Food Shopping

My food shopping routine is much different now that we've moved.  When we lived in Maine, I had my own vehicle, I could go whenever I wanted...we also had a larger freezer to fill, and a quick, easy unloading zone ~ from driveway to side door.  Oh, and I use to go all by myself...not a good thing, or a bad thing...just how it was.

Now we live in downtown Edmonton, Alberta (a city the size of Rhode Island, in the middle of the prairie) in a condo on the 5th floor; not an easy unloading zone ~through the parking garage, into the lobby via 2 ill planned doors that open in opposite - awkward directions, up the elevator, around the courtyard balcony, and into home plate.  We have 1 vehicle (in which S utilizes for work), so if I need a big grocery haul, I need to work it around his schedule.  Sure, there are a few places a couple blocks in either direction I can walk to, and I do this often...I have it down to a science:  I shop with one of the larger hand baskets (the ones on wheels that you can drag behind you), no matter how I fill this it will fit into my backpack & 2 reusable shopping bags (that's about all I can comfortably carry at once).  But again, If I don't want to go to the food stores every few days (because I think we spend more this way), I need the truck.


So, needless to say I am no longer food shopping alone.  It's become our thang now on Friday or Saturday nights...yeah, we know how to par-tay.  I've become pretty organized thanks to Ziplist; my goal is to keep my head down, focus, and get in & out as quick as possible.  Half the time S is texting or emailing work (or harassing his Canadian friends on why the USA is sooooo much better), the other half of the time he's chucking stuff in the carriage.  He has a rule:  he can buy what ever he wants.

Long story, short...this is how I ended up with 3 kg (6.61387 pounds) of chicken drums, not my favorite ~ S picked them out.

Although I started this post thinking it was going to be about those chicken drums, I seem to have shared more than anticipated.  Coffee Cola Brined Chicken will have to be a post of its own.

In closing, here is a picture of our last shopping carriage....in Canada, you have to pay a deposit  (either a loony ~$1 coin~ or a quarter) to use a carriage.  When you are finished, you return the carriage back to the group, lock it back up, and pop(!) you get your coin back.  I don't know why, this enrages S.  Yes, he's going to get his deposit back, but he hates "being held hostage over shopping cart conformity". Yeah, that's my guy!  So as you can see, this particular cart is missing its handle. Apparently someone in a fit of rage tore it away from the coin locking/dispensing system (S swears it wuzznt him).  Was this carriage easy to push and maneuver around the store?  No, but he was disturbingly happy that it was a "free" (physically and metaphorically) carriage.  I am not complaining, just explaining...