Category: shopping

Paying by check

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, shopping

I was at Hannaford’s in Kennebunk Saturday night, and after my transaction, I noticed that the (young, teenaged) cashier put aside my BLANK SIGNED CHECK next to the register. I asked if she printed my check (although I could clearly see she had not) and she said, “Oh, yeah; we usually do but it didn’t print this time.”

I’m thinking, “Well, she’s young. She doesn’t realize the risk of theft involved with a signed, blank check just lying around the store. Someone who is dishonest (not her! not her!) might take advantage of a situation like that.

So I said, “Well, give it back! I’ll write it.” She gave it back. I wrote it.

When i got home, I told my husband what happened. He said, “Did you tell the manager?” and of course, I had not. “Call there now.”

I called. I told the manager what happened. He asked me if I had the receipt with the cashier’s name on it. I did. I named her. He said that he knew it was going to be that particular cashier.

I had a similar experience last summer when the store was the Stop and Shop. I wrote a check, and then noticed that I was  charged $177 but the total was actually $117. I asked the cashier why she had overcharged me $60.  She just said, “Oh,” and gave  the discrepancy back in cash.

Lesson: Pay by credit or debit card! Check your receipt carefully!

Strawberries!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, gardening, health, shopping, tweens

Okay, the strawberries are here and Life Is Good! I have been lucky this year; I’ve been able to keep ahead of the varmints, birds, and creeping mold and get to most of my strawberries before the enemies did. We have 4 or more varieties, ranging from tiny, almost pin-head sized alpine strawberries to large, sweet…perfect strawberries.  

The first strawberries!

 

I managed to hold a few back for a picture before consuming them.  I even found a ripe blueberry in the strawberry patch. (Sorry, eaten!).  

My daughter wants to dip some in chocolate and I can’t blame her; the only thing with the potential to rival a fresh strawberry right from the garden is one that has been dipped in (preferably) dark chocolate.  

One problem though: how to keep from eating them long enough to dip in chocolate? Methinks that a trip to the farm stand for additional strawberries for dipping will be required. We’re in luck, because the Wells Rotary Strawberry Festival is this Saturday at Spiller Farm in Wells, ME.  

There will not only be strawberries there (and if memory serves, the homemade strawberry shortcake available for purchase was quite a hit with my daughter at last year’s festival) but also the grill will be fired up for the usual suspects (hot dogs, hamburgers). There will also be activities for your kids.  

The festival runs from 10am-4pm.  It’s a nice way to spend a Saturday. I’ll be there with my daughter buying (and eating!) strawberries.

Homemade egg rolls

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, gardening, recipes, shopping, tweens
Rolling up the egg rolls

 

Our friends, the Douangsovaths, came over to our house to teach us how to make egg rolls. 

After they arrived, we took a quick shopping trip for necessary ingredients. Lettuce I had growing in  my garden, a tomato was on the counter that i picked up at the farmers market earlier that week…but bean threads? Not one of my pantry staples. 

Here’s the shopping list: 

  1. Green Cabbage (not Napa)
  2. The largest bag of carrots that I’ve ever seen
  3. Bean threads (in the asian food aisle)
  4. Egg Roll Wrappers (they brought these; I’m actually not sure where they came from)
  5. Whatever meat you want to use; we used ground chicken and ground pork (for convenience sake!). We also bought some small shrimp (and cut them up even smaller).
  6. Magic spice mix: mixed salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. I guessed for the proportions. You mix them all together until it “tastes right”. Ahem.
  7. Canola oil for frying. Get a big one.
  8. One beaten egg; this becomes the glue that keeps your egg roll closed.
  9. A LARGE jar of duck sauce.

For equipment, you need a food processor, a fry daddy (which they brought with them). Kitchen tongs. 

Then, you just mix all the ingredients together in roughly equal parts. Then you use about a tablespoon of the mixture and roll it up in the wrapper as tightly (and as thinly) as you can. 

Then fry for 6-7 minutes until golden brown, drain on a rack. We made about a hundred and fifty rolls. Here’s the thing: you will not remember how many you’ve eaten if you just start cutting them up and eating them as you are making them, as we did.  I’m warning you about the egg roll fugue state that will ensue if you do this! Decide how many you will eat, put them on a plate, and then stop! (okay, you have been warned). 

The lettuce was used (and full disclosure: they bought some not knowing we had it growing in the garden already!) to wrap up the egg roll after it was fried; that’s how one of our friends eats them (he also put  a pile of a shredded carrot recipe he had made on it too). I tried it this way and it was excellent. Sort of helps you forget you are eating deep fried food when you disguise it by placing vegetables all around it. 

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summer wish list Top Ten

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, fitness, gardening, health, restaurants, shopping, tweens

Remember every fall when your new teacher would ask you to write an essay on “what I did on my summer vacation”? and you could never think of a thing? Well, how about getting a jump on things this year by writing “what I am going to do on my summer vacation”!

Inspired by Laura Dolce’s column in the York County Coast Star this past thursday, who was talking about her summer wish list, I decided to put together my own. I actually do this every year, but not usually this early.  see if you can notice any recurrent theme in my list.

First, the pre-to-do list (it’s short):

  1. Read the Tourist News every week. it’s not just for tourists anymore.
  2. Check out the local library for summer programs for your kids. they’re free, and fun!
  3. Get online and google the dates of the annual events

Now, here’s what i want to do this summer (this is the top 10):

  1. Big Daddy’s in Wells for a Kahlua  Browie ice cream cone.
  2. Mini-golf at Wonder Mountain in Wells…although a friend told me about Shaw’s Ridge in Sanford, which we may be checking out instead
  3. The (annual) Strawberry Festival in South Berwick. Every year we mean to go and never make it. this year it’s on saturday 6/26, and it’s been on my calendar for 2 months already.
  4. Scarborough Downs Family Fun Day on sunday august 8.
  5. Congdon’s Doughnuts at least once, for blueberry donuts (me) and blueberry turnovers (my daughter) for breakfast.
  6. Ogunquit Playhouse; there are shows for adults as well as for children all summer. note: please do not bring kids to the evening adult shows…nothing will cramp the style of the actors more than a bright-eyed 12 year old front and center when he is trying to say his risqué lines.
  7. Kennebunkport, to walk and poke around in all the little shops.
  8. Kennebooks…visit the bookstore near me as often as possible!
  9. Go for a trolley ride…
  10. Old Orchard Beach for pier fries.

This is my jumping off point. I will add to it as necessary, and hopefully not have to cross too much off from it!

Do you make a summer vacation ‘to-do’ list?

8 tips for shopping at the farmers market

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, gardening, raising chickens, shopping

the farmers market is unofficially open in portland, maine (and maybe where you are too). here are some ideas to get you started off on the right foot:

  1. bring a bag! preferably a reusable shopping bag vs those plastic ones (although these are available from the farmers if you do forget your bag. which I typically do).
  2. don’t be afraid to ask, “what the heck is it?” if you don’t recognize it.
  3. don’t be afraid to ask, “how the heck do you cook that thing?” . they’ll tell you. (most likely it will involve frying it in butter, but hey, doesn’t butter improve most things?).
  4. bring small bills and a handful of change. nothing will make you feel more uncomfortable than handing over a $20 to pay for $1 worth of parsnips (reference #3 above) and  nothing takes longer than a farmer counting out your change in those precious one dollar bills that he will desperately need to make change for other ill-prepared shoppers a few hours later.
  5. if you see a pile of something on the ground behind the vendor’s stand, ask for it! they are often happy to give you those carrot tops (or whatever) that their other customers didn’t want but that your chickens will swoon over for just the price of taking it off their hands.
  6. show some restraint! don’t buy up all of those “early girl” tomato seedlings when they first appear. by the time the heirloom varieties (purple brandywine; amish paste, hawaiian pineapple, stupice, thesoliniki) are presented, your garden will be overfull (and your significant other will be saying, “I told you so!” with that smug look as you sob that “there is no more room in the garden! Why didn’t I wait?!”).
  7. shop around; nothing is more annoying than to fork over $4 for that small bunch of cut daffodils and then find the much larger bunch for $3.50 two stalls down.
  8. plan to visit the market as close to when it opens as you can; it is definitely an “early bird catches the worm” kind of shopping experience. they have what they have until it’s gone.

and remember: they hauled all that stuff over here, the least you can do is to go buy a parsnip or something (reference #4 above).

anyone else have any tips for farmers market shopping? …or any good parsnip recipes? 🙂

find a local farmer’s market: http://www.localharvest.org/

learn what to do with what you bought: http://www.farmfresh.org/learn/recipes.php