It's Saturday

It Saturday & in my world that usually means shopping day. Today was usual, so off I went. First was the Farmers Market; I love Farmers Markets! We have 2 indoor year-round Farmers Markets within driving distance and a few seasonal ones in the spring & summer. One of the indoor markets is conveniently located across the street from the Redner's grocery store so I can theoretically do all my shopping in one trip & the other is next to a Giant grocery store, again, so I can theoretically do all my shopping in one trip.

Of course, it never works that way!

I love the big Market by the mall. Today I went to 2 different poultry shops so I could get the chicken & turkey thighs from the one I like, but I don't like his turkey sausage or his ground turkey (I like the "thigh burger" with all the fat to keep it juicy) So I got my thighs & a bag of chicken bones & went to the other guy for my sausage & burger. Hubby is making White Chili tomorrow, YUM. Quite Tasty, if he actually gets to it. Sometimes I get my sausage from a third guy, or even go to the organic place if I want a turkey andouille or something like that.
I also got most of my produce (shallots, carrots, onions, mushrooms...) but, even though I live in a heavily Hispanic populated area, I can't get my poblanos or tomatillos there. I can get fresh fish, fresh eggs, fresh milk, all sorts of imported cheeses, some amazing cajun food or sushi (when I'm feeling wealthy--a rare treat!) & even a bottle of locally produced wine, but no poblanos or tomatillos.

I also needed some other random grocery type items, so off I went. On today's list there was a bag of frozen shrimp, I can only get that at the Giant--and it has to be the "big" Giant across town, the little scary one on this side of town doesn't carry the frozen raw shrimp. So, off I went, to the suburban snobs Giant. Generally, this had been my favorite local grocery store. Which isn't saying much, because I truly, madly deeply dislike grocery shopping. As much as I love going to the market, that is how much I hate going to the store. Very rarely I can convince Hubby-poo to go to the store for me, (he knows how much I dislike it) but not today. He had other things to do. Since the piles of snow paralyzed our area for much of the week (actually, it didn't seem like it should have been that bad-we only had about 6-8 inches) but I guess no one left their house all week so today was get out & get in Kiki's way day. Cars that hadn't dug out were trying to & parking 1/2 in the middle of the road. People who were unburying their cars were throwing ice chunks into the road and even the areas that normally have 3 or 4 lanes were down to 2 with banks pushed up the side of the road. Add to that the normal chaos of double parking in this town and it was a pain in the (insert body part of your choosing here)!

When I finally did make it to the Giant, I realized that through out the town & suburbs everyone heard that I would be going to that Giant & they MUST GET THERE BEFORE KIKI! Ok, so I had to park at the far end of the lot. The sun is out, it wasn't a bad walk. Then I went in. The place was mobbed. Going for the tomatillos, I noticed that there were 4. 4 very sad looking tomatillos. OK, I think there is still some grilled tomatillo salsa in the fridge, maybe I can sub that. I guess the Giant forgot that people like to grocery shop on Saturdays--especially following a storm--because, they forgot to stock things. All over the store there were pallets & carts of boxes that should have been on shelves, many of them abandoned in the middle of an aisle so that the crowds that emerged from their homes in search of Triscuits and frozen pizza had to hurdle them or, worse yet, take turns getting around them. I stood at one "intersection" for several minutes just trying to get to the dried beans. When I finally made it over, I saw that they had dozens of varieties of beans: black, white, red, pink, navy, canary, butter, lima, black-eyed, but there were NO Great Northern. I only had one type of bean on my list Great Northern. OK, no tomatillos, no beans. Some chili that will be. On to the basics. Flour Tortillas are a basic in our house. (We eat burritos & wraps & quesadillas a lot so that is a basic) Oh boy, they are on sale $1 each Whoopie! Until I realize that they had none. That doesn't do me any good. grrr. Down the aisle to the butter. Giant butter on sale 3/$5 Whoopie, but wait. There is no butter. I can pay $3.00 for Land 0' Lakes. I want the $1.67 Giant grocery. I went digging through the cart full of stock and pulled out a box of butter, but it was the unsalted kind. That doesn't do any good. So, I left with no butter, no beans, no tortillas, no tomatillos. Gosh I hate grocery shopping!