Happy Second Largest Card-sending Holiday
I went grocery shopping last night. What a zoo! The place was awash in pink and red, the floral department overflowing with roses and heart-shaped balloons, barren shelves where there once were boxes of chocolates. Displays of wine, steak on sale. I was amazed at how many people were running around grabbing up this stuff. There were even people hanging out on street corners (in the freezing rain) trying to hawk flowers and teddy bears holding hearts.
Am I the only one in the world not willing to jump on a consumer "holiday" or who tells my loved ones that I love them without a pre-printed card? Ah well, insert some anti-consumerism rant here, I suppose. I don't actually care enough to rant about it, just find the whole thing kinda weird.
I was at the store trying in vain to figure out something to make for dinner last night and to pick up ingredients for "Game Night" dinner, as I've struck out the last three weeks running with poor Tim who ate plain noodles on Asian stir-fry night, (aka 'I shopped at Uwajimaya and look what I brought home' night), and plain cornbread on Chorizo chili night. I forget what the third strike-out was but I didn't want to go for four. When the hell did flank steak go up to $7 a pound? I used to think nothing of grabbing up a couple of flank steaks for game night, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't spending $30 to do it. Shoot, I might was well buy t-bone or sirloin at that price...
I briefly thought about trying the Hoisin Salmon recipe from Everyday Food for dinner last night, but there were no salmon steaks to be had, only salmon fillets. As the seafood guy explained to me, individual stores used to be able to call the local seafood suppliers and stock what they wanted, but now the orders are called in to a main Safeway hub and from there the hub makes the orders and distributes the product...so if my Safeway is the only store in the area that wants salmon steaks, the central hub won't bother filling the order for them and will send him some of what all the other stores want instead. He advised me to watch for ads for whole salmon, because they can cut steaks themselves for me if they've got whole salmon in stock. Otherwise, looks like it's salmon fillets or nothing. Thanks corporate America!
On the other hand, meat counter had an impressive amount of good-looking ground lamb. Inspired, decided on Lamb and Red Pepper Ragu for dinner last night. Tonight I'm going to default to Chicken and Dumplings (you need to register to access the recipe at their site, but if it comes out well, I'll add it to my own recipe archive.) I also have to give repeat thumbs up to Cooking Light's Thai-style Ground Beef which I made again over the weekend. It's probably the best new recipe I've added to my repertoire in recent memory. Really, really good.
Am I the only one in the world not willing to jump on a consumer "holiday" or who tells my loved ones that I love them without a pre-printed card? Ah well, insert some anti-consumerism rant here, I suppose. I don't actually care enough to rant about it, just find the whole thing kinda weird.
I was at the store trying in vain to figure out something to make for dinner last night and to pick up ingredients for "Game Night" dinner, as I've struck out the last three weeks running with poor Tim who ate plain noodles on Asian stir-fry night, (aka 'I shopped at Uwajimaya and look what I brought home' night), and plain cornbread on Chorizo chili night. I forget what the third strike-out was but I didn't want to go for four. When the hell did flank steak go up to $7 a pound? I used to think nothing of grabbing up a couple of flank steaks for game night, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't spending $30 to do it. Shoot, I might was well buy t-bone or sirloin at that price...
I briefly thought about trying the Hoisin Salmon recipe from Everyday Food for dinner last night, but there were no salmon steaks to be had, only salmon fillets. As the seafood guy explained to me, individual stores used to be able to call the local seafood suppliers and stock what they wanted, but now the orders are called in to a main Safeway hub and from there the hub makes the orders and distributes the product...so if my Safeway is the only store in the area that wants salmon steaks, the central hub won't bother filling the order for them and will send him some of what all the other stores want instead. He advised me to watch for ads for whole salmon, because they can cut steaks themselves for me if they've got whole salmon in stock. Otherwise, looks like it's salmon fillets or nothing. Thanks corporate America!
On the other hand, meat counter had an impressive amount of good-looking ground lamb. Inspired, decided on Lamb and Red Pepper Ragu for dinner last night. Tonight I'm going to default to Chicken and Dumplings (you need to register to access the recipe at their site, but if it comes out well, I'll add it to my own recipe archive.) I also have to give repeat thumbs up to Cooking Light's Thai-style Ground Beef which I made again over the weekend. It's probably the best new recipe I've added to my repertoire in recent memory. Really, really good.
You are certainly not alone. Kev and I have never celebrated "Hallmark Holiday Day." At most, we stay home that night, watch a movie on TIVO, and eat a pizza. But, like most nights, we just sit and play WoW or whatever other MMORPG we're playing at the time.
The "holiday" that makes me the angriest? Sweetest Day. Lame.
Although, our anniversary is the 15th (so we could remember it), so we tend to do something for that. Although, this year will be nothing-doing since we're broke preparing for the launch.
Nope, no Hallmark from me (or for me).
Spike
So-called Sweetest Day is fully deserving of scorn, for (a) it originated in Cleveland and (b) was started by a candy maker. Perhaps well-intentioned in 1922, but largely driven by commercial concerns. (Besides, there's another holiday requiring mass consumption of chocolate in October.)
As for Valentine's Day, I see it more as an opportunity to consider romantic activity above the background level. But as long as you both are happy that your expectations for the holiday are being met, who am I to complain?