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Vehicles and Victuals
Mar. 30th, 2020 04:13 pmSo far, we are behaving ourselves and not being "Covidiots". Until today, we had not set foot in a grocery store since March 13 - although we did pick up a few groceries at a Shoppers Drug Mart on March 23, when we had to go to the post office in there to sign for a parcel. We were really missing our fresh fruits and veggies - we had NO tomatoes, apples, oranges or bananas and we were getting perilously short of orange juice!
So today we decided to make an expedition to our local Loblaws for seniors' hour, which is 7 to 8 AM. We were raring to go by 6:45. Our car, however, was not. Well, you know how they say you should not go out for groceries more than once a week - something which, by the way, is rather impractical for many of my friends who either don't drive at all or don't have a vehicle so they only buy as much each time as they can realistically carry - anyway, cars, like people, tend to lose their muscle when they don't exercise enough! But all was not lost. After ten minutes or so, the car had drunk its Boost and decided to co-operate, so off we went.
Luck was mostly with us after that. The store was not at all crowded. There was a portable wash-and-sanitize station between the two sets of doors and plenty of carts available. We bought lots of stuff in the produce section - lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, cucumber, green peppers, apples, oranges, grapes, avocados and even Ontario strawberries! In that part of the store, things were plentiful. In the dairy and canned goods sections, not so much - in several places, signs were posted apologizing for the shortages and asking customers to limit themselves to a certain number of the item. Still, we managed to find what we needed: a carton of whipping cream, a small container of half-and-half, a 4-litre bag of milk, a package of 12 yogurts, a dozen eggs. We got tins of kidney beans and tomatoes for when we next make a chili. We got some ready-to-serve soups too. And yes, we got our orange juice and a jug of cider besides. Life is good once more.
We even had cashier service, which was a pleasant surprise. Greg-the-cashier was walled off behind a plexiglass panel, wearing rubber gloves and wielding his spray-bottle of disinfectant to swab off the conveyor belt. We paid by credit card (which needed a second go-round before it was approved, even though the machine reported both times that the PIN was OK). Then it was out to the car and by 7:45, we were on our way home again.
The one thing that we didn't find at the grocery store was angel-cake to go with the strawberries and cream. So, since we now have all-day off-peak hydro rates, I decided to dig out Betty Crocker's one-egg cake recipe and give that a go. Which meant digging out some rarely-used pans and scouring them clean, with steel wool. Unfortunately, I also scoured my finger too, which made for a bit of a delay. I take anti-inflammatories for my arthritis so when I bleed, I bleed a little longer than the average person. But to make a long story short, the cake is now ready, the strawberries are prepared and the cream and beaters are ripe for the whipping.
Shortcake will be served shortly.
So today we decided to make an expedition to our local Loblaws for seniors' hour, which is 7 to 8 AM. We were raring to go by 6:45. Our car, however, was not. Well, you know how they say you should not go out for groceries more than once a week - something which, by the way, is rather impractical for many of my friends who either don't drive at all or don't have a vehicle so they only buy as much each time as they can realistically carry - anyway, cars, like people, tend to lose their muscle when they don't exercise enough! But all was not lost. After ten minutes or so, the car had drunk its Boost and decided to co-operate, so off we went.
Luck was mostly with us after that. The store was not at all crowded. There was a portable wash-and-sanitize station between the two sets of doors and plenty of carts available. We bought lots of stuff in the produce section - lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, cucumber, green peppers, apples, oranges, grapes, avocados and even Ontario strawberries! In that part of the store, things were plentiful. In the dairy and canned goods sections, not so much - in several places, signs were posted apologizing for the shortages and asking customers to limit themselves to a certain number of the item. Still, we managed to find what we needed: a carton of whipping cream, a small container of half-and-half, a 4-litre bag of milk, a package of 12 yogurts, a dozen eggs. We got tins of kidney beans and tomatoes for when we next make a chili. We got some ready-to-serve soups too. And yes, we got our orange juice and a jug of cider besides. Life is good once more.
We even had cashier service, which was a pleasant surprise. Greg-the-cashier was walled off behind a plexiglass panel, wearing rubber gloves and wielding his spray-bottle of disinfectant to swab off the conveyor belt. We paid by credit card (which needed a second go-round before it was approved, even though the machine reported both times that the PIN was OK). Then it was out to the car and by 7:45, we were on our way home again.
The one thing that we didn't find at the grocery store was angel-cake to go with the strawberries and cream. So, since we now have all-day off-peak hydro rates, I decided to dig out Betty Crocker's one-egg cake recipe and give that a go. Which meant digging out some rarely-used pans and scouring them clean, with steel wool. Unfortunately, I also scoured my finger too, which made for a bit of a delay. I take anti-inflammatories for my arthritis so when I bleed, I bleed a little longer than the average person. But to make a long story short, the cake is now ready, the strawberries are prepared and the cream and beaters are ripe for the whipping.
Shortcake will be served shortly.
