the Quest continues in 2009

The year is starting off really well, quest-wise. I've barely stepped into a chain grocery store, so far, with the exception of buying some chicken breast at Stater Brothers in a pinch. They were $2.07 per pound for skinless, boneless. If I could have made it to the Fresh & Easy I could have got them for $1.69 per pound.

I've included a picture of a 99 Ranch Market, instead of the usual artwork. I doubt I could find an artist's rendering of one of these stores even if I did scour the net for hours at a time, as I have been known to do. Who knew so few people besides Van Gogh liked to draw potatoes, anyway (http://shopcookeat-ablogaboutlove.blogspot.com/2008/10/potatoes-au-gratin-happy-once-happy.html)?

In the down-time during the holidays I spent time thinking about the direction of this blog. It has two purposes, which I am trying to give equal attention to: My quest to stay out of big box grocery stores in favor of the smaller, locally owned versions (or at least ethnic, as the 99 Ranch Market, or small, as the wonderful Fresh & Easy), and also to preserve and record what my family shares at the dinner table, and how those dishes are made, so that when I am gone they will still be able to re-create some of our family dinners.

I'm still not certain how much focus to give to one or the other of these goals. I do know they are compatible, however, because I shop to cook, and cook because it is my passion - the two are inextricably intertwined activities. My passion to NOT eat bland, corporate-produced food - even the veggies and the meat are pallid, boring substitutes for what I can find in my hispanic or asian, or arab or indian stores, perfectly collides with my passion to feed my family the very best I can - at half the price, generally.

But I wander. I think that what I will start doing in the new year, in furtherance of the actual quest part of my blog, is to begin posting the amazing specials from the stores that actually are producing sales. I say this because, for instance, my arab and indian stores never have specials. They just have what is fresh and available for the most amazing prices you can imagine. Sort of like Trader Joes - no real sales, just real deals.

Therefore, the picture of the 99 Ranch Market (http://www.99ranch.com/) above, and also, I am including links, as I will each week, to their fabulous fliers. I want to do whatever I can to get you into these stores, and that will be the emphasis of quest posts in the coming months.

And a word about the coming months. I hope to be working full-time by the summer or at least the end of summer. I have been a full-time student since June of 2004, and now I am finishing my master's degree and am planning to go out and start earning an income. I hope. Times are scary, especially for someone who has trained to be a government employee - boos, hissing, I hear it all.

But I think it is an honorable and worthy way to spend my remaining years of productivity, so there. Anyway, I don't know how my questing and cooking lifestyle will hold up under the new rigors of employment. I figure I already go to school and raise three children full-time, so I hope to be able to manage without much change in pace. At least the weekends won't be entirely gobbled up by papers, projects and required reading - so hopefully things will all balance out.

But enough of my musing, here are the specials for this week - do try to get to a local store around you soon - the prices and the quality, and just a peek into a different culture are more than enough reward for stepping out of the rut/comfort zone!

Sales for 01/01 - 01/07/2009

http://www.99ranch.com/showpict.asp?pict=VIPImages/010109-pl.jpg

http://www.99ranch.com/showpict.asp?pict=VIPImages/010109-gal.jpg

http://www.99ranch.com/showpict.asp?pict=VIPImages/010109-gbl.jpg

There are also lots of non-ad specials that you will find once there - this week there were New York steaks (boneless) for $2.99 a pound and live Maine Lobsters for $10.99 per pound. Yum.