i <3 wegmans

I love grocery shopping. LOVE. (Unless it’s overly crowded, and then I hate it.)

Had to pick up some items yesterday after my meeting with one of the dietetics professors at Buffalo State. I wanted to meet with someone there to make sure I’m on the right track with the classes I’m taking at ECC, and just get an overall “warm fuzzy.” Mission accomplished, and in record time! I fed the parking meter five quarters (1 hour, 15 minutes), but only needed two of them! Oh well, instead of looking at it as a wasted 75 cents, I hoped it would bless the person who took the spot after me.

Goodies! I was making Ina’s “Weeknight Bolognese” from her “How Easy is That?” cookbook; it’s a huge favorite of ours. I needed a few things for the recipe and few staples we were running low on.

We’ve gone organic! Well, at least mostly. I’m really making an effort to buy more organic and/or local food. I love that Wegmans stocks local produce and highlights the farms from where it comes. The key to buying organic is getting the biggest bang for your buck.

For example, I eat a TON of spinach and yogurt, so those are things I should make sure are organic. But the random can of tomato paste or the gallon of milk Andrew and I won’t get through before it goes bad? Those would be a waste of money. Also, think about WHAT you’re eating. Does it have a thick, outer skin you peel like a banana or an orange? If so, skip organic. Most of the pesticides stay on the skin and since you peel it off, it’s no biggie. Strawberries and spinach–you eat the entire thing, so it’s wise to get organic in that case. One more thing: get informed about WHERE your food comes from. Different kinds of produce often have different amounts/types of bad stuff sprayed on them or in the soil, depending upon where they’re coming from.

Local broccoli (does it not look amazing?!), red bell peppers and peaches. I bought the broccoli and peaches from the same farms (at Wegmans) last week and was SO IMPRESSED with both of them.

I sprang for the “San Marzano” tomatoes for Ina’s recipe. A lot of the tomato recipes I have call for “San Marzano” tomatoes and I’ve always wanted to try them, but never wanted to pay more. I was in a mood yesterday and just went for it! I did end up with the Wegmans brand, cheaper by 30 cents, but at $3.69 for ONE 28-ounce can, it was still an arm and a leg. The deal with the tomatoes is that they’re grown in a special part of Italy (near the water I think) and allowed to ripen for longer than all the other tomatoes, so they’re deeper, and darker in color and richer in nutrients and flavor. (See Andrew? I bet you didn’t think I knew all that stuff about them.) The verdict: While I’m sure they are a little better, I probably won’t choose to spend extra dollars on canned tomatoes–I’d rather spend it on local/organic food!

Also pictured: 100% whole wheat Italian bread from Wegmans’ bakery. I knew Andrew wouldn’t be pleased, but this girl likes whole grains! We had it toasted and rubbed with garlic for dinner last night and I intend to make french toast with some of it this week, too.

Figs! Ever since my party at Susy’s back in August I’ve had figs on the brain. They’re in season now and I’m doing a food post for the EA Co-op on figs this week, so I had to pick up a container for the recipes I’m going to make! I’ll let you know when that’s up. (I’m actually going to turn THIS post into a ‘grocery store how-to’ post for them today as well…)

You can’t have figs without blue cheese! Seriously, even if you HATE blue cheese, you must try them together with some honey–AMAZING! Thankfully, this little package of the mild variety was also the cheapest.

I keep cheese sticks around 24/7 for snacks. I love to pair one with an apple for between classes at school or after the gym. I usually buy mozzarella cheese sticks, but this time I wanted to get organic ones. Again, I eat A LOT of cheese sticks, so it would be worth it to buy organic. However, I couldn’t find any (which surprised me, maybe I was looking in the wrong place?), so I ended up with Cabot brand sharp cheddar sticks. They were actually a bit cheaper (although the package was smaller, 8 vs. 12) and I thought it would be nice to change it up a little. I really like Cabot brand–it’s a co-op (!) owned by dairy farmers and all natural. Not to mention they’ve won tons of food awards for their cheeses… I bought their regular yellow cheddar last week in the sliced version for sandwiches. No processed cheese “food” for this girl!

Raspberry Vinegar!!! I found it! I have been looking for this forever… I have an awesome wild rice recipe from one of Ina’s books and it called for this kind of vinegar and I can never find it. FINALLY. Now, if we could only buy a house, wait two months to close, move in, and unpack my cookbooks…I could make it.

EA Co-op

Some of you know that I’ve gotten involved with the East Aurora Cooperative Market, which is still in the forming stages here. They have a board and are working on growing their member base before moving onto the next step, such as working on selecting an actual space for the store and raising money.

Yikes! Totally did not notice the woman in the tie-dyed spandex shorts when I was taking the photo…

Anyway, with my writing/PR/photography background and interests, I’ve joined the “media/communications” team of volunteers, mostly in a photographing and blogging capacity. The first thing I’ve gotten involved with is the mural project.

Alix Martin, above left and center, is a local artist who owns a gallery and has also gotten involved with the co-op. She volunteered to paint a mural on the outside brick wall of the co-op building. She’s been recruiting youngsters, some her own and some from other members of the co-op, to help with the project.

What I’ve done is document the mural on the EA co-op’s blog. I’ve really enjoyed meeting new people through the co-op and delving more into photography and blogging, although I STILL have yet to really teach myself how to use Andrew’s camera. With school now, I’m not sure I see that happening any time soon…

But, thankfully my new friends at the co-op don’t think my lack of photography skills is a show-stopper, so I’ll keep on clicking away, both at the camera and the keyboard. In fact, I have another project to start working on: being their FOOD BLOGGER!

I cannot tell you how excited I am to do this. The more I think about it, the more perfect it seems to me. I love blogging about food, but thefrozenpineapple isn’t just about food; it’s about everything that makes me, well, ME. I’ve struggled a lot with how to “define” this blog (not that it’s necessary to do so, by any means) and I’ve never felt like an ‘exclusive’ food blogger, because there is just so much more to this than food.

Which is why being the food blogger for the co-op will be a fantastic complement to what I’m doing now!

I’ll write a weekly “food column” of sorts that will focus on seasonal, local produce with information and recipes. I’m going to try to come up with as many recipes on my own as I can for this “column,” which I’m looking forward to and see as a bit of a challenge. I’m highly recipe-driven, not because I’m not creative, but because I enjoy actually USING the cookbooks I’ve bought and really, these cookbook authors know what they’re doing. Anyway, I’ll try to come up with recipes on my own, but depending on lots of factors (my school work and time, ingredients, creativity), I may have to resort to promoting some of my favorite chef’s recipes as well.

I’m starting with a promo for the “Locavore Challenge,” which is run by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, and is something the co-op is helping to promote. It’s a month-long campaign to both educate and encourage consumers to buy/grow/eat local, organic food. In just perusing the list of ways to be involved, I realized I already do a bunch of them already, shopping at a farmer’s market, growing a backyard garden, buying local honey and composting kitchen scraps. One of the things to do for the challenge is to either host or attend a potluck in the month of September that features local, organic food. The co-op wants to get the word out and give members ideas on what to make for their potluck, which is where I come in!

My post on that should be out this weekend, so I’ll let you all know when that goes live. So exciting!

If you’d like to follow me and my “food column,” (I’m trying to come up with a short, catchy “name” for it to differentiate it from other posts I do for the co-op, like the mural project or other “newsy” items) stay tuned to the EA co-op’s blog to see what they’re up to and what I come up with for them. I’ve linked to their blog on my blogroll, which is in the lower right of your computer screen.

seeing purple

I made another beet smoothie today. No, I don’t really like beets, but we had the puree in the freezer, so I feel like I’m doing the responsible thing and using them up. I hate wasting food. The thought of throwing food away makes me ill. I blame my father.

This time I tried the Garden Ginger Salad version. It called for a MUCH larger amount of beets, and celery juice. Instead of attempting to make celery juice by blending stalks and then straining out the solids (too much work!), I chose to throw it all in the blender. Perhaps a bad decision… Between the celery “stuff” and the additional beets, the apple and ginger didn’t do much to help the flavor! If yesterday’s beet/applesauce smoothie was too sweet, this one was just the opposite! I ended up adding 2 tbsp of honey, which helped. A little. I think the added celery solids pumped up the volume, so this ended up making two large drinks instead of one.

Each smoothie, with the addition of 1 tbsp of honey each, only came to 150 calories. Not bad for a little snack. Do I relish the thought of the other smoothie waiting for me in the freezer? Not really… I think beets are an OK additive for smoothies, not so much as the star of the show!

And be sure to wear an apron when making smoothies, or anything, really, with beets! I was glad I did!

On the docket for today:

-co-op photos

-errands in East Aurora (all food-related–FUN!)

-computer work at home

-salmon for dinner!

Yay for days I run a lot (three with Hadrian, then four by myself)! I’m eyeing a piece of Abigail’s leftover killer chocolate mousse birthday cake!