So yesterday was the first of usually two trips, stocking the pantry for winter should be an Olympic sport it is so exhausting. Done right it could be considered a competitive sport, but I prefer to turn it into a convivial sport. Grocery shopping can be pretty frustrating, and if you can spread a little cheer , exchange a few words, may-be learn something new , well i say "have at it." Also if you run into someones shopping cart while you are looking for the marinated portabella, it's always the polite thing to do to exchange pleasantries. may-be they know where the marinated portabella are.
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I met a lady while I was looking for large cans of mixed vegetables, she was looking for small cans of Lima beans, we both agree that Lima beans are a good addition to vegetable soup , the kind one makes from the accumulated leftovers, she called it "Must go Soup", and I like that.
Indeed everything must go, from the bits of meat and gravy, to the last few peas and carrots, a dash of chicken, why not, a few stray corn kernels, of course, well may-be not the left over broccoli, but the noodles can go in later. Forget the old cucumbers, because it is also in knowing what to leave out, like lettuce.
My cart filling with canned goods and pasta, cake mixes and peanut butter, spices, seasonings, flour, sugar and coffee, raisins, and other dried fruits, bags of nut meats, corm starch and cocoa powder, ketchup, a few kinds of mustard, some mayo. If it something is shelf stable, like the old prospector coming into town.....whoops I forgot the yeast, baking powder and dried beans!
Some time ago I watched a program about a group of people who found a Mississippi cargo ship, where it had sunk about a century ago, complete with most of its cargo, of tinned and bottled foods including bottled pie fillings and tinned meats, the variety of which seemed to amaze them, but would only make sense because transportation in those days was just too slow for the fresh and perishable stuff to be practical. A few years ago a well know TV chef said " It wasn't that long ago the even the Queen of England couldn't get fresh blueberries out of season."
But I do digress, because I am getting very tired from pushing my well loaded cart through the isles, and all of that looking I am doing because there are so many interesting items, that I just know I will find useful, but how may to buy, two is usually a safe number.
However the people around me also seem to be laboring under the burden of heavy carts, and an overwhelming number of comestible choices. "Who knew there was almost as many varieties of noodles as there are varieties of pasta?" One might turn to the person nearest them and ask "Have you ever tried this? is it good?" In the last isle one begins to hear, " This is work." or "All this thinking is wearing me out."or from the little lady who explained Must Go soup to me, "Looks like we are having a race."
