shopping

The weekends are my best cooking time. I have more time to plan and prepare things, and the past few weekends, I have been very diligent about doing just that. Today is no different. I made my meal plans and went grocery shopping this morning, but I had a really hard time finding everything I needed. This is unusual. First of all, I have been seeing a lot of rhubarb in the grocery stores around town, and having never made anything with rhubarb before I was inspired. My inspiration came at just the right time, because the newest issue of Everyday Food came out with a special on rhubarb, I knew the time was right. So, today I go to get rhubarb at Publix, and it's as though all rhubarb has disappeared overnight! I was very confused. I finally found some at the store I was at, but when I went to another store later I still could not find the rhubarb there, I thought that was very mysterious. Did I suddenly run into the end of the season or something? I don't know, but at least I got some and my dinner plans weren't ruined. After the whole rhubarb crisis I went looking for lady fingers because I happened upon some mascarpone cheese and it reminded me that there was a dessert I wanted to make involving those two ingredients. So, I went to the cookie/cracker aisle and started looking for lady fingers. I've never had to purchase them before, so I was completely unaware of the fact that they apparently cannot be found in the cookie aisle. I was about to call John H., my lady finger idol, when I was approached by a store manager who must have noticed my look of distress and utter despair. He informed me that they do have lady fingers over in the bakery section behind the cakes - oh, oops. So, I went back over there, and sure enough... I also had a very difficult time finding the tonic water for Dad, but this apparently is because they split their fizzy waters into two categories and keep them on different ends of the store, who knew? After I successfully found most of the other things I was looking for I went to check out and the cashier commented that it was getting awfully dark outside, I agreed and proceeded with my purchase as quickly as possible. I made it into the car without incident, but by the time I was pulling out of the parking lot the wind was whipping and the rain started falling immediately. By the time I got home it was a full fledged torrential downpour, and I was thus inspired to park in the driveway, climb awkwardly out of the front seat into the back where I had an umbrella and all my groceries and I gathered everything up and jumped out of the car, it was crazy.

Craig thinks I could/should be a chef of some kind. The prospect of that makes me happy, as does the fact that Craig believes in me although he has never even had that much of my cooking (with the exception of desserts, which show up on his doorstep somewhat frequently).

Actual food results to come later.