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ShopRite’s Can Can Sale

January 5, 2013
frugal, local, markets, PSA, Uncategorized
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I don’t usually post press releases, but ShopRite’s press release below for their Can Can sale gave me just a twinge of nostalgia. I don’t have cable: do they still do the ShopRite Can Can dancers in commercials? The cartoon Can Can dancers singing about ShopRite’s Can Can sale are the first image/sound that spring to mind when I hear about it.

The website itself doesn’t list many specifics things about the sale, other than it’s going on. You’ll have to search through the local circular for that. In Albany/Cap Region we’ve got Bumble Bee solid white tuna for $0.99 per can (limit 4) and a whole bunch of canned veggies & beans for $0.49 each. There’s some more stuff on sale, but those are probably the things I’ll hit up.

SHOPRITE KICKS-OFF FAMOUS CAN CAN SALE

 

January 2, 2013 (Florida, NY) – ShopRite’s famous annual Can Can Sale, begins Thursday, January 3rd and will run through Saturday, January 19th. This year marks the legendary sale’s forty-second anniversary.

 

The Can Can sale, made famous by low prices and those iconic Can Can dancers, continues to have a loyal and devoted following among ShopRite customers who eagerly await this annual event.  Over the years, the Can Can Sale has changed and grown.  Originally intended to focus solely on ShopRite Private Label products, today many national brands are included, as well. In fact, Can Can proved so popular that in 2002, ShopRite introduced a Summer Can Can Sale.

 

Although there are no sales figures available from the early days of ShopRite’s Can Can, the company estimates it has sold more than 3 billion cans over the sale’s 42 year history.

 

The 2013 ShopRite Can Can sale begins Thursday, January 3rd and runs through Saturday, January 19th at all ShopRite stores in the Northeast.

Biking to Market

August 7, 2012
markets
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Free corn at the Capital District Farmers Market in Menands a few weekends ago. Albany John and I biked over, which was nice. As with most of my bike rides, it was a little further than I thought it would be, but corn day made it very worthwhile.

Hit up my two favorite stands: Krug’s.

And Lansing’s Farm & Greenhouse. I love, love, love their produce.

We biked past Mac’s on our way back. Albany John says the sign is pretty hard to argue against. What a country.

Hash & Waffles

April 24, 2012
beef, break, markets, recomm, sausage
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 My brother-in-law sent me some of the best corned beef hash ever – from Paulina Meat Market in Chicago, IL (where he used to live). Seriously, this is soooo good. Everything is a fine mince – carrots, potatoes, some beef. And it crisps up so well! Goes really well with some waffles, and would be absolutely decadent with a runny egg yolk on top. 

 Here’s what the hash looks like from the tube after it’s been thawed out. 


Minimal ingredients. Just corne dbeef, carrots, potatoes, bacon, and their seasonings. OF DELICIOUSNESS. One of their major spices is pepper, because there’s a definite peppery kick to this, too. 
Ready the cast iron pan, ye scurvy dogs!

While your hash is cooking (I tend to prefer a low & slow searing method so I don’t burn it), you can whip up the Greatest Waffle Recipe Ever. Literally, whip. After mixing most of your ingredients together, you fold in whipped eggwhites at the end for some seriously light and fluffy waffles.
Albany John & I used white whole wheat flour and added an extra half teaspoon of baking powder.
You leave some lumps & bumps in the batter. It’s all good. 

AND THEN YOU GET THIS! Crispy waffle of deliciousness!
And then you eat the best waffles ever with the best hash ever and you are very, very happy! How can you not be happy with a crust like that? Happiness in meat crust form. Which I’m sure I’m not selling, but it is so good, trust me.

….AAAaaand now I have to re-up my supply of corned beef hash since I’ve opened this one up. So worth ordering and having shipped. This is cracktacularly good. 

Cardona’s hot bar

January 13, 2012
Chicken, local, markets, pasta, recommendations, review, seafood
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Mmm, I love Cardona’s hot bar. It’s like $7/lb, and this big tray of food was ~3/4 lb. Shrimp and tortellini with alfredo sauce (not for dieters, but so, so worth it!).
The broccoli rabe was surprisingly bitter. I wouldn’t have wanted to eat much more of it, but it was a nice foil to the uber-rich and fatty tortellini. The shrimp wasn’t overcooked or anything!
Albany John got seafood marinara with some grilled chicken. I was kinda skeptical about how the scallops would be on a hot bar, but they were just perfect – juicy, not at all rubbery or overcooked.

Henry’s in Waterford

May 27, 2011
cheese, local, markets, pork
5 Comments

I got a flyers advertising Henry’s Market in Waterford (42 Saratoga Ave), touting smoked meats. So in! It’s just a little further north of Cohoes after 787 ends. I think this place used to be a hot dog store before it was Henry’s.

It’s not as big as Roma’s. I was a little underwhelmed. None of the meats in the deli cases were covered, which meant for some really grey looking hamburgers, and some really dried out raw chickens.
The sausages looked pretty decent. It seems like there was a lot of extra air space. I don’t think Roma’s covers their meats either, but they don’t have issues with dried out meats like at Henry’s. Albany John mentioned something to someone behind the counter, and they were just like “Oh. Yeah.”

They had some desserts and smoked cheeses. Mmmm, smoked cheeeese.

Here is the smoked section. Oh, and some raw stuff too. The organization could use a little bit of improvement. Maybe. The sausages here looked REALLY dried out and unappetizing. Some things were vacuum sealed.

I love smoke, so we decided to get a little bit of food to try out. I wasn’t really impressed with a lot of the store’s presentation of meats (c’mon, it’s meat! treat it with some respect! don’t let it get all sad and dried out. do people buy meat that’s really dried out on the exterior?).

Ham steak, and some smoked cheese. I think it was gouda. The gouda was… not so good-a. A little too soft and mushy. Not a lot of smoky flavor.

Here’s the ham steak. It was pretty tasty, but I would have liked a little extra smoke in there.

So, the ham was okay. Henry, maybe you could check with Roma about how to keep your meat from drying out on the exterior. I can only imagine it would help sales and bring you more money. This is coming from someone who walks into Rolf’s Pork Store thinking “Okay. I’ll just get one kielbasa for my picnic of 3 people.” and then walks out with $30 in various delicious meats.

Seafood = Yum

May 18, 2011
bloggers, grilling, local, markets, seafood
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Rochelle came over to help me celebrate some good news recently. Steamed lobster – only $8.99 per pound at Matt’s (574 Saratoga St, Cohoes, NY). Well, raw. I steamed it at home. Nom. Nothing says celebrate like lobster. And a big ole bottle of Cook’s to keep it classy.

I was going to chuck the green stuff out of the lobster’s body (after checking that no one wanted it!) and R was all “NOOOOO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! THERE’S STILL MEAT IN THERE!” cause it looked like I was going to toss out the whole body. You know you’re in good company when someone shouts that (the company of seafood loving lobster non-wasters). And it sure looked like I was gonna toss out the delicious lobster body, too.

And bonus – it was a female! Red coral eggs yum.


Oh, and 50 clams and some spicy marinated squid (Albany John’s recipe). On the grill! Albany John was like “This is enough seafood to feed a small army… or two Asian women,” So right. We did some damned good damage. I think only one clam was left over. Maybe we forgot about it.


In sum – for tasty lobstrosities and clamosity, head to Matt’s in Cohoes. Such freshness!

Parivar Chaat

April 1, 2011
bloggers, frugal, local, markets, potatoes, recommendations, review, vegetarian, veggies
3 Comments

What’s better than Parivar Chaat (1275 Central Ave, Albany, NY) for lunch with another person? Parivar Chaat for lunch with more people! Because then you can try more of the menu! Parivar Chaat is the back hot bar area of Parivar Food & Spices, next to Grandma’s. It’s basically like the Indian version of the Hong Kong Bakery hot bar at the Asian Supermarket, except better because it’s got tables to sit at. Met up with my usual lunch buddies, Daniel B. and Little Miss Fussy, and also met up with the same new friend I had dim sum with at Ala Shanghai less than a week ago.

As you can tell, we showed our usual amount of restraint in ordering food (none). Got a dosa, which was a bit thicker than I’d have liked in the center, but fairly crispy on the edges. It had some potatoes and peas in the center. I want a never-ending container of the green stuff – so cooling and refreshing (it wasn’t mint chutney) and I want to slather it over everything I put in my mouth. Now.

We also tried out a “Full Meal” ($7.99 – elevated on the left of the pic, hee hee) because, dear goodness, it is way more food than one person needs. Two vegetarian entree choices, a huge plate of rice, two whole wheat parathas, a samosa, and a soup. Oh, and a dessert. I think the parathas are a little on the soggy and dense side. I’d like ‘em a little lighter and crisper, but hey, bread carbs are still fine with me. We got an aloo palak type veg entree and… um, another kind of veg entree. I can’t remember, but they were tasty and had plenty of kick to ‘em. No Americanizing of flavors or spices here.

We also started out with some awesome dishes. I totally forget what they are too now (Profussor, hopefully you’ll be kind enough to comment and fill us all in), but they’re about $4.99-5.99 and filled with AWESOME! Meaning some yogurt, tamarind sauce, and magic. The ones on the left are puffed discs that are broken on top and filled with sauces and topped with some crunchies (yeah, really helpful, I know). The flavor combo is awesome. The dish on the right are slivers of crunchy dough (like fried pita chips) and delightfully slathered with yogurt, tamarind sauce, crunchy things, and cilantro. Underneath are red onions and chickpeas. SO AWESOME. It’s nice to have on the side of your meals, because it’s kinda sweet-tart and cooling. A nice foil to the kick of some of the main dishes. But, you still have to eat them kind of quick so you can enjoy them when they’re crunchy and not soggy.

We three did about $35 of damage, so about $12 each. You take the receipt and pay at the register up front. Handy if you want to snack and do some shopping, or just order dinner/lunch to-go while grocery shopping – you don’t have to pay in two different places. I barely needed dinner (I still ate it, but… y’know). I think they’ve improved a lot of the lightness of their carb dishes since the last time I went, and I like that they’re adding different specials to their roster as well.

Amherstgiving

November 22, 2010
honey, markets, pizza, travel, turkey, veggies
6 Comments

Guess who’s got two thumbs and likes turkey? THIS GAL!

Albany John and I headed over to Amherst this weekend to do early Thanksgiving with his side of the family. Which meant about three uninterrupted days of bliss and delicious food.

Manhattan Maka, CVS, Albany John and I ventured into town to get pizza from Antonio’s (31 N Pleasant St, Amherst, MA), where the boys had been getting pizza from since they were kids. Their strong suit is doing whatever it is you tell them to… When Albany John called in his order, he was on the phone for longer than I’ve ever seen because they kept asking him to specify stuff. And I think all of their topping pizzas come with two toppings? We ordered a BBQ chicken pizza and they kept asking for another topping and further specifications. And thankfully Mama Amherst chimed in with “extra cheese!” ’cause what can go wrong with extra cheese?

Hah, Albany John – that means you really are a New Yorker ’cause you’re used to saying “I want XYZ pizza” and that is the end of the conversation. They make you XYZ pizza.

It was definitely not a New York style pie. And there could have been a lot more BBQ sauce and more time to cook and crisp up the crust. But overall, it was not that bad. It was pizza, and cheap, too! Only about $15 for a pie with two toppings and a generous amount of chicken.

The next morning we went to Atkins Farms (1150 West Street, Amherst, MA), where you can eat cupcakes with puppy and kitten faces on them, or weird gooby alien face cupcakes.
Fresh seafood counter.

And FREE ICE CREAM!! One of the ice creameries was giving away gigantic ‘samples’ of ice cream cones. I got pumpkin, and Albany John got… something else. I think egg nog. They also had apple pie and vanilla. The pumpkin was awesome.

We went for a walk on one of Amherst’s many trails and pathways, so this ice cream was a totally necessary energy boost.

We came back home and Manhattan Maka and I put together an appetizer plate. I picked up some olives, tarmasalata, and sopressata from Roma’s in Latham before heading out. And smoked mozzarella from the co-op. Yummy.

And it begins. Turkey carving!

Albany John and I may or may not have run around the house taking nibbles of things cooling off. Stuffing, I’MMA EAT YOU! This stuffing was so good. Some nuts, tasty bread, sausage. I’d never really eaten stuffing before meeting these Amherstians, and now I can’t keep away from it.

Camera-ninja peeping skills still leave a bit to be desired. But check out those buns and asparagusssesss!
Dinner table’s set! And everything came out at the same time! Woo woo! There was a really tasty Menage a Trois red wine – really fruity and good.

Man, we must all be getting old – we could only manage one plate of food. But it was so tasty and good. This is a pre-gravy-slathering shot, but just imagine this covered in the best-tasting brown sauce ever, and you get the picture.

Mashed potatoes, crisply roasted brussels sprouts, perfectly moist turkey, lightly roasted asparagus, and insanely good stuffing. And rolls. And all kinds of cranberry sauce and relish. An Amherst Thanksgiving is the best kind of Thanksgiving (especially when it comes early).
Dessert! Ginger ice cream from Flayvors (evidently they have enough butterfat content to make Haagen Das blush, but that’s all they’ll say), lemon pie, and apple pie! My stomach opened up enough to have room for all of the above.
The next morning Albany John made a sandwich of epic proportions. It was really tasty, too.
We slowly made our way out and made our first stop at Maple Farm Foods (10 South Maple Street, Hadley, MA). It’s expanded from a mostly European grocery store to include a little bit of everything. But still a heavy Euro influence. Like this refrigerated wall of cured meats. Albany John loves the pate (the blur is his hand holding one and talking excitedly) and picked up two of them.

I love how many Mass native produce items they sell in many of the stores in the area, Maple Farm included. They had carrots for $0.99/2 lb bags! I had to pick some up.
There’s a deli section, and there were golumpki’s bigger than both of Albany John’s fists! They were like mini nerf-footballs. Gigantic golumpkis!

We made Trader Joe’s our final stop before heading out, which was something of a mistake. Sunday before Thanksgiving is NOT the time to go there. It was a mob scene, albeit a polite New England mob scene. The lines were back through the aisles, and the aisles were really hard to move through, especially when people with carts would just leave them in the middle or side of places.

I picked up a wedge of my beloved Belletoile brie and some tempeh bricks and was like “I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!”. I managed to get in a shorter line… with one of the slowest people ever behind the register. Despite the fact that the entire store was packed with people, half of which wanted to check out, this cashier was leisurely checking everyone out. Keying in two items when it would have been faster to just scan them both, seemingly oblivious to the crowd around her. Most of the folks in my line didn’t have that much, which offered the false glimmer of hope that we would be out quickly, but the people in the line next to us that had cartful after cartful of items were out the door quicker than we were. About 10 painful minutes of three people with small hand carts of food later, and we were out.

The drive home was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that my car is starting to get old and lose the awesome control it used to have (just a little extra play in the wheel every now and again, nothing serious). Albany John and I kept drooling over the stuffing Papa Amherst made, so he requested I make some bread for our own Thanksgiving so he could try to replicate it.

I made a soft loaf of white and whole wheat, and had a bit of dough left to make rolls from. Also made some egg noodles with tomatoes and onions and couldn’t help but cut off a hunk of brie to eat with the roll. Good way to end the night.

Turkey Prices

November 8, 2010
holiday, local, markets, PSA, turkey
8 Comments

You may remember that I was curious about turkey prices for Thanksgiving last year, and called around for turkeys and prices. Overall, the prices for turkeys seem to be the same. And they birds are spelled “Jaindl” and not “Jaindal” like I mistakenly typed last year. Whoops.

At any rate, here are the most up-to-date prices I have found for turkeys sold by local butchers for Thanksgiving 2010 in the Cap Region. These turkeys are minimally processed and most if not all are all natural and fed vegetarian diets. If you have anything you’d like to add, please add a comment.

In no particular order:

Honest Weight Food Co-Op - Misty Knoll (from Vermont) turkeys $4.39/lb. Pasture raised, antibiotic- and hormone-free. Organic Stone & Thistle turkeys (near Oneonta) $6.29/lb.

Fred The Butcher – Clifton Park location is changing, will not have turkeys for Thanksgiving. New location will open up about a week after Thanksgiving.

Helmbold’s – Not open on Mondays, will call back Tuesday and see.

Roma Importing – (Call 785-7746 for Roma’s Butcher department) No official pricing as of yet, but Prices will be similar to last year, which were – Jaindl’s at $2.59/lb, and Murray’s for $2.99/lb. They prefer Murray’s as the better turkey. Both are all natural turkeys.

Cardona’s Market – Jaindl turkeys for about $2.69/lb and Plainville turkeys for about $2.79/lb. Both are all natural birds, no preference between the two.

Pioneer Food Market/Troy Co-Op – Plainville turkeys for $2.99/lb – all natural bird. Order deadline by Nov 14th.

It looks like the popular All Natural turkeys are Jaindl and Plainville. From what I’ve read, Jaindl seems to be a lighter or lower-fat turkey than others, and has more white meat than other turkeys. I purchased my Thanksgiving turkey from Cardona’s Market last year, and may do the same again this year. I forget which kind it was, but it was a tasty bird. I want to say it was the Jaindl. However, I’ve really been digging Murry’s chickens that are available at Roma and the Troy Co-Op, so I might go that route, too.

I am also interested in the idea of buying a turkey from a local farm, but most of them pre-order at the beginning of the season. But if anyone knows of one, please post a comment to let us know.

Troy Farmers Market Indoors

November 8, 2010
local, markets, seafood, soup, veggies
3 Comments

The Troy Farmers Market moved indoors this Saturday. I stumbled out of bed and made my way over. I picked up some lovely, pristine looking turnips from Cornell Farms for $2.50, and a 12.25 oz celeraic root for $2. I forget the booth I got it from.

Pura Vida Fisheries is a new vendor that is selling, you guessed it, fresh fish and seafood. They seem to hail from Long Island, and have been at farmers markets in the NYC area.

You can click the picture above to see the price listings for seafood items, and what they had in stock when I visited the Troy Farmers Market. Most seafood items were over $10/lb, though, but there were some items for under $10.

The bay scallops were the first of the season. Everything smelled briny and fresh. I’ll have to do a little more research on Pura Vida Fisheries, but they seem like they had some good products.
Fleshy pollock fillets – they only had fillets of fish, no whole fish. There were also some smoked fish as well. I didn’t have that much cash on me, so I didn’t buy anything. But maybe next weekend I’ll give them a shot.

They were even shucking fresh oysters, for you oyster lovers out there. $1.00 each.
I took my veggies home and had my eyes set on the turnip greens. The main reason I bought the bunch of turnips was because of how fresh and tasty those greens looked. I felt a lot like my dad – going for those greens!

I ended up making a quick-ish soup with some chicken broth, anchovies, onions, garlic, and leftover fish cake sticks, plus the turnips and greens. Tasty stuff.
P.S. – Dad, you would love those greens. Seriously.
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