In my quest to become a better and more experienced cook, I attempted 2 new recipes this weekend; one spontaneous and one planned. On Friday, while at the grocery store (one of my least favorite place – more on this later), Kurt picked up a Butternut Squash. “It’s only $1.50! Let’s try it!” So, that night, I found a simple recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash. We halved and seeded the squash, placed it flesh-side up on a baking sheet placed a tablespoon of butter where the seeds used to be, and sprinkled it with brown sugar, salt and pepper. (By the way, brown sugar is my new obsession – I spent the entire time I was in the kitchen eating it with a spoon). We baked the squash at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. I think we did well for our first try. The whole house smelled wonderfully of baked brown sugar. But the squash needed more butter and more brown sugar (because you can never have enough, really) to give it more flavor. We made the squash the focus of our dinner and accompanied it with sauteed green beans and white rice (and a dirty martini or two).
On Sunday night, I made Chicken and Dill Souvlaki. This was the easiest recipe yet and one of my favorites. I mixed dill, lemon juice, olive oil, sliced kirby cucumbers, sliced onions, and chicken (cooked) together, making sure the chicken was coated completely with the mixture. I spooned out about 2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt on a piece of flatbread and put the mixture on top of the yogurt, folded the flatbread and voila! Dinner! If you use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store (I sauteed 2 chicken breasts instead), there is no cooking involved at all. It’s a little messy to eat – using a pita might help with that – but it was so tasty!
So, now onto my hatred of grocery shopping. I never used to loathe the grocery store the way I do now. I used to enjoy it actually. Now, I can’t wait to get out. I have fond memories of grocery shopping. As a child, my mom would take me shopping with her and I’d sit in the front of the cart (I always had an irrational fear that my legs would get stuck in the little holes and I’d never be able to get out, but that's beside the point). The person behind the deli counter would always give me a piece of cheese to nibble on and my mom would buy me a doughnut to eat on our way through the store – most likely just to keep me quiet. In Italy, I loved the grocery store. It was fun to look through all the new foods. The produce was ridiculously fresh and it was never crowded. The same went for the market. I loved walking through the market, buying fresh ingredients for dinner that night. Now, my food shopping experience is much different. People leave their carts in the middle of the aisle, abandoned, and then yell at you when you move it out of your way. The lines snake through the store and when you finally get your purchases on the conveyor belt, the person in front of you has 20 coupons or runs off to find something they forgot as if you have all the time in the world. The produce is mostly brown and unappetizing, and the aisles are so cluttered with displays, I become claustrophobic. But all these things are not why I hate the grocery store.
Since I turned 17 and got my driver's license, I have been taking/going grocery shopping for my grandmother almost every week. Between having to buy hemorrhoid cream, returning coffee, produce, and various other purchases for a refund, fighting with her while in the express line with 90 items, and generally having a nightmarish experience almost every time - I could write a book from all my experiences - I have begun to loathe the grocery store. It's simple conditioning: I've actually begun to associate grocery stores with anxiety, embarrassment, and frustration. I now have a full-blown grocery store aversion. It's similar to the aversion one develops to tequila after it's made one terribly sick. Grocery stores are my tequila. It's unfortunate, my situation, since I cannot altogether avoid grocery stores if I ever want to cook again. I wish I could do what restaurants do and have all my fresh produce delivered daily. That would solve a lot of problems. Or else, find a farmers market that in no way resembles a grocery store. Hm, that would have the added benefit of supporting local farmers. I'm on it.
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