Sunday, February 22, 2009

Follow-up on our smörgåsbord of choices

A few posts back, I rambled on about one of signs of the impending downfall of our society - namely, too many choices. Well, one of my faithful readers (I think I am up to 8 now - whoo-hoo!), the ever-alert Xmaskatie (that would be her internet alias), sent me this little jewel from today's (2-22-09) News & Observer, a newspaper in the Raleigh/Durham, NC area.
Tucked into an inside page of Tuesday's N&O was a tidbit of good news for husbands occasionally instructed to "stop by the grocery store on the way home and pick up a few things."

Alas, that's not the case for our wives.

How many times have I dumped the "few things" on the kitchen counter, only to hear a deep sigh and a plaintive "Honey, why did you buy this can of zesty jalapeño, garlic, olive oil, green pepper and onion diced tomatoes? I had no idea you liked jalapeño, garlic, olive oil, green pepper and onion diced tomatoes. I usually use just plain petite diced tomatoes in the soup."

On Tuesday I stopped by the supermarket and counted 'em. Yep, eight varieties of Del Monte canned tomatoes in look-alike cans.

The peanut butter shelves aren't much better, with six varieties of Jif including Creamy, Reduced Fat Creamy, Extra Crunchy and Reduced Fat Crunchy.

Life is complicated enough without eight varieties of canned tomatoes from one company. The current state of the economy may dramatically reduce our choices in many areas, forcing us back to the basics. And that ain't all bad.

If you would like to read it yourself, here is the link.


http://www.indojin.com/shop-online/catalog/images/delmonte-diced-tomato.jpg


Warning, next is the obligatory cooking portion of the post:


I feel validated by that editorial. So now, what I deserve on this cold, gray, drizzly Sunday is the freshly baked banana whole wheat/oatmeal muffin that is just now coming out of my oven, spread with real butter and drizzled with honey, accompanied of course by a cup of hot cocoa.

I can't tell you how I made them, because I was making it up as I went along and now I can't remember what I put in them. I'm getting old. The memory, she deserts me.

I seem to remember lots of vanilla; I like vanilla. And I remember having to use ordinary honey, having run out of my delicious Texas honey. Darn. But let me tell you, between the last sentence and this one, that muffin was gone in about 2 seconds.


I'm not very good at the money shots yet.

Ooh, BS put peanut butter on his. Rats, now I might have to have another. Actually, that's not true. He put peanut butter on an entire mini-loaf (I ran out of muffin pans) and consumed the whole thing in just over the 2 seconds it took me to eat one muffin. When he read this, his comment, as he was licking the knife, was "That's right, and those burps taste delicious too."

3 comments:

Russ said...

Well, this husband does 90% of the grocery shopping. I do agree with the amazing number of alternatives for each product, seems absurd. Funny post.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Texas, Schmexas Honey.
You haven't had honey until you've had Mr. Hawthorne's sourwood honey he gets from his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Kathy said...

Ah, but Rosie, the Texas honey was special for many reasons.