Tag: food

Matzo Man

Passover was this last weekend, and I celebrated with my new annual tradition: buying cheap matzo. On Sunday morning, the day after Passover ends, supermarkets slash the prices on their leftover matzo stock. Usually going for ~$4/lb, the matzo market dips as low as $0.50/lb once the holiday passes. Nishi stumbled onto this event last year by accident. She was browsing through the bargain aisle of our local Stop & Shop, when she found a 5lb box of Matzo going for $3. She figured I would like it because it’s bland, and if I didn’t it wasn’t a big loss, so she bought it. And it turns out I really really like matzo. I did a good job of rationing that package, and finished my last cracker sometime in October.

This year, realizing this event was approaching, I made plans to go a-matzo hunting with a friend. First, we returned to the Stop & Shop that started it all, where we struck out. Someone had beaten us to the punch, and an empty shelf greeted us where all the cheap matzo was supposed to be. It’s worth noting, that there was premium matzo left at about $1.50/lb, but that wasn’t quite the score we’d been hoping for. On to the Price Chopper! Where we struck out again. Nothing in the bargain aisle, and the ethnic food aisle only has the usual $4/lb boxes. We conclude that we probably jumped the gun, and the deals may not appear until mid-week. We part ways, me heading to my car, him heading off to buy regular groceries. I’m getting into my car as my phone rings – Mike had found the matzo! At $0.50/lb! I took no chances and packed the back seat of the Buick with 40lbs of matzo.

It never goes bad, isn’t bad for you, and satisfies the munchies – I’m sold.

Picky Eaters

I’ve long been pegged as a picky eater. The running joke is that if a food has more than three ingredients, I won’t like it. Often that’s true. I like to eat simple things. I eat oatmeal, salad, hamburgers, pizza, pasta, pancakes, all plain (or very nearly). I can be totally content with a piece of cheese or bread, but combining them decreases my enjoyment of both. My food preferences are something people always give me a hard time about.

I was recently introduced to the concept of overtasters and undertasters. I don’t know if either of these concepts are based on casual observation or actual research, but it seems intriguing to me. I certainly know people who like lots of flavours, salt, and spicy stuff in their food. I’m going to start pointedly reminding those people that they’re just as picky as me, only in the other extreme. They wouldn’t want to eat most of the dishes I eat – they tell me so – too bland for them. Who’s picky now? I’ll be over here enjoying my bread.

Yes We Can (make erection jokes)

Joe: i have never been this excited about an election
John: I’ve never paid less attention to an election
…
Joe: btw, when i started this conversation, i couldn’t help but imagine our opening statements with the word “election” replaced by “erection”
John: you know, if I were more motivated, I’d write a script to pull google news clips and just replace those words
Joe: this is a truly historic erection
John: I was looking for good ones:
John: What Will It Take for a Smooth Erection?
Joe: U.S. Stocks Finish Solidly Higher After Erection
John: The world’s American erection?
Joe: US Erection Captivates the World
John: Erection ’08 coming home in HD like never before
Joe: World Watches US Erection with Excitement
and the winner…
Joe: Wall St Rises, End of Erection Brings Relief

I managed to avoid all the pre-decision conjecture that CNN spouts for hours longer than they should be allowed to, and worked on redesigning the Juan Way site. It should look a little more professional now, and maybe people will give me money.

Also, I worked on a new dish, though I don’t have a name for it yet. It is a hotdog with a pancake for a bun. It is really tasty:

GoodBetter


Update on the $2 per day thing

In class today, one of my professors showed statistics contrasting how households spent money in the early 1900s with how they did in 2000. While that isn’t important, one of the statistics from 2000 got my attention: Food 13.6%.

Assuming that percentage has not changed too much in since 2000 (which may be a big assumption – I’ve emailed the professor asking for a source and if there may be any more current stats), 13.6% of $21,200 (the current U.S. poverty line for a family of 4) is $2,883.2. $2 per person per day for a family of 4 is $2,920, a difference of under $40. In fact, the difference per day is about three cents.

I can’t really draw any conclusions from this until I know the source, but it seems that my findings may not be far off from the government’s.

UPDATE: Got an update from my professor: it is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and he pointed me to more recent reports, one of which actually breaks it down by income. Link to summary, link to full.

I made bread!

Bread
Yes friends, its true. I’m so proud. With this simple recipe, I was able to make bread from start to finish in about four hours or so. If you choose to do this, I have some suggestions: get a real pot holder/oven mitt. I’ve got a real nice burn because the paper towel I was using was not adequate. On the plus side, I’ll have a really interesting looking fingerprint from now on. Also, don’t let your first impressions trick you. It may come out of the oven rock hard, but its just about perfect. Once it cools you can cut it up and enjoy. Oh, and you probably shouldn’t bake on plates you use to eat, even if they are oven safe. And if you do, you should probably oil them or something so there isn’t a layer of bread burnt on to them.

Anyway, I made bread.