BeeZee

As I was reminded that I haven’t made LGD in a while, and I had 2 jars of olives, I made a quick grocery run for some fresh herbs and a nice, fat, organic lemon. Made a batch and used it to dress some baked cod fillets for dinner. I have some Persian cukes and I think I will made a salad with them, some feta on top sounds good.

Fralinger’s salt water taffy (now owned by the James Candy Co.) is a NJ shore icon, they had a shop on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, I think they are now just in the Casinos’ retail shop areas. One of my former co-workers used to bring a box back for us after their summer vacation. When it is fresh, it is pretty good.

I went to Whole Foods to get lunch today, and for the first time I can remember seeing recently, they had unattended food samples out for the taking under plastic domes. All in little portion cups, except the grapes which I saw some guy stick his grubby paw in to. I did partake of a cube of cheese, which I popped in my mouth, and then re-masked.

Cherries have never gone down in price here, the lowest I've gotten is $2.99/lb and they weren't great. In the past, I could buy them on sale at $1.99/lb for about 2 weeks.

Good grief, all of those egg people...if my husband or I saw deviled eggs we'd make a warp speed u-turn. I don't know a single person in either of our families who likes them. I try to bring things that won't potentially poison people if left out too long at room temp. That means no mayo. I'll make a potato salad, grain-based salad, or marinated veg salad, which can stay nicely at room temp with oil-based dressing.

For restaurant portions, I'd even call it "normalizing" rather than "shrinkflation". I agree, I'd rather have less food and no leftovers if it allows them to keep prices reasonable. Or give people size options, like how you can order a cup or a bowl of soup, I've seen restaurants (generally in an area with large senior clientele) that offers "light" portions that have smaller amounts of protein. The mass market brands try to trick consumers by modifying packaging so you can't readily see the reduction in volume. For example, a couple of weeks ago I saw bottles of Gatorade on the shelf in "old" style and "new" style shapes...upon reading the label the liquid volume was reduced in the new bottles. Likewise I saw something on TV where they showed the underside of a peanut butter jar being concave to reduce the internal volume while keeping the apparent visible jar size the same. I guess restaurants could buy smaller plates to visually trick their customers, too.

Chutney is great on turkey sandwiches, also, for that sweet/sour/spicy kick.

Everything on the grill - swordfish, corn, broccoli rabe (cooked in foil packet with oil and garlic, dressed with some oil when serving). Wasn't sure how the broccoli rabe would turn out, but it steamed very nicely with just the water from washing it clinging on the stems/leaves.

Pizza at work yesterday, white pizza with spinach and tomatoes. Could have used a bit more garlic, but tasty.

Grilled tuna (roasted pepper/kalamata relish), green beans (thanks for the idea, @heidih), multigrain pilaf.

If you like whole wheat pasta, it has a certain simillarity. I have tried store brand once, Barilla is better. It does work better with the briny flavors than with milder ones, since the pasta retains a bit of the legume flavor. When you cook it, keep testing since I have found it takes a bit longer than the minimum rec on the package. I use it because of my husband being diabetic, the nutritional profile is better for him.

Pasta salad with shrimp, roasted peppers, kalamata olives, a little feta. Used Barilla chickpea pasta.

Look on the bright side, you have half of something. My husband will leave empty containers in the fridge.🙄

Half of a roasted yam from dinner the previous night, cinnamon/drizzle of maple syrup/pine nuts and into the toaster oven to reheat and toast the pine nuts. Ate with yogurt spooned on top. Will repeat, it was good.

Grilled branzino fillets, put them skin side down on foil (DH too nervous to put them directly on the grill), just olive oil, salt, pepper, they were great. Zucchini tossed with baksamic and grated parm after grilling, yams.

Grandma pie at a local pizza place, rain held off so we could eat outdoors. Basil a bit fossilized, but otherwise tasty.

Avocado, pepitas, splattering of TJ’s guajillo salsa on rice cakes.

Grilled swordfish (broke during transfer to my plate), corn/black bean salad.

I saw Raniers at WF this week, but I know its too early for them to be good (esp at that price). Cherries purchased today at Shoprite were from California. They are smaller than the ones from Washington state that I usually buy, but those don’t seem to be here yet.

I would kill for some fresh young peas in the pod, I like to eat them raw. I tried to get my gardening co-worker to plant some for me, but he said they are too difficult to grow since they need particular temps to flourish, so if Mother Nature doesn't cooperate in early Spring (which she rarely does around here), no go.

Ate too much pineapple while cutting it up, seemed to be pretty high in acid because I burned my tongue. Should've stopped after the first piece when I sensed it could be an issue...

DIY cocktail sauce is the way to go - extra horseradish, please!

Tried the guajillo salsa, which I think is new-ish (I purchased it a couple of weeks ago). Medium spice, fairly thin, good for drizzling over things, not many chunks.

So envious. Love seafood and a beach vacation sounds so nice right now...

Magnifying glass app on my phone does the trick when needed (it basically hijacks the camera function, very simple, and free to download). Have used the flashlight function more than once in restaurants, too.