The Superstore...my home away from home

---

I haunt the Superstore. Every day I go and wander the aisles, inspect the produce and sometimes actually talk to someone in the store. One day I bought a house plant at the florist for Earth Day. The lady said to me, "Oh you! You're always here!" I thought that was funny. When I go wandering in my mornings I wear hiking clothes, pigtails and no make up thinking, no one is looking at me. 

They gave out notices last week that the store was going to be closed all Monday for renovations. They seem to do this every year. Just when I think I can remember where everything is, they have to change it. OK, I thought, I can live without The Superstore for a day.

Monday I wandered to the "other" neighbourhood store. It is twice as far a walk from me so my frozen food thawed before I made it home. This is one of the many reasons why I do not go there, especially in the winter where I can barely get out at all, although then there is no need to worry about food thawing!

I have been trying very hard to boost veggies in my diet. I am very guilty of eating few vegetables. Which is bad bad bad! I know that. I definitely  make up for it with the fruit I eat but still, come on Suzie the Foodie! Get with the program. I picked up some fennel and radicchio. I was going to roast the fennel with breadcrumbs and use grill the radicchio and make a warm salad with grilled onions. Perfect! Healthy and colourful. Totally made up for the decadent breaded clams, my guilty pleasure. 

At the cash, the cashier was completely stumped with the fennel. He asked me what it was. I told him it was fennel and then he said, "Um, how do you spell that?" This is when I started to worry. He went through this little book of produce over and over and couldn't find it. He went to call his supervisor when I asked if I could look through the book. I found it under "anise". Which is not how they labelled it where I picked it up. I told him that yes, that was another name for me. He seemed dubious. 

After I left the store I looked at the receipt. He had put my radicchio through as "red cabbage." Good grief. Why should I be surprised? This is the same store that puts lychee fruit in the canned vegetable aisle. It meant I only paid 30 cents for it though so that rocked.

I went back to The Superstore today and yes, a lot has changed but I do not care. The cashiers here definitely know their produce. They may not know the code for each item but they know their fruits and veggies. I did stump one lady though. She said, "I've been working here 20 years and nobody has ever bought this before." Lemongrass. I think that has more to do with people's lack of adventurous cooking spirit than the people at the registers.

This foodie is very happy that her home away from home is open again! 

Suzie's Craisin Bread

---

I think I have finally stopped playing around with this recipe and found the perfect combination for my cranberry breadmaker bread that I loved to have with tea in the morning. For those who know all about "real" breadmaking, feel free to give this a shot. With my sore hands there is no way I can make bread by hand so I let my handy dandy breadmaker do the works and it's FABULOUS.

Suzie's Craisin Bread

This recipe is for a 2 lb / 1 kg loaf and I put it on the lightest setting and select the Sweet Cycle for baking.

1 1/3 cup water

1 egg

1/4 cup skim milk powder

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp coconut oil (you can use butter or shortening)

3 3/4 cup less 2 tbsp bread flour

2 tbsp wheat germ

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp bread machine yeast

1 cup of dried cranberries

Put everything in the breadmaker except for the cranberries. Wait until the breadmaker starts beeping and then add the cranberries.

Yes, I cut the crusts off my bread! The birds love them. This is a lovely loaf of bread, perfect for the morning or afternoon tea. It will fill your house up with the scent of cinnamon and your tummy up with yummy goodness.

Food Elitism

---

Please note: I am NOT saying my readers are food elitists, far from it, just wanted to strike up a dialogue on a topic that means a lot to me and hopefully to you too!

One thing I have never understood is people's desire to judge people according to the foods that they eat. I have pretty much done the gambit when it comes to food. I have been a vegetarian, I have cut out dairy for a time period, I have gone without carbs, I have juiced vegetables, I have bought organic and you know what? None of it worked for me. None of it made me feel that much better. In fact, all it did was help me lose my desire to eat. Food became about rules, not desire. It cut off my passion for food.

Above you will see my last attempt at trying to bond with chickpeas. Out of the peas/legumes family, chickpeas are the least offensive to me. I roasted these with garlic powder, onion powder...and you know what? They still tasted like chickpeas and I don't like them.

When I was a vegetarian I still cooked meat for my husband. Why? Because I know all of our food journeys are different. We all have different blood types, we all have different dispositions. My husband is a hunter-gatherer blood type and overall human being. He is just being true to his nature. I am more like a bird, I like seeds and fruit and sometimes claim my inner eagle and allow myself to dive down and connect with the hunter inside. Then there are pacifists with gentle spirits who do not want to hurt anyone or anything.

Why can we not honour all the different paths? And accept that sometimes the path changes. I knew that for three years I had to give up meat. I got a lot of flack about it too, a lot of judgement. I hated that. So why would I judge someone for eating meat? 

Sometimes it also comes down to money and situation. I would love to go to the market and buy right from the farmers but you know what? All I have is a Superstore here and I am not allowed to drive. Just finding a place to live where I can get any food was a huge challenge for where I live. As much as I would love to buy organic, I can barely afford fresh produce at the prices they are right now. Do I judge people for having more money than me and being able to pay a lot more money for healthier food? No way. 

It's your money. It's your life. It's your choice. 

Don't we have enough trouble with judging people for what they look like? Who they love? Who they worship? Why is this kind of judging OK?

Well it isn't. We all have different desires and needs and dispositions. 

I hope that we all just get to enjoy our food, whatever that ends up being. You know, my mom loves foods that for years I judged as a kid as being weird. Most of those foods my grandmother fed to her in Latvia, sometimes for fun, sometimes for survival. Her visit her reminded me to stay open, to not judge and to give everything a taste. 

Hot and Sour Soup

---

Believe it or not, it is still cool and dark and dreary enough here to be craving the comforts of soup. One of my favourite soups that I am super picky about is Hot and Sour Soup. I am very sensitive to heat and yes, I do want a little kick in this soup but many places I have had it make it too hot! At least for me. Oh how I love that I can make my own food the way I want it.

This recipe is also inspired by this out of print book I got out of the library but I changed it a lot! As usual. Please feel free to make it vegetarian by using firm tofu. If you do, I recommend marinating it in a vegetarian mushroom sauce first and then sauteing it before you add the broth.

Suzie's Hot and Sour Soup

2 oz of chopped chicken

1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup peeled, uncooked shrimp

4 cups of chicken stock

1/2 can of sliced bamboo shoots

3 green onions, chopped

salt and pepper

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp tamari soy sauce

1-2 tsp Asian chili sauce (I personally used just under 1 tsp)

1 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

Dash of sesame oil

1 well beaten egg

2 tbsp water mixed with 1 tbsp cornstarch

1. Saute mushrooms in a Dutch oven/soup pot. Add stock, chicken and shrimp. Bring to a boil and then immediately turn down the heat. Simmer gently 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients except egg and cornstarch. Cook 2 minutes.
2. Remove from heat, stir the soup and gradually add in egg swirling the broth.
3. Add some of the broth to the water and cornstarch mixture. Put into soup and simmer 1 minute until thickened. Add a little smidge of sesame oil, if desired.

Lovely! This soup was wonderful on a cool afternoon here on a dark Nova Scotia summer's day. It is fast, easy, healthy and delicious. I hope you try it! Although I am sure it probably feels like summer wherever you are if you are in the Northern hemisphere.

Beef with Broccoli

---

I love Chinese food. The non-authentic kind. The kind that comes out of paper containers that is delivered to your door. My issue? My husband is very allergic to MSG so if we want Chinese food, I have to make it myself.

I got this book out of the library that has Chinese-restaurant-style recipes, unfortunately, it is out of print so I am going to have to test them out before returning the book to the library.

The following recipe is inspired by the book's Beef with Broccoli recipe but as usual, I changed it up to make it my own. This made quite a lovely dinner and was very easy and did not require a lot of ingredients. This is a good beginner's recipe! It is fast and easy to make, I will definitely be making this one again.

Suzie's Beef with Broccoli

1 nice-size steak, enough for 2 people

4 tbsp tamari (if you have it) soy sauce

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp mirin

1 tsp black bean sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 bunch of broccoli, cleaned

1" piece of peeled and grated ginger

6 tbsp oil

salt and pepper

1. Trim fat from meat and cut into thin strips across the grain, the meat should be around 3" long.
2. Combine meat with wet ingredients and sugar. Let sit in the fridge for 10 minutes
3. Cut off the florets and trim into bite-sized pieces. Peel the stalk and slice on a bias to make thin diagonal slices.
4. Heat pan and add 2 tbsp of oil. Add broccoli and season with salt, pepper and some of the ginger, like 1 tsp. Stir fry, moving constantly for 2 minutes. Remove from pan.
5. Add remaining oil and add beef, sauce and ginger. Again, stir fry moving constantly for 2 minutes. If beef is not cooked at this point, cook a little longer. Return broccoli and mix well and reheat for 30 seconds. Serve on rice and add some toasted nuts if you like.

It's OK to just say no

---

Yes, I am still trying to cut the fake food habit, back on Instant Breakfast!

Many times now I have had to stop the cashier at the grocery store and say, um, that is too expensive. I don't want it anymore.

I used to feel really embarrassed doing this but now I feel like I am making a public statement. I do try to avoid it as much as possible by figuring out how much food is ahead of time and making my call BEFORE I get to the cash but sometimes you can not help it.

My scallops in this cart for example weighed only a 1/4 lb. The prices in the store are for kilograms. It has been a long time since I have a clear-enough head (thanks fibro) to figure out that math so I just asked for 1/4 lb and that little handful of scallops cost me over $6! I don't even like scallops that much but I was so shocked I just took them from my fishmonger and said thanks.

Well when I got to the cashier and found out that the tiny little bag of snowpeas were $4 I said, no way. That is insane. This one little meal was costing me way more than going to a restaurant!

Later on in the week I found out that asparagus was on sale, just $1.99 a pound. When it went through the cash it showed up in kilograms so I could not figure out if I was being charged the sale price or regular price. One little bunch of asparagus was almost $6 and I did not care if that was the sale price or not. I was not spending that much money.

I just calmly told the cashier that it was too expensive so I did not want it at that price. 

The other day my favourite cashier quietly said to me, "Three bags of food for $90." I sighed. I know, sick.

To prevent that from happening again, I'm just saying no. No more. I will figure something else out, thanks.

Have you had to say no to something? What food items have you had to put back? Are you saying no?