. Simmered for 2 hours then added chopped carrot and 1/2 teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder and Bell's seasoning. I think this is the first time I have bought Bell's since the 70s. When we made stuffing for a turkey it was usually bread cubed, butter, chopped onion, celery and pepper and poultry seasoning. We just did not like Bell's . well! change my mind I love it. The small box is in the freezer and leaks from the box like baking soda LOL But sure smelled good for the 3rd and last hour of simmering. Had it for lunch. At first it tasted like soap for some reason. But it was fine.

November 13

Shopped with Dara in here. Some amazing prices LOL

Sides, Entree and those beets look like a dessert.

November 15

Dara gave me a home grown honey butternut squash- got 4 servings out of it- and it is delicious! and a bunch of heads of home grown garlic

I now roast the squash whole for 30 minutes then cut in half and scoop out the seeds and finish roasting. Too much on hands and arms to do it cold.

November 26 & 29

They did not have frozen Brussels sprouts for a few weeks straight so I had to buy a bag of fresh which I think was 50 of them. I cooked then separately for a few nights then thought wow I'll never eat these up and am getting tired of them ha ha ha. So I cleaned the 30 that remained and split up 2 heads of Dara's garlic. tossed with olive oil and some Bell's seasoning. Roasted 375 for 40 minutes. and froze in packs of 5 each. yum

November 23

after sorting rinsing and soaking lentils and split peas overnight I drained off most of the water and added fresh. wow the bubbles represent a fart each.