Off the Wagon

Sunday we went off the wagon. We woke up to a muggy hot day and said, “Let’s go for a ride in the air conditioned car for the day." Before you go all greenhouse effect on me, let me explain that the car is a plug-in Prius Hybrid.  Last week the car went 580 miles on a seven gallon tank of gas. So yes, while we did use some gas, we at least weren't riding around in a huge SUV.

We decided to go down to Portsmouth to the Traders Joe’s store. My idea was to check out the organic sugar and flour, and my husband's idea was to get chocolate -- lots of it! Trader Joe's is the only place we can get organic chocolate bars that are reasonably priced. There are, of course, tons of other temptations there as well, and it’s a chain grocery store, albeit a very crunchy granola one. Still we were out of quite a bit of stuff, which was making it hard for everyone to have a happy meal time. We got to the store and went in meaning to stick to the plan we had in mind, which was the flour, sugar, chocolate, and some bottles of vinegar, which  we had seemed to run out of all at once. I knew the minute we got there the plan would tank. Tristan was hungry. When Tristan gets hungry, he gets crabby, -- very crabby, like, throw him a candy bar and step away carefully, crabby.  As a matter of fact we were all hungry. The store was very busy and everyone in it was oblivious to the fact they were not the only ones in the store.

“Let’s make this very quick,” I said.

“You ain’t kiddin'," my husband replied.

We got the chocolate, grabbed the vinegars I wanted, but had no luck in the sugar and flour departments. I like King Arthur organic white flour, because I know the protein content and how it will act in my recipes. I needed to start mixing some white flour into some of the bread recipes I was making to temper the whole wheat, so the boys would actually eat what I made. Our chickens were getting fat from all the tail ends of bread they were tossed. Soaking whole wheat flour overnight in the liquid you use in the bread recipe helps a lot, but Tristan is still calling the pancakes I have been making “fart cakes”, due to the effect they have about 2:00 in the afternoon after he eats them.

There was no flour or sugar that would work. The sugar was organic, but at a much higher price than I would normally pay, so no dice. There is no sense paying more for what I could get at the regular store for about a dollar less a bag. I did get two bags of organic powdered sugar that I would have had to special order online, so that was good.

We threw the stuff in the cart, filled up our organic cotton, reusable shopping bags like good little environmentally conscious people, paid and left. The next step was to feed Tristan before he killed anyone, and for that matter, feed myself, because the apple does not fall far from the tree.

Panera has been a popular place with us ever since one of the drug reps that visits our practice dropped off a big bag of bagels to our staff one day. I took the leftovers home and they were really good. After we visited the one in Concord, we were hooked. I spied a Panera over in the next mall and off we went. Now I know that in our rules we said no chain restaurants, but I can get a pretty decent meal there, like a salad I actually want to eat, and feel like I’m not eating bad food. I think it’s getting to be such a popular place that I want to see if they are a publicly held company, so I can buy their stock.  We all had a good lunch, and with everyone in a better temper, I had one more stop before we went home.

There was a Market Basket grocery store in the same strip mall as Panera. I know what you're saying, "Nooo ... don't do it!" But I had to have sugar for jam and relish making. I decided to do a surgical strike and get the sugar and flour. I just wanted to get in and out. It was okay. It was within the rules. We had talked about it. I left everyone else in the car and went in.

Inside, it was blissfully cold. There were people everywhere. I grabbed a cart and went directly to the baking aisle not looking anywhere but straight ahead. Six bags of flour and the same of sugar, to the checkout and I was out of there. I didn't even think of buying anything else.

We started home and it was still pretty early in the day so we took a detour and went to see if a farm where we used to go to pick peaches and blueberries was still there. Sadly the property had been sold and all the fruit trees cut down. We continue on up the ridge and drove by the Taylor and Brown blueberry fields. This company grows many of the berries sold at farm stands around the area. The berries are the tiny, sweet mountain berries, and they make the most awesome pies. It looked like the berries were just about ready to rake. They had their "No Trespassing" signs out everywhere. No chance of a free sample for us. We went home from there. On the main roads there was too much traffic and too many people. I was glad to get home to our peace and quiet. My husband says I need to get out more. I think I need to stay home more.