Ta Da
From zero to hero in 27 weeks. That's right, October 9, 2024, I had 1009 points. That's one dollar's worth. We also had a basement full of non-perishables and some very nice (and free) new perennials in the yard! This past Tuesday, we went back over a million points. From my spreadsheet, the spend in that timeframe was was $6431 on groceries. $445 of that was with the competition (Costco, Freshco, Food Basics, etc.), so no points there. Subtract the those and we spent six thousand dollars to amass one thousand dollars' worth of points. That's 16%. Redeem them during a points event (which I always do), they are worth 50% more. That's 24% before taking into account that almost everything purchased ... was on sale?? Is anyone out there ... anywhere ... getting 24% with any cashback credit card? I don't think so.
Getting Pickled
For years now, I have been telling anyone who will listen to stop throwing out your old pickle juice. I saw this huge article on the subject in The Takeout last week. It’s a little loquacious. I swear, folks who post online articles must get paid by the word? Here is an abbreviated version with some thoughts that this article helped to gel for me ....
1) Cook some rice. Replace about a third of your cooking water with pickle juice. If there were any additional herbs or spices in your original pickles, that's bonus flavour. Do not add salt.
2) Splash a couple of ounces of pickle juice in sparkling water. Freeze it into ice cubes for your citrus cocktail. Make pickle flavoured popsicles. Probably a no.
3) Olive oil and pickle juice make a perfectly serviceable salad dressing. You can use pickle juice in place of vinegar anytime you get the lettuce out. Yup.
4) Pickle juice makes a perfect half of any poultry brine. Big yup.
5) Some cocktails are perfect for pickle juice. Mott’s figured that out years ago and make dilled green bean flavoured clamato juice. Add some to your next Caesar (not the salad). Replace the olive juice with pickle juice in a Dirty Martini. I believe I am too old to indulge in the “Pickleback”? That’s back-to-back shots of bourbon and pickle juice. It sounds good in theory?
6) From there the article gets into never never land with pickled bread, pickled soft cheese, pickle soup and its' potential use as a sunburn cure. Nope. Not doing any of that.
7) What I will add is that small fresh hot pepper of any variety will keep forever in a jar of old pickle juice. I have saved chopped jalapenos, those little green Thai bastards, Scotch Bonnets, you name it. They won’t go bad and just pull one, when you want to add some octane to any dish.
8) Last, I want to sing the praises of the Costco pickled artichoke hearts. I love this product with my Ploughman’s Lunch (you kids will have to look that up). The genuine treasure is the juice that these come in. I use it for just about everything. Cook eggs in it. Add to your favourite salad dressing. Spaghetti sauce. Soups and stews. It is magic!
The List
This week's flyer was really much ado about nothing. There is a sameness when you read this religiously, as I do every Wednesday morning. It felt like the famous Muhammad Ali rope a dope. In 1974, at one of his most famous fights, he leaned back on the ropes and covered up for the first four or five rounds. George Foreman (yup, the grill guy) spent the next half an hour beating the snot out of him but inflicting no serious harm. By the sixth round, George was tired. Ali comes off the ropes, delivers three rounds of punishing combinations and gets a knockout in the eighth. Zehr's is playing Muhammad Ali this week. They are laying on the ropes, covering up, hoping that you will spend your normal two, three, four hundred bucks? Don't be George Foreman. Buy your bread, buy your milk, and get what you need from your fridge list. They will come off the ropes soon enough, and you want to have saved some of your grocery budget. BTW, those prime ribs on sale last week were a great deal, but the marbling was inconsistent. Some of them were pretty lean. You had to look a the cross section. I bought two little ones for $57. I used Fodor's method and got two meals of ribs and nine fat steaks out of them. For $57!!
Same thing over on the offers side. They are just not trying very hard this week. Here are the bargains combined with offers that I did find ...
IBAT (I bought a thing)
Maddie has been coming grocery shopping on my early morning walks. It gets us both a couple of thousand steps to start our day. She loves the walks but is not so sure about sitting in the cart when I am busy at the grocery store. While I was fussing with her, I broke my granny cart. It was heavily loaded (milk and beef) and when I dropped it, the handle broke it into a million pieces. So, I bought one of those collapsible wagons and immediately hated the thing. The handle was about four inches too short and the front right wheel would hit the back of my left heel about every fifth step! I am of average height FFS? You might think that some Chinese engineer would own a tape measure? $12 later, I added a handle extender and trashed them in my review. Sentimental attachment prevents me from discarding the wheels and axles and aluminum tubing from the old one. I might even be able to duct tape the handle together? SWMBO rolls her eyes and picks up her knitting.
... and finally
Jorge Bergoglio was born in 1936, the son of Italian immigrants who had moved to Buenos Aires in the 30’s escaping the fascists under Mussolini. In 1953, (at 17) he had paused in front of the Basilica of St. Josepha and had a personal revelation. He went inside, said confession and set a secret personal goal. Two years later, he finished high school and announced to his family his intention to become a priest. Apparently, his mom was pissed. In his last 13 years, a billion Catholics worldwide followed his every word. Extraordinary. There is not a catholic bone in my body, but a good man I think. This article gets into the weeds, but the first few pages, I found fascinating. A life well lived:
Mitch & Maddie