Odds and Ends

  Besides enjoying myself at the matinee the last two days (odd thing happened yesterday, I got charged sales tax for my movie ticket..according to the woman running the ticket window this is a new state tax and by new it must mean NEW TODAY since on Monday I was NOT charged tax. And it was 8% holy cow...and speaking of taxes Amazon decided to build a warehouse in my state so now I get to pay sales tax to them too..yippee..but I digress) I also ran a few small errands to pick up some odds and ends of food items.

On Monday I stopped into a local small Italian grocery/deli where I spent $21. I brought home a delicious loaf of sesame seeded Italian bread, a ball of pizza dough, a small jar of their pizza sauce, a box of choo-choo wheel shaped pasta and a box of some pasta that was totally new to me, it was called Mother-in-law's tongue and was wide strips of multi colored pasta, red, white & green all on the same strip of pasta. I changed up dinner plans and made this pasta with a garlic butter sauce for dinner. It was visually interesting but as for flavor, not much different than plain pasta.

I then dropped into the regular grocery store. They had boxes of Keurig coffee on sale for $8 so I picked up two boxes (hazelnut and cinnamon) as well as a jar of peach-mango preserves. I am on the hunt for pineapple preserves but it would appear that no one is making this anymore. I love to mix these into cottage cheese and am hoping the peach-mango will be a good substitute. Total cost as the regular grocery store of $20.

Yesterday after the movie I stopped at a local farmer's market/tiny grocery store where college age son's girlfriend works. I spent $14.51 and came home with 8 large nectarines, a bag of green grapes (on sale $1.49 per pound), a bag of fresh spinach, and a small container of organic spring greens for salad.

And then last night adult son talked me into splurging on a pizza from the local pizza place where college age son was formerly employed. Another $11 spent.