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A Princess Needs to Eat

Nov 8

Posted by admin in beverages, cookbooks, cooking, food universe, grocer, lifestyle

If there was a single consistent theme around Halloween, it seemed that most every young girl was some sort of a princess. Maybe a fairy princess came to your door or you saw a frog princess; there were princesses in every guise. Now the big concern is the princess party; it will take more than a few cupcakes. (The author tackled the single cupcake idea in an earlier cookbook!) Not to worry, for the greater complexity of the princess theme, there is The Pink Princess Party Cookbook by Barbara Beery which has taken a simple concept and turned it into a themed adventure!

Instead of listening to whining about the type of princess party, you can turn this book over to the princess and see which direction the party motif takes as this book is written for young readers. Let them leaf through the options before you ever even get involved!

Depending on the season of the party or the pretend party, they can figure out which recipe will be perfect for all the princesses in attendance! Beery has the menu and party ideas all compacted together for the ultimate “P” party. Chapters are divided into the following themes: Snowflake, Spa, Garden Fairy, Mermaid, Enchanted Pony, and the most recognizable one, the Pink Princess party.  This book provides an opportunity to teach young children how to follow a recipe and understand basic measurement principles.

If you are thinking winter themed events then the snowflake one may be the perfect solution as Meringue Cookies will accomplish more than just a response to a themed party. What is not to like about learning how to make meringues! If it’s anxiety about a party favor, then Beery suggests going the rock candy route with a wearable, and edible, crystal candy necklace.

As long as there are princesses, there are opportunities for fun, adventure cooking.

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Cookbook Round-Up

Jun 11

Posted by admin in coffee, cooking, gardening, gluten-free, grocer, healthy eating

Summertime is the perfect time to laze around enjoying some of the new cookbooks that have hit the market. With all the fine produce at the farm stands and the grocers who strive to bring in local, this is a good time to look at the vegetable options.

With the increasing number of Vegan followers and those who subscribe to meatless days or think about healthier options, here’s a good primer: Color Me Vegan. What’s particularly enjoyable about this book is its color-coded emphasis on eating healthy; eating vegan. The recipes are easy to follow and attractive to lure you into trying something new. Those who just want the burst of color will be able to tweak the recipe to accommodate the omnivores.

Now that everyone has written about Gluten-Free and its mainstream numbers, the cookbooks are popping out of the printers.  Here’s one (125 Gluten-Free Vegetarian Recipes) that includes recipes for vegans although the combination of being G-F and V can be challenging at times. The highlight of this book is the straightforward approach from writer, Carol Fenster, who has an impressive history covering special diet needs including earlier gluten-free cookbooks: Would you believe her earlier 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipe cookbook! The 125 G-F recipe book will be available in July.

Neither a Vegan nor a Gluten-Free approach to vegetables, but one that considers how time starved we all are: The Best 30-Minute Vegetarian Recipes makes it easy to approach the summer heat with quick solutions to a healthy meal. Most of the 150 recipes are low in fat and in sugar. When the tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers are market ready or ready to be picked from your own garden, the Gazpacho recipe may prove a perfect summer favorite.

I have to leave the vegetable track for a moment and consider the importance of good bread to accompany all these veggie recipes. As we’ve watched foods come into vogue, we recognize the return of a once-popular piece of kitchen equipment: The Bread Machine. Prices have dropped on this handy kitchen accessory due to its formerly untrendy status so this is a perfect item to add now and awaken the family to the delicious morning aroma of  just-baked bread. The Artisan Bread Machine with its 250 recipes fits the ease-of-use bill. Nothing’s better than combining artisan techniques into the workhouse machine! Add to that the summertime availability of delicious tomatoes (atop a foccaccia) and the desire to serve a healthy pizza lets you add your fresh vegetable toppings to the wonderful crusts from the bread machine.

These are just some of the many new cookbooks worth your summertime lolling pleasure. Relax with an iced coffee, and find the perfect solution to any meal period. Enjoy.

 

 

 

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Can Whole Foods top Whole Foods?

Apr 12

Posted by admin in cooking, grocer, life, news, shopping

That’s the question running along Rockville Pike this week as the long-established grocer moves to new digs. Not just a new store, but a big one, almost twice the size of the crowded space it had a couple of miles away.  For a company that has been in this part of Maryland for 20 years, they are demonstrating a new lifeblood as they open one of their bigger stores at 51,000 square feet.

Besides ample room to negotiate the aisles, what else is new in this brightly lit environment? Where does one begin? Maybe with the fact that they have a butcher on site. That works for me as the profession has been slowly facing the death knell. To help the butcher have a bold presence, there’ll be no shortage of great aromas as the meat department has its own smoker for ribs and brisket, a Kosher selection, and dry-aged meats.

The fish and seafood counter may remind you a bit of the way hotels are reaching out and getting away from the front desk concept. In this department, the staff will come out from behind the counter and help you select your items. The more personalized, interactive, approach is something that will be evident throughout the entire store.

Name a department and put them to the test. They’ve got you covered. Start with take-away, prepared foods. You’ll be swimming in possibilities from the hot 850 degree pizza oven that promises a Neapolitan selection in 90 seconds to the new Arepas section for your cornmeal cake. Too daring, then step over to the burger and hot dog station. Some other changes right there: An organic salad bar. Now that takes the guesswork out of decision-making! They’ll even have smaller, more affordable prepared salads in the cases.

As for what’s truly different: Cooking Rockville promises to take the guesswork out of “How do I prepare this food, ingredient?” They have a staff of cooking coaches ready to assist in an inviting space with a wall of spices and grains as a backdrop!  This area should help more shoppers take the next step into adventuresome, reality cooking, what they call CIY, Cooking It Yourself. They’ll champion you.

The company seems focused on addressing an age-old problem: Affordability. They are conscious of what’s involved for every shopper and stress their new focus: competitive everyday prices, over 2,000 sale items per month, and plenty of weekly specials. When you add that up and throw in the emphasis on fresh, organic, and local,  you have followed the Market to its next step.

It’s always fun to go to a new grocer or restaurant preview. This outing was no exception. Yes, Whole Foods has shown that shopping does not have to be dull. Always fun to see new departments stretch the possibilities and respond to the latest trends.

Grab a basket. It’s opening day!

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Meat the Man

Apr 20

Posted by admin in food universe, grocer

We spoke about fish yesterday, and today our Earth Week attention needs to be focused on beef. There are plenty of books and tales of unhealthy slaughtering conditions and unhealthy animals so what’s a consumer to do? First off we have the organic discussion followed by questions regarding sustainability. Whatever our budgets can afford, and yes, there are significant price differences. Beef has taken on a whole vocabulary full of words that distinguish one animal’s upbringing from another’s.

Upton Sinclair (The Jungle) started the dialogue about humane animal and slaughtering conditions early in the 1900s, and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) laid the cornerstone for the 2000′s, and now here we are at Earth Week 2010 still searching for healthy meats. Some nutritionists quickly chime in and say that the phrase, healthy meats, is an oxymoron as we need to limit our beef input significantly or eliminate such consumption. Let’s say we understand but recognize the reality includes beef. What are the best products to purchase? Where’s the beef? Maybe that’s not the question we need to ask, but whose beef is this?

In this age of numerous and ongoing beef recalls, food safety must be paramount in our decision-making.

If you purchase limited quantities of beef, then it is easier to justify your expenditures from top purveyors. In many instances, you will be surprised that their prices are not so-called, out of line. Many of these suppliers are individuals who trek to the farm markets to sell their prize products. The grass-fed movement has finally taken off, and for many it is the answer to the most humane question. If Wagyu or Kobe Beef meets your budget, then that natural route has a number of suppliers. As for organic and humane, consider a farm that specializes in such meats, such as Virginia’s Ayrshire Farm.beef-organic-fully-traceable-chuck-roasts-C13874

To help you locate who has the best beef for your money and to understand the range of beef possibilities, consult Local Harvest or Eat Wild, both of whom have devoted discussions and extensive lists of  suppliers who can provide the top-quality meats.

Sustainable, organic, humane: All words we need to consider when we have a beef discussion. Whether you purchase directly from the farm, visit a farm market, or spend your beef dollars at a grocer who purchases this top quality, this is the week you should organize your thoughts and ready your commitment.

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How Do You Want Your Coupon?

Feb 10

Posted by admin in dining out, grocer, news

officescissorsIt does not take rocket science to analyze what food establishments whether they be cafes, full-service restaurants, quick shops, or grocers are doing to capture our attention and our food dollars. We have to eat, and it seems we continue to figure out ways to economize the approach.

Restaurants have special dining out nights and chains, even those with just a few locations in a city, have frequent diner cards. Sometimes those benefits get extended into doubling or tripling their value on certain slow nights, that used to be translated as Mondays but midweek is starting to look a lot like a Monday! All this in an attempt to reward the faithful and expand the inner circle of loyalists.

These are just like frequent shopper cards which offer a reduced price on set items to the loyalists. Just scan and save is their mantra.

Does it work? Does it fill the tables? Depends who you ask and the price point of activity. The dollar:value equation becomes the heart of the analysis. Most people like a deal.

As for newspaper inserts, some weeks the number of coupon books weighing down the delivery is astounding, as in 4-5 different coupon catalogs. So it should come as no surprise that we ended the decade with increased coupon usage. The question always remains: Will the consumer trade up to a brand with a cents-off incentive and a doubling-off strategy from the market or stay with the new shopper’s friend, the house brand?

Then there’s the whole social media approach to couponing regardless if it’s for a restaurant or a grocer. If you become a Facebook fan, give over your email, or join their special mobile coupon connection, you will be inundated with money-saving offers. You name the service or the business, they want your fan loyalty and in turn, you will be rewarded, or turned off. You decide.

Clipping still has its friends, but new strategies are making more immediate inroads.

Smart eating has an infinite fan base.

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Sustainable Action

Jan 28

Posted by admin in grocer, news

We talk about the importance of sustainability, the preservation of a food so that it is not depleted. Most often we are in the fish and seafood universe as we have done a wonderful job of depletion; a terrible job in the sustainability column. There have been numerous outreach programs from various chefs that have said NO More: As in no more tuna for fears of overfishing.

The problem is a global one. We can do all this wonderful work domestically from our top-tier US chefs, but the issue does not get resolved if only a few of the world’s major players are on the program. This week we had good news in the sustainability column from Target and Safeway: Target, with help from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guidelines, will no longer buy and sell farm-raised salmon. They plan to sell only wild-caught Alaskan salmon.

By following this road, they hope to contribute to keeping the ocean cleaner, free of pollutants from the myriad of factory fish farms. This is all part of Target’s growing emphasis on the food side of its business. Safeway turned to the marine conservation group, FishWise to have them help set up a stronger sustainability policy. They will no longer sell red snapper, monkfish, or grouper until there is a proven ample supply of these fish. They will also concentrate on providing traceability information. This latter fact is part of a growing food trend that says, tell me everything you can about a product. Give me its roots; its history.p_sushi

Here’s a little primer of connections that can serve as a fish road map: A new Pocket Guide is available.

As more companies get on board, we are more likely able to sustain our supply and enjoy fresh fish.

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Twitter Alert

Jan 15

Posted by admin in grocer

Check out two posts:

–Johnson & Johnson recall expands.

–Whole Foods One Day price knockdown sale–it’s Friday. Today: Extra large shrimp, $7.99–normally $15.99.

One positive; the other expanding negative news.

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Good Gluten Info

Dec 11

Posted by admin in food, grocer, health, news

When you make the rounds looking for tasty, not cardboardy, gluten-free products, you are assured of one common theme: High Prices. No matter where you shop, a bag of pretzels, gluten-free, is almost the equivalent of two or three regular wheat-laden bags. There are always deals and coupons for the latter category to ease you into snack nirvana.

Not for gluten-free products: The mark-up is significant. Finding the tasty ones (Glutino) and other snacks (Lundberg) make shopping a little less of a challenge. Interesting that Glutino just adjusted its product packaging, giving more prominence to its label. If grocers would just figure out where to place the G-F line (does it go in a section of an aisle by itself or does it comingle with similar products?), we could shop without so much interweaving among the aisles.

As for new packaging and heightened awareness, General Mills boldly showcases the term “Gluten-Free” on many of its familiar products. The big news is the introduction of its new website to help us broaden our G-F knowledge base: Live Gluten Freely. They have taken the guesswork out of a lot of label reading.list_logo_fruit

One can only hope that other large manufacturers will follow suit and do a product listing of G-F items and help us shorten shopping time.

Now if one of them would only do something about the pricing, more people might feel comfortable about making the healthier switch!

Hello, can you hear me?

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I Like When YOU Listen–Thanks, Grocers

Nov 4

Posted by admin in Economy, food, grocer

After a truly tough year fighting the economy, mounting bills, and the increased costs of  some basic foods, grocers have responded in a variety of ways. We’ve seen triple coupons, dollar-off opportunities with a minimal purchase, and aisles filled with signs shouting out “lower prices”. We’ve had deals, great deals, new deals, and you name it, but somehow we are still left with a few questions.

What’s the real deal? Why were prices so high in the first place? The honest answer is: Because they could be. People were more flush with money, they had jobs, bills were getting paid, and high grocery prices were an almost accepted fact of life. Now with all the additional coupons from grocers and manufacturers, we are in a different world. The worry is that economic signs are improving and grocers will return to their old ways.

First, you need to be a member. Membership loyalty cards, those pesky things that are all over your keychain, are often necessary to get the savings. Most chains let you type in your phone number rather than make you carry the 500-lb assortment of ways you are trying to save. Whether a club card, card saver, or whatever it’s calledeVic_logo, it is the modus operandi of the shopping universe.

Wegmans came up with a response to consumer anxiety this past Sunday when their senior vice president of consumer affairs Mary Ellen Burris turned her weekly column into a road map of good economic strategies. She recognizes they have seen changed buying habits, house-brand shopping, and greater focus on less expensive prepared foods. They stress they are committed to maintaining their prices and remain focused on how many items are less expensive now than they were in ’08.

A new volley was tossed out today, food circular Wednesday, as Giant Food introduced its new point-based savings plan: Each dollar is a point, 250 points is 5 % off a future order (800 points earns a 20% off reward). They call it the Holiday Reward Coupon of Your Choice.

The gloves are off. May these strategies serve as the model for other grocers as we are far from being out of the woods. The holiday’s are coming, and we all appreciate that beef, pork, chicken, bread and dairy are less expensive than they were.

We are different diners, shoppers, and cooks. We will not go back to those spendthrift, carefree days of accepting high prices. We need the incentives to continue, and the grocers to recognize that the early part of the decade exhibited behavior we no longer can afford to stomach.

Price spikes need to stay off the shelves.

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The Smarter Grocery Store

Oct 15

Posted by admin in grocer, news

It seems like we’ve been telling grocers that things have to change, and they have just realized we mean business, in every sense of the phrase. Prices were too high; deals were limited. Now we’re being inundated with mailings from every market within miles of our zip code telling us their prices have come down and whoa did we see the special offers!

These marketing changes are a direct result of what they’ve learned from surveys and studies. In a recent study fresh_salsait was found that consumers believe they have cut back effectively but still not enough. They plan to spend even less on groceries this coming year. Price remains the strongest determinant of a purchase. In a poll of over 6, 000 people, almost 40% said they spend less at the grocers than they did 12 months ago and almost 80% said they would happily switch products for a better price.

In a survey conducted by Wegmans, they learned that almost a third of respondents said they are preparing more meals at home and relying less on take-out and restaurant meals. To help shoppers figure out the actual cost per serving, the East Coast grocery chain added that information to their list of readily available recipes.

Whole Foods continues to add coupons and specials; concepts that were less prevalent a year ago. They’ve even added a section called “Three Under $3.” Pretty impressive.

More coupons, more specials, more discounts: Welcome to the grocer who plans to survive!

We’ll keep talking.

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