Food Shopping

 I was the best of trips. It was the worst of trips. Publix, I mean. Special K was not bogo as someone told me. She must  be in a different area. Miracle Whip was bogo. He got two jars. 

His Cheeerios bogo, got two. Coleslaw mix bogo $3 each. Two chicken tenders for $4.46. I would rather have chicken breast than dessert. $17 spent.

Sometimes, we pass a place that is selling items cheap on sidewalk. Once we bought ALL. They gave me two skeins of crochet thread. The skeins were a surprise. They told me that two stores down items would be free in two days.. 

Next time I passed, I got one free item. Today, we passed, rather stopped. People were lined up getting items and putting items in bags to take. We waited at the curb, asked the man if he could give us something. 

He gave us choices of bread, and I chose marbled rye. I love it with cheese. Then, he gathered up five small bags--10 lbs, cherries, 2 bell peppers, 7 ears of corn, 18 kiwi, turkey hotdogs, 1 lb, ground round, 1.5 lb ground beef. There was a donation jar. Tommy had a $100 bill, and I had a $5, so I got to donate. I would say we certainly got a deal. 

Now, lots of this needs processing. I have never bought more than two kiwi at a time. So, I had to search for how to store them. I love kiwi but rarely purchase them. When I see them for $1 each, I pass. 

Tommy came and reported we have had a cabbage for a long time, two packages of Brussel's sprouts and something else. He is Refrigerator Master, Lord of Cold Storage, Duke of Earl. 

I need to take a nap and the get onto food processing later. 

We made the rounds for the three ads, And, we drifted into a used car place, drove around, talked to a salesman, promised him we would come back. We only shopped at Publix and the free food table.

My two breakfasts are 1) Special K, banana, milk or 2) pb, MW, banana sandwich. Neither of these requires me to take my hurting back to the kitchen to prepare.  Actually, I would prefer scrambled eggs and one piece of toast. Sometimes, I like a bowl of beans--black eyed peas or navy beans with maybe tomato or slaw. Maybe I will have cleaner scramble nine eggs again. That will last for 3-4 days. Hopefully, Special K will be bogo soon. 

Only 3 ears of corn were okay. 

What are your choices for breakfast? 

Do you ever pass a random place with free food? 

One Thing

I love cole slaw. For the last few years I have bought the grated carrots and cabbage. But, it seems that it is always gone around holidays. I have learned to buy it early. If I wait until Friday, I will have to go in about 7 am Friday or Saturday to find it on the shelf. So, tonight, Thursday, I went out for one thing--coleslaw mix.

Pork chops and chicken are here. Tomatoes and corn are planned to go with my meal. I bought one tomato at WM for a salad for me. Saturday, the market will be open, so I will get more tomatoes there. Corn on the cob will be from Publix and shucked since I cannot get the shucks off anymore. Since the wreck, my wrists hurt more.

Let's put it this way, I can get things open sometimes and do hard things. But, the result is sprained wrists since the wreck, so I can barely open the car door. It's hard to decide whether to hurt myself again, or do none of the things that hurt.

Anyhow, I went out especially for that one thing that I know will disappear during the day as we count down to the holiday.

Exbf will have this for dinner on Tuesday. He will be very happy! There will be enough for me to eat several meals and eat with him Tuesday and send a meal home. But, I got the One Thing I knew would disappear!

Oh, I will make half the cole slaw mix now and the rest on Tuesday. Old cole slaw is one thing I cannot eat. I am capable of eating the whole package, but I won't.

There is always one thing that disappears during a holiday unless you plan well, which I usually do.

Have you ever been on a search for some food at the last minute for a holiday? I know that at least once in our cooking adventures and hosting holiday events, there has been one thing you forgot or that eluded you. And, I would love to hear about it!

Corn and Neurologist

As I was preparing all the corn, all twelve ears given to me, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality. The first five ears were perfection. They were full and free of blemishes. I have never seen an ear of corn that was as perfect as these. They even had one little kernel of corn on the end and a thick  "thread" attached.

The very next ear of corn had a worm. Well, that worm went to Dominique along with three inches of the end of the ear of corn.

The next two were not keepers. Only a tenth of the kernels were present, and those were small and dried up looking. Those went into a bag for Dominique on Monday. She was be in ecstasy.

The last ears were smaller but full and perfectly formed with just a bit of the end that needed to be removed. Even these smaller ears were larger than what I have bought in the store for the last few years.

I bought corn from the Farmer's Market one year. Every ear was so blemished that only half an ear here and there was edible. Worms and rotten places were abundant. I really hated to take them back to a farmer who worked so hard.

It's not that I am lazy, but after that I only bought the ears already to eat, no shuck, just the ears on a tray and under plastic. At least the ears had been inspected before I purchased them. I did try purchasing ears in the store and shucking them myself, but the quality was iffy there, too.

Exbf loves corn. He got two of the ears, broken in half and cooked to take home. Tonight his meal will be chicken, corn, Brussel's sprouts, tomatoes, grapes and cherries. Corn and tomato, both fresh, spell summer to me.

When I came home from the grocery tonight about 11 pm, the ems and an ambulance were at my neighbor's house. They left shortly with someone on an ambulance. Scary.

Today, I went to the neurologist in Birmingham. Now, I am going to have my head examined...long overdue. He said I should not still be in pain like I am.  He said he would get an MRI to see what was going on in there...oh dear.

Your turn
What vegetables spell summer to you?

How do you pit cherries?

Cherries are $1.69/pound! I want to put some up--dehydrate or can.  I tried to pit with a straw. It was too flimsy. I tried another wider diameter straw. I am not strong enough to shove it through. I tried one of the straws that is wide diameter and has a strong wall. The pit goes into the straw and I must stop and dig it out.

On the internet are several ways to pit cherries.
1) Cherry pitter. Do these work for you?
2) Hairpin. Really? I doubt I could hold the tiny pin and do this for very long.  Is this easy?
3)  Chopstick. I hate to put something that can hold germs into fruit I intend to dehydrate. If I were canning, maybe.

Friday night, I was thinking about this and how I pitted cherries in the past. Then, I realized I just pop the cherry in my mouth and pit it with my mouth. hmmm, that won't work now, not for dehydrating.  That ditzy moment was just that, a moment.

What works for you?

I was given Peaches and Cream corn today. I am halfway through shucking it. So, I had better get on with it. I injured my right hand again, so this is slow going. These are the largest, fattest, and most perfect ears of corn. That is what I was thinking as I peeled off the shuck and silks to find a fat worm. Well, Dominique will enjoy it.

Do you ever eat Peaches and Cream corn?

What's wrong with this picture? Waste, waste, waste

More to the point--what's wrong with this free corn? My very thrifty side says "nothing." My taste buds say "nothing." This was a gift to the hens, given because it was not salable. Okay, but it is edible. I see corn on the menu for this week. I have never put fresh-off-the-cob corn in soup. But, it will happen this week. Sorry, Fancy. Sorry, Thelma. Sorry, Louise. This belongs to Chickie Mama.

I did get two eggs yesterday, and had this one in my pocket when I was feeding my hens. See the husk end over to the left? Some of the outer husks looks a little dark and slightly shriveled. But, the inner husks are perfectly fine. Maybe this is okay but no one will buy it.

The hens are in the background eating the first ear. I have to break it in thirds so they won't squabble. A hen can pick up the whole ear of corn and run with it, and each one will! It's a great game of take-away.

All this corn, two dozen ears, is trash. Yes, a few ears have been opened, but they will be hen food. And, this is another indoor picture that just did not turn out well.

As I go about my free-food gathering, some for me and some for hens, I am appalled at the waste. If I did not see this with my own eyes, the impact would not be as great. When I eat it and find it is still fresh and tasty, I am horrified at the nutrition that goes to the landfill. I got this box came from the produce counter inside the store. It was not dragged from a dumpster. It had not even been taken  to the back room!

At one point after my divorce, I had no food AT ALL in my house and $0.13 to my name. There were no bits of macaroni, no rice, nothing in the freezer or the fruit and vegetable crispers in the refrigerator, no butter, no condiments, no milk, and not one can on the shelves. No one knew, not even my best friends. I feel so sad now that all this was available and I had no idea.

All the statistics about food waste and hungry people are sort of meaningless except in an abstract way unless you are or have been hungry and have seen food wasted.

Your turn
Would you eat this corn? Have you ever been desperate and broke and not known that there was food going to waste?

Gleaning

Bare field? Look at the speck, center left, right at the edge of the photo!

While driving through the country in search of a business, I spied a field, yes, with my little eye. My little parsimonious eye is always on the lookout for free food, either for me or hens. Am I cheap? Yes, but it affects no one but me on this day.

See the ear of corn on the ground? I saw that from inside the car as I turned onto the edge of the field to turn around. It occurred to me--this was a corn field mostly devoid of corn and stalks. Just "stobs" remained.

See the "stobs." It was dangerous for me to walk amongst these. For one thing, I had on sandals. It would be like stepping onto a knife, a blunt, strong knife if one of these slipped up past the edge of the sandal and cut my foot. Plus, I just stumble around, hobbling on uneven ground. I still have vertigo.

Have you ever heard of "stobs?" This is a Southern US word from "stub," or "stubble."

When I was just over a year old I was walking with my mother in a field of stobs where things had been cut...don't know what. As I had just learned to walk, I tripped and fell face-first onto a stob that caught me under my eyebrow, narrowly missing my eye. My mother said she thought my eye was punctured. I still have quite a large scar. Maybe you learned a new word today.

What critter got this ear?

This cob has all the kernels stripped by something. I mused as to what it could be. There are no squirrels in the country.

Aha, pumpkins! These looked a bit gnarly, so I asked if he had any that I could give to my three hens.

The owner of this store said all the pumpkins he had outside had worms because he did not spray them. When I asked if I could have some for my hens, he said, "Take a couple." I took two. Well, exbf got them into the car.

Chicken cantaloupes

Then, another guy gave me several cantaloupes. I managed to cut enough from the good cantaloupe for exbf for dinner and some to take home. I don't eat cantaloupe.

I threw down an ear of the hard corn that I gleaned for the hens. They ignored it and came begging, following me to the house as I went inside. I came back, got the ear and put it in their pen. When they are in their pen for longer than they like, they often eat things they complain about on the outside.

"Maybe a bug is better."

Later, I came back with a colander of the corn. They just ignored the exposed kernels.

"The service is great here."

When I shelled it for them, scattering kernels on the ground, they eagerly ate it. Spoiled hens! Can you see the kernels of corn on the ground in the picture above? Next thing you know, I will have to put them in my lap and feed them from my hand. 

Sorry about the focus

When there were worms as I shucked and shelled the corn, I jumped, and shrieked as I threw down the ear. I looked more closely. Can you see the "worms?" Kernels of corn are sprouting. Maybe I should save this to plant next year. Nah, probably won't come true to the ears I picked up for the hens. I have to keep the ears inside or the squirrels would finish them off in a morning before I got up. 

Your turn

Do your hens turn down dried ears of corn? Who knew hens could be so spoiled? Do you ever glean for yourself or your animals? Have you ever seen corn sprout? Have you ever heard of "stobs?"