MetsFan5

Gosh I would Hoover a good gazpacho right now!

I have spam in my pantry and will try it once this heat dies down. I’m not using my oven, my range or even my microwave until this heatwave breaks.

@JoNorvelleWalker Acme is still present in Northern NJ— specifically Morris Plains. “Acme” was my first actual word as a child outside of yes, no and forms of mom and dad. I haven’t been in their store on probablt 15 years but it changed a bit since my childhood. I have had them delivered via Instacart. A&P I remember fondly as the one that was in Morristown (and is now a Whole Foods) sold alcohol so I could shop there for food while in college and buy beer and have my friends give me money back for it when my parents thought I was just getting food. 🙈 Jeff who? Corzine? I also foundly rememner Grand Union in Basking Ridge.

I live in Northern NJ and I detest Shoprite. There’s one new “major” one by me that sells wine and beer and liquor without a separate check out but it’s constantly crowded and feels like an uncomfortable Costco. I generally shop at Stop and Shop, Kings, and Wegmans. With some Amazon pantry and TJs thrown in. My major orders are via PeaPod which delivers Stop and Shop as they have good prices. My “pick up a few things” store is Kings as it’s about 2 miles from my home and I pass by it often. There’s a Whole Foods in town but it’s small and Kings IMO offers the same things, better quality. TJs I go to once a month. Wegmans I use via Instacart as it is in an extremely inconvenient location. They’ve changed their system and have an in store shopped buy the items and supposedly refrigerate them but I had a package of chicken go bad on me twice so now I don’t trust that. So I get speciality cheeses and chauceutiere, nuts, bread, olives etc from them. While down the shore we picked up a bunch of cheeses, olives, eggplant pie , rice balls, cheese spreads and salads at Joe Leone’s in Point Pleasant Beach.

Henkel steak knives. China? It can be easily stored. New silverware? I registered for Henkels and love them. Wine glasses? I registered and received everyday Villeroy and Bosh service for 12, the aforementioned silverware, personalized China, Riedel wine glasses... but we lived in a large-ish townhome. We use our electric fondue pot but I’ve never used my panini press, my 7qt Cuisanart, my pizza stones or my Kitchen Aid mixer but I’m a shitty cook.

That price for a Taco seems high or is it just me?

I can’t read any of the label... I’m assuming that’s your issue as well. Maybe someone can sharpen or refocus the image?

What a wonderful post to read! It warmed my heart and I’m so pleased for your and your mom!

@Kim Shook how is the corn this time of year?

I cannot stop eating those Benne cookies. I blame EG! I saw the pimento cheese but didn’t grab it. I will next time.

We decided against it. We’re going to West Palm Beach for a concert this month then my husband is going to Bermuda for work for a few days (not interested, I went last year and didn’t really enjoy it) so that trip is on hold. If anything we’d fly to Portland and back for a weekend.

@Kerry Beal apologies if I missed it but how old is Miss Kira now? She looks tall from the pictures!

I can only speak for the restaurants I worked for— not chains and high end— and it seems to be working well for them. Specially because people find their food and packaging to be good and so they then go to dine in. A lot of popular restaurants, family owned places like the apps because they’re still selling when they have a full house with a waitlist. That is just my experience.

We wouldn’t order through various apps if we couldn’t responsibly afford it. I can imagine people younger than me living in cities, overworked and tired spending without thinking just to eat without having to really do anything. I have a lot of worries in life (I’m a worrier) but finances are low on the list. I’m very fortunate. Also on the flip side, people are making a living and not a bad one at that, working for UberEats, Doordash and Postmates. I tip 20% because if I’m too lazy to cook or pick up food then I think the drivers deserve compensation for my laziness.

I lived in Hoboken for a while and that is one of the best restaurant in town. Just really, really good.

I get why the majority of people on egullet don’t use delivery apps. They’re good to great cooks. I am neither. I have almost two decades of experience working in restaurants; mainly in fine dining. My mother is a very good home cook so I never really had to learn how to cook. I mean I know how to in terms of temperatures and food safety and what techniques to use on various proteins and vegetables but I know that in theory, not in practice. And I enjoy reading and seeing what others can do, and envy it. That said, I do not have an intuition when it comes to cooking. My husband’s schedule is extremely random and fluxuates despite plans due to the nature of cyber security. So I often don’t want to cook (which can be frustrating for me) when I have no clue when he will be home. I use and have used GrubHub (they bought out Seamless which I used when I worked in Manhattan), UberEats and Postmates all within the past week, multiple times. All of these platforms provide us with meals from locally owned businesses. Of course it’s costly depending on what we’re ordering— two nights ago it was pizza and tonight it was hibachi. It works for us. Tomorrow we will be grilling and on Monday I will likely make a lasagna we can eat for 2-3 days. After that? Who knows. Also, while I could call local establishments and at times still do, some of them don’t speak English well so trying to spell out my address and distinguish between Bs and Ds has been problematic. These apps take that frustration factor away. Another plus is if we are paying via credit card (which is often I just never think to bother to have cash on hand) I am not giving the number, expiration date and security code to a stranger who is repeating that information back to me in front of god knows who else.

How was it?

United from Montego Bay, Jamaica to EWR (I asked them to please omit the protein— rubber chicken): (I very grumpily slept through “breakfast” that was served from EWR to MBJ as our flight was delayed on ground for over three hours, the business class bathroom broke— yet the staff used it— and the only beverage offered while delayed was bottled water!)

I found Greens in the Fort Mason area to be quiet enough to have a long conversation over a good meal. Admittedly, that was at lunch.

I found Gary Danko to be relatively quiet.

My therapist does a lot of groups for people who lost their mothers. I hope to hell I will never be a part of those groups for decades. My mom said to me yesterday “I’m 69 years old, how gross is that?” Then I reminded her I was 39 and hardly a child. We did fondue with zucchini, squash, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, baby potatoes, ham, mini meatballs and the $17 baguette. It came from Manhattan. We live 20 miles away and my husband works there. I’m still in shock. It was just.... bread.

My dog LOVES baby cukes especially Kirby’s. When I want to eat one in any way I have to sneak around her.

My mom is temporarily on a low sugar diet until she gets another blood test later this month. She didn’t tell them she hadn’t fasted and just had a lot of coffee 🙈. So anyway I respect that so we are having mini (1 oz if that) crab cakes, procuitto, salami, bacon wrapped scallops and olives for apps. This is stupid of me, it’s four people. Because then we will have cheese fondue with a $17 baguette my husband put in the cart. I didn’t look because who in their right mind would actually buy a long piece of bread for $17? I don’t spend that much on wine (other than wines I store). So my mom can’t eat the bazillionaire bread but I bought precut veggies and that makes life a lot easier. We did go to a high end grocery store but other than buying a family in need a grocery bags worth of “Pasta Dinner” (they keep them at the check out and give them to the various local shelters. It does focus on children) and I was a bit curious about the total and the looked at this 3 fr baguette. I almost want to use it as a sword because I expect truffles to come flying out, but it’s a basic, long piece of idk, “French bread”? I thought he’d idk, maybe look at the various prices and not throw the most overpriced science experiment in our cart, ever?

My local Ace Hardware store does a Traeger v. BGE competition every year. We didn’t go because 1- we have a BGE 2- it was drizzling and 3- they buy from a local butcher so it’s all things we can and have made. If it wasn’t raining it would have been a nice free lunch!

They may freeze well but, IMO, unless you use the brown bag trick to ripen, heating an avocado makes it grossly foul to my palate. I got a Haas delivered a week ago. It looked and felt like it would be fine for guac in a few days. I forgot about it then thawed meat for tacos last night to have tonight. It felt ok. NOPE! It was impossible to cut. I tried the “microwave trick and felt sick looking at the oil slick it produced, plus it tasted nasty. Really? A week old Haas avocado delivered to NJ isn’t ripe in a week? It was so bad I probably won’t have anything with avocado for a few weeks and I love them.