Welp, it has finally happened even though I said I’d never do this.
You see, we’ve started using online ordering for our groceries, then we go, together, to pick up our order outside the store.
There’s no charge for this now and it does seem like a healthier way for us to get groceries. Plus not to put too fine of a point on it, we have the time– and allow me to clue you in, it can take time to do this.
On our last adventure our assigned pickup time was for a 5:00-6:00 p.m. We arrived at 5:03 p.m., got in a line with about 20 cars in front of us, and left the parking lot with our groceries in the trunk of the car at 6:58 p.m.
Yes, almost 2 hours in line to get food, safely.
Ain’t life a pip?
• • •
The knocked over sign said: PICKUP LINE STARTS HERE We laughed at the folly of it all, having been in line for an hour before getting to this *beginning* spot. From the look of the damage to the sign someone before us may not have seen the humor in that sign at that point in line.
• • •
We did have a weirdly good time waiting in line together.
We started watching shoppers, most of whom didn’t have masks, going in and out of the store. We started making up back stories about them OR criticizing how they handled their groceries once they got to their vehicles.
Case in point, a woman wearing surgical gloves came out of the store pushing a cart, walked to her car, opened the trunk, put her groceries into the trunk, walked over to the trash container, removed her gloves properly.
Then USING HER UNGLOVED HANDS she opened the flap on the trash container, disposing of the gloves therein. She walked back to her car trunk, shut the trunk, got into the car, and drove away– using her hands that had touched the trash container to do so.
ICK!
• • •
The shy sign said: PICKUP WAITING STARTS HERE We chuckled with mirth, but weren’t duped. We’d been in line for close to an hour and a half at this point. Clearly this sign saw what had happened to the previous sign and was taking precautions to stay safe.
• • •
Now that we’re dining in all the time we’ve been cooking and baking: carbohydrates are our friends.
In truth we’ve been having fun while trying new recipes and/or revisiting old ones. In all cases we’ve adapted the recipes to work with what we have procured via said online ordering/pickup scenario discussed above.
Below is an alphabetized list of recipes we’ve made. I’ve rated them and made a few notes about what we changed because of… oh you understand why.
Click on the title of the recipe to be taken to it online.
Alton Brown’s Shepherd’s Pie [A+] – used ground beef instead of ground lamb
Baked Cheese Grits [A] – used half & half instead of whipping cream
Bisquick Velvet Crumb Cake [B-] – added nutmeg to batter, cinnamon to topping
Brown Rice and Corn Cakes [A] – used onion powder instead of fresh chives, white flour instead of whole wheat
Classic Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies [A+] – didn’t change a thing!
Classic Strawberry Shortcakes [A] – added 1 tsp vanilla extract, a pinch of nutmeg
Easy Bisquick Chicken Pot Pie [C-] – made as is, not bad but old-fashioned and blah
Grandma’s Anything Goes Strata [B] – used all milk [no half & half], used cooked bulk breakfast sausage instead of deli meat, added 1/4 tsp brown mustard
Lemon Curd [A+] – no changes to ingredients, cooked using double boiler instead of directly on heat
Martha Stewart Spiced Walnuts [B+] – used 1 tsp chili powder for 1/2 tsp coriander
~ The End ~
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 