BeeZee

And so it begins, the turkey stock is done for gravy. Will skim fat tomorrow and put it in the freezer.

I am hosting 9 people, all vax’d (some boosted). I have turkey wings in the freezer to use for “make ahead” gravy. Two cans of jellied cranberry sauce, because I’ve given up making fresh that nobody but me eats. Loaf of bread in the freezer to be used for mushroom stuffing. Sides will be contributions from Mom (twice baked potatoes) and Sis (some veg), might make a 2nd veg like braised carrots (because I like veg), dessert by stepson’s fiance (guessing a pie or cobbler) plus I will have ice cream and cookies. I am leaning towards skipping the appetizer course, since ther will be snacks before the meal. I usually wait a bit longer, but I am nervous about turkey availability so I plan to purchase two frozen bone-in breasts this weekend.

I had purchased Lidl's house brand version of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia and finally tried it today. Pretty good (sweet, of course), particularly at half the cost of the name brand.

I needed to make something hearty, but couldn’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Baked risotto (yes, I acknowledge it’s not “real” risotto if not cooked stovetop and the texture isn’t as nice) with bay scallops and julienned endive salad. Wound up being kind of a beige dinner, but tasty.

Could not resist stopping in the Asian supermarket on my way to the office this morning, picked up a case of 16 Ataulfo mangoes for $16.99, gave a bunch away to co-workers (one person took 5 to make fruit leather). They are from Ecuador and a little more tart.

With a side of toe cleavage!😜

Local supermarket, Shop Rite, has the promo again this year, $400 accumulated purchases during the month before gets you the free bird - whole turkey or bone-in breast.

Freezer dive to make space for Thanksgiving. Ratatouille really is better as a reheat, this was leftover from May. Oven roasted (frozen, defrosted) shrimp with garlic. Baked potato (yes, singular, it was massive, so we shared).

I was just happy that we managed to actually eat dinner without interruption. Bought 2 bags of Reeses cups (50, more or less, depending on how many DH snuck). Might be just enough.

I cut up and roasted the squash prior to adding it to the broth. Adds a nice depth of flavor. Quinoa was cooked separately and added into the pureed soup.

Butternut squash with red quinoa, made with half coconut milk/half chicken broth.

My retired Father joined up with a "men's club" in his over-55 community, they invade a local diner once a month for breakfast and likely torture the same waitress who always works their table, and probably has the patience of a Saint.

From that list, I have been to the following (in many cases, just once): Vincentown Diner, Mastoris, Ponzio's, Ritz Diner, Americana Diner (which is no longer a diner), Golden Dawn, and New Prestige Diner. Because of driving around NJ for work, I get to hit North/Central/South. Vincentown Diner was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives several years ago, their angle is that they use seasonal and locally farmed ingredients. Plus local micro brews!

I am stocking up on cat food, since I have seen depleted supplies of the canned goods, and of course picky cats have favorite flavors😁. At Walmart today I thought the canned cranberry sauce was missing from the shelf, but realized they had a couple of pallets in an aisle. Of course we grow cranberries around here, so theoretically I should be able to get fresh ones, too.

I always have peanut butter in the house since it is a good snack (on Wasa) for my husband. He actually prefers smooth because he likes the chunky style too much and will (over) eat with a spoon. I've tried some of the natural or specialty varieties and he's happiest with good old Skippy. I have found it to be so unbearably sweet...I just found the variety with no sugar added and it's perfect, it actually tastes like peanuts now.

I'll bite...what makes them "illegal"?

I did peruse the chocolates, but I'm trying to watch sugar consumption for the next month, so I had to resist, they looked tempting. Good to know that they (and the frozen seafood) are good quality. Do you happen to know where the frozen scallops come from?

I visited a fairly new Lidl near my office for the first time today, it blows Aldi out of the water, IMHO. More pleasant store ambiance, produce doesn't look on the verge of rotting, better layout. Fairly wide variety of baked goods/breads. Bought a jar of tehina (Greek) $2.99 and German Forest Honey $3.29 since I was out of both. They had a sale on half pints of raspberries (from Mexico) for under $2.00. It was just a "once over" visit in the center aisles, I didn't get to the outer refrigerator and freezer cases to check them out. The dry goods that they put out are kind of interesting, clothing, tools (kitchen or not), couple of varieties of cutting boards, small electrics...I just hate that you have to sign up with email/password to view your local store's weekly ad, I am skipping that. I picked up "the dish", which is a "tasting guide" promo magazine they display by the exit, and they have some fun Advent calendars coming soon, "assorted chocolates", "fruit spread & honey", "cheese", and "premium chocolates".

Produce department was well stocked today, but this is the bottled/boxed juice aisle. There was also a sign in dairy about unavailability of half&half and heavy cream. Gatorade still mostly out of stock, Powerade was stocked, but some flavors missing.

Random shortages, definitely. Even if I go to the Shop Rite near my office, which is about 30 miles from the one by my house, I'll find different things missing likely due to them being owned by different "buying groups". To some extent, it seems like if there is a product that has different "options"...the most popular one is on the shelf. So for the dairy products, my guess is they put their efforts into distribution of milk rather than cream, to satisfy more customers.

Eating the rainbow, from Whole Foods salad bar.

Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Bisque, in the refrigerated section (plastic container). I bought this for lunch at work (microwaved) and shared with a co-worker. Not the overly sweet flavor like usual, this was definitely savory with a noticeable taste of sage. A good stand-in since I haven't gotten into soup-making mode yet.

I modify my behavior based on the circumstance. Business/formal meal, yes, I'll break off a little piece, butter it, and consume. Eating at a casual place with my husband, I'm biting in. I love the sensation of biting into a thickly buttered piece of bread. If I suspect that the crust is going to be too tough to bite easily, I might pull it off first.

As my husband used to work in that business, I can confirm that some, but not all, TJ's products are made by the brand name company. They know how to tweak the recipe just enough. However, sometimes they wouldn't want to play (or reduce their price enough), so that's where his company came in...they formulated "knock offs" for manufacturing in alternate facilities.

Looks great, like an edible jewelry display!