Home Food at Last!

“I want to eat home food!” That’s what my 13 year old declared as we talked about going home from Disney World. Talk about a shocker! I hope I contained my expression to the inside as I wanted to conceal my surprise and excitement from him. The Mom in me relished the moment that he openly admitted to liking my cooking. My inner foodie proudly screamed ‘of course we want to eat home food!’ After nearly two weeks of eating like we were on a cruise ship, we all craved simple, familiar home cooked food.

We arrived home on a Tuesday night and my own excitement started to build as I began creating the grocery lists in my mind. Sammamish Farmers Market, Safeway, Costco. I have to wait to hit the SFM until later in the day because they don’t open until 4:00 so Safeway and Costco are first. The refrigerator is nearly empty so this is a great test of my commitment to buying local.

From Safeway:
• Yoplait yogurt; product of USA – what?
• Campbell’s soup; New Jersey
• Tapioca; Kraft – New York
• Store brand marshmallows; Ohio
• Sunny D; Ohio
• No Pudge Fat Free Brownie Mix; Louisiana
• Method soap; California
• Swiffer duster and refills; Toronto, Canada
• Downy fabric softener; Toronto, Canada
• Pasta; Missouri
• Peanut Butter Captain Crunch Cereal (for a Cooks Illustrated low fat cookie recipe); Illinois
• Rice Cakes; Illinois (snacks for the kids, I’m silently moving away from cookies to healthier alternatives).
• Sargento Cheese, the only low fat variety that I can find (a requirement for my new South Beach Diet), from Wisconsin.

Some other ingredients for my planned South Beach Diet eating:
o Non fat Evaporated Milk; Ohio
o Safeway brand Almond Extract; California
o Sugar Free Jell-O; Kraft – New York
o Jalapeño Jelly; Texas (for a salmon recipe, should be interesting)
o V-8 juice; New Jersey
o Lucerne Cottage Cheese; California
o Lucerne Ricotta Cheese; California
o Lucerne Yogurt; California
o I buy two types of canned tuna to compare flavors, and then I notice that one is from Pennsylvania (Star-Kist), so I’ll stick to the Bumblebee brand from California in the future.
o South Beach Diet bars; there is a weird thing on the box that says ‘distributed by Kraft… Illinois’ followed by ‘product of Canada.’ I’m guessing that this is shipped from Canada. If you know for sure what this means, please let me know.
o Philadelphia Cream Cheese; Kraft – same as above.

On my first shopping experience I’ve purchased 18 products from outside of my ‘local’ boundaries and 6 products from within the boundaries that follow my rules. Not an auspicious start, this is going to be harder than I thought.

From Costco:
• 12 cups of blueberries; Oregon. I agonize over this decision and wonder if the Sammamish Farmers Market will have some, but I need them for a planned Fourth of July recipe and I don’t have time for a return trip to Costco, so I go ahead and buy them.
• Fiber Bars; Minnesota
• Kirkland Organic Milk; Seattle, WA
• Wilcox eggs; Moses Lake, WA
• Foster Farms frozen chicken drumsticks – ‘locally grown in Washington and Oregon.’
• Whole roasted chicken – distributed by Costco, but I’m going to guess that the actual chicken is the same brand that they sell, which is Foster Farms.
• Salmon – product of USA - ?
• Mikes Hard Lemonade (a staple); North Carolina
• ECOS laundry soap; Illinois

5 products that conform to my local rules and 4 products that don’t. Not too bad, better than my Safeway excursion.

The Sammamish Farmers Market at last!
• Basil? No, I’m told it’s too early by one farmer and I can’t find any there. Garlic, celery and cabbage are a few other things that I don’t find; which is OK. I do find some truly excellent produce and I’m very happy with my choices.
• Asparagus, the freshest I’ve literally ever seen.
• Bibb lettuce; huge, crisp and vividly green. At home it tastes wonderfully earthy and fresh.
• Heritage tomato’s; incredibly flavorful. I like to buy several varieties and colors and use them together.
• Cucumber; firm and happily free of that yucky waxy film on the outside (a requirement in commercial food processing).
• Strawberries; darker red and sweeter than the store bought variety.
• Blueberries? They don’t have any yet, so I feel better about my Costco purchase, but only slightly. I would rather buy from SFM and support my local farmers and economy. But the weather hasn’t been great this year so some of our produce is late.

Back to Safeway:
• Live Basil plant; Duvall WA
• Garlic; unknown.
• Cabbage; unknown.
• Celery; unknown.

It’s taken a few trips to buy everything that my family will use in the next few weeks but that’s OK. I love the process of selecting things for my family and I get a lot of pleasure out of the process. It’s also rewarding to know that I’m supporting our local farmers and economy.