Wednesday, April 22, 2009

new jersey grocery & cooking crazed

I really love grocery shopping.
I have a food "thing." It's frankly pretty obvious from my backside, if you know what I mean?
Sounds silly but you can Italictell a lot about a community by what's in their grocery stores.
After getting to our hotel during our trip, we ran to the store to grab a couple of essentials, like water bottles to take into the city- snacks & some kid friendly foods for Trent.

I was so glad I brought my camera!

Shoprite here in New Jersey they had an amazing produce section!
Chloe said- "people in New Jersey must eat really healthy...."
then she said-- "look at those huge plums!"
So- I've never cooked egg plant? have you?
Also- look at these really great brussel spouts on the vine here. I've never seen them sold like this in a grocery store. We may not eat egg plant, but we love brussel sprouts.
A lot of brands have different names from East to West.
Does anyone know why?
Dreyers Ice Cream is Edy's here...
We love Dreyers & don't have coconut pineapple flavored- at least I've never seen it- but want to!

The prominent religion in Utah is of course Latter Day Saint. We don't have Matzo Balls in the freezer section - I'm sure you can get them somewhere...

But I don't know about Kosher Cokeor pickled tomatoes.
This was a fantastic opportunity to talk about Passover & world religions. I WIsh we had this stuff.

I've seen this brand on TV- but not at the store. Yum- I didn't think we could eat or should eat a whole tub of marshmallow fluff in just 4 days so I passed.

A whole section of restaurant quality Italian food!
Now this is living!
We are totally missing out here... there were all kinds of Italian specialties.Here at home- I've gone cooking crazy!
I've been cooking up a storm ever since I got back.
I don't know if it was the week off or what... but besides making jam-I've put casseroles in the freezer- made a huge pot of marinara & froze 3 quarts-
I've made Kristy's bread sticks-- so good.
Banana bread... cookie dough & last night I made rolls to go with our lasagna...
and put two extra lasagnas in the freezer!


This is my favorite roll recipe & it will be on Blogger mom's cook- later.
*do you like to grocery shop?
*have you ever cooked with eggplant?
*have you ever seen Kosher Coke?

13 comments:

Kristy said...

Love to grocery shop and I love to go to stores outside of Utah and wish we had all the yummy stuff that they do!!

I have cooked egg plant and we have even grown in our garden. Kelly like to tempura it....not too bad!

I had no clue they made Kosher coke.....I guess the Jews need their fix to :)!

She Loves To Make said...

We have Edy's ice cream here too! You got so much stuff done--those lasagnas and rolls look awesome.

Unknown said...

your pan of lasagna is making my stomach rumble!!

we have some kosher products here (mainly due to the number of "northerners" who've relocated to nc. nothing like what they have in NY/NJ during passover.)

funny the things we notice on vacation...

Karrie said...

are you crazy lady? slow down you're makeing the rest of us look bad...especially since I haven't cooked a really good meal since I've been home and that's over a wekk now. Stop IT!

Jill said...

I'm glad you documented all those different foods, that was fun to see.

What is up with the happy homemakering going on at your house? I could use some of that desire, but sadly it rarely makes its way into the kitchen.

jakenapril said...

oh, patsy! i thought i was the only one who loved grocery shopping until i read your post! happy, happy day!
marshmallow fluff...srsly? yummy in my tummy!!
never cooked eggplant, but i guess i could. i'm sure there are many a fantastic eggplant recipe out there, but i don't really want to do the research. brussels sprouts though, yummy with bacon yessirree!
and that's also a negatory on the kosher coke. no on the coke. and the kosher diet coke as well...on both counts.
i love rolls, italian food, and home-cookin'. love you...mean it.

shannon said...

ahhhh... a food post!....(sigh):)

Funny comment about the "plums"!

We have whole kosher food sections in our grocery stores...

We do not, however, have primary stickers in our checkout lines...

I just got a great idea for some good mail for you!--:)

wende said...

how fun that you documented all those foods - if i had taken photos in the grocery store rich would be rolling his eyes down the isle! :) i {heart} marshmallow fluff and had forgotten all about it. yum.

i love eggplant, i used it once instead of chicken in my chicken parmesan recipe. no one in my family knew until i told them. :)

Janae said...

I am laughing about the eggplant/plum comment. Especially because last week Lilli was listing all the vegetables she has never tried...namely, eggplant and brussel sprouts, oh my poor deprived children;)
that marshmallow fluff sounds really good. Kosher coke? very interesting:)

Gail said...

I always cook up a storm after a trip too. I think it is because as good as restaurant food can be, after a while we start to crave the familiar. I love grocery shopping for new recipes, but don't always love it when it is crammed into a busy saturday along with about a million other chores.

Seeing your produce photos makes me wish we had farmers markets earlier in the season. That is some seriously fun grocery shopping.

Looks like it was a great trip.

Karolynn said...

That is crazy about the different foods. My favorite mayo in NC was Hellmann’s and I couldn't find it here. One day I realized (after reading the label on the back) that Best foods was Hellmann’s. YEHAW! I found something really strange at a world market in Park City and I had to buy it. It was some type of pudding from England called spotted....oh gosh I don't know if I can say the word without getting in trouble, but lets say it is a nick name for Richard and it is the local grocery store next to the DI. Ivan gave it away at his last white elephant party for work. I want it back!!!

Karolynn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
michelle said...

I love food and I love grocery shopping! No, I didn't know they made Kosher diet Coke! I've made eggplant once but it didn't turn out well. Love brussels sprouts, though.

I have no idea why some products have different names in the East/West. That took me awhile to figure out. Not only have I not seen the coconut/pineapple before, but I haven't seen the MANGO, either! Yum.