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May 24, 2006
Son of a peach
Derrick tells me that I'm the most zealous grocery shopper he knows. I can't help that one of my mom-inherited attributes is a monthly binge at the grocery store. I don't like going to the grocery store, so I'm very thorough. Thorough, dammit.
I remember grocery trips with my mom. Some of the pattern came from our living in so many rural areas, so the 50 mile round trip to the grocery store made us stockers. Mom also went through some seriously crazy food fads, which I should write about some day. We went down every aisle and my sisters and I would fiercely debate which food items were most important to us, as mom only allocated a certain amount to fun food.
Once we got home, the battle against spoilage was waged for a month. Salads were popular in the first few days, dairy waned within weeks, and things stored in cans or boxes were saved for the days before the next grocery trip. Even when we lived in towns with easy access to groceries, we stuck with the binge shopping, filling our fridge and separate full-size freezer with food. It didn't help that my dad regularly slaughtered a cow to fill the freezer with beef.
My sisters and I now live in urban areas with easy access to grocery stores, yet we still binge shop. Even worse, I don't have my mom's organizational skills, so I currently have FIVE cans of peaches, SIX packages of Amy's Organic Mac&Cheese, EIGHT types of beans or chili, and other illogical duplications. If I lived in a large space, this would be okay. In NYC, this just seems a bit crazy.
If an apocalypse strikes, I'm set. We'll just have lots of Mac&Cheese. And peaches. Can't forget the peaches. Do I have peaches? Maybe I should buy some more....
Posted by G at May 24, 2006 07:40 PM
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Comments
Just stocking up for bird flu, right?
Posted by: sam at May 24, 2006 09:37 PM
Only if the bird flu happens JUST after a grocery run....
Posted by: glenn at May 25, 2006 07:34 AM
i have a good receipe for a 3 bean chili. i guess you could make it an 8 bean chili. let me know if you want it. things are different now, but when i used to live by myself and feed myself, i almost always stopped at the store on the way home from work and just got what i was going to eat that night and sometimes the next night too. it was a lot easier to carry that way.
Posted by: kelli at May 25, 2006 11:55 AM
A while back I was pondering over the apparent death of the full size freezer.
My family in suburbia had had a full size freezer in our garage for years.
Chock full of meat and vegetables from our garden that, my parents thought, would keep for a while.
It sat in there for years, even after its usefulness, still pugged into the wall, till one day. Gone.
I remember everyone I knew had a full sized fridge somewhere in their home...
Stock piling up things like they were waiting for some sort of apocolyptic event to occur.
But now, convenience has rolled out it's carpet and the full sized freezer has gone the way of the Black and White TV and the Rotary Phone.
I do kinda miss the non-stop supply of scrapple at my fingertips though.
*homer voice*mmmmmmmm.... scrapple.*homer voice*
*sigh*
Posted by: Mike P. at May 25, 2006 11:55 AM
as one of G's former roommates i can attest to his food hoarding habits. my personal favorite is how he never throws out food. days old sandwich? check. rancid burrito. nothing the microwave can't fix. this also explains his bouts with food poisoning and his ability to digest almost anything he ingests (what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right G?).
as for those canned peaches, i'd check the expiration date.
Posted by: brian at May 26, 2006 10:42 AM
Oh, I am so with you. I tend to "binge shop" as well, then I feel guilty that I go out to eat all the time and the food goes to waste.
Posted by: Lynn at May 26, 2006 11:22 AM
How cool to only have to grocerize once a month...
Have you been to Trader Joe's yet?
Posted by: Mr. HK at May 27, 2006 06:52 PM
Wow. You keep food in your NYC apartment? I didn't know people did that. Can't you live on takeout and delivery? I mean, that's a lot of cans of beans, my man!
Make beans & rice. Yum. ;-)
Posted by: goblinbox at May 31, 2006 03:52 PM