Text 17436, 74 rader
Skriven 2008-12-07 08:02:28 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DALE SHIPP
Ärende: Veggies of all sorts
============================
CS> I am not that much into frozen veggies and i do not know why as i was
CS> raised on them. A frozen block per night was my norm. 

DSh> We prefer frozen to canned for most vegetables.  They seem fresher.

I agree with that for the most part, though we do use some canned
stuff.  Corn, creamed corn (for recipes), green beans, and tomatoes.
Carol's mention of "a frozen block" made me laugh - that's the way so 
many frozen vegetables used to be sold when I was a kid, and boy they
were so often terrible!  Today's method of flash-freezing is so much
better.  The vegetables seem to stay in individual "bits" rather than
getting bound into a block of ice.

With the produce stores we have here now, I buy a lot fewer frozen
veggies, and more fresh, because the prices there have made fresh
as affordable as frozen.  However, I try always to keep frozen lima
beans, peas, and leaf spinach on hand.  (Frozen leaf spinach is more
convenient than fresh for recipes like spinach lasagna.)

DSh> Fresh asparagus was recently on sale here at $1.59 a pound 
DSh> instead of the usual $3.99 per pound.  

It's asparagus season south of the border, and imports are being 
shipped here, so you can expect sale prices from now until
Christmas or so.

- - 

Funny you posted this next part - I was just thinking of these
brussels sprouts last night and was going to post about them:

DSh> Do your stores have fresh brussels on the stalk?  They look 
DSh> strange, but only because I'm not used to seeing them in their 
DSh> more natural state.  I haven't quite figured out if you just 
DSh> snap a portion off of the stalk or if you have to buy the whole 
DSh> stalk.

At Stop & Shop here (so probably at Giant near you) you have to buy
the entire stalk as offered.

This marketing gimmick - selling the sprouts right on the stalk - is
one of the biggest consumer rip-offs since individual russet potatoes
getting shrink wrapped and sold as "microwave ready lunches."  There 
are a few reasons why I wouldn't buy sprouts that way:

 - There's no added benefit in  "freshness."  A cut plant is a cut
   plant, and the sprouts don't stay "fresher" because they're 
   attached to the stick.

 - The _perception_ of on-the-stalk being somehow better/fresher/ 
   more natural/etc. allows the supermarket to charge a higher
   premium price for brussels sprouts sold that way, which can
   effectively triple or more the price per pound of the actual edible
   portion one is buying.  (In B4 Glen jumping in telling me
   how he ALWAYS eats the stalk and it's so great braised in 
   kangaroo fat with coconut milk or some other antipodal bullshit
   story. [g])

 - The sprout sizes vary so much when cut from the stalk that
   it's hard to cook them evenly.  Whether I buy large or small
   sprouts, I select them for uniform size so they're not difficult
   to get  uniformly cooked.




---
http://davescupboard.blogspot.com/ - Dave's Cupboard - Food and 
Restaurant Reviews; If I post it here in NCE, you'll find it 
blogged with photos at Dave's Cupboard.

http://bacon-labels.blogspot.com/ - A gallery of bacon package labels.
(The extra shelf in Dave's Cupboard.
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