Author Archives: Nora

Grocery Update and Menu Plan

27 Monday Jun 2016

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Two menus in a row!  Maybe we’re back on track.

On Monday I went to Stop & Shop for a very small number of items.  Bread was buy 1/get 1 Free.  I bought some s’mores supplies.  We had them over the weekend and as is often the case, ran out of chocolate whilst having some graham crackers and plenty of marshmallows leftover.  Since these items are still on sale in the run up to July 4, I stocked up on what we were short on.  The other items are to round out a few items we have in the pantry in an attempt to use things up before we move.

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Saturday I went to the farm stand and Wegman’s.  The strawberries are local, despite the plastic packaging.

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Much of the Wegman’s purchase was for Sunday when we had Carne Asada for dinner.  Soda is on sale for July 4.  We need milk (always!).  Then there are a couple of other regular items.

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And, the meal plan.  With school finishing up I’ve purposefully not scheduled too much this week so we’re somewhat flexible.

 

Saturday:
Hamburgers
Chips
Strawberries
Pasta salad

Sunday:
Carne Asada
Homemade Pico de Gallo
Homemade Guacamole
Refried beans

Monday:
Adults: Homemade pizza
Kids: Macaroni & cheese

Tuesday:
Asiago chicken (didn’t make the cut with a last minute schedule change last week)
Veggie platter

Wednesday:
Steak & broccoli stir fry
Rice

Thursday:
We’re going to play this one by ear.

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

Graduation

23 Thursday Jun 2016

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As we sat through our third preschool graduation – middle one or first of the second batch depending on how you look at it – I realized that we’d have 5th grade graduation next year.  What I didn’t quite realize initially is that we’ll be going to at least one graduation for the next 7 years in a row.  At that point, assuming everyone stays on track, we’ll have one year off (1st, 4th, 6th, 9th, and 11th) followed by 8 more consecutive years of graduations.  Then there’s another single year off before more graduations; but, things do taper off at that point!

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Last Week’s Accomplishments – The School Year Winds Down

21 Tuesday Jun 2016

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Eventful week last week.

  • We had preschool graduation and the last day of preschool.
  • We attended an end of the year party for the younger preschooler.
  • The older three went to a Red Sox game.
  • Our oldest had his last baseball game of the season.  They lost, but since it was the playoffs pretty much everyone lost their last game.
  • We had soccer & baseball end of year gatherings.
  • We attended two birthday parties + one family BBQ.
  • We had a playdate – I should do more of these but with the number of people involved and the bus logistics its annoyingly challenging.
  • We met with the builder about landscaping.  This is still a work in progress.
  • I registered our oldest for summer baseball + the older three for summer golf lessons.
  • I took all the boys to the strawberry festival.

Grocery Update and Menu Plan

20 Monday Jun 2016

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Well, its been quite some time since I posted a Menu Plan, but now that baseball season is over we’ll try to get back on track.  First, though, the shopping.

On Thursday I went to BJs, hence the inspiration for last Friday’s post.  I got some steaks for Father’s Day, some chicken for this week, refills of a few items we’ll use fast now that the boys are out of school, and what I expect will be my last batch of chicken nuggets for a while.  (After baseball season folks can be kind of sick of those.)

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Saturday we went to Wegman’s.  The potatoes and Romaine are sides for Father’s Day.  The brown paper hides the big steak which the adults ate for dinner Saturday night.  I got some steaks for early next week (their fresh packs allow purchasing this far in advance) and some regular churn stuff.

Finally, on Sunday I went to the farm stand for their strawberry festival.  We got lots of strawberry related samples and bought some chocolate covered strawberries.

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I wouldn’t normally buy meat there, but Wegman’s didn’t have veal cutlets.  The English peas and strawberries are now locally in season.  The other items are to round out various meals.

And, the meal plan.  With school finishing up I’ve purposefully not scheduled too much this week so we’re somewhat flexible.

Saturday:
Kids: afternoon BBQ filled them up enough that they weren’t interested in dinner
Adults: Cowboy steak, pan fried shredded potatoes

Sunday:
Rib-eye steaks
Baked potatoes
Cesar salad
Strawberries

Monday:
Chicken pot pie
Green beans

Tuesday:
I’m going out so we have leftover steak and chicken pot pie to choose from.

Wednesday:
Veal parmesean
Salad

Thursday:
Asiago chicken (with fresh English peas!)

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

The BJs Checkout Process

17 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by in Groceries, Product Reviews

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Before critiquing, let me say that I generally like self checkout.  I appreciate bagging my own stuff so its grouped the way I want, and in fewer bags.  I don’t mind less interaction with staff.  And, I especially appreciate that those lines are almost always available.

However, BJs is different.  I appreciate that BJs offers self checkout.  But, for me it is not useful.  I need the hand unit to scan the big stuff and a quantity button for my 12 gallons of milk.  Plus, if I take everything out of the cart I almost always purchase enough that the belt fills up and needs to be emptied part way through.

Thus, today I went to a cashier.  She was atrocious.  Nice, but an inept cashier which cost me between 20 & 30 minutes – a huge amount of time.  It was so bad that the person behind me in line went fetch the manager to move things along and I employed the BJs survey to critique her performance later.

Unlike other places, the BJs self checkout lines almost always back up.  This is often because the cashier lines are longer, but could be significantly improved fairly easily.

  1. Give the customer access to a hand unit.  It does not need to be a fully functioning one; just a moveable scanner.  And, it could/should be tethered.
    1. This would reduce the time folks take getting all those big items out of their cart.
    2. Leaving large items on the cart would reduce/eliminate the backed up belts that require one to stop mid-scan to rearrange the scanned items to free up space.
    3. Tethering it would prevent it walking around and getting lost among the registers which is a current problem with the employee unit.
    4. Much of the population has experience with these machines from other places – wedding or baby registries and grocery self scanners come to mind immediately.
    5. The wait for an employee to come scan your heavy stuff would be eliminated.
  2. Add a quantity button to self checkout.
    1. Receipts are already checked at exit.  If theft via quantity is truly a concern, self checkout receipts could be flagged for special counting.
    2. Heck, because of the membership card BJs can track everyone.  If they learn someone is routinely cheating they could prevent them from using self checkout, or just recind their membership.
    3. It would speed up self checkout – more items that don’t have to come out of the cart.
    4. Nobody wants to scan more than two or three of the same item.
    5. Lots of folks buy multiples at BJs.  I’ve lost could of the flatbeds I’ve seen go through the checkout line because 90% of what their buying is 10+ flats of bottled water.
    6. A quantity button would enable more folks to use self checkout thereby freeing up cashiers for those who truly need them.

The self checkout process should be a positive for the store largely because fewer cashiers are required to clear the same amount of merchandise.  But, BJs is handcuffing this process.  It should be set free.

Last Two Week’s Accomplishments – Pool is Open!

14 Tuesday Jun 2016

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We are closing in on summer!

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  • The swimming pool is open.  Baseball is done for three of four kids (playoffs run one more week for our oldest).  Soccer is done.
  • We went for Kindergarten visiting day.
  • We attended two birthday parties.
  • We selected garage doors and carpet for the new house.

Most of all we’ve enjoyed the distinctly fall-like weather.  It’s been sunny, but windy and hardly out of the 60s.

Grocery Update

13 Monday Jun 2016

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A few more trips this week, again nothing super significant.  This coming week I’ll be doing some stocking up as its the last week of preschool and therefore my last week to shop unfettered.

I was at Stop & Shop on Tuesday.  Very little of this was on sale, which is unfortunate.  The most unfortunate items is the tomato sauce which is often 3/$1 (vs this at $1.19!).  But, I’ve run out of my supply from the last big sale so I’m eking my way to the next one.

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Tuesday I went to Wegman’s.  Milk here is still close enough to the BJs price that it makes sense, with the distances, to stock up closer to home.  For notes: (1) the fresh OJ was full when I bought it, but I had drunk most of it by the time I got home to take the picture and (2) annoyingly I forgot to purchase the crackers I like best with this fancy cheese so I’ll have to pick those up elsewhere/another time and delay my cheese eating.

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Finally, I went to Stop & Shop again on Wednesday. I got some steaks, potatoes, and the shallot for a fancy dinner.  The crackers are to try with the cheese from above; not the same as usual, but hopefully they’ll work out.  The Eggos are substituting for my planned hot dog purchase, ie. dinner for a few of the small ones that night.  It looks like Stop & Shop will no longer be carrying the hot dogs we prefer, which may or may not be a problem.  I don’t by them that often, but Wegman’s doesn’t carry them either so I may be limited to Star Market and I’m just not there very often.

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Egg Bread

10 Friday Jun 2016

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This is from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook.

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Egg Bread

4¾-5¼ cups all purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 1/3 cups milk
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp margarine or butter
½ tsp salt
2 eggs

  1. Combine 2 cups of flour and the yeast.
  2. In a saucepan, heat the milk, sugar, margarine, and salt until warm.
  3. Add to the flour mixture along with the eggs.
  4. Beat on low for 30 seconds, then on high for 3 minutes.
  5. Stir in as much remaining flour as possible.
  6. Kneed for 6-8 minutes.
  7. Shape into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease all sides.
  8. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double (about 60 minutes).
  9. Punch down and turn onto a lightly floured surface.
  10. Divide into six pieces.  Cover and let rest 10 minutes.
  11. Lightly grease two 8x4x2 loaf pans.
  12. Roll all six pieces into long snakes.  In two groups of three braid the loaves.  Turn the ends under and place in the loaf pans.
  13. Cover and let rise until almost double (about 30 minutes).
  14. Preheat the oven to 375° so it is ready when the rise is done.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Remove from pans; cool.

Miscellany

09 Thursday Jun 2016

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I had a few good photos and random thoughts from May that didn’t make other posts and aren’t significant for their own so I’m putting them together.

  1. After last year, a relatively mild winter was appreciated.  It wasn’t too cold and wasn’t too snowy.  But, it has taken quite a while to finish.  Even today it barely got out of the 60s and the forecast for tomorrow is cooler still.  April also seemed (I am not a meteorologist) pretty dry.  So, its been nice to have some rain in the past few weeks so the flowers can come out.
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  2. Apparently I don’t use shampoo nearly as fast as I think I do.  I remember when we moved last time the folks helping me get the final few items boxed up commented on how many bottles of shampoo we had.  And, not little hotel bottles, but full size ones.  As I start packing again, I’m noticing that we again have a significant supply.  I will need to make a conscious effort to work this down.  Thankfully my hair is not too picky as long as I vary the shampoo every now and then.
  3. A significant roadwork project is underway to replace the water pipes in town.  Unfortunately I have to drive through it multiple times a day.  But, the boys find it very interesting and every now and then one of these huge boulders appears.  I assume they’re being dug out of the ground, vs put in, but I’ve only seen them sitting around.
    IMG_4633Yes, the car was stopped when I took the picture.  This happens a lot as the construction area is often a single lane.  And yes, that’s the bucket of a common sized excavator.
  4. I got a particularly good deal on gas last week.  I know prices have gotten lower, but I felt pretty good about 20 gallons for $30.  This was a combination of reasonably low prices and a middling amount of grocery gas points.

 

 

May Accomplishments

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

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At least I’m caught up on this one!

May is always super busy around here.

  • We’re juggling two soccer teams + three baseball teams.  This usually means 8 games + 4 practices per week.
  • We went to three birthday parties.
  • I got moving quotes.
  • I met the new elementary school principal.
  • We settled paint colors, tile, & countertops.
  • The older boys went to a New England Revolution game.
  • We got the broken window fixed.
  • Everyone went to the dentist.
  • Skating, drawing class, bike club, Before School Sports, and Math Mornings all finished for the year.

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