Virginia Grocery Shopping Adventure

Prologue: Setting the Stage
Anyone domestically challenged like myself understands the importance of finding the right grocery store. When you walk into a grocery store with a shopping list of ingredients you aren't quite sure what it looks like or what it even is, you need a place that you can be confident is going to a) HAVE the ingredients you are looking for and b) have people that work there who can help you find it if the need arises. Thus beings this Virginia Grocery Shopping Adventure.

Chapter 1: Heaven's Grocery Store
On Tuesday Matt traveled for work with someone else so I had his car all day to do my grocery shopping for the week. As soon as we got here on Monday our week filled up with dinner plans. The only night we had to make dinner at home was Wednesday, so I decided on a recipe and went to a new grocery store: Wegman's.

Wegman's in incredibly overwhelmingly huge. It has lower level parking and enough people to make it look like a mall on Saturday afternoon. The entire left side of the store is set up like a cafe/outdoor market. I stood on the edge of this area with my shopping cart just starring to see if it was ok to push my cart in there. It has a huge organic section, big home section, the longest isles I have ever seen and very friendly staff who helped point me to the deli, the flour, and to the handy store map which is a picture of the layout of the whole store with labels of isles and sections, and on the back is lists of what products are in each isle. Grocery Store Bliss. I signed up for my Wegman's card and left feeling successful in my grocery shopping endeavors.

Chapter 2: The Phone Call
On my way home from my very successful shopping trip, Matt called to say his friend Leon, who we were planning to meet for dinner that night, isn't coming to town afterall and we have another free night to cook together. What fun! I got my first load of groceries home and then starting flipping through my cookbooks to find another simple recipe that for that. I wrote down about 6 ingredients that I needed and left again for the store. Since Wegman's is about 15 minutes away, I decided for just 6 ingredients I would go to a different store--Shoppers--which is literally within walking distance of Matt's apartment.

Chapter 3: The Grocery Store from Hell
I walked into Shoppers, a grocery store I have been to a few times before, and breathed a sigh of relief for the comforting small size of the store and the very few people milling around. So I begin my search for my 6 ingredients. I am quickly reminded of how incredibly confusing the layout of this store is. The isles are not labeled well, and there is no one in sight to ask for help. I eventually give up on my search for ingredients and begin looking soley for an employee to get some directions from. After finding none, I got a cashier.

"I am looking for roasted chopped green chiles"

Clearly I spoke to quickly and in a thick accent the worker asks me to repeat myself.

"I am looking for roasted chopped green chiles... in a can, I think. Maybe a jar" I say as I hold out my shopping list and point to this item I had written down. She asks another cashier my question in another language and after she asks another cashier I am told, "Isle 17"

So I go to isle 17. I still see no roasted green chiles. I look at my phone and I have been there an hour. One hour for 6 ingredients. I start to get frustrated and anxious and am literally starting to fight tears when one of the disgruntled cashiers comes up behind me and says in a snotty tone "don't you see it? they are right over there"

Annoyed and frustrated I simple state "No. Where are they?"

She points and says they are on the other side of this isle. I walk around and start looking. I have no idea what roasted green chiles will look like and the disgruntled cashier treats me like I am a blind fool. "What are you doing? They are right here."

Well thank you for finally pointing it out to me.

I take my basket of 6 ingredients to another cashier and go home and I vowed to never step foot in Shoppers again.

Chapter 4: A Walk and Waffles
This morning Matt left at 6am for a breakfast meeting an hour away from home. I woke up and decided the sunny sky was inviting me to take a walk and the waffle iron we unpacked last night was begging me to try it out. The missing ingredients to make waffles? Eggs and Vegetable Oil. Easy enough. I set out on my walk and put $20 in my pocket. My walk brought me out to yet another grocery store-- Giant. The only time I was in this store was to buy fingernail polish to put on my toes on our way to a wedding a couple months ago, but it is a little bigger than Shoppers and I thought "perfect, Shoppers has been avoided."

I start looking for the few things I needed. Along with the eggs and oil I decided to get some mini chocolate chips. I find the oil. I go for the chocolate chips. Surprisingly they are out. I move on to the eggs. Of eggs there were plenty, but none of the half dozen cartons I have gotten before. I suddenly remember where I had gotten the half dozen carton of eggs before. Shoppers. I put my oil back, breathe a sigh of determination and I head back up the road to Shoppers because heck all I need is one egg. Why buy 12 if I can buy 6?

Chapter 5: Redeemed
I walk into Shoppers and head directly to where I had discovered the baking products to be the other day. Oil and chocolate chips. Check. I go for the eggs. I pick up my half dozen carton and head to the check out. All along the way I notice several friendly employees helping other shoppers and the cashier I went up to couldn't have been friendlier-- asked me about my Grove City College sweatshirt and if Pittsburgh is where I am from. So Shoppers luckily redeemed itself. It may be poorly organized, stocked, staffed, and labeled, but for the short little trips for basic little things, I think it can be a good back up grocery store now that I am learning the layout and to not ask where the roasted green chiles are. If I come to that again, I'll just make the drive back to Wegman's.

The End. :)

Some Simple Things

I have been wanting to write about somethings for quite awhile now, but time is just moving faster as we move into fall!  The first is a tidbit of information regarding laundry.  If you have never left clothes in the washer for an extended period of time, don't try it!  I am now re-washing a couple loads because they smell very musty-yuck!  

The next is an easy pepperoni roll recipe that is simple and yummy!

Crescent Pepperoni Rolls

Ingredients:

crescent rolls

pepperoni

mozzarella cheese

Separate the crescent rolls and layout 4 pieces of pepperoni per crescent.  Lay a little bit of mozzarella cheese on top of the pepperoni and roll.  Bake according to crescent roll directions.  So good and so easy!  If you have a jar of pizza sauce, you can use that as a dipping sauce.

While I was in Daytona Beach for my cousin's wedding we went to an Italian restaurant one night for dinner and they had cute quotes all over the walls.  My favorite was, "Approach life, love, and cooking with reckless abandon."  I thought that should be our little motto when trying to attempt things in the kitchen- just go for it!