Cornucopia

I broke three basic rules Monday: completely ran out of staples so went shopping at 5pm on a weekday and I was starving. In my defense, I'm in week 3, or 4? of city crews pumping from a main at my driveway through a giant hose to the next main 2 blocks away.

First annoyance is the hose crosses my driveway for usually 6 hours a day. If I must leave, they say tell them and they'll be glad to uncouple and let me come and go. Did that once. Uncoupling spews sewage at the end of my driveway and into the street. When I come home, I'm supposed to pull into my garage and leak all that in there? So I'm trapped 6 hours a day/7 days a week. Second annoyance is my office and bedroom are at that side of my house and the noise puts me in the mood of Michael Douglas in Falling Down. First weeks it put me to sleep at 1pm daily; this week I'm trying a tv and radio at the same time to dull the noise. I can't think!

Monday they knocked off suddenly at 4pm. After 8 days of slowly running out of rice, potatoes, oatmeal, flour, tortillas, cheese, and eggs, I made a grocery list. 2 places had great sales that required a $10 purchase and I planned to hit both. After an hour at Fiesta, I decided to get everything necessary there. Not shown in photo below is 4 lbs rice and 10 lbs russets.

Like everyone else I'm nervous about rapidly increasing prices but read a newsgroup post that said egg prices, adjusted for inflation, are lower than they were in 1997. Huh. Check it out http://www.westegg.com/inflation

First BumbleBee tuna I've bought since the 90s when the cans were more water than tuna. This week there was far less sloshing in the BB cans than COS or SK.

Use 1T dry milk in every loaf of bread but only brand/ only size was almost $7.

Jim Dandy grits at HEB have been 50¢ for years. Fiesta is 77¢ box.

I was buying sale chickpeas 4 cans at a time so grabbed a bag to cook myself. Fresh garbanzos are around so will sure plant some.

For 10 years I've never paid more than $3.29lb for basic cheese. Sometimes required buying a 2lb pack. Now? No brand is under $4lb! Kraft sharp cheddar was two 8-oz packs for $3.99 so I grabbed four.

Hot dogs are for dog training - cheapest in the bin.

Never buy salami but knew I'd need something fast when I got home. And all that sharp cheddar...

Here's the money shot. 2 turkeys (59¢ lb), 2 chickens (69¢), and at the bottom an 87¢ lb brisket. My accidentally smartest move in years was a side-by-side fridge (just like Alton Brown's). All of this fit easily and it was already at least 50% full. Happily, VIP frozen veggies are back down to sale 88¢ lb. The okra? Found 1lb of shrimp in the freezer and need gumbo.

The brisket is my next experiment. Using the food processor to turn the flat into hamburger - for 87¢ lb. If it works as I've seen it described and photos, the rest of it will become meatloafs galore!

Eggplant, zucchini, dry mealy tomatoes, pineapple, and a few yellow onions are all slated for grilling. Last 3 are going to be salsa.