Today is a guest post from Andrew, who contributed a couple of sections to my second book, Starting From Scratch. You can see a ton of Andrew’s stuff at his site, Clove Garden. If you ever have a question about specific ingredients, go check out his ridiculously thorough (or is that “thoroughly ridiculous”?) ingredients section.
Take it away, Andrew.
I wanted to do a recipe today that included stuff I didn’t have on hand. Mascarpone, Parmesan soft enough to shave, and some Hazelnuts. So off to Trader Joe’s.
What? Trader doesn’t have hazelnuts? Damn.
So I was thinking, “I don’t really want to go all the way over the hill to Sunland Produce for just a little bag of hazelnuts”.
Now I do not buy food at supermarket chains, just toothpaste, shampoo, paper towels and paper napkins — that’s all, but I decided, “Well, maybe I’ll pay a little more there but save the trip”.
So I walked across the street to Vons (Safeway). Yes, they had small bags of “Premium” (whatever that means) Hazelnuts . . . . for . . . . $11.99 per bag!
So I took my $11.99 over the hill to Sunland Produce. Came back with a bag of hazelnuts, a bag of chestnuts, 2½ pounds of grape tomatoes and two bottles of Jerry Water (aka Gerolsteiner). Out of the $11.99 that left $1.50 to pay for the gas.
Supermarkets are insane!
