I’ve been to the new Costco, twice. It’s big and has everything
under the sun
… and looks pretty much like every other Costco I’ve visited,
except for one feature.
I’ve been to the new Costco, twice. It’s big and has everything under the sun … and looks pretty much like every other Costco I’ve visited, except for one feature.
The new Costco has a great walk-in refrigerated section for produce. The growers I work with like the way it keeps produce at the correct temperature, which lengthens the shelf life and keeps the quality as good as possible in this type of store.
The truth is, every store has its limitations. And, for me, Costco will never replace the regular grocery store for day in, day out shopping. It also can’t replace the local farm stand when it comes to fresh produce.
Why? Well, it takes me about seven minutes to park and run into Safeway for milk and eggs. The same trip to Nob Hill takes about 15 minutes, due to no fault of the store management. It’s just that I run into a lot of people so the chat factor is upped a bit. The same trip to Costco could take half an hour.
The parking lot is big, so you may have to walk a ways. The aisles are huge and long. It takes a few minutes just to get to the milk and eggs, even if you manage to bypass three tasting stations, a five-pound block of sliced cheese, and that bargain basement flat of super-sized cans of stewed tomatoes.
I don’t have room in my kitchen to store all the double items. Two large bottles of ketchup. Two bottles of Worcestershire. Two giant olive oil cans.
If I shopped only at Costco, I’d have to turn a portion of my garage into storage space.
So, there are some things I’d go to Costco for: specialty meats like lamb chops, appetizer shrimp with cocktail sauce, double-loaf packages of bread (that everyone in the family likes).
But if I only have a little room, or one dish to prepare, or only a little time (which is most of the time), I’ll be heading back to Arteaga’s for fresh chicken, to Nob Hill for good rye bread, to Safeway for the best French bread since the Gilroy Bakery, and to LJB Farms for my vegetables whenever possible.
As the saying goes, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”
• Speaking of farm stands: The first strawberries are just hitting the stores and some stands in Morgan Hill. They’re not as sweet as prime time, but they’re a taste of summer to come. Because the sugar is lower right now, try your berries with Swedish Cream. It’s also great with peaches or nectarines, or other kinds of berries. This recipe is from Mark Bittman and takes only 10 minutes to make.
Strawberries with Swedish Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
Sugar or honey to taste
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier, Amaretto or other liqueur (optional)
1 quart strawberries, washed, hulled and left whole or sliced
Whip the sweet cream until it holds soft peaks, then fold it into the sour cream; add sugar to taste and liqueur if you like. Place berries in four to six bowls or stemmed glasses and top with the cream.
• Softball blues: Kim H. and Randy Blundmore e-mailed to ask for a few more easy crock pot dinners. Their daughters are playing softball until late on chilly fields and they want them to come home to something warm and aromatic.
To make your dinner easier, you can microwave the white rice in a bowl covered with plastic wrap.
Easy Teriyaki Chicken
2-3 lbs. skinless chicken pieces
20-oz. can pineapple chunks
dash of ground ginger
1 cup teriyaki sauce (I like Soy Vay Teriyaki Marinade )
Place chicken in slow cooker. Pour remaining ingredients over chicken. Cover. Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 4-6 hours. Serve over cooked white rice.
• This crock pot recipe comes from Bev and Bob Moncrieff in the Luigi Aprea Cookbook. It’s for posole, a warm, comforting and sustaining Mexican soup. Their version uses boneless pork, but you can also use boneless chicken if you prefer.
New Mexican Posole
3 lbs. boneless pork, cubed
1 large onion, diced
2 tsp. oregano
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. thyme
2 cans chopped stewed tomatoes
4 (4 oz.) cans chopped green chiles
2 T. salt
1 tsp. pepper
Red chile powder, to taste or whole dried red chile, pureed in blender with a little hot water
2 (2 1/2 lb.) cans white hominy
Coat pork cubes with mixture of flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Brown in olive oil, drain fat, then put meat in a crock pot. Brown onions in olive oil and add seasonings. Add tomatoes, green chiles and rest of ingredients – except hominy – to crock pot. Add 2 to 3 cups of water. Cook slowly several hours until pork is tender (8 hours). Add hominy for last hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with sourdough bread or tortillas.
Tip of the Week:
In the past, I have tried to freeze pancakes for easy but fun school – day breakfasts.
My problem: they would always stick together in the freezer bag.
What works: putting a piece of wax paper between each pancake. You can remove what you need from the freezer and heat in a few seconds in the microwave.
• Very cool kitchen gadget: The Wisteria catalog carries a cookbook stand made out of an iron grill; it’s beautifully detailed with vines and curvy iron. If your kitchen décor is a little more traditional, this one may fit in better than the plexiglass versions. It’s made of solid cast iron, so it’s heavy, and it has two weights on cords to hold the pages open. Cost: $29. See it at www.wisteria.com or call (800) 320-9757.
Notes from Jenny’s Kitchen
• When making cookies, leave two inches between them on the sheets. This allows heat to hit all cookies evenly and allows the cookies to spread out.
• When a recipe calls for adding eggs to a hot mixture, always mix a little of the hot mixture with the eggs first in a separate bowl. This begins to heat the eggs slowly, avoiding curdling.
• End note: Old Amish Proverb … “The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.” ~ William James
