respublica

Dinner woes

With all the awfulness on the news this week, I feel guilty about obsessing about what to have for dinner, but here we are. Since Dale retired we've eaten at home almost 100 percent of the time. Covid shutdowns got us out of the habit of going out to eat and when we talk about going out, we never seem to be up to it.

I have used a rotating menu which I'm tired of. I made a nice roast beef last night which took a bit of effort and was worth it...not an every day plan though. I ask Dale what he'd like for supper and 95 percent of the time he mentions hot dogs. I really believe he could happily live on hot dogs.

So here we are once again.

This is most certainly not true

What is the best bakery in Illinois? According to Mashed, it is Lost Larson located in Chicago. Of course it would be located in Chicago, most food experts rarely venture much beyond that area. But I beg to differ.

Kruta Bakery in Collinsville is right up at the top when it comes to bakeries. Mashed foodies have probably never gotten further south in Illinois than Homewood. This sort of thing happens a lot when it comes to "best of" anything in Illinois.

We know better down here.

And in the same vein, a ranking of the best places to live in Illinois by niche.com, were all in the Chicago area. I mean seriously folks, do these Illinois surveyors ever get out of Chicagoland? And, the top Illinois cities in which to live are all suburbs. Shocker. Part of my growing up years were spent on the southside of Chicago, the Roseland neighborhood, the the second half in the west suburb of Villa Park. I loved those places but that is not all there is to Illinois. And...

The city ranked the top best is a place I have never heard of: Bannockburn! Sounds more like it should be in Scotland and must be a fairly new suburb comparatively.

Here is the list

1. Bannockburn
2. Long Grove
3. Clarendon Hills
4. Naperville
5. Inverness
6. Hinsdale
7. Buffalo Grove
8. Western Springs
9. Kildeer
10. Evanston

 

Ten Grocery Stores with the Freshest Produce

This list was put out By a foodie site and can be taken as you will. Here are their choices in order of the freshest produce.  Around here we can find a Whole Foods and a Fresh Thyme

1. Whole Foods
2. Sprouts Farmers Market
3. Central Market-Texas
4. Natural Grocers-Colorado
5. Heinen's
6. Wegman's-Out east
7. H-E-B--Texas
8. Hy-Vee-Midwest
9. Jungle Jims-Ohio
10. The Best Market-where I don't know but they are
11. Fresh Thyme, many places

Sorry Apples

These days we are now buying and consuming more bananas than apples, oranges, strawberries and etc. An apple a day is no longer in vogue, while bananas have become one of the best fruits for health and ease of eating.

I have been eating an banana every morning for years, it's part of my daily routine. They are loaded with important vitamins and minerals, especially Potassium which is  crucial for muscle  function and overall bodily functions. 

The only issue with bananas is I can only buy a few at a time, they over ripen quite quickly and I am not wanting to make banana bread every week to use them up. This means heading to the store several times a week.  If you go to the grocery store regularly you'll probably notice that there is always someone in front of the bananas, taking a fair amount of time looking for those with the perfect amount of ripeness. But not too ripe. Too many banana shoppers feel it necessary to pick up bunches, put them back, repeat. They also regularly pull apart a large bunch because they don't want 8, only 4. I am just as bad as anyone. It takes me a few minutes of staring at the bananas to decide on just the right bunch.

Yes, we have no bananas does not apply to most of us.

Another Day, Another story on Food Safety

Today's food safety warning are about how we should be refrigerating our items. There are days when all these warnings are just a bit too much for me to deal with, but there are a couple of good tips.

The one thing I learned the hard way was fruit and vegetables should not be underneath or above the freezer. That is the coldest place and pulling out frozen lettuce is no fun, same for berries. Our freezer is a pull-out drawer on the bottom and it works really well, too well some days. The top shelf is the warmest on ours and things you use quickly should go there. Fruit, vegetables, cheeses, leftovers etc.

Lots of information here, some just too much to take in. However, I'm obsessed with keeping food safe, I never leave leftovers out on the counter overnight and won't keep cooked things too long in the fridge in any event. If they aren't eaten after two days, out they go. If you've ever had a bout with food poisoning you'll understand.

A Fish Story

The Belleville paper has a list of many Friday Fish Fries going on in the Metro East during this Lenten season. Fish fries are well liked by many people, I may be one of the few people in the world who does not like fish at all. Dale loves fish and I feel sorry for him now and then as I don't fix fish for dinner very often. You can season fish every which way but I still feel like I have a mouth full of spare change. However at this time of year almost every restaurant offers Friday fish. So we are going out to eat tonight so he can get fish and I'll get a burger and fries.

What is eye-opening is the huge number of American Legions and VFW's which have Friday fish. I know from watching our American Legion parking lot across the street is how many people come. You can get fish about any place on Lenten Fridays and Good Friday will be huge for this.

Something good for the Fridge

I'm not much for buying every single, supposedly great, for the home. But I am seriously considering by these refrigerator shelf mats. They can even be cut to the size of your shelves as well as being easy to clean. How many times have I laid something in the refrigerator and got drips which dried on to the shelf making it difficult to clean. Often this meant taking out the entire glass shelf to wash, or being bent over trying to do it in place.

So I am heading to Amazon this morning and get some of these.

Disappointing food news

I should not be all that surprised to learn the secret behind grocery store rotisserie chickens. We happen to really like these chickens and dinner is easy to make. But here is the secret stores don't talk about.

Rotisserie chickens in grocery stores are often the unsold raw chickens that are about to expire. By selling them at a lower price, grocery stores make less money than they would on raw birds, but way more money than they would if they tossed the chickens out. The ones that don't sell are chopped up and made into chicken salad.

There is probably little health risk with these practices, but it is unsettling.

Interesting price changes

I came across an interesting bit of price changing at Schnucks this week. For some time I've purchased a couple of Pinot Noir wines I like at Schnucks with costs ranging from 18.99, 16 something and maybe 19 something. But early this week when I shopped I saw that all of them were in the 24.99 range and was shocked that the price had gone up so much. Then Friday I went back and saw each of the wines had sale stickers which had the original price. So they raised price and then put them on sale at the old price. This just seemed weird and irritating.

Always something to be concerned about

I wasn't thrilled by reading this today even though it pretty much tells what I've believed for years. Covid -19 can live on grocery items for days. I would also suspect germs from flu and colds will do the same. I've long been something of a hypochondriac and always make sure I wash produce before using. During the height of the pandemic, I'd bring home groceries and before putting them away, I'd wipe the packaging down with those germ fighting wipes.

I don't do the packaging as much anymore but produce, always. All you need to do is watch other shoppers in the produce section to see many pick up a piece of fruit or vegetable, then put it back and try another and another. Who knows what germs they have placed on that food. It may not even be illness on their part, but germs picked up from the shopping cart or whatever.

So wash that produce. The link has other foods which were tested to see how long germs lasted on certain grocery items.

1. Broccoli: Up to five days 
2. Cheese: Several days to a week
3. Chilled meat: Several days to a week
4. Plastic surfaces, including plastic bottles: Three days to a week
5. Refrigerated fresh peppers: Up to a week