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July 16, 2006
Mornings are a different time...
I think I should be banned from shopping pre-7am. I got a decent night's sleep last night, and Richard hadn't slept at all, but he was in the mood for mcgriddles. So, since Larry's was right around the corner, I figured I would make it a two for one trip. It's worth noting that I almost never shop at Larry's. Why? Because Larry's is an awful lot like my old nemesis Wegman's. Lots of specialty departments, lots of really nice prepared foods, lots of unusual and alluring ingredients. All of this means that I go into the store for one or two items and end up spending $150 on things that I don't quite need. I had a $5 off $25 coupon, and Larry's has whole seedless watermelons on sale this week for 9 cents a pound. Yes. 9 cents a pound!
I walk into the store, and it's a lot like my normal shopping at QFC and Safeway around midnight: lots of store employees and no other customers. Except, all the employees are painfully awake. Everyone wishes you a good morning! (with the exclamation point, mind you). And everyone's chatty. The produce manager is on the floor and he's commiserating with another employee about how he ordered too many watermelons. You'd think at 9 cents a pound they'd be flying out of there, but unfortunately, Larry's doesn't get that much business. The produce manager spots me going for a watermelon, and encourages me to take as many as I'd like, please. They come out to about $1.08 each -- good 12 pounders. I think about it for a second, and figure, what the heck. So, I loaded up 3 watermelons into my cart. I mentioned to the produce manager that he should put up a sign with more creative uses for watermelon. Like Watermelon Agua Fresca. Or Watermelon Gazpacho. Or Watermelon Granita. Not to mention watermelon daquiris and watermelon margaritas. He kind of looked at me funny, and I walked off :)
Now, the other item that Larry's had on sale this week was boneless pork loin chops for $1.99/lb. Aka tube pork sliced neatly. The butcher was there putting out other trays of meat, but there were no pork loin chops to be found. So I asked him if he had any more and he said he'd check in back. He didn't have any sliced, and asked me how I'd like them sliced. I asked if he could sell me the whole loin uncut? He said sure, and then we wrestled with wrapping it up and getting it into the cart. So, 3 watermelons, a whole pork loin, and $122 later, I emerged from Larry's. Completely and utterly shopped out, but happy.
When I came home and put everything away, I decided to mix up some spicy Korean BBQ sauce and marinate the chicken thighs I'd thawed the other day. The original recipe is here, but it never really lived up to the deliciousness of the spicy chicken I had at Bento Box. I ended up mixing the following together for a marinade:
1/2 c. Lyle's Golden Syrup
1/2 c. Ponzu sauce (I discovered I didn't have any regular soy sauce)
1/4 c. Sriracha sauce (I might have put in more, possibly closer to 1/2c -- we'll see how spicy it is)
3 cloves of garlic, microplaned
1.5 inches of ginger, microplaned
I'll probably end up combo bake and broiling the thighs tonight -- there's too much sugar in the marinade to do them entirely on the grill.
Posted by jodikins at July 16, 2006 5:12 PM